Donald Trump backtracks on asking Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s emails says he was being ‘sarcastic’

US: US Republican party presidential nominee Donald Trump has backtracked on his comment over his call to Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails after he came under serious criticism by admitting that he he was being “sarcastic”.

Trump had on Wednesday called on Russia to dig up thousands of “missing” emails from Clinton’s time at the US State Department, prompting Democrats to accuse him of encouraging foreigners to spy on Americans.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump tweeted.

In an interview broadcasted on Fox News, Trump said;

 “Of course I’m being sarcastic,” “But you have 33,000 emails by Clinton deleted, and the real problem is what was said on those emails from the Democratic National Committee,” he said, referring to hacked emails released by WikiLeaks last weekend.

“You take a look at what was said on those emails, it’s disgraceful. It’s disgraceful,” Trump said.

The DNC emails revealed party leaders favoring Clinton over her rival Senator Bernie Sander as the committee is supposed to be neutral.