Both Nancy Pelosi and Lindsey Graham are criticizing Trump's foreign dirt comment

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."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

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."