“Donald Trump’s call on a foreign adversary, Russia, to illegally hack the email of his opponent for his own political benefit shows staggeringly poor judgment even for him”, Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.
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“You’d see some beauties, so we’ll see”, Trump said, adding that Russian Federation “will probably be rewarded mightily by the press” if obtaining these emails.
“No one wants their personal emails made public”, she said at the time, “and I think most people understand that and respect that privacy”. Trump said he has no relationship with Putin.
The emails, published by WikiLeaks last week, revealed that the DNC favoured Clinton’s candidacy over rival Bernie Sanders, triggering a leadership shake-up within the DNC. The committee is supposed to be neutral.
Some Trump supporters, including Newt Gingrich, initially passed off his comments as a joke.
But the exhortation for a USA adversary to use cyber intrusions against an American political candidate drew criticism from intelligence experts and other public figures, including some Republicans.
“Of course I’m being sarcastic”, Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired the day after his comments sparked a national furor.
Challenged later that day, he said that “if Russian Federation or China or any of those country gets those emails, I’ve got, to be honest with you, I’d love to see them”.
Trump was talking about emails from Clinton’s private email server that she deleted before turning over others to the State Department.
Clinton has been widely criticized by her use of a private email account and a private email server installed at her home while she was secretary of state in the first term of the Obama administration.
In the same news conference on Wednesday, Trump dismissed suggestions that Russian Federation had sought to influence the U.S. election by engineering the theft of Democratic Party emails released by WikiLeaks last week.
When asked later if his comments were appropriate, Trump said he wanted the emails released.
“This is a national security issue now”, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters in Philadelphia. “That’s not hyperbole, those are just the facts”.
In a statement released within an hour of Trump’s comments, his vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence said there would be “serious consequences” if the Federal Bureau of Investigation could prove Russian Federation was attempting to interfere with the election.
At a news conference Wednesday in Doral, Florida, Trump ignited his controversy with what appeared to be a challenge to Moscow.
Obama traditionally avoids commenting on active FBI investigations, but he told NBC News on Tuesday that outside experts have blamed Russian Federation for the leak. “Putin should stay out of this election”.
“Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin”, Mr Obama said.
He later added: “If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean, to be honest with you, I’d love to see them”.
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He added that the USA knows that “Russians hack our systems – not just government systems, but private systems”.
