Traditionally, American presidential candidates do not bash their country before a foreign audience, even if they are fierce critics of the current administration while campaigning in the United States.
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There are so many aspects of this line of argument from Trump that are hard to fathom, but first and foremost is the fact that Putin has been a bad leader for his country, particularly since his second run as Russian president.
Trump’s campaign quickly pounced on the remarks.
Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton’s campaign, cited the speech in attempting to clarify the Democratic nominee’s comments Friday night.
Asked what she thought of Donald Trump giving an interview that aired on a Russian TV outlet, Clinton, who was about to exit the room, returned to the microphone and replied, “Every day that goes by this just becomes more and more of a reality television show”. You tell me: “Who hacked?”
Trump’s charge is that Clinton, a former USA secretary of state and former U.S. senator, has profited from a “rigged” political system.
“If you look at the structure in this campaign in terms of what we’ve spent versus what we’ve yielded in terms of vote – which is how you would look at it in the private sector, your ROI – it’s never been done before”, Baumgardner said.
“We want to win for jobs, we want to win for strong military and for the vets, we want to protect our Second Amendment but I want to win for the evangelicals because they have been so good to me”, Trump said. Her tenure has brought us only war, destruction and death.
Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon, a member of the Clinton campaign’s Florida leadership team, compared Clinton’s statewide campaign to President Barack Obama’s, which is considered the gold standard by Democrats and many Republicans.
Trump’s interview surfaced as he and Clinton continue to clash over foreign policy in the run up to the November 8 presidential election.
Clinton does not even need such historic gains to add to her advantage.
The RT affair comes after Mr Trump’s suggestion at the security forum on Wednesday that Mr Putin is a stronger leader for Russian Federation than Mr Obama is for the United States, a comment that was backed up on Thursday by his running mate, Mike Pence.
Trump this week laid out a plan to spend many billions of dollars on bolstering the US military, including more ships, planes and troops.
Trump and his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, defended the comment.
House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan – the top elected Republican official who has frequently broken with Trump – again took a sharply different view from that of his party’s candidate. “Vladimir Putin is violating the sovereignty of neighbouring countries”, Ryan said at his weekly news conference.
Numerous participants at Friday’s meeting – including former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, former CIA Director David Petraeus and former director of the National Counterterrorism Center Matt Olsen – served with Clinton in the Obama administration.
This week, both campaigns have released several statements about endorsements from U.S. generals and admirals.
Trump, at a rally before thousands of supporters in Pensacola, Florida, laid out an aggressive national security policy with a beefed-up USA military “so strong that nobody’s going to mess with us”.
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Mrs Clinton blasted Mr Trump for appearing on the network and praising Mr Putin, as he had done during a televised national security forum.
