Trump on Russia hacking comments: ‘I’m being sarcastic’

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump says he was using sarcasm when he prodded Russia to unearth Hillary Clinton’s missing emails.

But Democrats aren’t likely to let the Republican presidential nominee’s comments fade away.

“Of course I’m being sarcastic,” Trump said Thursday on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” a day after his remarks at a news conference ignited fierce debate over hacking and his urging of a global adversary to meddle in U.S. politics.

Trump’s invitation to Russia to find and reveal emails by his rival for the White House came on the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

It also all but overshadowed an embarrassing leak of different hacked emails, these from the Democratic National Committee, showing that party staffers supported Clinton over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders when they were publicly promising to remain neutral during the primary campaign.

Trump’s insistence that his invitation to Russia wasn’t serious was backed up by his campaign chairman. “He was making a sarcastic point,” Paul Manafort said Wednesday on Fox News’ “The Kelly File.”

Democrats and some Re- publicans quickly condemned Trump’s remarks.

The Clinton campaign called Trump’s statement the “first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against a political opponent.”

Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, warned of “serious consequences” if Russia interfered in the election.

Trump detonated the controversy Wednesday when he said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”

Trump was referencing emails on Clinton’s private server that she said she deleted, saying they were private, before turning other messages over to the State Department.

The Justice Department declined to prosecute Clinton over her email practices. But FBI Director James Comey called her “extremely careless” in handling classified information as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

WikiLeaks published on its website last week more than 19,000 internal emails stolen from the DNCearlier this year. The head of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned over the disclosures.

In Moscow on Wednesday, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia would never interfere in another country’s election.