Donald Trump said it would be "wonderful" if the U.S. got along with Russia and China in order to combat the Islamic State, even as Russia is being investigated for hacking into the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if we actually could get along with Russia and China and some other countries that we don't get along with, and then we go out and knock the hell out of ISIS?" he asked rhetorically in an interview with New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd. "Wouldn't it be nice if we cleaned that mess up? Wouldn't it be smart?"

Trump's comments came in response to a question from Dowd about former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who said that the GOP nominee may be "the Siberian candidate" and a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Madeleine Albright, talking about a name from the past," Trump responded.

Trump made waves earlier this week when he suggested that Russia's hackers should reveal Clinton's missing emails. Trump told Dowd that he was being sarcastic.

"There were 200 reporters asking me questions, and I wanted to be sarcastic, comparing their questions on the DNC hacking to the fact that Hillary Clinton wiped out 33,000 emails through deletion or otherwise," Trump said. "It's so ridiculous."