Senior Hillary Clinton campaign advisor Joel Benenson said Monday that Donald Trump had "no credibility" on cyber security issues, although his own candidate has a checkered history on the matter.
As Donald Trump was talking about cyber security and national defense with a group of veterans in Virginia, MSNBC’s Kristen Welker asked Benenson for his take on Trump’s remarks.
"What did you make of Trump’s comments and the bottom line, this email story still about a month out before Election Day, continues to be fodder for Republicans?" Welker asked.
Benenson first said that Trump was speaking about issues that voters care about, although Trump was talking about cyber security.
"I think he has no credibility on the subject," Benenson said. "We’re talking about the only presidential candidate in history who invited the Russians to hack computers in the United States. You know, his dalliance with Russia continues, his entangled finances over there, his praise of [Vladimir] Putin as a ‘great leader,’ a man who’s right now engaged with Syria in bombing civilians. I think Trump surrenders all credibility on these kinds of topics."
What Benenson did not talk about was Clinton’s history on the issue of cyber security, as she has been accused of jeopardizing America’s national security with her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Although the FBI did not recommend charges be pressed against Clinton for her mishandling of classified information on her server, FBI Director James Comey said that it was probable that her server was hacked, including by foreign governments, and that she was "extremely careless" with classified material.