Pence breaks with Trump on Putin, attacking Assad

Mike Pence broke sharply with his own running mate on Tuesday, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a "small and bullying leader" and saying the U.S. should consider striking the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad.

On multiple occasions during his vice presidential debate with Democrat Tim Kaine, Pence took positions at odds with Donald Trump, who has embraced Putin and passed up multiple opportunities to criticize the Kremlin strongman's aggressive moves in Ukraine and Syria.


"I just have to tell you that provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength," said Pence, who noted that Russia is backing the Assad regime, and that both are bombing the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

"And if Russia chooses to be involved and continue, I should say, to be involved in this barbaric attack on Aleppo, the United States of America should use military force to strike the targets of the Assad regime, and prevent Aleppo," the Indiana governor added.

Kaine repeatedly pointed out that Trump has praised Putin, and that Pence himself at one point said that the Russian leader was better at his job than U.S. President Barack Obama.

Just last month, Pence told CNN that Putin was a "stronger leader" than Obama. “I think it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country that Barack Obama has been in this country,” Pence said at the time. “And that’s going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes President of the United States of America.”

In the spin room after the debate, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, refused repeatedly to say whether Trump agreed with Pence’s assessment of Putin as a “small and bullying leader.”

“So what they both said at different times is that first of all they’re going to put America first,” Conway said at one point.

“You’ve heard what Donald Trump has said about Putin,” she said at another.

"You know how Donald Trump feels about Putin,” she said a third time.

John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, said of Pence, “He completely did a 180 pivot on their position and relationship with Russia.”

And Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon cast Pence’s Russia rhetoric in line with his overall performance — distancing himself from Trump on key issues to score points on stage. “Russia was just the starkest example of Pence zigging while Trump was zagging,” Fallon said.

While Trump has advocated military action against the Islamic State terrorist group in Iraq and Syria — which the Obama administration is already engaged in — the GOP nominee has not pushed for getting the U.S. military involved in the Syrian civil war between Assad and rebels trying to overthrow him. Trump also has advocated cooperating with Russia to defeat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

In September 2013, amid a Washington debate over whether to bomb the Assad regime for using chemical weapons, Trump tweeted, "We should not attack Syria but if they make the stupid move to do so, the Arab League,whose members are laughing at us, should pay!

"I would have stayed out of Syria and wouldn't have fought so much for Assad, against Assad because I thought that was a whole thing," Trump said in May, adding that the U.S. has "bigger problems than Assad."

At a rally on Tuesday in Arizona, Trump was unusually critical of Russia's actions in Syria, but he blamed President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the recent collapse of a cease-fire deal brokered by Secretary of State John Kerry.

"Russia broke the deal and now they're shooting, they're bombing," Trump said. "Something like that should end and it should fast. But they don't respect us."

Pence likewise tried to lay the blame for Putin's troubling actions on Clinton, noting that the Democratic presidential nominee had tried to "reset" U.S. relations with Moscow when she was secretary of state.

"There's an old proverb that says the Russian bear never dies, it just hibernates, and the truth of the matter is the weak policy of Hillary Clinton and President Obama has awakened an aggression," Pence said.

Both Kaine and Pence expressed support for the creation of some sort of "safe zones" in Syria to protect civilians.

Trump has in the past said he would "build a big, beautiful safe zone" within Syria so that refugees aren't forced to migrate to places like Europe or Minnesota, where they might be too cold.

Shane Goldmacher contributed from Farmville.