Donald Trump‘s free-wheeling, shoot-from-the-hip style caused a firestorm at a “commander in chief” forum in New York Wednesday night.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, again praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for being a strong leader and said Putin is more worthy of praise than President Barack Obama. “Certainly, in that system, he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader,” Trump said. “We have a divided country.” Trump, a billionaire real-estate developer, said Putin has an “82 percent approval rating” in polls of Russians but the candidate didn’t elaborate.
Trump added, “I think when he [Putin] calls me brilliant, I think I’ll take the compliment, OK? … If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him.” Trump also said the United States should work in partnership with Russia to defeat the Islamic State terrorists, even though Russia under Putin has upset many in the West by annexing Crimea from Ukraine and becoming more aggressive in opposing U.S. policies.
Trump said he doesn’t support Russia’s system of government but noted, “I think I would have a very, very good relationship with Putin, and I think I would have a very, very good relationship with Russia.”
At the same time, Trump leveled sharp-edged criticism at U.S. military leaders. “The generals have been reduced to rubble,” he said.
Asked what he had learned from official intelligence briefings that he begun receiving as the GOP nominee, Trump said he “was very, very surprised” to learn that Obama has not done “what our experts said to do” around the world. Even though such briefings are usually conducted in an even-handed manner, he said, “In almost every instance, and I could tell — I’m pretty good with the body language — I could tell, they were not happy. Our leaders did not follow what they were recommending.”
THE RUN 2016: [Trump vs. Clinton: 2016’s Race to the Bottom]
Trump made his comments at a national security forum hosted by Matt Lauer of NBC. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appeared on the same stage prior to Trump. She didn’t make as much news as Trump because she mainly defended herself on issues she has discussed many times before. These included her controversial use of a private email server while she was secretary of state and her vote in favor of the Iraq War when she as a U.S. senator from New York. She now acknowledges that the Iraq vote was a mistake.
Trump made another controversial comment when he said one reason for the sexual-assault problem in the military is that women are allowed to serve alongside men in many jobs. Trump didn’t back away from a message he sent on Twitter three years ago in which he estimated the number of unreported sexual assaults in the military and said, “What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?”
Asked by Lauer to explain this comment, Trump said, “It is a correct tweet. There are many people that think that that’s absolutely correct. .. It’s happening, right? And, by the way, since then, it’s gotten worse.”
DECISION 2016: [U.S. News Covers the Race to the White House]
A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee said, “Tonight, Donald Trump confirmed what we have known since the moment he declared his candidacy: He is dangerously unstable, temperamentally unfit, and totally unqualified to serve as commander in chief and president of the United States. It was abundantly clear tonight that Trump is in over his head and unprepared to deal with the complex challenges facing our nation and the world.”
The Clinton campaign and its allied political action committees are likely to turn Trump’s words against him in television ads around the country.
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Donald Trump Touts Vladimir Putin, Hillary Clinton Plays Defense originally appeared on usnews.com
