Clinton says Trump ‘models himself’ after Putin

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that President Trump “models himself” after Russian President Vladimir Putin, echoing criticism from this week’s Democratic National Convention that the president seeks to cozy up to and emulate dictators.

“Donald Trump, unfortunately, models himself after Vladimir Putin,” Clinton said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” 

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released the declassified version of its fifth and final report on Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, which detailed significant ties between Russian intelligence officers and top Trump campaign officials.

Clinton, who ran against Trump in 2016, said the report “paints a very clear and damning picture of the coordination between the Trump campaign and representatives of the Russian government and the interference that was directed by Putin from the Kremlin into our election.”

“What’s really troubling me now is even Trump’s intelligence officials now are saying it is still going on, it has not been stopped,” she added. “We don’t even know yet the full extent of what they did in 2016 and what they are now doing in 2020.”

Earlier this month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence acknowledged efforts by Russia, China and Iran to interfere in U.S. elections this year, with Moscow’s efforts meant to promote Trump and China’s and Iran’s efforts aimed more at defeating Trump. 

Clinton also criticized what she described as Trump’s effort to hamper turnout in November by opposing mail-in voting.

“That’s an incredible attack on our election system,” she said.