Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized US foreign policy and the American political press corps Thursday during an interview on RT America, a state-owned Russian television network.
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Trump on Wednesday raised eyebrows by saying that Russia’s president was “far more” of a leader than Obama. “He’s been a stronger leader“.
Trump has been focusing on his national security policy in the past few days, including announcing that his plan to combat ISIS would include ordering military generals to put together a plan to defeat the terrorist group in his first 30 days.
His Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, accused him of being unpatriotic.
Yet the Republican nominee’s operation on Thursday indicated no discomfort with the mounting criticism, with Trump running mate Mike Pence echoing the distinction made between Putin and Obama. Perplexed, he told viewers, “I don’t know what happened there”. He also has said he won’t vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, whose remarks on foreign policy Wednesday night he called “equally unnerving” to those from Trump. For over ten minutes Trump talked with King, the former host of “Larry King Live”, which ran for 25 years on CNN. I think that it’s pretty unlikely, but who knows.
He said of Putin: “Other than destroying every instrument of democracy in his own country, having opposition people killed, dismembering neighbors through military force, and being the benefactor of the butcher of Damascus, he’s a good guy”. “I don’t like talking about it, I’ll be honest with you”, he said. “Russia is a threat, and I think Mr. Trump may be playing it very smart with how he addresses Mr. Putin”.
In yet another bid to attract more Republicans to her campaign, the former secretary of state announced she would hold a “working session” on terrorism on Friday with a number of high-profile former national security officials, including retired U.
Trump noted during the forum that Putin “does have an 82 percent approval rating” and “I think when he calls me brilliant, I’ll take the compliment, OK?”
Clinton pointed to the United States military code of honour, saying “that, Donald Trump, .is what we’re going to stand up and defend in the face of your outrageous, disgraceful attacks on the men and women of our armed forces”.
“Vladimir Putin is an aggressor who does not share our interests”, Ryan said at a news conference, adding: “It certainly appears that he is conducting state-sponsored cyber attacks on what appears to be our political system”.
That’s down three percentage points over the past month.
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That dates back to you know, the beginning of this country.
