President Donald Trump‘s interview announcing his openness to foreign election assistance has not gone over well. Democrats have blasted the comments as expected, while Republicans, desperate not to publicly criticize the president, have attempted to deflect blame onto Democrats instead. But perhaps no group was affected by Trump’s comments as directly as the FBI, which the president openly defied Wednesday by saying he wouldn’t bother contacting the agency about foreign communications and that FBI Director Christopher Wray was “wrong” for urging political campaigns to do so. According to a new Politico report, dozens of law enforcement veterans suggest Trump’s comments have “undone months of work” at the FBI to combat foreign intervention in elections—and could possibly foreshadow Wray’s resignation from the agency. “It has to be demoralizing to some extent and confusing and, let’s face it, unprecedented, to have a commander in chief who has such a lack of fundamental understanding about the work the Justice Department and intelligence community do in this area,” Greg Brower, a former FBI liaison to Congress, told Politico.

Trump’s comments came as the FBI was ramping up its foreign interference efforts ahead of 2020 through a “foreign influence” task force that has brought together nearly 40 officials to combat election meddling by foreign powers. Now, those efforts may be much harder. Former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi told Politico that Trump’s comments will likely inspire foreigners to “come out of the woodwork like never before to try to influence the president,” and their efforts will “be more difficult to defend against because they’ll try harder than ever to mask their attempts.” Former FBI counterintelligence office director Frank Montoya Jr. similarly said the president’s statements would present “real dangers” to national security, as “our adversaries will see it as an invitation to interfere in the next election on his behalf.” “But worse is the open door Trump has enabled for all manner of influence operations to continue against U.S. interests,” Montoya Jr. added. White House aides cited by Politico, meanwhile, have dismissed the comments as “Trump being Trump;” one former White House official said they “think people take it in stride until he tries to operationalize it.”

Politico’s sources note the president’s comments are likely to affect morale among the FBI ranks—“I cannot tell you how profoundly troubling this is to the core of my professional experience,” one former longtime national security official said—though his open invitation for foreign governments to contact him with so-called “oppo research” isn’t likely to affect their operations right away. “U.S. law enforcement, intelligence and security officials will do what they can to protect the integrity of our democratic processes while being publicly contradicted and undermined by their boss,” David Kris, a former assistant attorney general for national security, said. But the president’s public willingness to defy the FBI could have broader implications, as sources suggested the comments could inspire Wray to either publicly rebuke Trump—and risk having the president fire him James Comey-style—or resign in protest. Jim Baker, the FBI’s general counsel under Comey, said Wray and U.S. Attorney General William Barr—who previously said he was “very impressed” with the FBI task force—should “have a discussion with [Trump], and if they don’t get a sense of comfort then they’ll have some hard decisions to make.” “I don’t think they should run for the exits right away, but they can’t just ignore this one,” Baker said. “This is potentially encouraging criminal activity and undermining federal law.”

Intelligence agencies weren’t the only ones in Washington grappling with Trump’s comments Thursday. Lawmakers considered how to handle the president’s flagrant disregard of election laws and norms, with Democrats continuing to come out in favor of impeachment while Republicans refused to publicly rebuke the president. Senate Republicans blocked Democrat-backed legislation that would require campaigns to report foreign election assistance, while Trump allies attempted to criticize the notion of accepting foreign assistance, but not the president himself. Sen. Lindsay Graham tweeted “that it should be practice for all public officials who are contacted by a foreign government with an offer of assistance to their campaign . . . to inform the FBI and reject the offer,” while claiming in an interview with the Washington Post that the president doesn’t actually want to accept foreign help, but was rather just trying to defend his son Donald Trump Jr. and his 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer. “He was trying to make a greater point inartfully,” Graham insisted. Republicans also tried to change the subject by pointing to Democrats commissioning the Trump dossier from Christopher Steele in the United Kingdom—which was perfectly legal, as Steele was paid for his services and did not “donate” information to the Clinton campaign.

As Republicans waffled on their Trump responses, a much more direct rebuke of the president instead came from Federal Election Commission chair Ellen J. Weintraub, who shared a statement on Twitter with the caption, “I would not have thought that I needed to say this.” “Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election,” Weintraub, who was appointed by former president George W. Bush, wrote. “This is not a novel concept. Electoral intervention from foreign governments has been considered unacceptable since the beginnings of our nation. . . . Anyone who solicits or accepts foreign assistance risks being on the wrong end of a federal investigation.”

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