A breathless, nearly apoplectic Chuck Todd played the clip (a few times) and it's pretty clear Trump was just mocking the Democrats.
Todd and his guests were parsing every single word as if it were a freaking State of the Union address.
What Trump actually said barely even makes SENSE.
I'm no fan of The Donald, I don't want him in the White House, but really, folks? You're really going to pretend you think he was serious?
.
bullshit. trump already told the world he believes she may have secretly deleted non private stuff, stuff which you hacks pretend every day was supposedly some sort of scandal, as if harmless perfectly appropriate and routine parsing of SoS correspondence somehow supposedly compromised national security?
now you hacks want to pretend it's a big JOKE for the republican party nominee to trumpet a public message to russia that their hackers will be richly rewarded if they were able to somehow dig something up to hold against u.s. secretary of state..?
think about that. what could ever be held against her if not the revelation of some non personal info?
the supposed point of the SoS email witch hunt was protecting our national security...??
donald trump and his apologists think it's funny to encourage russia to try and dig up SoS correspondence because
politics!
thus proving deranged republicans just can't help themselves, perpetually putting party over country.
scumbag anti-American hackers are now GOP allies... wtf?
wikileaks creeps now threaten some sort of "october surprise" release of hacked DNC campaign correspondence in an effort to embarrass party officials in hopes of tilting our presidential election cuz oooh what a big scandal individual democrats in the DNC actually had opinions which favored hillary over bernie, big ******* deal...
**** wiki leaks creeps, **** russia, and **** you apologist assholes for excusing donald trump's disgusting rhetoric...
oh my so refreshing for you, silly trump made a "non PC" JOKE!
see you in november, you ******* anti-American losers...
Donald Trump's invitation to Russian spies to find lost emails routed through Hillary Clinton's notorious private server was "irresponsible" and clearly underscores that "he cannot become our commander in chief," former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta said on Wednesday.
"Think about that, Donald Trump, who wants to be president, is asking one of our adversaries to engage in hacking or intelligence efforts against the United States of America to affect an election," Panetta told the Democratic National Convention.
"As someone who was responsible for protecting our nation from cyberattacks, it's inconceivable that any presidential candidate would be that irresponsible," he said, adding that it was "no time to roll the dice" on Trump and national security.
Earlier in the day, Trump, an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, asserted in Florida, that he would like the Moscow government to obtain emails said to be missing when Clinton gave the FBI data from the private server installed in the basement of her New York home that she used while secretary of state from 2009-13.
"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press." FBI Director James E. Comey said earlier this month that by routing classified information through her personal server, Clinton and her aides were careless. He could not rule out the possibility that a hostile power hacked the account.
The email scandal prompted Republican calls to prosecute Clinton, something the Justice Department has declined to do. After that, Comey's disclosure has fed the GOP narrative — embraced by many Americans, according to polls — that Clinton is untrustworthy and that lost emails hold more embarrassments for her.
Earlier, Democratic critics and commentators at several news outlets described Trump's remarks at the Florida news conference as treasonous. Some top Republicans scrambled to downplay them as #treasonousTrump trended on Twitter.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., Armed Services Committee ranking member, said Trump's comments were "totally irresponsible."
"Asking a foreign nation to interfere with the private security of the United States is irresponsible and reckless," he said.
He did not describe Trump's remarks as treasonous.
"This is more a reflection of incapacity to work with security issues and to deal with them in a constructive way," Reed said. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), called Trump's remarks "outrageous."
"Donald Trump says Putin is a great leader," Stabenow said. "It’s time for [House Speaker] Paul Ryan to admit that Donald Trump is not fit to be commander in chief.”
The New York Times tweeted that Trump's comments "essentially sanction a foreign power's cyberspying."
"How exactly would we distinguish Trump's latest comments from treason," The Atlantic's James Fallows wrote.
[ Hillary's Honesty and Trump's Temperament ]
"This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue," Clinton senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
Donald Trump’s comments essentially sanction a foreign power's cyberspying https://t.co/UUuaBt4FVB
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 27, 2016
I know I keep saying this, but: Trump has just done something *never* seen before in politics. In a bad way Trump's 'Hope' for Putin by me — James Fallows (@JamesFallows) July 27, 2016
[ Biden on DNC Hack: 'Totally Consistent With Who Putin Is' ]
At the Philadelphia convention, Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson said he was unsure if Trump's comments fit the description of treason, but he said the remarks were "devastating" for the real estate mogul and "could be lethal to his campaign."
Separately, American intelligence agencies said this week they had "high confidence " that Russia stole emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee, the only question was whether the Kremlin had engineered their release last week by Wikileaks in order to influence the election.
Is Trump Treasonous? Panetta Calls Him Danger to National Security