You know even the Trump folks realize he should not have said this when they are in full “he didn’t mean it” mode and Trump is now on twitter himself trying to clarify.

But we have the nominee of the party that won the Cold War asking the Russians to commit acts of espionage against the United States in order to help him win the Presidency. That is a pretty big deal.

Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that he hoped Russia had hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, essentially sanctioning a foreign power’s cyberspying of a secretary of state’s correspondence. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Mr. Trump said, staring directly into the cameras. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Notice he did not use past tense. He did not suggest the Russians should hand over what they already found, but that the Russians should go out now and spy to try to find them. This is insane.

Yes, we should all be troubled that Hillary Clinton did what she did. But this is not binary. We should also be deeply troubled that the Republican nominee for President wants Russia to spy on the United States to help his candidacy.

Both are equally outrageous. At this point, the nation is going to get what it deserves and either way it is going to be awful. An unserious people are going to be made to get serious when hell itself breaks loose.