Trump reiterates: Putin’s leadership tops Obama’s
Donald Trump called President Vladimir Putin of Russia “a better leader” than President Barack Obama, offering the praise in an interview with “Fox and Friends” on Thursday, just a day after saying he hoped Russian intelligence services had successfully hacked Hillary Clinton’s email.
Asked about comments he had made Wednesday at a news conference in Florida, where he said “Putin has much better leadership qualities than Obama,” Mr. Trump reiterated his views in slightly starker terms.
“I said he’s a better leader
than Obama,” Mr. Trump said. “I said he’s a better leader than Obama, because Obama’s not a leader, so he’s certainly doing a better job than Obama is, and that’s all.”
Mr. Trump also tried to walk back, in part, comments he made Wednesday about Russia hacking Ms. Clinton’s emails — an extraordinary moment in which the Republican nominee basically urged Russia, an adversary, to conduct cyberespionage against a former secretary of state.
“Of course, I’m being sarcastic,” Mr. Trump said in the interview taped Wednesday that aired Thursday. “But you have 33,000 emails deleted, and the real problem is what was said in those emails from the Democratic National Committee. You take a look at what was said in those emails, it’s disgraceful. It’s disgraceful.”
Mr. Trump seemed to be conflating the roughly 30,000 emails on Ms. Clinton’s private server during her time as secretary of state, which her lawyers deleted as personal, and the roughly 20,000 DNC emails that had been hacked.
Mr. Trump’s comments Wednesday about Russian hacking set off a firestorm of criticism, and his efforts to recalibrate his remarks began just hours after he looked into a bank of television cameras and declared, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”
Mr. Trump posted on Twitter on Wednesday that he was simply urging Russia — if it had, indeed, hacked Ms. Clinton — to hand her emails over to the proper authorities. “If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!” Trump wrote.
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said Thursday he doesn’t believe Mr. Trump was joking and stressed that his comments about Russia exposing Ms. Clinton’s emails are an “act of treason.”
“When I see Donald Trump who says that Vladimir Putin and Russia should ultimately create a hacking of emails of a presidential candidate, which is an act of espionage, I consider that an act of treason,” Mr. Menendez said at a state Democratic breakfast as part of the party’s national convention.
“The reality is I don’t take Donald Trump as using that type of humor,” he said. “I think he’d be very happy to see the Russians do that.”
New Jersey U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, speaking to reporters after the breakfast, refrained from calling Mr. Trump’s comments treason, but he was also critical.
“It was either an inviting of the breaking of law, inviting foreign countries to do espionage,” said Mr. Booker, who spoke at the convention Monday night. “Or if it was just a sarcastic comment ... it was one of the more reckless things that have come out of the mouth of a presidential candidate in the history of our country.”
While Mr. Trump has sided with Mr. Putin on a wide range of issues, Mr. Putin has not openly backed the Republican nominee and the Kremlin denies interfering in the U.S. electoral process.