Trump Goes on Russia-Owned TV Network to Complain American Reporters Make His 'Perfect' Statements Look Bad

staff@people.com (Tierney McAfee)
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Donald Trump blasted U.S. media as "unbelievably dishonest" in an interview with Larry King on Russian state-owned television on Thursday.

During the segment for the Kremlin-funded RT America, King asked Trump what surprised him the most about running for president.

"The dishonesty of the media," Trump replied. "The media has been unbelievably dishonest. I mean, they'll take a statement that you make, which is perfect, and they'll cut it up and chop it up and shorten it or lengthen it, or do something with it, then all of a sudden, it doesn't look like as good as it did when you actually said it."

Trump also used the air time to criticize President Obama, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and American foreign policy.



"Hillary Clinton with her policies and Barack Obama – you know, look, we should have never gone into Iraq. Period," said Trump, who claims he was against the Iraq war all along, despite a 2002 Howard Stern interview in which he said he supported the invasion of Iraq. "But once we went in, Larry, we shouldn't have gotten out the way we got out. And the way they got out really caused ISIS, if you think about it. We got out in such a horrible, foolish fashion, instead of leaving some troops behind."



Trump's interview on a state-owned Russian TV network comes as he continues to face criticism about his ties to the country's government. The GOP nominee praised Russian President Vladimir Putin again during NBC's " Commander-in-Chief Forum" on Wednesday, saying, "Certainly, in that system, he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader."

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Trump's campaign said it did not know the interview would be aired on the Russian network. A spokesperson told The Washington Post, "Mr. Trump recorded a short interview with Larry King for his podcast as a favor to Mr. King. What Larry King does with the interview content is up to him; we have nothing to do with it."