Let’s get a grip:

(a) We all know, and even Trump probably knows, that Vladimir Putin does not do or refrain from doing anything based on encouragement or discouragement by Americans. He operates strictly based on his own calculation of his interests; even if Trump’s entreaty had been serious, it would have no effect.

(b) Many if not most of us take the following two positions (1) Russia already has Mrs. Clinton’s emails, and (2) we would like the FBI to release the formerly “missing” emails its investigators were able to recover and reconstruct. We are not happy that, while Russia probably has our former secretary of state’s emails, our own government won’t show them to us – even though, for over a year, she kept assuring us that she wanted us to see her government-related emails. We would like to see for ourselves what we already know based on Comey’s presentation: Clinton repeatedly lied to the public whose votes she now courts about the content of emails she refused to surrender (many of which involved government business, and at least three of which included classified information).

Now, does that mean we would like Putin to be the one to show us the “missing” emails? Of course not. Trump, however, obviously said what he said in jest. It was an over-the-top attempt at humor – and one that highlights Trump’s poor judgment since it inevitably draws attention to concerns about intersections between the Trump circle and the Putin circle. But I find it impossible to get stirred up about an unserious suggestion that Russia release Clinton’s emails when I know I’d like to see our government release them, and when I’m confident that their contents (and Clinton’s lies about them) are of far greater consequence than how they may come to be disclosed.