Donald Trump has a message for Russia: find Hillary Clinton's missing emails.

The Republican presidential nominee, holding a Wednesday press conference, said that the 30,000 missing emails from Clinton's private email server would reveal 'some beauties' and made an extraordinary plea for a foreign power to locate them.

'Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,' Trump said. 'I think you'll be rewarded mightily by our press!'

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Challenge: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said the Kremlin might be able to locate the messages Hillary Clinton had deleted from her secret server after its existence was revealed

Was it him? Trump has downplayed his affection for Vladimir Putin and said he would treat the Russian leader 'firmly,' though he said he wanted to improve relations with Russia.

Double down: After the press conference Trump tweeted his challenge to the hackers

Trump, whom Democrats have accused of having cozy ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, repeatedly declined to condemn the actions of Russia or any other foreign power of trying to intervene in the a U.S. election.

'No, it gives me no pause,' the celebrity businessman said. '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.'

Clinton's campaign has said that Russia hacked computers belonging to the Democratic National Convention and released those emails on the eve of the party's convention to benefit Trump's candidacy.

Trump dismissed the claims, saying it's not clear who hacked those emails, but the hacking is a sign that foreign countries no longer respect the U.S.

After the press conference Wednesday, Trump attended a rally at Lackawanna College Student Union. A supporter is seen above

Supporters, including this young boy dressed just like Trump, watch the Republican presidential nominee speak at a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio. Earlier Trump said the hacking is a sign that foreign countries no longer respect the U.S.

Trump touches the boy's face, who is dressed just like him, during the campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio

'If it's any foreign country it shows how little respect they have for the United States,' said Trump, who added that he was 'not an email person myself because I believe it can be hacked.'

Trump has said that he has 'zero investments' in Russia and insisted that his company had not received any significant investments from the country.

He also has downplayed his affection for Putin and said he would treat the Russian leader 'firmly,' though he said he wanted to improve relations with Russia.

Trump's challenge occurred after President Barack Obama identified Russia as almost certainly responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee.

WikiLeaks published on its website last week more than 19,000 internal emails stolen from the DNC earlier this year.

The emails showed DNC staffers actively supporting Clinton when they were publicly promising to remain neutral during the primary elections between Clinton and rival candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.

A supporter asks Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for an autograph following a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio, Wednesday

A supporter asks Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for an autograph following a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio

The head of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned over the disclosures, which disrupted this week's convention.

Trump cast doubt on whether Russia was behind that hack. He said blaming Russia was deflecting attention from the embarrassing material in the emails.

'Russia has no respect for our country, if it is Russia,' Trump said. 'It could be China. It could be someone sitting in his bedroom. It's probably not Russia. Nobody knows if it's Russia.'

Hacked? Hillary Clinton, who was last seen in a live video message broadcast at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, had a secret private server holding her emails

Verdict: 'If it's any foreign country it shows how little respect they have for the United States,' said Trump, who said there was no evidence that it was Russia, the suspicion voiced widely by among others President Obama

Plea: Trump, whom Democrats accuse of having cozy ties with Vladimir Putin, repeatedly declined to condemn the actions of Russia or any other foreign power of trying to intervene in the a U.S. election. '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.'

Obama traditionally avoids commenting on active FBI investigations, but he told NBC News on Tuesday that outside experts have blamed Russia for the leak.

Obama also appeared to embrace the notion that President Vladimir Putin might have been responsible because of what he described as Trump's affinity for Putin.

Obama said he was basing his assessment on Trump's own comments and the fact that Trump has 'gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia.'

He added that the U.S. knows that 'Russians hack our systems — not just government systems, but private systems.'

In Moscow on Wednesday, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia would never interfere in another country's election.

'What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that, I can't say directly,' Obama said. 'What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.'

Candidates have to be loyal to their country and to their country alone, not to reach out to somebody like Putin Clinton supporter Leon Panetta, former CIA director

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said his organization would not disclose who provided it with the stolen material.

WikiLeaks said on Twitter that it timed its publication of the emails - days before the Democratic convention was starting - 'when our verification, research and formatting process was complete and on a day likely to generate interest.'

On Tuesday, Assange said on CNN that 'a lot more' material was coming but provided no details.

There was a furious response from the Clinton campaign.

Leon Panetta, the former CIA director who is endorsing her publicly in a speech at the DNC on Wednesday, questioned Trump's loyalty to the country.

Speaking on CNN he said: 'No presidential candidate who's running to be president of the United States ought to be asking a foreign country, particularly Russia, to engage in hacking or intelligence efforts to try to determine what the Democratic candidate may or may not be doing.

"This just is beyond my own understanding of the responsibilities that candidates have to be loyal to their country and to their country alone, not to reach out to somebody like Putin and Russia, and try to engage them in an effort to try to, in effect, conduct a conspiracy against another party.'

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters in Philadelphia: 'This is a national security issue now.

'The idea that you would have any American calling for a foreign power to commit espionage in the United States for the purposes of somehow changing an election, we're now in national security space.'

Promise: Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, raised the prospect of even more emails being leaked

Escalation: Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said: 'The idea that you would have any American calling for a foreign power to commit espionage in the United States for the purposes of somehow changing an election, we're now in national security space.'

Her senior policy advisor Jake Sullivan said: '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. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.'

Some Democrats and security experts have said that Trump's proposal to set conditions on NATO allies could risk Russian expansion in Eastern Europe.

The scattershot press conference, held at one of Trump's resorts in Florida, also included a pledge to raise the federal minimum wage to at least $10, a promise to soon release a list of countries from which immigrants would need to be subject of 'extreme vetting,' and a mistaken reference to Tim Kaine, Clinton's new running mate, as being from New Jersey, not Virginia.

It is possible that Trump confused Kaine with Tom Kean, who was governor of New Jersey from 1982-1990, while Trump was building his Atlantic City empire.

Kean, who chaired the federal 9/11 commission, skipped this year's Republican convention, the first time he's done that since he became involved in politics, because he said he disagreed with Trump on too many issues.

However there were mixed signals from the campaign, with Trump's running mate, Mike Pence saying in a statement there should be 'serious consequences' if Russia is found to be interfering in the U.S. electoral process.

Pence added that 'both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences' to any hacking.

Meanwhile a spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan said Putin should stay out of the presidential election.

Brendan Buck said in a statement: 'Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election.'

'Yeah! That's the ticket!' Donald Trump channels Jon Lovitz 'pathological liar' character from SNL to mock Hillary Clinton's campaign manager

Former 'Saturday Night Live' comic actor Jon Lovitz made headlines again on Wednesday when Donald Trump used one of his signature characters to mock Hillary Clinton's campaign manager.

In the late 1980s Lovitz portrayed a pathological liar named Tommy Flanagan, known for inventing stories about anything and everything.

During a Wednesday press conference Trump compared the character to Clinton campaign chief Robby Mook, who said Sunday that the Russian government hacked the Democratic National Committee's emails 'for the purpose of helping Donald Trump' win the White House.

'I watched this guy Mook,' the Republican nominee told reporters at his posh Miami, Florida golf resort.

Comparison: Trump used a press conference to compare Robbie Mook, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, to Jon Lovitz's character Tommy Flanagan, the pathological liar

Lovitz's Flanagan was most famous for styling himself as a ladies' man, telling everyone he met that he was married to blonde bombshell Morgan Fairchild.

'And then he said, 'Uh, could be Trump. Yeah! Yeah! Trump! Trump! Oh yeah. Trump. He reminded me of Jon Lovitz from 'Saturday Night Live' in 'The Liar'.'

Launching into his best impersonation of Flanagan – pronounced 'Fla-NAY-gun' on the show – Trump had the press conference in stitches.

''Yeaaah. Yeah! I went to Harvard. Harvard! Yeah. Yeah',' Trump parroted.

'This is the guy – you have to see it: 'Yeah, could be Trump. Yeah. Yeah'.'

Trump said the idea of Russian political leaders and oligarchs conspiring to sabotage Clinton's campaign for his benefit is 'one of the most far-fetched things I've ever heard.'

'Honestly I wish I had that power,' he said.

Lovitz's Flanagan was most famous for styling himself as a ladies' man, telling everyone he met that he was married to blonde bombshell Morgan Fairchild.

After a dramatic pause, he would add: 'Whom I've seen naked! Yeah! That's the ticket!'

Trump's round of Russia-focused questions accelerated during Wednesday's press conference as he urged the Kremlin to hunt among its hacked data files for the 33,000 emails that Clinton deleted from her now-infamous private server.

'By the way, they probably have her 30,000 emails. I hope they do,' he said.

'Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.'

He tweeted later, en route to a campaign stop in Scranton, Pennsylvania: '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!'