President Trump's comment that he would accept dirt on an opponent from a foreign government drew criticism on Thursday both from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and numerous Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
In a news conference, Pelosi blasted Trump and said his statement is evidence that he "does not know right from wrong," which she called a "very sad thing."
The House speaker said Trump is "indifferent" to "any sense of ethics" and that "everybody in the country should be totally appalled" by what he said. She also asked "how much more" Republicans can "bear of the president's unethical behavior."
Trump's comment did draw some Republican criticism on Thursday, including from Graham, who called the remark a "mistake" and said that "the right answer" to the question of whether to take dirt from a foreign government "is no," CNN reports.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also said that Trump's comments were getting into "dangerous territory," The Washington Post's Seung Min Kim reports.
Still, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a news conference did not directly criticize Trump's remark. While saying that "I don't want to see any foreign government try to interfere in our elections," when asked if Trump's comments were right, he told journalists that they're "talking about a hypothetical."