U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump once again praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, and declared that he had been a better leader that U.S. President Barack Obama.
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During a NBC TV interview conducted on Wednesday night, where he and Hillary Clinton were being quizzed separately on national security and military matters, he described Putin as a leader who has control over his country.
“I think that [Putin has been a stronger leader] because I watched as the Russian nationalism has been increased substantially”, King said in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday.
At NBC’s Commander in Chief Forum in NY last night, Donald Trump praised Russia’s murderous dictator, Vladimir Putin, saying Putin is a better leader than Barack Obama.
His comments will no doubt concern some, with his interview coming as news broke that a Russian fighter jet had flown within three metres of a U.S. surveillance plane.
Mr Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton made back-to-back appearances at an event on Wednesday that sounded the starting gun for the final stretch of the presidential race and offered a potential preview of what are expected to be rollicking debates in the weeks to come.
“I don’t take these comments personally because it seems this is a phrase he’s used repeatedly, including directly at the pope and others, so I think it seems to be a habit”, Obama said Thursday.
“We WOn’t blow off efforts to intervene with our democratic procedures”, he said. “I think maybe the Democrats are putting that out”.
“Despite everything, we have some alignment of positions and an understanding of what we could do to de-escalate the situation in Syria”, he told a press conference following the G20 summit in China.
“The generals have been reduced to rubble”, Trump said, before noting he had “faith in certain of the commanders”.
When asked by moderator Matt Lauer about Putin’s complimentary remarks about him, Trump cited Putin’s 82 percent approval rating in Russian Federation.
“And all of a sudden it doesn’t look as good as it did when you actually said it”.
Clinton highlighted Trump “bizarrely” praising Putin. You see that? They have pictures of other leaders who are. coming down with a attractive red carpet.
President Barack Obama warned Thursday against becoming immune to Donald Trump’s more outlandish statements, arguing that the stakes of the USA presidential contest were too high for Americans to tune out.
The Clinton campaign quickly seized on the comments and criticized Trump’s temperament.
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Clinton provided the interviewer, NBC’s Matt Lauer, more specifics, stressing ISIS would be defeated without USA ground troops being deployed.
