Kaine: Trump’s praise for Putin ‘unpatriotic’

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine says Donald Trump’s praise for Russian leader Vladimir Putin shows his contempt for President Obama.

“[It] betrays an irrationality and a hostility to the president that’s unpatriotic,” he said Friday on “CBS This Morning.”

{mosads}Trump during a forum on Wednesday evening said late Putin has been a leader “far more than our president has been a leader.”

“If [Putin] says great things about me, I’m gonna say great things about him,” the Republican nominee added during the forum. “I’ve already said he’s really very much of a leader.”

Kaine, who represents Virginia in the Senate and sits on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, said his heart sank when he heard Trump’s remarks.

“What about invading other countries is leadership? What about running your economy into the ground is leadership? What about persecuting LGBT Russians is leadership? There’s a difference between dictatorship and leadership. And if you don’t understand that, I mean, you wouldn’t get out of a 5th grade civics exam.”

Kaine said Trump entered dangerous territory by appearing to welcome the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in July. Experts say the hack was linked to Russian intelligence.

“It’s very clear that the Russians were behind the DNC attack,” Kaine said. “At a minimum, it’s to delegitimize the election.

“When Donald Trump said publicly to the Russians, ‘Hey, go ahead and hack away — and if you find something that helps me out, me have it.’ We impeached a president for that, what he has encouraged Russia to do. [Former President Richard Nixon was] impeached for encouraging crooks to commit espionage against the DNC in a presidential year to get an edge.”

Trump in late July said he hoped Russian hackers could gain access to emails deleted from Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

“If they hacked, they probably have her emails,” he told reporters during a July 27 press conference in Miami. “I hope they do.”

Trump said the following day he was being “sarcastic” about the Democratic presidential nominee’s private communications.