Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton condemned Mr. Trump’s effusive praise for the Russian leader, while Republican Speaker Paul Ryan said Mr. Putin is an adversary of American values.
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“Putin is an aggressor that does not share our interests”.
Yet when forum host Matt Lauer mentioned some of this history and ended by noting that Russian Federation was the chief suspect in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, here’s what Trump had to say: “Well, nobody knows that for a fact”.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing”, Trump said back in July.
Clinton on Thursday said Trump’s comment was “not just unpatriotic and insulting to the people of our country, as well as to our commander in chief, it is scary”. “And it is beyond one’s imagination to have a candidate for president praising a Russian autocrat like Vladimir Putin”. But certainly in that system, he’s been a leader far more than our president has been a leader. He said he disagreed with the USA decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and Obama had botched the withdrawal.
A Real Clear Politics averaging of national polls gives the Democrat a 2.8-point edge over the Republican, but the Electoral College race boils down to a handful of battleground states.
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody”, he said at a campaign rally in Iowa. Both candidates believe they have the upper hand, with Clinton contrasting her experience with Trump’s unpredictability and the Republican arguing that Americans anxious about their safety will be left with more of the same if they elect Obama’s former secretary of state. Two of those will be at the meeting with Clinton: former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff and Richard Fontaine, a former foreign policy adviser to John McCain. After Trump touted 88 retired military figures backing his campaign earlier this week, Clinton’s campaign has sought to keep the upper hand, noting her growing list of endorsements.
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After bipartisan criticism for his interview swelled instantly, Trump’s campaign scrambled Friday to explain how exactly he ended up there. Clinton was asked about the ad several times, and voted against a Senate resolution denouncing the ad, before she finally condemned it. “Taking a bit longer view, however, we see a race that appears little changed from where it was as the GOP convention began in July, and at least in these four key states is very much up for grabs”. “I think when he calls me ‘brilliant, ‘ I’ll take the compliment”, he said, referring to a statement by Putin in December, which experts say were lost in translation (Putin likely meant “colorful” and not “brilliant). Maybe he did it with a smile and I guess the RNC would have liked that”.
