Donald Trump'd rather believe Vladimir Putin than the military and civilian intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect us.
I don't know Putin. I have never met Putin. He is not my best friend.
Putin looks at her and he laughs. OK? He laughs. Putin. Putin looks at Hillary Clinton and he smiles.
Russia remains an adversary to the United States. We have some overlapping interests. It would be better if our relationship was better. But our relationship is not good right now because of Vladimir Putin. There are steps that I think that we should be taking that we should have taken under the Obama administration. For instance, providing defensive weaponry to Ukraine. I encourage the President and the administration to take a look at those steps.
From Gorbachev to Yeltsin, the pendulum swung one way; now, Putin has pushed it very far in the opposite direction, and the backlash is inevitable. So I think the year 2042 could be quite interesting. Specifically, I think today's reactionary policy will end in total failure and the need for a new perestroika; there will be a "time of troubles," which may well end in the disintegration of Russia.
I never met Putin. This is not my best friend. But if the United States got along with Russia, wouldn't be so bad.
With [Vladimir] Putin, he says he's going to do something, he gets on it, does it.
Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin.
There is no democracy in Russia. Dictators do not go away through the vote. Putin relies on riot police, thousands of them, with heavy equipment, fighting Russian youngsters from opposition.
I think it's part of Vladimir Putin's nature to define Russian success in foreign policy as thwarting the United States. That's in his nature. And that is very difficult to align with strategically.
I've stood up to Russia. I've taken on Putin and others, and I would do that as president.
Putin did not head the KGB, never has. Putin was a mid-level nobody there. Putin was one of those guys in the KGB who was a climber. He was forever hoping, climbing that ladder, trying to get to the head spot.
I was so shocked when Donald Trump publicly invited Putin to hack into Americans. That is just unacceptable.
I think Donald Trump needs to be very clear to Vladimir Putin. Let's try to discover areas we can work together. That's fine. We're two a world power. They're a great power arguably. But at the same time we're not going to give any ground. We have to defend our NATO allies.
Are you aware that people who oppose Vladimir Putin wind up dead all over the world, poisoned, shot in the back of the head?
The stated objective and the mission of Vladimir Putin's Russia is to destabilize the North Atlantic Alliance.
I personally found Donald Trump's praise for Vladimir Putin troubling or even chilling, frankly. In a room full of military veterans, to be effusing about his great leadership and how strong he is and how popular he is, while disrespecting the American president and American generals, I don't know. That was, I think, not just troubling to me, but to a lot of listeners and I think, frankly, to a lot of Republican listeners as well.
If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability, because we have a horrible relationship with Russia.
Putin wants to reestablish Russian greatness, not as the Cold War, but in 19th century empire terms.
Donald Trump has been someone who has basically taken every position that Vladimir Putin has.