Donald Trump’s allies scrambled Wednesday to assure everyone that the GOP nominee was just joking when he said he “hopes” Russia has Hillary Clinton’s “missing” emails and urged their release.
Meanwhile, his campaign said that what Trump actually meant to say was that Russia, if they have the emails, should turn them over to the FBI for investigation.
Jason Miller, Trump’s senior communications advisor, claimed in a string of tweets that Trump “did not call on, or invite, Russia or anyone else to hack Hillary Clinton’s e-mails today.”
4/7 Trump was clearly saying that if Russia or others have Clinton’s 33,000 illegally deleted emails, they should share them w/ FBI immed.
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) July 27, 2016
Trump said during a news conference in Doral, Florida that he hoped Russia had obtained emails that he said Clinton deleted from her private server. He also suggested that the country should publicly release Clinton’s emails.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you can find the 33,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press,” he said at the presser.
Trump later tweeted that he thought Russia should share the emails with the FBI if it had them.
“I’m sure what he means is that they should be released to the FBI,” former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told reporters. “I’m sure that’s what he would do if he were in charge.”
A top aide to Hillary Clinton slammed Trump’s remarks in a statement, calling the dustup a “national security issue.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) questioned whether Trump’s taunt was so much a national security issue as a “joke:”
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
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) July 27, 2016
Since Hillary promised us she only deleted 33,000 personal emails how can it be a national security issue if someone releases them?
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) July 27, 2016
The Trump campaign did not immediately return TPM’s request for additional comment Wednesday.
