Trump, Clinton Debate Who Is Putin’s ‘Puppet’
During the third and final debate between presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, things grew contentious when the pair addressed a question about immigration and borders posed by moderator Chris Wallace. Clinton and Trump each accused the other of being a “puppet” when the subject turned to Russian espionage and Vladimir Putin.
“The Russian government has engaged in espionage against Americans,” Clinton said. She added that the information the Russians obtained was then given to Wikileaks with the purpose of influencing this election. She stated that 17 intelligence agencies confirmed this and went on to accuse Trump of encouraging Russian interference.
“This is because he would rather have a puppet for president … you encouraged espionage against our people,” Clinton said, while accusing Trump of continuing to get help from the Russian president. She called the action “unprecedented” in a presidential race.
Trump threw the accusation back by quipping to Clinton, “You’re the puppet.”
He also accused Clinton of pivoting from the subject of immigration and said, “Putin has outsmarted her.” He also added that “I don’t know Putin, he said nice things about me.”
Wallace followed up by asking Trump if he would condemn interference by a foreign government, and he said, “Of course I condemn [it],” and added, “but if the United States got along with Russia, it wouldn’t be bad.”