Donald Trump dared a foreign government to commit espionage on the U.S. to hurt his rival on Wednesday, smashing yet another taboo in American political discourse and behavior.
"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you'll be able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," he said, referring to deleted emails from the private account Hillary Clinton used as secretary of state. "I think you'll probably be rewarded mightily by our press."
Trump made the remarks at a lengthy and unusual news conference in Doral, Fla., in which he also said NATO is outdated, told a reporter to "be quiet" and said the reason that the Democratic National Committee was hacked was because foreign leaders do not respect the U.S. He also called President Barack Obama "the most ignorant president in our history," alleged that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had disparaged Obama with "the n-word" and inaccurately paraphrased Obama speaking in a stereotype of African American dialect.
"His views of the world, as he says, 'don't jive,'" Trump said.
The comments urging Russia to hack the State Department immediately drew widespread attention because they lend to the impression that Trump is actively encouraging another country to use cyberwarfare against the U.S. to affect the presidential election. If the emails are hacked and Trump wins, it also could make him appear beholden to foreign interests.
"If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I've got to be honest with you. I'd love to see them," he said later, declining to back down.
Experts suspect that Russian agents are behind the hack and release of Democratic officials' emails last week that showed officials discussing ways to undermine Bernie Sanders' primary campaign against Clinton.
Trump often has praised Putin and has claimed to have met him, but on Wednesday, he denied that they have met. He also denied multiple media reports that he is in debt to Russian lenders.
