Donald Trump on Wednesday called on the Russians to hunt down and release Hillary Clinton’s missing e-mails — an extraordinary move that led to charges he was encouraging a foreign power to meddle in US politics.
“Russia, if you are listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said of the messages Clinton didn’t turn over to the State Department when she left office.
“I think you would probably be rewarded mightily by our press,” he said, adding the trove would likely contain “some beauties.”
The Clinton campaign quickly denounced Trump’s remarks as a call for “espionage” in the presidential race.
“This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent,” said Clinton spokesman Jake Sullivan.
Trump backer Newt Gingrich took to Twitter to defend the GOP presidential nominee, saying Trump was just joking.
“The media seems more upset by Trump’s joke about Russian hacking than by the fact that Hillary’s personal server was vulnerable to Russia,” Gingrich wrote.
But shortly after making the remarks in a news conference at his hotel in Doral, Fla., Trump tweeted out a slightly different message.
“If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 illegally deleted e-mails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!” he wrote.
His comments followed allegations that Russian hackers were behind a cyber attack on the Democratic National Committee that resulted in the release of nearly 20,000 internal e-mails.
Some of the damning messages showed the party was favoring Clinton in her battle with Bernie Sanders.
Without mentioning Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan said the Russians have no business interfering in US elections.
“Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug,” said Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck. “ Putin should stay out of this election.”
Trump, who has been accused by Democrats of being too solicitous of Vladimir Putin, insisted he has no personal ties to the Russian leader.
“I have nothing to do with Russia,” Trump said.
He also admitted he had never met Putin — despite bragging in past years that the two were buddies, saying in 2014 he spoke “directly and indirectly with President Putin who could not have been nicer.”
Trump went on to accuse Putin of using “the n-word” in a sign of disrespect for President Obama.
“He mentioned the n-word one time. I was shocked to hear him mention the n-word. A total lack of respect for President Obama,” Trump said.
In another part of his remarks, Trump confused Clinton’s running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, with former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean.
“Her running mate, Tim Kaine, who by the way did a terrible job in New Jersey — first act he did in New Jersey was ask for a $4 billion tax increase and he was not very popular in New Jersey and he still isn’t,” Trump told reporters.