July 27, 2016 11:30 AM UTC

So, Um, Trump Wants Russia to Help Him Become President

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• by: Colorado Pols

There’s really no other way to put this: Donald Trump is actively encouraging Russia to help him defeat Hillary Clinton for President. From the New York Times:

Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that he hoped Russia had hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, essentially encouraging an adversarial foreign power’s cyberspying on a secretary of state’s correspondence.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Mr. Trump said, staring directly into the cameras. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Mr. Trump’s call was an extraordinary moment at a time when Russia is being accused of meddling in the U.S. presidential election. His comments came amid questions about the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computer servers, which researchers have concluded was likely the work of two Russian intelligence agencies. [Pols emphasis]

Later in the news conference, when asked if he was really urging a foreign nation to hack into the private email server of Mrs. Clinton, or at least meddle in the nation’s elections, he dismissed the question. “That’s up to the president,” Mr. Trump said, before finally saying “be quiet” to the female questioner. “Let the president talk to them.”

You may commence trying to defend Trump in the comments below. Just please don’t pretend that this isn’t a really, really weird thing for a major Party’s Presidential candidate to say in public.