The Clinton campaign was quick to respond, with top Clinton policy advisor Jake Sullivan issuing a statement shortly after the conference in which he wrote, “This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent.” “This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue,” he added.

DONALD TRUMP TOOK A WILD TURN AT A PRESS CONFERENCE WEDNESDAY, SAYING HE HOPES RUSSIA FINDS EMAILS DELETED BY HILLARY CLINTON FROM HER TIME AS SECRETARY OF STATE.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press,” the Republican presidential nominee told a news conference Wednesday.

DONALD TRUMP ON RUSSIA & MISSING HILLARY CLINTON EMAILS:

After the press conference, Trump campaign Senior Communications Advisor Jason Miller clarified to NBC that Trump wasn’t calling on anyone to intervene or anything in a similar vein, but instead was pushing anyone who has them to give them over to authorities, as he tweeted minutes after the press conference ended. “I think it’s also important here to not let Hillary off the hook for why we’re even having this talk,” Miller said. “Because she illegally bungled 33,000 emails from her home server and now the DNC had their anti-Sanders smear campaign emails shared with the world.”

If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

HRC policy chief Sullivan on Trump/Russia: “1st time presidential candidate encouraged foreign power to conduct espionage vs opponent” 1/2

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) July 27, 2016

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

The Clinton campaign was quick to respond, with top Clinton policy advisor Jake Sullivan issuing a statement shortly after the conference in which he wrote, “This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent.”

“This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue,” he added.

Brendan Buck, a spokesperson for Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, said in a response statement that “Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election.”

HOWEVER, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE NEWT GINGRICH SEEMINGLY DEFENDED TRUMP’S REMARKS IN A TWEET, WRITING THAT 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”.

The remarks came as the consensus within the American intelligence community grows that Russia was behind the recent hack of the Democratic National Committee’s servers, the New York Times reported.

Trump said he was not certain Russia was behind the theft, but said, “if it is Russia, it’s really bad for a different reason, because it shows how little respect they have for our country when they would hack into a major party and get everything.”