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New York (September 8, 2016) : Donald\u00a0Trump\u00a0declared on Wednesday that Russia's Vladimir Putin had been a better leader than U.S. President Barack Obama, as the Republican presidential nominee used a televised forum to argue he was best equipped to reassert America's global leadership.<\/p>\n
Trump\u00a0suggested at the event in which he and Democratic rival Hillary\u00a0Clinton\u00a0made back-to-back appearances that U.S. generals had been stymied by the policies of Obama and\u00a0Clinton, who served as the Democratic president's first secretary of state.<\/p>\n
“I think under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary\u00a0Clinton\u00a0the generals have been reduced to rubble. They have been reduced to a point that's embarrassing for our country,”\u00a0Trump said at NBC's Commander-in-Chief\u00a0Forum in New York attended by military veterans.<\/p>\n
It was the first time\u00a0Trump\u00a0and\u00a0Clinton\u00a0had squared off on the same stage since accepting their parties' presidential nominations in July for the Nov. 8 election.<\/p>\n
Clinton\u00a0was grilled over her handling of classified information while using a private email server during her tenure at the State Department. FBI Director James Comey had declared her “extremely careless” in her handling of sensitive material but did not recommend charges against her.<\/p>\n
“I did exactly what I should have done and I take it very seriously, always have, always will,” she said.<\/p>\n
Trump's praise of Putin and his suggestion that the United States and Russia form an alliance to defeat Islamic State militants could raise eyebrows among foreign policy experts who feel Moscow is interfering with efforts to stem the Syrian civil war.<\/p>\n
“If he says great things about me, I'm going to say great things about him,”\u00a0Trump\u00a0said of the Russian president. “Certainly in that system, he's been a leader, far more than our president has been.”<\/p>\n
Trump\u00a0had called Obama “the founder of ISIS,” an acronym for Islamic State, in stump speeches several weeks ago. The statement drew broad criticism, prompting him to take a more disciplined approach to campaigning. He has since picked up ground on\u00a0Clinton\u00a0in national opinion polls.<\/p>\n
Trump\u00a0also flirted with revealing what he had been learning in classified intelligence briefings given to him by U.S. officials because he is the Republican nominee.<\/p>\n
“There was one thing that shocked me,”\u00a0Trump\u00a0said. “What I did learn is that our leadership, Barack Obama, did not follow what our experts … said to do, and I was very, very surprised. …Our leaders were not following what they recommended.”<\/p>\n
Earlier on Wednesday,\u00a0Trump\u00a0pledged to launch a new U.S. military buildup, saying America was under threat like never before from foes like Islamist extremists, North Korea and China.<\/p>\n
DEBATE PREVIEW?<\/strong><\/p>\n The event offered a prelude to how\u00a0Clinton\u00a0and\u00a0Trump\u00a0will deal with questions on national security issues in their three upcoming presidential debates later in September and in October.<\/p>\n Clinton\u00a0began the forum saying her long experience in government as a U.S. senator and secretary of state made her uniquely qualified to serve as president.<\/p>\n She said she had “an absolute rock steadiness” to be able to make tough decisions, a not so subtle dig at\u00a0Trump, who Democrats say is temperamentally unfit for the White House.<\/p>\n Moderator Matt Lauer doggedly pressed her about her handling of emails from a private server while secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. The issue has raised questions about whether she can be trusted to serve as president.<\/p>\n Clinton\u00a0said none of the emails she sent or received were marked top secret, secret or classified, the usual way such material is identified.<\/p>\n Appearing in the second half of the hour-long show,\u00a0Trump\u00a0faced questions about his fitness for office. Asked if he would be prepared on Day One to be commander in chief,\u00a0Trump\u00a0said: “One hundred percent.”<\/p>\n Trump\u00a0quickly abandoned Lauer's entreaties to avoid attacking his opponent and focus on what he would do if elected president in November.<\/p>\n “She's been there for 30 years,”\u00a0Trump\u00a0said. “We need change, and we need it fast.”<\/p>\n The event brought together the meticulously prepared\u00a0Clinton, 68, the wife of former President BillClinton, and\u00a0Trump, 70, a New York businessman whose brash, freewheeling style has allowed him to dominate the headlines during his campaign.<\/p>\n Clinton\u00a0said she regretted her decision as a U.S. senator from New York to vote in favor of the much-criticized 2003 Iraq war and that\u00a0Trump\u00a0had been in favor of it as well.\u00a0Trump\u00a0has condemned the war during his campaign and said he would avoid lengthy conflicts in the Middle East.<\/p>\n On the U.S. intervention in Libya in 2011,\u00a0Clinton\u00a0rejected\u00a0Trump's criticism of her support for the effort as secretary of\u00a0state.<\/p>\n “Permitting there to be an ongoing civil war in Libya would be as threatening and as dangerous as what we are seeing in Syria,” she said.<\/p>\n Trump\u00a0said\u00a0Clinton's handling of Libya proved disastrous. Republicans have made much of the fact that the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, was killed in an Islamist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.<\/p>\n “She made a terrible mistake in Libya,” said\u00a0Trump.<\/p>\n Clinton\u00a0said U.S. policies under her leadership at the State Department had helped promote security.<\/p>\n “We made the world safer,” she said.<\/p>\n New York (September 8, 2016) : Donald\u00a0Trump\u00a0declared on Wednesday that Russia’s Vladimir Putin had been a better leader than U.S. President Barack Obama, as the Republican presidential nominee used a televised forum to argue he was best equipped to reassert America’s global leadership. Trump\u00a0suggested at the event in which he and Democratic rival Hillary\u00a0Clinton\u00a0made back-to-back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44,2,5,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\n\n