Hillary Clinton's camp is hitting the Republican ticket over different statements on Russia's alleged role in trying to influence the election. | AP Photo Clinton team seizes on Trump-Pence gap over Russian hacking

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is seizing on another apparent difference between Donald Trump and Mike Pence over foreign policy, calling out the Republican running mates for their recent conflicting public statements about Russia’s suspected role meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

In a conference call Friday morning arranged by Clinton’s campaign, former CIA Acting Director Mike Morell latched onto remarks Pence made earlier in the day critical of Russia for hacking into the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations. Morell contrasted that statement with Trump’s repeated questioning of any Russian ties into the hackings and even floating during last Sunday’s debate that “maybe there is no hacking.”


“One of the things I find fascinating is Donald Trump’s absolute refusal to acknowledge Russia’s role here,” Morell said, noting a news report that Trump got an intelligence briefing on the hackings before his remarks at the presidential debate, reinforcing the Obama administration’s declaration that it had high confidence Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered up the cyber espionage. “He continues to say we don’t know who did this.”

For contrast, Morell highlighted Pence’s response during a “CBS This Morning” appearance earlier Friday where the Indiana governor was asked whether he thought Russia was trying to influence the election through state-sponsored cyberattacks. “Well, there is more and more evidence of that,” Pence replied.

Pressed in a follow-up question on whether he’d condemn Russia for its role, Pence said, “I've already condemned Russia for any potential involvement or compromise of the cybersecurity of this country, whatever their motivations are. But candidly, the involvement of any foreign government in American politics should be troubling to the American people.”

That’s a far different take from Trump himself, who in recent days has been encouraging his supporters during rallies to check out the steady drip-drip-drip of hacked emails supplied by WikiLeaks depicting the inner workings of the Clinton campaign. At the same time, Trump has shrugged off the suspected Russian ties to those hackings, stating during his first debate with Clinton that the cyber espionage could have been the work of China or even “somebody sitting on their bed, that weighs 400 pounds.” Then, last Sunday, Trump disputed Clinton’s claim that Russia was using the hackings to help Trump win the election. “She doesn't know if it's the Russians doing the hacking,” the Republican countered. “Maybe there is no hacking.”

Clinton’s campaign hasn’t commented about the authenticity of the latest series of hacked emails released via WikiLeaks, though it has latched onto media reports citing undisclosed sources who say Russian hackers are again behind the latest stolen document dumps. During Friday’s conference call, Morell said the link between the stolen emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and earlier hackings involving the Democratic National Committee are “completely consistent with Russian behavior in the past.”

“There’s a history here,” Morell said.



Putin earlier this week did not deny responsibility for the hackings. "Hysterics have been whipped up to distract the attention of the American people from the essence of what the hackers released,” the Russian president said, according to The Associated Press. “For some reason, nobody talks about this. They talk about who did it. Is it really that important?"

Those comments from Putin, according to Clinton surrogate Jamie Rubin, were the Russian leader’s way of acknowledging his intentions to influence the presidential election to favor Trump or weaken Clinton should she win the White House. “Saying it that way from the top of the Russian government is pretty clear,” said Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state for public affairs during the Clinton administration. “That is his goal.”

Also during Friday’s call, Morell said he had little doubt WikiLeaks would continue to release materials that are embarrassing to the Clinton campaign. “My view is Putin is all in in trying to interfere with the election and trying to affect the outcome in a particular way. He’ll put out as much information as he has,” he said. “They’re not going to hold back.”