Donald Trump has instigated Russia for cyber hacking against his rival Hillary Clinton said Tim Kaine.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has instigated Russia for cyber hacking against his rival Hillary Clinton before the elections, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine alleged on Sunday.
"It was during the week of the convention in Philadelphia Donald Trump took a stage and he said I would encourage cyber- hackers. Russia, see if you can find information on Hillary Clinton that will help me win. That was shocking. Later, when he was challenged about it, he (Trump) said, well, I was just being sarcastic," Kaine told CBS News in an interview on Sunday.
"I don't think it's funny when you have a nation like Russia that has engaged in activity to destabilise elections in countries, Ukraine, Estonia, they have engaged in that activity, and somebody running to be president of the US shouldn't be encouraging another nation to cyber-hack the US," he said, adding Russia has to face consequences for this.
"I have not talked with Hillary about this, but there does need to be a consequence," Kaine said.
When a foreign nation tries to destabilise an American election, which is what Donald Trump encouraged back in late July, Kaine said, "hey, Russia, go see if you can cyber-hack and find things that will help me win, but when a foreign government tries to do this, there has to be a consequence".
"There will be time for figuring that - what that consequence is, but you can't let it go unchallenged, because, if you do, you just encourage more of it," Kaine said.
He alleged that these emails being leaked by WikiLeaks are an attempt to destabilise the nation.
"Not only are these e-mails an effort by WikiLeaks and Russia to try to destabilise our election, but, second, you can't assume that they're all accurate. One of the e-mails that came up this week referred to me. It was completely inaccurate. And I don't know whether it was inaccurate because the sender didn't know what he or she was talking about or it had been doctored.
"But anybody who is going to try to cyber-attack and then try to destabilise an election, you can't trust that they're going to maintain scrupulous honesty about the content of what they're dumping out for the world to see," Kaine said.
Appearing before another Sunday talk show, Kaine acknowledged that the race is close.
"Yes, it is close. I'll tell you, I'm used to this. I'm from Virginia. All of our races are close. I've been saying from the beginning that I thought this would be a close election," Kaine told Fox news.
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