Ms Clinton said Mr Trump’s praise of Mr Putin as a better leader than Mr Obama was “not just unpatriotic” but also “scary”.
Advertisement
Mr Obama said: “I don’t think the guy’s qualified to be president of the United States and every time he speaks, that opinion is confirmed”.
The Republican told last night’s Commander-in-Chief Forum in NY that the Russian president “has been a leader far more than our president [Barack Obama] has been”.
Clinton’s remarks followed a Wednesday night national security forum where the presidential candidates made back-to-back appearances. FBI Director James Comey had declared her “extremely careless” in her handling of sensitive material but did not recommend charges against her. But she said it meant she was in “the best possible position” to ensure it never happened again.
A sit-down between Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also laid bare the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies’ diverging interests in Syria, with Erdogan pointedly challenging Obama on US support for Kurds fighting the Islamic State group in Syria.
He also predicted that if elected in November, “I think that I’ll be able to get along with him”. “Far more than our president has been a leader”, he said.
Clinton is trying to raise questions about Trump’s temperament and fitness for office given his history of incendiary rhetoric, such as declaring President Barack Obama “the founder of ISIS”, an acronym for the Islamic State militant group. The statement drew broad criticism, prompting him to take a more disciplined approach to campaigning. USA officials blame Russian intelligence for a hack on the Democratic National Committee that resulted in a leak of emails damaging to its presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. The property mag-nate also stood by a 2013 tweet in which he appeared to blame sex assaults in the military on the decision to allow women to join.
“There was one thing that shocked me”, Trump said.
Trump is to use his Philadelphia speech to accuse Clinton of backing “military adventurism” for her handling of conflicts in Libya and the Middle East while she was Obama’s secretary of state from 2009-13. “Our leaders were not following what they recommended”.
Trump’s flirtation with Putin needs to end, and he needs to see him for what he is: a threat to the US and our interests.
The first debate between the one-time friends turned bitter rivals is scheduled for September 26.
It’s pretty freakish when a presidential nominee has nicer things to say about the controversial President of Russian Federation than the President of the United States!
Clinton said she will convene a national security meeting Friday with former advisers to Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, including Homeland Security Secretaries Michael Chertoff and Janet Napolitano, and retired Navy Admiral Jim Stavridis.
Advertisement
He said the generals had been “reduced to rubble” during President Barack Obama’s administration. Trump went on to attack Clinton over her emails.
