Brendan McDermid
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Wednesday suggested President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to spread disinformation during the presidential campaign. Speaking at a Recode tech conference near Los Angeles, Clinton said propaganda spread on social-media sites like Facebook may have contributed to her losing the election. But the Russians “could not have known how best to weaponize that information unless they had been guided,” she said. When asked who could have guided them on the matter, Clinton said the Russians were “guided by Americans and guided by people who have polling and data.” She then suggested Trump as the culprit after being asked to clarify by a reporter, saying “I think it’s pretty hard not to” suspect him. While Clinton has previously blamed former FBI Director James Comey’s announcement of a new investigation into her email use for her election loss, this appears to be the first time she directly accused Trump of colluding with the Kremlin in propaganda efforts. She also urged social-media companies to “hurry up” in devising a way to prevent the spread of fake news stories.