Donald Trump's suggestion Wednesday that Russia help find Hillary Clinton's missing emails is being viewed by some as a joke, while others say it's tantamount to treason.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said Wednesday during a news conference in Doral, Florida. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."

Trump tweeted his thought on the matter shortly after leaving the stage in Florida.

If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

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Former CIA Director Leon Panetta told CNN Trump's remarks were "totally outrageous," and he questioned the Republican presidential nominee's loyalty to the U.S.

"You've got now a presidential candidate who is, in fact, asking the Russians to engage in American politics," said Panetta, a supporter of Clinton in the White House race.

"I just think that that's beyond the pale," he continued. "I think that kind of statement only reflects the fact that he truly is not qualified to be president of the United States."

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Journalist David Gregory, speaking on a CNN roundtable, said Trump's comments were childish:

"You know, I've run out of words to express my shock in how, uh, completely beyond the pale that Donald Trump is as a potential leader of the Free World, the commander-in-chief of our country. This was truly beyond the pale," Gregory said.

"I mean, he is encouraging Russia which, by all accounts, was behind a leak of our major – uh, one of our major political parties – uh, to do more, to go beyond, to try to hack into, uh, Hillary Clinton's server to find missing emails, to kind of get in the middle of the scandal. It's as if, you know, eh, this is a child, eh, playing with matches who doesn't understand how badly he and the country can get burned. It's a very serious thing."

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When asked if he was concerned that he may be encouraging Moscow to spy on the Democratic Party, Trump said, "It gives me no pause. If Russia or China or any of those country gets those emails, I've got to be honest with you, I'd love to see them."

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CNN political analyst Christine Quinn said: "It's honestly almost treasonous."

A # TrumpTreason hashtag was created Wednesday afternoon on Twitter.

Trump's defenders include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who said Mrs. Clinton has claimed that she only deleted emails that were of a completely personal nature, so there would be nothing to worry about.

"Since Hillary promised us she only deleted 33,000 personal emails how can it be a national security issue if someone releases them?" Gingrich tweeted.

"The media seems more upset by Trump's joke about Russian hacking than by the fact that Hillary's personal server was vulnerable to Russia."

Radio powerhouse Rush Limbaugh agreed with Gingrich that Trump's remarks were tongue-in-cheek.

"He was actually telling a joke that they still don't get," Limbaugh said.

"You can tell he's joking when he talks about the press, about Russia being rewarded by the media. That was clearly sarcasm, and that probably really gets under their skin. The media would reward Russia? The media wouldn't reward anybody for getting the goods on Hillary! That's the whole point. The media's job is to protect her."

Limbaugh explained Trump's shout out to Russia were "designed to play off the fact that we're being played. The FBI, the Department of Justice, the Democrat Party. I don't care where you go, there isn't anybody that wants to do anything about Hillary breaking the law, violating the law, which has been documented by the FBI director, regarding her emails. Half of 'em are missing.

"She was trafficking in classified information. A woman who probably couldn't get a security clearance today, is seeking the office of the presidency, and it matters. And yet nobody seems to be interested."

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Interestingly, the New York Times lead sentence on its coverage of the story seemed to parrot the opinion of Clinton's senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan.

Sullivan noted: "This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent. That's not hyperbole, those are just the facts."

And the New York Times reported: "Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that he hoped Russia had hacked Hillary Clinton's email, essentially encouraging an adversarial foreign power to cyberspy on a secretary of state's correspondence."

At a news conference Wednesday organized by the Republican National Committee, former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani and U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., said what Trump was really saying was if anyone has hacked Mrs. Clinton's private email server, those classified emails should be handed over to American authorities.

"What was said earlier by Mr. Trump was releasing the emails to the FBI, [there's] a big difference between releasing emails to the FBI and releasing emails onto the Internet. So what is very important, so that nothing gets misconstrued, the release of those emails to the FBI would be the proper channel," Zeldin said.

"I think that Congressman Zeldin made clear that what Donald Trump would like to see done, as I would, is to have those emails given to the FBI," added Giuliani.

Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, did not comment directly on Trump's remarks Wednesday, but said there would be serious consequences if the FBI determined that Russia was responsible for the recent hacking of Democratic National Committee emails: "If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences."

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