PHILADELPHIA – Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday the Central Intelligence Agency should decline to grant Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump access to its classified information because he's dangerous to the country.

"I would hope they would give him fake intelligence briefings, because they shouldn't give him anything that means anything because you can't trust him," Reid said to reporters after an event before the Nevada Democratic delegation. "He can have intelligence briefings, but I hope they're fake. I hope that they don't tell him anything."

Trump is entitled to such information since becoming his party's White House standard-bearer. But he's roiled foreign policy elites across the spectrum by signaling a cordial relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and suggesting this week that Russian intelligence hack Hillary Clinton's emails to find out what's in the thousands she hasn't turned over.

Trump has since said he was being sarcastic, but that won't stop Democrats from battering him for the off-the-cuff remark.

Reid also said Trump may have violated the law by encouraging the foreign breach of Clinton's private server, but indicated he did not formally contact the CIA about revoking Trump's intelligence privileges.

"They've heard it, I'm sure," he said.

The retiring senator from Nevada dismissed the ongoing fallout over the hack of Democratic National Committee emails, describing many of the messages as routine "petty politics."

Instead, he turned the WikiLeaks controversy that cost the party chairwoman her job back around on Trump.

"Maybe what we should do is see if we can get some of the connections that Trump has with Putin and see what's coming next," Reid suggested.

As the party begins the process of finding a permanent replacement for ousted DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Reid came out in favor of tapping a party loyalist who is not an elected official.