Donald Trump declared on Wednesday that Russia’s Vladimir Putin had been a better leader than US president Barack Obama, as the Republican presidential nominee used a televised forum to argue he was best equipped to reassert America’s global leadership.
Mr Trump suggested at the event in which he and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton made back-to-back appearances, that US generals had been stymied by the policies of Mr Obama and Ms 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," Mr Trump said at NBC's Commander-in-Chief forum in New York attended by military veterans.
It was the first time Mr Trump and Ms Clinton had squared off on the same stage since accepting their parties’ presidential nominations in July for the November 8th election.
Ms 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 “extremely careless” in her handling of sensitive material but did not recommend charges against her.
“I did exactly what I should have done and I take it very seriously, always have, always will,” she said.
Mr Trump’s praise of Mr Putin and his suggestion that the United States and Russia form an alliance to defeat Islamic State militants could raise eyebrows among foreign policy experts who feel Moscow is interfering with efforts to stem the Syrian civil war.
“If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him,” Mr Trump said of the Russian president. “Certainly in that system, he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been.”
Mr Trump had called Mr Obama “the founder” of Islamic State, also known as Isis, 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.
Mr Trump also flirted with revealing what he had been learning in classified intelligence briefings given to him by US officials because he is the Republican nominee.
“There was one thing that shocked me,” Mr Trump said. “What I did learn is that our leadership, Barack Obama, did not follow what our experts ... said to do, and I was very, very surprised. ...Our leaders were not following what they recommended.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Trump pledged to launch a new US military buildup, saying America was under threat like never before from foes like Islamist extremists, North Korea and China.
Debate performance
The event brought together the meticulously prepared Ms Clinton (68), the wife of former President Bill Clinton, and Mr Trump (70), a New York businessman whose brash, freewheeling style has allowed him to dominate the headlines during his campaign.
Ms Clinton said she regretted her decision as a US senator from New York to vote in favour of the much-criticised 2003 Iraq war and that Mr Trump had been in favour of it as well.
Mr Trump has condemned the war during his campaign and said he would avoid lengthy conflicts in the Middle East.
On the US intervention in Libya in 2011, Ms Clinton rejected Mr Trump’s criticism of her support for the effort as secretary of state.
“Permitting there to be an ongoing civil war in Libya would be as threatening and as dangerous as what we are seeing in Syria,” she said.
Mr Trump said Ms Clinton’s handling of Libya proved disastrous. Republicans have made much of the fact that the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, was killed in an Islamist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.
“She made a terrible mistake in Libya,” said Mr Trump.
Ms Clinton said US policies under her leadership at the State Department had helped promote security.
“We made the world safer,” she said.