Trump says Putin better leader than Obama

Donald Trump declared on Sept. 7 that Russian President 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. 

"If he says great things about me, I'm going to say great things about him," Trump said of the Russian president at NBC's "Commander-in-Chief" forum in New York attended by military veterans, where he and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made back-to-back appearances. 

"It's a very different system, and I don't happen to like the system. But certainly in that system he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader."

Trump had called Obama "the founder of ISIS," an acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), 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 Clinton in national opinion polls.
Trump suggested that U.S. generals had been stymied by the policies of Obama and Clinton, who served as the Democratic president's first secretary of state. 

"I think under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton the generals have been reduced to rubble. They have been reduced to a point that's embarrassing for our country," Trump said.

It was the first time Trump and Clinton had squared off on the same stage since accepting their parties' presidential nominations in July for the Nov. 8 election. 

Clinton was 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 ...