Donald Trump’s supporters disappointed after WikiLeaks fails to deliver anti-Clinton bombshell
If an October surprise about the Democratic nominee really is coming, her critics will have to wait a little longer
The expectations were breathless. For weeks, backers of Republican nominee Donald Trump have hyped the tantalising possibility that the anti-secrecy organisation WikiLeaks was on the verge of publishing a set of documents that would doom Hillary Clinton’s chances in November.
“@HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks,” long-time Trump associate Roger Stone tweeted on Saturday.
The announcement by WikiLeaks that it would host a major press conference on Tuesday only seemed to confirm that the bombshell was ready to burst. The pro-Trump, anti-Clinton media world rippled with fevered speculation. But if an October surprise about the Democratic nominee really is coming, it will have to wait a little longer.
If we are going to make a major publication about the US, we wouldn’t do it at 3am
Over the course of two hours on Tuesday – with the world’s media and bleary-eyed Trump diehards across the United States tuning in – Assange and other WikiLeaks officials railed against “neo-McCarthyist hysteria,” blasted the mainstream press, appealed for donations and plugged their books (“40 per cent off!”). But what they didn’t do was provide any new information about Clinton – or about anything else, really.