Leveling unusually harsh criticism against the military, Republican Donald Trump said Wednesday night that America’s generals have been “reduced to rubble” under President Barack Obama and suggested he would fire some of them if he wins the presidency in November.
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Trump added that he believes Putin makes a better leader than U.S. President Barack Obama.
Clinton said Republicans holding or seeking office across the country should be pressed on whether they agree with Trump’s comments, including his views on Putin and USA generals that surfaced during the forum.
“I’ve already said he is really very much of a leader, I mean you can say “oh isn’t that a awful thing”. the man has very strong control over a county, now it’s a very different system and I don’t happen to like the system but certainly in that system he has been a leader far more than our President has been a leader”.
Trump suggested at the event in which he and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton made back-to-back appearances that USA generals had been stymied by the policies of Obama and Clinton, who served as the Democratic president’s first secretary of state.
Outgoing President Barack Obama condemned Donald Trump as unsuitable to be commander-in-chief Thursday, after the Republican nominee blasted USA military brass and praised Vladimir Putin.
Trump’s outreach to Putin has drawn controversy in the United States, at a time when a resurgent Russian Federation has been challenging US hegemony around the world, waging a covert war in eastern Ukraine and stymieing USA policy in Syria.
But the forum wasn’t all doom and gloom, as Trump devoted a couple of minutes to beaming sunshine on Putin, noting his “82 percent approval rating” within the authoritarian Russian state.
Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, called Clinton’s press conference a “desperate” attempt to distract from a poor performance at the forum in which she “again failed the commander-in-chief test”.
Trump has previously praised Putin and took another opportunity to do so, stating: “If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him”. “Do you want me to start naming some of the things President Obama does?”
With national and battleground state polls show Trump closing on her, Clinton has seized on Trump’s repeated embrace of Putin.
Trump did little to counter criticism that he lacks detailed policy proposals, particularly regarding the Islamic State group.
More than backing Trump, Russia analysts and USA intelligence officials have warned they believe Russia may be seeking to sow uncertainty and undermine confidence in America’s democratic process by trying to interfere in the elections.
Clinton said none of the emails she sent or received were marked top secret, secret or classified, the usual way such material is identified. Federal Bureau of Investigation officials have also warned Russian Federation may have been behind recent attempts to breach electoral registers in two states. “So it’s no surprise she’s resorting to unhinged and dishonest attacks”, said Jason Miller, the Trump campaign’s senior communications advisor, in a statement provided to The Daily Caller News Foundation.
With just two months until Election Day, national security has emerged as a centerpiece issue in the White House race.
Earlier yesterday, Trump pledged to launch a new U.S. military buildup, saying America was under threat like never before from foes like Islamist extremists, North Korea and China.
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At Wednesday’s forum, Trump said his friendly words to Putin were simply part of negotiation.
