Donald Trump has a message for Russia: Find Hillary Clinton's missing emails.
Trump issued his challenge Wednesday during a news conference in which he called accusations that he was involved in the hacking and release of thousands of Democratic National Committee emails "so far fetched, so ridiculous."
"I wish I had that power," Trump said in a wide-ranging, hour-long press conference from his resort in Doral, Florida. "Russia has no respect for our country, if it is Russia. No one knows. It is probably China. Or somebody sitting in his bed. It shows how weak we are. It shows how disrespected we are."
"I will tell you this, Russia, if you're listening I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump continued, in reference to emails missing from Clinton's private server. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."
Trump declined to answer a reporter's questions about whether he really was urging a foreign nation to hack into Clinton's server.
"That’s up to the president," he said. "be quiet — let the president talk to them."
But soon after he left the stage, a tweet appeared on his official Twitter feed urging "Russia or any other country or person" to share the emails with the FBI.
Continuing, Trump switched focus to Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, "I don't think he respects Clinton. I don't think Putin has any respect for Clinton. I think he does respect me and I hope I can get along great with him."
Putin and other world leaders have "no respect for our country and certainly have no respect for our leader so I know nothing about it. One of the most far-fetched I ever heard."
Further, Trump insisted that while Putin has "said I am a genius," that he has never met him and he would treat him "firmly," but at the same time, "there is nothing I can think of that I would rather do than have Russia friendly as opposed to the way they are right now so that we can go knock out ISIS together with other people and other countries. Wouldn't it be nice if we got along with people? Wouldn't it be nice if we got along, as an example, with Russia?"
Trump further denied rumors that his income tax returns will show that he has had dealings with Russia.
"I have had audits for 15 or 16 years," said Trump. "When the audit is complete I will release them. I have nothing to do with Russia... Just so you understand I released my papers, 104 pages of documents. I built an unbelievable company, tremendous cash, tremendous company with great assets of the world. You were disappointed when you saw it. If you look there you will see there is nothing in Russia."
And no matter who released the leaked emails, the controversy is about what they said and who wrote them, not about who was behind the document dump.
"Let me tell you it is not about Russia or China, it is about the things that were said in those what was said was a disgrace," said Trump. "And it was [outgoing Democratic National Committee Chairman] Debbie Wasserman Schultz and believe me, as sure as you're sitting there Hillary Clinton knew that. She knew everything. Debbie Wasserman Schultz could not breathe without speaking and getting approval from Hillary Clinton, couldn't breathe and you saw that."
The emails also showed that the race was rigged, and that Wasserman Schultz "rigged it for Hillary Clinton, and the sad part is that Bernie Sanders has, to use an old word that I used on occasion, he's lost his energy."
Trump also said he has no reason to be involved with Putin, and knows that he doesn't respect President Barack Obama.
"Putin has said things over the last year that are really bad things, okay?" said Trump. "He mentioned the n-word one time, I was shocked to hear him mention the n-word. He mentioned it, I was shocked. It's a total lack of respect for President Obama. Number one, he doesn't like him and number two he doesn't umber two he doesn't respect him. He's going to respect the president if I'm elected and I hope they elect me."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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