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As the U.S. intelligence community attempts to beef up election security against Russian interference ahead of the November midterms, one GOP candidate joked a little meddling could help him win.

Republican Scott Wagner, who is running for Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial seat, made the comment at a local meet and greet on Friday — an audio recording of which was initially given to HuffPost by the state’s Democratic Party and later posted to its website.

“By the way, the Russians are going to help me with Tom Wolf,” he says, referring to his incumbent opponent and eliciting laughter from the room. “If I have to use Paul Manafort, I will.”

Wagner already has a connection with Paul Manafort and has an unusually high opinion of the accused felon. In July 2016, Wagner bragged about meeting with Manafort and “five other high level campaign people.” Wagner wrote that he left the meeting “with an increased level of confidence” in Trump’s hiring of Manafort.

The remarks, said Communications Director Andrew Romeo, were made in jest.

“Scott was obviously joking when he made those comments,” Romeo told Mediaite Tuesday. “He thinks that Russia’s interference in the 2016 Election was real and he pledges to work with the federal government to secure fair elections in Pennsylvania as governor.”

However, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party didn’t find it funny.

“Scott Wagner is attempting to undermine the integrity of our democracy by calling on the Russians to interfere with the Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, especially considering U.S. intelligence agencies’ have been unanimous in their conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 election,” said Mike Mikus, the organization’s senior communications advisor, in a statement.

“While Governor Wolf is fighting to make our elections more safe and secure, Scott Wagner is threatening our democracy,” Mikus added, noting that “Wagner already has a connection with Paul Manafort and has an unusually high opinion of the accused felon,” having discussed in 2016 a meeting with him and five others within President Donald Trump‘s campaign.

Listen to the clip above via PA Dems.

[Image via screengrab]

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