Mike Pence defended Donald Trump’s claim that American generals have been reduced “to rubble.” | Getty Pence agrees with Trump: Calls Putin stronger than Obama

Mike Pence said Thursday that “it's inarguable” that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader than President Barack Obama, standing firmly with Trump who said as much Wednesday night, drawing the ire of Democrats and Republicans.

“I think it's inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country, and that's going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes president of the United States of America,” Pence told CNN’s Dana Bash in a Wednesday interview filmed at the Reagan Presidential Library before a speech there.


Pence was responding to a question about whether he agreed with Trump’s assessment of Putin, whom Trump has praised.

“He’s been a leader far more than our president has been a leader,” Trump said Wednesday night at NBC’s Commander-in-Chief forum.

Trump also defended his unwillingness to criticize the Russian leader, saying “I think when he calls me brilliant I’ll take the compliment, but it’s not going to get him anywhere.”

Trump’s praise for Putin has been widely criticized, including by Republicans. House Speaker Paul Ryan called Putin “an aggressor that does not share our interests,” and criticized the Russian regime for its presumed involvement in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computer systems. “That is not acting in our interest,” Ryan said. “He is acting like an adversary.”

Hillary Clinton took aim at Trump for the comments during a press conference Thursday. “Meanwhile, bizarrely once again he praised Russia’s strongman Vladimir Putin, even taking the astonishing step of suggesting that he prefers the Russian President to our American President,” Clinton said. “Now, that is not just unpatriotic and insulting to the people of our country as well as to our commander-in-chief, it is scary. Because it suggests he will let Putin do whatever Putin wants to do, and then make excuses for him.”

Trump has been dogged by questions surrounding his warm relationship with Russia. His former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, resigned among reports that he was the intended recipient of millions in cash payments from the former pro-Russia Ukrainian regime for which he did consulting work.

Pence also defended Trump’s claim that American generals have been reduced “to rubble.”

“I think he was talking about the commander-in-chief reducing the influence of generals to rubble,” Pence said.