WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - US President Donald Trump wants Hillary Clinton as his presidential rival in the 2020 election.
Responding to a question during a press conference Monday, the Republican President said he hopes Hillary will contest the polls. 'Hillary, please run again! Go ahead.'
Clinton, who lost to the billionaire-turned politician in the 2016 presidential elections, has already ruled out the possibility of another White House bid.
Trump pointed out a number of reasons for the defeat of Clinton.
Although Clinton won the popular vote with a lead of more than 2.8 million votes, Trump registered a shocking victory taking advantage of winning more electoral college votes than his Democrat rival.
In the joint press conference with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the Rose Garden, Trump slammed Clinton for defending NFL players who kneel during national anthem in protest against racism.
A reporter brought to Trump's notice Clinton's statement that she did not believe that players taking a knee in the NFL was about disrespecting the flag.
'If Hillary Clinton actually made the statement that sitting down during the playing of our great national anthem is not disrespectful, then I fully understand why she didn't win. There are a lot of reasons that she didn't win, including the fact that she was not good at what she did. ....and I think that her statement in itself is very disrespectful to our country'.
Regarding alleged Russian meddling in the US election, Trump said, 'The whole Russia thing was an excuse for the Democrats losing the election, despite having a big advantage in the Electoral College.'
Earlier, in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the former Secretary of State accused WikiLeaks of working with Russia to deflect attention from an infamous tape of Trump bragging about groping women in the run-up to the presidential election.
She called WikiLeaks 'practically a fully-owned subsidiary of Russian intelligence,' and its founder Julian Assange ' a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator.'
In the press conference, Trump said he won't fire former FBI director Robert Mueller who is probing allegations of Russian connections by Trump campaign, but urged for a speedy end to the investigation because 'I think the American public is sick of it'.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX