Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton resumed a Friday afternoon press conference to lace into Donald Trump for his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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“I think he ought to begin every statement about Russian Federation by saying Putin is an evil man and they are eating our lunch because of American appeasement under Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama”.
Addressing the issue head-on at a press conference on Thursday morning in NY – which Trump’s team have said is her first in 278 days – Ms Clinton suggested she was sanguine about it.
“Every Republican holding or seeking office in this country should be asked if they agree with Donald Trump about these statements”, Clinton said on the airport tarmac. “And I think I would have a very, very good relationship with Russian Federation”.
Arguing that Trump says “quite outrageous things on a regular basis”, Clinton pointed to his remarks at the forum lauding Putin and calling into question the competence of America’s generals.
At a rally on Friday before thousands of cheering supporters in Pensacola, Florida, Trump had more harsh words for the Democratic presidential nominee in the fallout over their crossfire at a televised national security forum in NY on Wednesday.
Asked during the RT America interview what has surprised him most about the political process, Trump unloaded on the American press. “Far more than our president has been a leader”, he said. “It’s not a serious presidential campaign”.
During a televised forum Wednesday on national security, Trump complimented Putin for having “great control over his country”.
Beyond that, Trump has repeatedly said that it would “be great” for the USA and Russian Federation to have strong relations, which he believes he would be capable of achieving if elected.
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“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters”, Trump said at a campaign rally in Iowa last January. Klebnikov, who was 41 when he was killed, was an American citizen born to Russian emigrants who’d been a senior editor of Forbes in NY before assuming the editorship of Forbes Russia a few months before his death. “[Putin] is eating the United States’ lunch”.
