Dem Senate hopeful dodges leaked Clinton emails at debate
New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan sidestepped a question during a Senate debate Tuesday about leaked emails from a top Hillary Clinton aide, instead pivoting to Donald Trump.
“What concerns me the most is that a foreign nation, Russia, appears to be behind these hacks,” Hassan said, asked if she was “disturbed” by the content of the hacked emails. “It does concern me that Sen. Ayotte supported Donald Trump who repeatedly invited attacks against our electoral system and against our candidate.”
{mosads}Hassan’s opponent in the New Hampshire Senate race, Kelly Ayotte, dropped her support for Trump earlier this month after The Washington Post published a video from 2005 of the GOP nominee talking about groping women without their consent.
Hassan added that she agreed with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that politicians should not discuss the trickle of leaks from WikiLeaks — which has posted thousands of emails from top Clinton aides, including campaign chairman John Podesta.
Ayotte, on the other hand, stressed that lawmakers should work to be together on cybersecurity but said when “things come in the public realm we have to address them.”
“In terms of what’s in the public realm, it is of concern of what’s out there where you have Secretary Clinton talking about having a different position publicly versus privately,” she added, referring to leaked excerpts of a paid speech Clinton gave to a bank. “And, you know, I think when it comes to people who represent us the positions should be the same whether it’s public or private.”
Though the Clinton campaign has refused to verify the authenticity of the messages, WikiLeaks’ steady release of the emails has kept the campaign’s internal back-and-forth under a constant media spotlight.
In an email chain released Tuesday, Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s former chief of staff at the State Department, appeared worried that President Obama said in March 2015 that he learned about Clinton’s private email server through news reports.
“We need to clean this up—he has emails from her—they do not say state.gov,” she wrote.
In addition to the WikiLeak hacks, Clinton is separately continuing to be hounded by her use a private email server while leading the State Department.
Ayotte knocked Hassan on Twitter for refusing to use Tuesday’s forum to call out Clinton’s handling of classified information.
Discussion of cybersecurity impt reminder Gov. Hassan has failed to forcefully call out Sec. Clinton’s handling of classified info #nhsen
— Kelly Ayotte (@KellyAyotte) October 25, 2016
Hassan and Ayotte also sparred over a myriad of policy issues including ObamaCare, President Obama’s new overtime regulation and tax reform. They’ll face off again on Thursday evening.
Tuesday’s debate comes two weeks before the election, and the New Hampshire Senate race remains locked in a dead heat. Hassan is currently leading by less than an average 1 percentage point, according to Real Clear Politics.
The New Hampshire race is critical to the Democratic push to regain control of the Senate. Republicans are defending 24 seats including a handful in purple states — like New Hampshire — that were previously carried by President Obama.
Democrats need to pick up five seats — or four if they also retain the White House — to regain the majority.
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