U.S President Donald Trump has blamed House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff of leaking claims about Russian interference to help Bernie Sanders win the Democratic nomination. He used it to push his theory that the party will attempt to cheat the self-described democratic socialist out of victory. Trump was asked about the reported Russian interference, he said: “What it could be is, you know, the Democrats are treating Bernie Sanders very unfairly and it sounds to me like a leak from Adam Schiff because they don’t want Bernie Sanders to represent them. It sounds like it’s ’16 all over again for Bernie Sanders. Nobody said it to me at all. They ought to investigate Adam Schiff for leaking that intelligence”.
Schiff rejected Trump’s allegations in a tweet and said, “Nice deflection, Mr. President. But your false claims fool no one. You welcomed Russian help in 2016, tried to coerce Ukraine’s help in 2019, and won’t protect our elections in 2020. Now you fired your intel chief for briefing Congress about it. You’ve betrayed America, again”. It was first reported by The Washington Post that Russia sought to help Sanders’ campaign. Sanders said, “Unlike Donald Trump, I do not consider Vladimir Putin a good friend. He is an autocratic thug who is attempting to destroy democracy and crush dissent in Russia”. The New York Times also reported that intelligence officials also warned lawmakers in a closed briefing that Russia was interfering to help Trump. On Sunday, the National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien disputed the idea of Russia meddling to favor Trump’s reelection.