President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would accept information from foreign actors about his 2020 Democratic opponents.

And Trump had also he would not necessarily let the FBI know if he did so, either, though he was quickly downplaying the comment less than a day later.

“It’s not an interference,” Trump told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos. “They have information. I think I’d take it.”

EXCLUSIVE: Pres. Trump tells @GStephanopoulos he wouldn't necessarily alert the FBI if approached by foreign figures with information on his 2020 opponent: "It’s not an interference. They have information. I think I’d take it." https://t.co/yWRxMOaFqW pic.twitter.com/qwLw53s5yc — ABC News (@ABC) June 12, 2019

When Stephanopoulos told Trump the FBI’s director said the bureau ought to be called if a foreign government offers a candidate information, the president responded, “The FBI director is wrong.”

Trump also said a foreign government offering damaging information isn’t interference: “It’s not interference, it’s information,” and concluded by saying FBI agents have better things to do than deal with foreign actors engaging with American political campaigns. “The FBI doesn’t have enough agents to take care of it,” he said.

But the next morning, Trump downplayed his remarks, tweeting that he talks to all kinds of foreign officials, like the Queen of England and “the Prince of Whales” (a mistake he quickly corrected).

I meet and talk to “foreign governments” every day. I just met with the Queen of England (U.K.), the Prince of Wales, the P.M. of the United Kingdom, the P.M. of Ireland, the President of France and the President of Poland. We talked about “Everything!” Should I immediately.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2019

....call the FBI about these calls and meetings? How ridiculous! I would never be trusted again. With that being said, my full answer is rarely played by the Fake News Media. They purposely leave out the part that matters. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2019

He went on to accuse Democratic lawmakers of not alerting the FBI immediately after foreign actors contacted them and renewed his false claim there had been unauthorized “spying” on his campaign under the Obama administration.

....and other really bad people, SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN! They even had an “insurance policy” just in case Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats lost their race for the Presidency! This is the biggest & worst political scandal in the history of the United States of America. Sad! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2019

The president’s remarkable comment to ABC came just a few weeks after outgoing special counsel Robert Mueller said in a press conference that his two-year investigation did not establish a criminal conspiracy linking the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian government officials. The Mueller report did, however, document contacts between the two sides; the special counsel said federal prosecutors had “insufficient evidence” to bring any charges against a broader conspiracy.

Attorney General William Barr, who drove the narrative around the rollout of Mueller’s findings, paused when asked if campaigns should report contacts from “foreign intelligence services” in a recent Senate hearing, before haltingly allowing that they should when pressed by Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democrat.

Mueller’s report contained at least 140 contacts between Trump and Russian associates. Officials from other countries — United Arab Emirates, China, Israel, and Mexico — have reportedly discussed trying to manipulate Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to the president and a key target for foreign contacts during the campaign and in the White House due to his focus on foreign policy and his family’s real estate business.

Kushner himself said in a recent interview with Axios he was unsure whether he’d tell the FBI if Russians contacted him to request another meeting similar to the infamous Trump Tower appointment in 2016 in which Russian actors offered the Trump campaign negative information about the president’s rival candidate, Hillary Clinton.

While Trump’s answer to the same question now sounds like Kushner’s, the president told reporters a month ago he would not accept help from a foreign adversary during the 2020 presidential campaign.

“I don’t need it,” he said at the time.

This week, however, he said, “There’s nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway [and said], ‘We have information on your opponent’ — oh, I think I’d want to hear it.”

Congress has been debating whether to beef up election security as the 2020 campaign gets underway, given the depth of Russian interference documented in the Mueller report. Despite the concerns of some lawmakers, and the despite fact that two security bills recently made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that he would not bring up a security bill up for a vote in his chamber.