Good Thursday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing. Stay tuned

after the show for a message from Farma. President Donald Trump's admission that he would accept

a foreign government's assistance in an election and might not report it to the FBI is an absolutely

stunning statement that would seem out of bounds to any and every reader of playbook.

The president said this to ABC News's George Stephanopoulos.

It's not an interference.

They have information.

I think I'd take it.

If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI.

If I thought there was something wrong.

But when somebody comes up with

the APA research, right, they come up with APO research. Oh, let's call the FBI. The FBI doesn't have

enough agents to take care of it. When you go and talk, honestly, to congressmen, they'll all do it.

They always have, and that's the way it is. It's called APO research. Far be it from us to

define why the president said this, and what exactly is going through his head. But the people we

spoke to last night said it is rooted in a win-at-any-and-all-cost mentality, a life-as-complicated vibe

that ignores the guts of American law.

Furthermore, it reflects his thinking that he hates the idea the 2016 election was stolen from him.

So he tries to normalize things he and his campaign have been accused of.

In our time covering Congress, going on a decade, we've never heard anyone ever, even privately say they would accept

foreign assistance in an election, ever. And a lot of members have said crazy stuff to us privately.

The president is right in one element here. APA research is absolutely a part of every election,

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