'I can hack myself': Conservatives pour water on Trump campaign’s latest claim
Former Republican National Convention Chair Michael Steele, and former Republican presidential candidate Joe Walsh on Sunday adamantly rejected a claim coming from Donald Trump's 2024 campaign.
During the latest episode of MSNBC's The Weekend, co-host Symone Sanders-Townsend noted: "Microsoft confirmed that Trump campaign spokesperson, Stephen Cheung, pointed to a Microsoft report released Friday, which said that an Iranian group sent a spear phishing email in June to a high ranking official on a presidential campaign. We should be clear that Microsoft did not identify the campaign that was targeted, and NBC news has not been able to verify that Iran was behind the hack for the Trump campaign."
Walsh replied, "'Claimed' — the Trump administration 'claimed' they were hacked. Everyone's initial reaction should be, 'we can't believe him, we can't believe that.' And that is their fault, Symone. You can't believe anything that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth. This is serious business, but I want it verified first."
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Steele — who's also a co-host of The Weekend — added, "It's too specific for me."
Sanders-Townsend then noted, "I just want to back and be clear — we know that some anonymous person, named Robert, was peddling internal information from the Trump campaign. So, while we have not — as NBC News hasn't been able to independently verify that it was in fact Iran — we do know that somehow some internal documents got out. That is, in fact, a hack. So, what are we skeptical about?"
Steele replied, "The origin of the hack. I mean, I can hack myself if I want." He added, "I'm sorry, this is a space that has been created by him. And now I'm just supposed to just fall down, believing because he says he was hacked by Iranians, with such specificity, when nobody else in government or elsewhere can verify that? At the end of the day, this is the environment Donald Trump has created. So now, if I show skepticism, or Joe shows skepticism, don't come at me, because that's on [Trump]."
The ex-RNC chair also pointed to Trump's 2016 claim that Russia hacked the election — when he, in fact, encouraged the hacking.
"That's why Americans should decide who our American president is," Walsh emphasized. "This was a serious issue in 2016. Trump encouraged Russia to hack — he welcomed it. I can't believe a thing he says now until we have actual proof."
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