WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump doesn't know right from wrong and is "indifferent to law and any sense of ethics about who we are as a country."

The top House Democrat said Thursday that when Trump says he's open to accepting information from a foreign power against a political opponent he is ignoring his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.

She said that "it's a very sad thing, a very sad thing that he does not know right from wrong."

Pelosi is one of Trump's leading antagonists. But she is taking a slow, cautious approach when many in her party are demanding an impeachment inquiry.

She says "everybody in the country should be totally appalled" by Trump's remarks to ABC News.

Trump told ABC Wednesday that if a foreign power were offering dirt on his 2020 opponent, he'd be open to accepting it and would have no obligation to call in the FBI.

Earlier, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Trump's comments "define deviancy down to a new low."

The New York Democrat says Trump's comments to ABC News were disgraceful and "it's as if the president has learned absolutely nothing from the past two years of investigations."

Schumer said Thursday that the Russian meddling controversy started after Trump publicly urged Russia to leak 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton's emails.

Schumer says the Republican president "believes winning an election is more important than the integrity of the election."

FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers Donald Trump Jr. should have called the FBI to report that a Russian lawyer was offering negative information on Clinton in 2016.

The president told ABC if a foreign power were offering dirt on his 2020 opponent he'd have no obligation to call in the FBI.