Washington (CNN) Then candidate Donald Trump was "joking" when he publicly asked Russia to hack Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday.

Trump, amid questions about what Clinton did with emails she deemed personal on her private server, called on Russia, China and other hackers to turn over the emails if they have them.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," he said in July 2016.

Later, Trump said at that news conference that he would "love" to see the emails, if Russia or China had them.

"That a person in our government, Katy, would delete or get rid of 33,000 emails. That gives me a big problem," he said, getting increasingly agitated at questions from NBC's Katy Tur. "After she gets a subpoena. She gets subpoenaed, and she gets rid of 33,000 emails. That gives me a problem. Now, if Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean to be honest with you, I'd love to see them."

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