Nicole Gaudiano

USA TODAY

Wouldn’t it be a kick to get GOP runner-up Ted Cruz to hold a hearing on Donald Trump?

Don’t tell us that’s not the thinking – prayer? — of Democratic Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. They are calling on the Texas senator to investigate the GOP nominee’s “support for Russian involvement” in U.S. elections and whether he violated federal laws.

In a Wednesday letter to Cruz, they urge his subcommittee to probe Trump’s “dangerous and irresponsible” invitation (Trump called it “sarcastic”) to Russia to “find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” apparently referring to emails deleted from the private server of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump says he hopes Russia can find 'missing' Clinton emails

Cruz chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, which Coons and Whitehouse say has jurisdiction over whether current laws and courts can fend off ‘’foreign entities” that want to influence U.S. elections.

Cruz’s office has not responded to a request for comment, but a hearing would seem unlikely.

There’s certainly no love lost between Trump and Cruz, who declined to endorse Trump in his GOP convention speech. But Democrats, no doubt, would enjoy a forum for highlighting that division along with their contempt for Trump and concerns about possible Russian involvement in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee's email account.

Trump: I should have let Cruz get 'ripped' off stage

“Specifically, we ask that you consider whether requests for foreign entities to conduct cyber attacks on political opponents violate existing federal criminal statutes, and whether there are obstacles to the federal courts asserting jurisdiction to protect the integrity of our nation’s elections,” wrote Coons, the subcommittee’s top-ranked Democrat, and Whitehouse, a subcommittee member.

They wrote that Trump’s comments implicate criminal laws such as the Espionage Act, threaten the privacy of a U.S. citizen and invite “foreign interference with the presidential election, which we believe should be carefully guarded against under U.S. law.”