John McCain slams Donald Trump for ‘

He’s always denied it. It’s never been proven that he’s killed anybody, ” Trump said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”.

Presidential candidate Marco Rubio blasted Donald Trump on Sunday for his exchange of praise with Vladimir Putin, saying that the Republican front-runner “shouldn’t be honored” by the Russian strongman’s kind words.

“As far as the reporters are concerned, obviously, I don’t want that to happen”. It has not been proven that hes killed reporters.”On Thursday, Putin praised Trump during a wide-ranging news conference, calling him “talented without doubt” and “brilliant.” Trump has embraced the remarks, drawing fire from critics such as Sen. Because I’ve been – you know, you’ve been hearing this, but I haven’t seen the name. I haven’t seen it. If he did, I think it’s despicable.

Mitt Romney jumped on that comment, tweeting that there’s an important distinction between a “thug” like Putin killing journalists and a U.S. President killing terrorists and enemy combatants.

Still, Trump has stuck with Putin – who, like Trump, was also interviewed on the episode of CBS’ “60 Minutes” that drew the program’s highest-ever ratings this fall. Trump repaid the compliment, saying Putin was a strong, powerful leader.

“I think, and I say this straightforwardly, I think you have a pathological liar there….”

“I’m not saying anything”, Trump said after drawing this exact comparison. “He’s a dictator. He’s a bully”, declared the former Florida governor, adding that the Russian president admires strength and the United States should demonstrate strength to counter him in the global arena. “Not a bad thing”, Trump said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, on December 18, 2015. Last week, Putin signed a law allowing Russia’s Constitutional Court to decide whether or not to implement rulings of global human rights courts. “You know we’re a poor nation – we’re a debtor nation”. At a gathering in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Saturday, Trump explained the criticism coming his way from the other Republican candidates: “Now, they’re jealous as hell because he’s not mentioning these people. He says that he wants to move to another level relations, a deeper level of relations with Russia”, Putin said.

Russian Federation was No. 152 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, in which it has continually ranked poorly because of the number of journalists killed and the dominance of state-run media.