Presidential candidate Donald Trump has defended longstanding accusations against Russian leader Vladimir Putin that his regime has carried out murders of journalists who oppose him.
Trump told ABC News that there was absolutely no evidence for these accusations.
“In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people — I haven’t seen that,” Trump told the “This Week” news program. “I don’t know that he has. Have you been able to prove that? Do you know the names of the reporters that he’s killed?”
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Huffingtonpost.com reports:
Trump added that it would be “despicable” if Putin indeed had killed journalists. “But I haven’t seen any evidence that he killed anybody, in terms of reporters,” he said.
Several of his Republican rivals have appeared flabbergasted in recent days that Trump would wear Putin’s praise of him as a badge of honor.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s campaign on Saturday issued a mock press release announcing that Trump had named Putin his running mate.
But on “This Week,” Trump continued to boast of the Russian strongman’s admiration.
“If Putin respects me, and if Putin wants to call me brilliant and other things that he said which were, frankly, very nice, I’ll accept that and I’ll accept that on behalf of our country” Trump said. “Because if we get along well with Russia, that’s a positive thing, George, not a negative thing.”
