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Republican Sen. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin wouldn't say during a radio interview on Wednesday if Republican nominee Donald Trump has the temperament to be president.

"Uh, again, I...I sure hope so," Johnson said on WSL-AM when asked about Trump's temperament. "We need strong leadership, we need people who understand what the problems in this world and are willing to face these realities."

Johnson, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said he could "ruin your morning" with the list of all the threats to the United States.

"I think Donald Trump has certainly operated in the real world, the private sector, he knows how to grow an economy which is the first step by the way. We've got to heal our economy, bring it to its full potential so we can strengthen our military so we can actually defeat ISIS, secure our border. We've got a real mess on our hands here."

Johnson has said he is supporting, but not endorsing Trump.

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Donald Trump on Thursday said that he was speaking in jest when he made an open request to Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton's emails.

"Of course I was being sarcastic," he said on news show Fox and Friends.

The Republican presidential nominee reiterated that he did not know who was responsible for the hack.

"They have no idea if it's Russia, if it's China, if it's somebody else," he said. "Who knows who it is?"

Just one day before, after denying he had colluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin to leak Democratic National Committee emails, Trump expressly asked Russia to find "missing" emails belonging to Hillary Clinton.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," he told reporters on Wednesday in Doral, Florida. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens. That will be next."

The DNC, cybersecurity experts, and US officials have said Russian state hackers were most likely behind the hacking of thousands of DNC emails, which were uploaded to WikiLeaks on Friday. The FBI is now investigating the incident.

The Republican nominee for president denied any ties to Putin or any role in the leak, which Democrats have suggested was done to boost Trump's campaign.

"I'm not going to tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do?" he said.

Trump denied there was any evidence that Russia was behind the attack, but also said the hacking showed a lack of respect of the US.

"But if it is Russia, it's really bad for a different reason, because it shows how little respect they have for our country when they would hack into a major party and get everything," he said, before immediately asking Russia to hack Clinton's emails.

Later in the day, Trump told supporters at a town hall in Pennsylvania he questioned how a Clinton campaign official could be sure Russia was behind the hack.

"Might be a 400-pound person sitting in bed," he said. "Might be. Some of the greatest hackers of all time. But he said Russia. And then he said Trump."

Trump added that he hadn't done anything related to the leak of the emails.

"I wish I had that power," Trump said. "Man, that would be power."

Carlo Allegri / Reuters

Hillary Clinton's senior policy advisor Jake Sullivan issued a statement, blasting Trump's comments.

"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," Sullivan said. "This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue."

In July, FBI Director James Comey said he would not recommend charges against Hillary Clinton for sending classified emails on a personal server she used while secretary of state. Comey added that his investigators managed to find "several thousand" emails Clinton did not turn over to the State Department because she deemed them private.

When a reporter asked Trump if he had "any qualms about asking a foreign government, Russia, China, anybody, to interfere, to hack into a system of anybody in this country" or if it gave him "pause," he responded, "No, it gives me no pause."

"Well, they probably have [the emails]. I'd like to have them released. ... If they have them, they have them."

"You know what gives me more pause?" he said, telling a female reporter to "be quiet."

"That a person in our government ... would delete or get rid of 33,000 emails. That gives me a big problem," he said.

Christine Quinn, the vice chair of the New York State Democratic Committee, told CNN the comments were "almost treasonous."

"The man who thinks he's going to be president of the United States stood in front of the world and called on Russia and Putin to hack into the emails of the former secretary of state," she said. "It's honestly almost treasonous."

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Trump's comments showed "staggeringly poor judgement even for him."

And former CIA Director Leon Panetta said Trump's comments draw his loyalty to the US into question and hint at a possible conspiracy with another nation, CNN reported.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich criticized the media for what he said was a "joke."

Immediately after the press conference, the Trump campaign sent out a statement from Gov. Mike Pence, in which Trump's running mate vowed that whoever is behind the DNC hack will be held responsible:

That said, the Democrats singularly focusing on who might be behind it and not addressing the basic fact that they've been exposed as a party who not only rigs the government, but rigs elections while literally accepting cash for federal appointments is outrageous.

The American people now have absolute and further proof of the corruption that exists around Hillary Clinton. It should disqualify her from office, if the media did their job.

A spokesperson for Speaker Paul Ryan also issued a statement Wednesday, calling Russia "a global menace led by a devious thug."

"Putin should stay out of this election," the spokesperson said.

Shortly after, Trump issued another plea to Russia via Twitter:

Twitter / Via Twitter: @realDonaldTrump

LINK: Clinton Campaign Manager: Russia Is Secretly Helping Trump

LINK: The FBI Is Investigating The DNC Email Hack

LINK: Sanders “Outraged” By Leaked Emails Showing DNC Staffers Criticizing Him

Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — As Donald Trump calls on Russia to find and expose his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton's emails, congressional Republicans are pushing back and bashing Russia's leader Vladamir Putin.

In a statement, Speaker Paul Ryan's spokesman Brendan Buck said: "Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election."

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce gave a similar statement to BuzzFeed News. "The United States should not tolerate Russian meddling in November’s election. Period.”

During a press conference Wednesday morning, Trump essentially encouraged cyber espionage against Clinton. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

The GOP presidential nominee later doubled down on his statement.

Trump's comments follow a report from the New York Times that found that US intelligence agencies believe Russia was behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee that resulted in their emails being leaked on the eve of the party's convention in Philadelphia.

Becca Watkins, spokeswoman for Sen. Richard Burr — chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the senator "has said for some time that foreign adversaries are intent on gaining unauthorized access into our country’s government and private networks to access sensitive data – whether that is trade secrets of American companies, or healthcare information of government workers. These hackers remain a serious challenge to the security of the US.”

Specifically on Trump's comments, Watkins said: "As Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Sen. Burr has an obligation to wait for the FBI and the broader intelligence community to complete their investigation on the source of this cyberattack. Public discussion about attribution and possible responses are premature, at best.”

Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasses, who has said he will not vote for Trump, said in a statement: "Every American, without regard to political party, must face this grim reality: While the Obama administration idles with empty platitudes and fantasy resets, Mr. Putin’s Soviet-style aggression has escalated to levels that were unimaginable just a week ago."

"America is digitally exposed. The United States must take serious offensive and defensive actions now. Russia must face real consequences."

This post will be updated with more comments from congressional Republicans.

Reuters Photographer / Reuters

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Marvin Bush, the brother of former President George W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said on local sports radio in Washington D.C. on Wednesday that he's supporting Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson for president.

Bush was speaking on The Junkies on 106.7 The Fan when he made the comments. Bush's daughter confirmed to BuzzFeed News it was him on the radio and that he was endorsing Johnson.

"That's why I'm voting libertarian, 100%, these two guys—and nobody knows about them, people think it is sort of a wasted vote—but, both Gary Johnson and Bill Weld were each successful two term governors who balanced their budgets," Bush said. "So they're fiscally conservative and their essential message is get bureaucracy off our backs. It used to be a part of what the Republicans believed."

Bush said some of his friends told him a vote for Gary Johnson would help Trump.

"I don't necessarily buy it, first of all, I want to have a conscience," added Bush. "I want honest leadership. I want proven effective people running this country and so, I want to be able to go to bed at night and so I don't really care about that."

Earlier, Bush said he worried about children who see Donald Trump tearing negatively into his opponents like he did his brother Jeb.

"Some of these kids are saying, 'hey the best way to win is to rip somebody's ass apart,' somebody else's ass apart, and to run them down," Bush said. "And so when Trump's talking abou John McCain not being a hero, it's very frustrating."

He added he thought Hillary Clinton was "one of the most dishonest people that's ever been in politics."

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Florida Sen. Marco Rubio says his "sense" is that Donald Trump's positions on issues will more fully develop as he takes on the role as president.

"I view the Senate as a place that can always act as a check and balance on whoever the next president is," Rubio said on WGN radio on Wednesday. "I also think there's something to be said for, once you're actually in that position, once you're actually working at this thing, and you're in there, and you start to have access to information that perhaps you didn't have before, especially for someone that's never been in politics, I think it starts to impact your views a little bit."

"And that's my sense of it, as he settles into this role as the nominee and ultimately the president, access to these issues is going to begin to, in some ways, kind of shape some of the policy positions given reality versus perhaps what you might read about on a blog somewhere. So I think that's gonna be a real factor," Rubio said.

Rubio added that even though it's an "open question" whether Trump will ultimately become more informed on the issues, "we know exactly what we're gonna get" from Hillary Clinton.

Recorded live at the Trocadero Theater in Philadelphia during the DNC.

Listen to the full episode here, and subscribe to No One Knows Anything on iTunes to follow all of our convention coverage.

Recorded live at the Trocadero Theater in Philadelphia, this historical event features Evan McMorris-Santoro, Another Round's Tracy Clayton, and Internet Explorer's Ryan Broderick and Katie Notopoulos.

Plus, an interview with Texas Rep. Joaquín Castro and live music from Jean Grae.

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PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Committee staffers began the gradual process of merging operations and consolidating key campaign functions weeks before the primary ended, emails in last week's WikiLeaks release show.

Starting in May, the staffs at the DNC and Hillary For America integrated their distribution of press and television clips and what's known as "media monitoring," a standard but robust and time-consuming research operation aimed at tracking a candidate’s friends and foes around the clock on cable, local, and national news.

Once a candidate has become the presumptive nominee, it’s typical for their campaign and the party to join forces, building out a coordinated effort for the general election and consolidating day-to-day functions between the two offices.

But messages show this process began while Bernie Sanders remained a viable candidate, sooner than previously reported or publicly disclosed.

DNC research director Lauren Dillon informed a group of colleagues about the shift in an email dated May 20, more than two weeks before Clinton became the presumptive nominee and three weeks before the last contest of the Democratic Party.

“The research teams at DNC and HFA are going to join forces on media monitoring starting Monday morning,” Dillon’s email reads, noting that the party’s communications and research teams would be “relieved of a chunk of” work.

“Basically this means you will be getting national TV clips in real time and we won't have to send around the articles about Trump ourselves,” Dillon adds.

Between subscription services and staffing, maintaining a media monitoring operation on a presidential campaign can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Messages from earlier that month show the DNC communications team also asked to be added to Clinton’s “clips” list, the internal campaign listserv where aides share relevant articles, tweets, and videos on a daily real-time basis.

“I’ll get you added to the clips list,” Clinton rapid response director Zac Petkanas wrote on May 9 in response to DNC communications director Luis Miranda.

The cache of 20,000 DNC emails, published by WikiLeaks on the eve of this week’s convention here in Philadelphia, have elicited concerns among major party figures and outrage among progressives over an anti-Sanders sentiment in the DNC.

In quick order, the DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned over the leaks, and party officials have apologized, particularly for an email in which one official questions Sanders’ religious beliefs and suggests that those beliefs could be used against him.

DNC allies insisted this week that party staff offered Clinton and Sanders the same services and support throughout the hard-fought Democratic primary, and that the process of integration was done in a gradual and “respectful way,” as one Democrat put it, only after Clinton had established a nearly insurmountable delegate lead.

The DNC research team, for instance, moved to the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters, but not until June 8, the day after Clinton clinched the nomination.

The following week, when her campaign manager Robby Mook visited the DNC, he told staffers they would finally become “one big family,” but stressed the importance of doing so in a way respectful to Sanders, according to a person in the meeting.

Little-noticed emails also show that DNC staffers did not reserve their criticism for Sanders: Party officials complained that the Clinton team had no “backbone,” was “a mess,” and operated with the attitude that they could “win without anyone else.”

Still, the early media monitoring consolidation speaks to questions on the left and right about structural advantages Clinton may have had over Sanders.

“It was a fixed race,” Donald Trump told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday, seizing on the email leak news. “It was totally rigged.”

Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate hoping to win over Sanders voters, noted that after Wasserman Schultz resigned on Sunday, she was given the title of honorary chair of the Clinton campaign's 50-state program.

“Let's remove Debbie after the convention so she can go take a job doing what she's been doing already: working for the Clinton campaign. Their solution just confirms how incredibly corrupt the whole process is to start with,” Stein said. “It's endemic in the organization. It's endemic in the party.”

The Clinton campaign did not immediately comment when reached on Wednesday.

This spring, Sanders allies disapproved of the way the Clinton campaign used a joint fundraising agreement with the party that allowed Hillary for America to seek large amounts of money, much of which went to the DNC. (Both campaigns had joint fundraising agreements, a standard feature of presidential campaigns.)

Clinton had a steady working relationship with the DNC throughout the primary.

Jen O'Malley Dillon, a former deputy campaign manager to Obama in 2012 who is now at Precision Strategies, a firm co-founded by senior Clinton aide Teddy Goff, has informally advised the Clinton campaign and also served as an adviser to the DNC in a role described by some Democrats this spring as a frequent go-between.

Sanders, a frequent Wasserman-Schultz critic, never enjoyed the same dynamic.

This spring, the DNC held daily communications conference calls with both campaigns, designed to assist each candidate in equal measure. But as one adviser to the Sanders campaign described it, theirs was always just perfunctory.

“Eventually,” the adviser recalled, “we just put our intern on the call.”

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Michael Hayden, the former head of the National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency under President George W. Bush, panned Donald Trump's comments on Wednesday encouraging Russian intelligence to find Hillary Clinton's emails.

"Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said during a press conference. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

"Either he wanted Russian security services to capture the related State Department emails, which is problematic," Hayden told BuzzFeed News. "Or he wanted the Russian government to capture the private emails of a person protected by the Fourth Amendment to the US constitution, which is equally problematic. So I just find it to be an incredibly stunning commentary.”

Hayden said he did not question if Russia was behind the hack.

“I have no reason to question what the technical experts have said with regard to official responsibility," Hayden said. "I don’t have any special knowledge. Instinctively, what they’re saying sounds about right.”

He also criticized Trump's recent comments he might not defend NATO allies if they were attacked.

"It’s based on mutual strategic interest," he said. "And to create doubt in the minds of a potential adversary that you wouldn’t respond to an attack is a very dangerous thing.”

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PHILADELPHIA — The Democratic National Convention, like the Republican one before it, has themes each day that the speakers touch on throughout.

In addition to a heavy national security theme on Wednesday night, the DNC will be centered on an "Our America" theme that seeks to contrast Clinton and Donald Trump's visions when it comes to inclusion.

The Latino-fueled evening program will be an hour-long, beginning at 6 p.m. featuring a song written by Gloria and Emilio Estefan, and acts like La India and Raul Esparza. Javier Palomarez, the president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Melissa Mark-Viverito the New York City Council speaker, and Brent Wilkes of LULAC will also appear.

DNC finance chair Henry Muñoz said the idea for the programming, which will air ahead of major speakers Wednesday, came to him and Emilio Estefan during the White House Cinco De Mayo event as a way of blending cultures beyond Hispanics in the United States.

"We talked about how important it would be to do a segment about cultural identity of the Latino community and the impact it has on the nation," he said.

The focus on Hispanics will follow ab immigration theme on Monday that featured a DREAMer activist Astrid Silva, as well as a U.S. citizen girl and her undocumented mother.

Rodriguez will speak tonight along with Dulce Candy, a beauty blogger with millions of followers across YouTube and social media, and who asked a question at a Republican debate during the primary.

“There are many immigrants who contribute positively to the American economy, but some of the comments in the campaign make us question our place in this country," she said. "If America does not seem like a welcoming place for immigrant entrepreneurs, will the American economy suffer?”

Jeb Bush came to her defense at the time, but the program Wednesday aims to do what Democrats have been trying to do during their whole convention: present speakers and content arguing that they are the multicultural party of inclusion and Donald Trump is the polar opposite.

"This positive, inclusive vision is a strong departure from Donald Trump, whose anti-immigrant, anti-diversity campaign is based on fear and exclusion," Muñoz said. "That's not how to appeal to the real America and that's not how to win elections."

How you doing there, sport, slugger, champ, kiddo, bud?

Sen. Tim Kaine accepted the vice presidential nomination Wednesday night, and Twitter immediately decided he is a dad joke come to life.

Matt Rourke / AP

Yes, the senator from Virginia has a reputation as a straight-laced, sometimes described as "boring" politician, but he received plenty of cheers at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday.

But that didn't stop people from describing him as someone quick to pull a dad-joke.

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Attorney General Loretta Lynch

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WASHINGTON — The Justice Department strongly defended the Obama administration's pro-transgender policies in federal court in Texas on Wednesday, urging the court to deny the request by Texas and several other states to put those policies on hold nationwide.

The Wednesday filing was another step in the lawsuit filed in May by Texas and a dozen other states against the Obama administration's policies. The states have asked for a preliminary injunction, putting those policies on hold across the country while the lawsuit can be resolved.

The Justice Department's opposition to the request was expected, but nonetheless showed how the administration — as it has done in its lawsuit against North Carolina — stands ready to explain and advocate for its position that anti-transgender discrimination is a type of sex discrimination that is illegal under existing civil rights laws. Among the laws specifically at issue are Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — governing discrimination in the workplace — and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 — governing discrimination in schools.

The states challenging the Obama administration's interpretation "have entirely failed to establish that they are entitled to preliminary relief," lawyers for the Justice Department wrote on Wednesday, going on to detail how — in the administration's view — the states have failed to show that they face "irreparable harm" if the court denies the injunction request or that they are likely to succeed in the lawsuit itself.

Even if the court agrees that an injunction is appropriate, department lawyers argue that the injunction should be limited to the states within the Fifth Circuit, where the case was filed.

A nationwide injunction — as requested by the plaintiffs — "would violate fundamental principles of judicial comity," the Justice Department lawyers argue, by suggesting that the federal district court in Texas could issue an order "purporting to supersede" a recent decision of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the Title IX guidance and other federal appeals courts' decisions regarding Title VII.

Earlier Wednesday, as BuzzFeed News reported, a dozen states and Washington, D.C. — led by Washington state — filed an amici curiae (friends of the court) brief in the case, similarly opposing the request for a preliminary injunction.

Also on Wednesday, the New York City Public Advocate and several LGBT legal groups also filed amicus briefs opposing the injunction request.

Read the Justice Department brief:

Reporting from Philadelphia: Ruby Cramer, Bim Adewunmi, Evan McMorris-Santoro, Darren Sands, Adrian Carrasquillo, Mary Ann Georgantopoulos, Jim Dalrymple, Dominic Holden, Emma Loop, and John Stanton.

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WASHINGTON — A Republican congressman with a reputation of being a trouble-maker for party leadership is caught in a tough primary race that's pitting all sorts of GOP allies against each other.

Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp — a member of the conservative wing of the House called the Freedom Caucus and one of the most vocal opponents of former Speaker John Boehner — is in a dead heat with physician Roger Marshall ahead of the primary next week that's drawn big-money groups and endorsements.

Conservative groups that often find themselves aligned behind the same candidate are instead split between Huelskamp and Marshall, who has cast himself as a conservative who can compromise to get things done in Congress.

On one side, Sen. Ted Cruz, conservative group Club for Growth and the political operation affiliated with billionaires Charles and David Koch are backing the congressman. On the other side, the US Chamber of Commerce, Ending Spending Action Fund — a super PAC run by Chicago Cubs owners, the Ricketts family, which has sided with the Koch network in the past — and some close to Cruz are supporting Marshall.

Outside groups alone have spent at least $1.5 million on the primary, according to disclosures. More has been shelled out by groups that don't disclose their spending.

After years of primary challenges for GOP incumbents from the right, this race isn't as much of an establishment versus tea party battle. It's more about testing whether constituents in a red district still prefer an uncompromising conservative over one willing to make some concessions.

AFP digital ad

In the final week before the Aug. 2 primary, Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, which is spending six-figures on the race, is rolling out more digital ads — first shared with BuzzFeed News — on Facebook that detail how Huelskamp is "standing up to DC and protecting family budgets." The new issue ads come as Ending Spending tries to label Huelskamp as "Washing-Tim" with its spots, and the Chamber portrays him as ineffective after being stripped of his spot on the agriculture committee.

AFP's local chapter is also planning on making more than 50,000 calls in the final week.

"He's been willing to take political stances even when they're not in his best interest," said Mark Holden, chairman of the Kochs' political operation Freedom Partners, citing Huelskamp's votes against the farm bill as a representative of an agriculture-heavy district and reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. (Kansas farm groups have endorsed Huelskamp's opponent).

Holden described Huelskamp as "great on the economic issues that are our bread and butter." "We need more people like him," he said, adding that "this isn't a popularity contest" when asked about the congressman's record of angering his colleagues.

Acknowledging that there's been some confusion about why a group with a name like Ending Spending would would oppose Huelskamp, who has a reputation for being a staunch fiscal conservative, Brian Baker, spokesman for the group, said: "By all accounts, everyone looks at Huelskamp as a conservative.

"But that's looking at the tree and not the forest. Our position is simply that we appreciate the fact that he's conservative, but he doesn't get anything done. In the way he goes about it is so obstructionist. Anytime he says we need to strip more spending, and therefore refuses to let the Republican budget go through, he puts liberal Democrats in charge of the House."

Baker said his group, which has spent about $900,000 on the race, is often on the same side as others they are now opposing in the Kansas primary. "However, we just see things differently," he said. "Everybody's got to make their own decisions and answer to their own supporters."

He also said that labeling Huelskamp as "Washing-Tim" even though the congressman regularly picks fights with Washington insiders is more about illustrating that he's "a classic show horse and not a work horse."

Baker also clarified that although he has received some informal advice from those who work for Axiom Strategies — Ted Cruz's campaign manager's firm, his super PAC has never paid them and they have not really been involved since Cruz's endorsement of Huelskamp.

A Politico story on Wednesday detailed the involvement of some of Axiom's staff in the race.

Although the race has drawn interest from several different groups, Boehner — who clashed frequently with Huelskamp and took him off the agriculture committee — is still staying out. The former speaker isn't that politically involved anymore, but he has spoken out against Cruz since retiring, calling him "lucifer in the flesh."

"It's not something he's personally paying a lot of attention to," said David Schnittger, a spokesman for Boehner.

"He's focused on his bus tour in support of defending the team and the House majority that was earned under his leadership."

Alex Wong / Getty Images

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Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said the Russians and Israelis already have all of Hillary Clinton's emails. He also defended comments made by Donald Trump encouraging Russia to release Clinton's emails to the media, saying Trump was joking.

"The Russians have those emails, they've had them for some time. If they could get into the DNC server and be in there for one year, which they were, the DNC server is a modern server, much better protected than the old equipment than Hillary had hanging around in the garage at home," Giuliani said on the Mike Gallagher Show on Thursday.

"If they could get into that DNC server, they owned her server in Poughkeepsie. And not only did they own it, but so did the Russians, possibly the Israelis, maybe a couple of other allies. And by the way, we do the same thing to them so don't get all upset."

Giuliani said the Democrats claiming that the email hack was a matter of national security proves Clinton is a liar.

"The Democrats have to believe she's lying, that's why they're yelling national security," Giuliani said. "By the way, I talked to the Trump campaign immediately after he made that statement. That statement was sarcastic, it was a joke, it was, 'hey, go get them if you can get them.'"

Alex Wong / Getty Images

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New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a prominent supporter of Hillary Clinton, said Donald Trump's comments encouraging Russia to hack Clinton's emails and release them to the media disqualify him from the presidency.

"Trying to incite a foreign power to take an illegal action against someone who is your political adversary, to me, that clearly disqualifies him to be president of the United States," Booker said on Joe Madison The Black Eagle on SiriusXM Urban View channel 126 on Wednesday.

"This alone should be outrageous enough to see what this person is capable of, what would he be like if he was sitting in the most powerful position on the planet earth? What would his reaction be to inciting violence, to inciting a conflict, to inciting illegal action from the presidency? This is very disturbing," Booker added.

Earlier in the interview the New Jersey senator said the comments were "outrageous" and "stunning" to him.

"It's almost astonishing, it's almost like this can't be true," said Booker.

Carlo Allegri / Reuters

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Donald Trump's running mate Mike Pence, a longtime supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other nearly every other free trade agreement, now says the deal is comparable to Obamacare.

"With the TPP, it feels a little bit like Obamacare, you remember when Nancy Pelosi said, 'We gotta pass this bill so we can find out what's in it,'" Pence said Thursday on the Laura Ingraham Show. He cited Carrier announcing it was moving 1,400 Indianapolis jobs to Mexico as proof trade deals needed to be reworked.

Earlier in the program, Pence explained why he no longer supported free trade agreements like NAFTA and TPP.

"I believe you can be convinced," said Pence when asked if he could be trusted on trade. "You're absolutely right, I think throughout my career I've strongly supported free trade in measures that have came before the Congress."

"When I was asked to support free trade initiatives as governor of Indiana, I supported them," he continued. "But frankly, we're on the verge of electing one of the best negotiators in the world. As Donald and I sat down and talked earlier on, he talked to me about questioning the wisdom of these multi-country trade agreements that then, when they're not working out, the way that clearly NAFTA is not any longer, it's very difficult to unwind"

Pence said trade deals should be on a country-by-country basis.

John Dickerson joins No One Knows Anything, BuzzFeed’s politics podcast.

Mike Hinson / BuzzFeed

PHILADELPHIA — A historic convention held in one of America's most historic cities. Another chapter in an election that many think defies history.

The Democratic National Convention here this week has put the first woman in American history atop a major party ticket. A week earlier and a few hundred miles to the west, Republicans made history of their own, putting one of the few non-politicians at the head of their ticket.

A lot of people look at 2016 and say none of this has happened before. John Dickerson, host of CBS' Face The Nation, looks at it and says actually quite a lot of it has happened before.

In his new book Whistlestop, Dickerson recounts stories of past presidential campaigns that help to explain and contextualize the current, weirder than usual presidential election.

Dickerson joined No One Knows Anything to talk about the book — and which candidate from the past reminds him the most of Donald Trump.

People celebrate at the annual Chicago Pride Parade on Sunday, June 28, 2015.

Nam Y. Huh / AP

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected a woman's claim that existing civil rights law protects against sexual orientation discrimination — ruling that only the Supreme Court or Congress can make that the law.

"Kimberly Hively has failed to state a claim under Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for sex discrimination," the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals held in its decision in Hively's appeals. "[H]er claim is solely for sexual orientation discrimination which is beyond the scope of the statute."

In ruling against Hively's claim — that sexual orientation discrimination should be barred under Title VII as a type of sex discrimination — the court, primarily, pointed to a series of rulings from the appeals court beginning in 1984 and continuing through 2000 in which the court found that anti-LGBT discrimination was not covered by Title VII.

A clearly conflicted Judge Ilana Rovner, joined by Judge William Bauer, went on for more than 40 pages, however, detailing what Rovner described as "a paradoxical legal landscape in which a person can be married on Saturday and then fired on Monday for just that act."

Addressing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's 2015 decision — backing up Hively's position — that sexual orientation discrimination is a type of sex discrimination barred under Title VII, Rovner wrote, "The idea that the line between gender non‐conformity and sexual orientation claims is arbitrary and unhelpful has been smoldering for some time, but the EEOC’s decision ... threw fuel on the flames."

In the wake of the EEOC's decision, Rovner acknowledged that "the district courts—the laboratories on which the Supreme Court relies to work through cutting‐edge legal problems—are beginning to ask whether the sexual orientation‐denying emperor of Title VII has no clothes."

She even acknowledged the fundamental correctness of the EEOC's logic:

It seems illogical to entertain gender non‐conformity claims under Title VII where the non‐conformity involves style of dress or manner of speaking, but not when the gender non‐conformity involves the sine qua non of gender stereotypes—with whom a person engages in sexual relationships. And we can see no rational reason to entertain sex discrimination claims for those who defy gender norms by looking or acting stereotypically gay or lesbian (even if they are not), but not for those who are openly gay but otherwise comply with gender norms.

Nonetheless, Rovner concluded that the 7th Circuit should extend its prior decisions unanimously concluding that sexual orientation discrimination is not barred under Title VII, given that Congress has repeatedly rejected legislation to expand protections to include sexual orientation discrimination explicitly and the Supreme Court has declined to address the issue.

"Perhaps the writing is on the wall," Rovner wrote of a change, but concluding, "Until the writing comes in the form of a Supreme Court opinion or new legislation, we must adhere to the writing of our prior precedent."

Judge Kenneth Ripple joined in the portion of Rovner's decision holding that Title VII does not include sexual orientation protections, but not the extended discussion on the EEOC ruling and emerging law on the viability of drawing a distinction between sex discrimination claims and sexual orientation discrimination claims.

Read the opinion:

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images

PHILADELPHIA — If you look hard, you can find the moderate Democrats here.

There are, in fact, Democrats who really like TPP and Democrats who’d rather not talk about how bad the NRA is, lest they run afoul of voters who live between cities.

Hillary Clinton is a candidate Democrats like those Democrats like. But her convention is one they don’t love.

Philadelphia looks a lot more like a Bernie Sanders policy conference than it does a 1990s Bill Clinton Democratic Leadership Council, tie-dye-under-oxford-shirt celebration. Night one saw Bernie fans booing everything. Nights two and three featured many Democrats begging those Bernie fans to stop booing and vote for Hillary Clinton with speeches that focused on police violence, gun control, liberal immigration policy, abortion rights, and the dangers of free trade.

Noted Trans-Pacific Partnership supporter Tim Kaine recently did what his new boss did months before: come out in opposition to the trade deal the White House still hopes to pass with the help of Republicans this year. No one wants to talk about how great the trade deal is — not even President Obama, who negotiated it and who did not mention it among his list of accomplishments in his speech on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, Bernie-backing Democrats succeeded in recrafting the party platform in the image of the angry left that fueled his campaign.

“We don't love the platform,” Matt Bennett, co-founder of the centrist Democratic group Third Way told BuzzFeed News. “But nobody has ever voted in history on what's in or what's not in the platform."

Third Way is in Philadelphia — they’ve got a space across from the downtown Convention Center, miles from the Wells Fargo. Bennett’s group is holding daily policy briefings, working politicians as it can.

He’s not fazed by Kaine’s shift away from TPP. As far as Bennett is concerned, the selection of Kaine by Clinton means the November Democratic ticket is heading his direction.

“No question the party has moved to the left,” he said in an interview the morning after Bernie-or-Bust booed their way through Monday night’s scripted convention lineup. “Last night was a concentrated dose of that. But don't forget the nominees are Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. It's not exactly as if the party has swung completely off into some far off galaxy.”

Bennett actually likes Sanders people. The louder they are, he said, the more obvious it is that there’s a part of the Democratic party that is not them.

“The far far left is distinguishing itself from the rest of the party in real time here,” he said. “When you're booing the nominee when the [Republican] opponent is essentially a demagogic racist you've really gone off the rails.”

Yes, Bennett is “disappointed” that Clinton and Kaine are backing away from free trade. But he said the rest of the convention lineup after that Monday night progressive fest gave him reason to be happy.

“You're not going to see some sort of Zell Miller come out,” he said. “But all of the principals speaking from here on out have feet in both sides.”

Other Democrats don’t see such a rosy picture for moderates in Philadelphia. The old notion that a liberal top of the ticket means bad news for people down the ballot just isn’t true in the age of Donald Trump, say strategists and operatives of all Democratic ideological stripes gathered in Philly this week.

“The problem is, we’re no longer really having a conversation about left and right. We’re having a conversation about up and down … between populists and non-populists. And they’re just not a part of that,” said Mo Elleithee, Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Policy.

Elleithee, a former communications director for the Democratic National Committee, bluntly warned that as for moderates’ hopes that Clinton will make significant moves to the center following the convention, “That’s not gonna happen.”

Multiple Democrats argued the country’s sharply divided political climate makes a move to the center difficult for Clinton — or, for that matter, Trump.

Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau, who has worked for moderates like former Sen. Mark Pryor as well as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, said moderates have little to worry from Clinton’s policy positions in the end. “I haven’t heard a Republican explain why her policy positions are bad. It’s all about the fact that she’s a woman who’s trying to get hers,” Mollineau argued of Republican opposition. And given the stark political divisions of the electorate, on issues like gun control “whether or not she moves further left on that issue, I don’t see that as a reason a Democrat would run away from her.”

Still, many Democrats believe Clinton will need to move to the middle. For instance, a Virginia Democratic operative — whose state will be one of the epicenters of this fall’s election — said while that there’s little Clinton can do to soften her image for most voters, on issues like infrastructure, small business assistance, and direct attacks on the NRA the campaign will likely pivot to a more traditional, centrist approach in the coming weeks.

Near the very bottom of the ballot are some of the most important races to be run this cycle. State Legislative victories by Republicans in recent years have put Democrats in red and purple states on their heels and forced them to contend with a much more conservative GOP even as the top of their own party shifts left.

But Carolyn Fiddler, communications director for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee argued for state house races and even congressional contests, lawmakers “hold power based more on their ties to their districts than party power or dynamics,” making retail politicking much more important than Clinton’s position on guns or trade.

That said, Fiddler did say they have seen some impacts on down-ballot races — but from Trump, not Clinton. Fiddler argued that in states like Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado, Trump’s unpopularity with minority and women voters is driving up Democratic voter registrations. That, Democrats hope, will translate into gains at the state level, and could help shore up vulnerable Democrats in the House.

OH MY GOD.

Congresswoman Joyce Beatty of Ohio spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Beatty, who is serving her second term representing Ohio's third congressional district, gave a powerful endorsement of Hillary Clinton and blasted Donald Trump, all the while looking resplendent in....

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