Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton said each other would be the “puppet” of Russian President Vladimir Putin if either became president, during their debate Wednesday night.
The exchange occurred after Trump said Putin has “no respect” for Clinton, to which Clinton replied that Putin would “rather have a puppet as president of the United States.”
“No puppet. You’re the puppet,” Trump responded. “Putin has outsmarted her every step of the way.”
“I don’t know Putin. He’s not my best friend,” Trump added.
During the debate, Clinton condemned Russia for its purported involvement in hacking documents as a way of meddling in the U.S. election when the issue of WikiLeaks emails came up.
When asked, Trump also condemned the action. “By Russia or anybody else,” Trump said. “Of course I condemn, of course.”
During the summer, Trump called for Russia to obtain and leak the emails that Clinton deleted from her private email server before handing over the remainder to government investigators. His statement followed a cyberattack and leak of the Democratic National Committee’s emails, which American intelligence officials have publicly blamed on Russia.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 33,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said in July.
On Wednesday night, Trump expressed doubt that Russia is behind the hacks. “She has no idea whether it’s Russia, China, or anybody else,” he said. “Our country has no idea.”
“He would rather believe Vladimir Putin than the military and civilian intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect us,” Clinton replied.
Trump has been accused of being too close to Putin after praising the Russian president for being “a leader far more than our president has been a leader.” Trump also appeared on RT American, a TV network owned by the Russian government, which prompted Clinton’s campaign to question whether Trump really understood Putin’s actions, including the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Members of Trump’s campaign have also had close ties with Russia, including Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman who worked for a Ukrainian political group loyal to Russia. Manafort resigned from the campaign in August.
For the past year, Russia has had a confrontational relationship with the U.S. including provocative actions in international airspace and waters. In October, two Russian aircraft got within one nautical mile of the U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, prompting the carrier to scramble its fighter jets. The attacks also occur on the water, with a Russian warplane coming within 30 feet of a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Baltic Sea in April.
Most recently, a Russian fighter jet came within 10 feet of a Navy spy plane in early September, in a move Pentagon officials called “unsafe and unprofessional.”
Joel Gehrke and Jacqueline Klimas contributed to this report.
