Washington (CNN) Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump clashed Wednesday over national security issues that exposed deep divides about how to manage the military and conduct foreign policy in an increasingly complex world. 
 
 The forum offered a preview of how the two candidates will present themselves to the country when they appear on stage September 26 at the crucial first presidential debate. The gulf between them was especially apparent when the discussion centered on Russia and combating ISIS. 
 
 Clinton has repeatedly slammed Trump on the campaign trail for his embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But at the "Commander in Chief" forum hosted by NBC News, Trump once again praised the Russian leader in comparison to President Barack Obama. 
 
 "Certainly, in that system, he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader," Trump said. "If (Putin) says great things about me, I'm gonna say great things about him. I've already said he is really very much of a leader." 
 
 Plans for ISIS 
 
 Trump has also presented varying answers about his plan to deal with ISIS and moderator Matt Lauer pressed the Republican nominee on the issue. 
 
 "I have a plan ... Look, I have a very substantial chance of winning," Trump said. "If I win, I don't want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is." 
 
 But he also said he would confer with US generals on his ISIS plan, although he criticized Pentagon brass, alleging generals have not stood up to Obama. 
 
 "I think under the leadership Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble." 
 
 With less than three weeks until the debate, Trump seemed at ease with the freewheeling style he has often demonstrated on the campaign trail. He caused a stir by defending a tweet that implied military sexual assault is a result of women serving in the military. Meanwhile, Clinton pivoted from questions about her email server to focus on her vision of a robust national security policy. 
 
 Asked about what critics call her hawkish foreign policy record, Clinton said: "We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again and we are not putting ground troops into Syria." 
 
 She added: "I view force as a last resort, not a first choice. I will do everything in my power to make sure our men and women in the military are fully prepared for any challenge they may have to face on our behalf, but I will also be as careful as I can in making the most significant decisions any president and commander and chief can make about sending our men and women into harm's way." 
 
 Clinton, who said defeating ISIS would be her "highest terrorism goal," spoke of using air power and regional alliances to defeat the group. 
 
 "We've gotta do it with much more support from the Arabs and the Kurds who will fight on the ground against ISIS," she said. "We have to squeeze them by continuing to support the Iraqi military. They've taken back Ramadi, Fallujah. They've gotta hold them. They've gotta now get into Mosul." 
 
 In a press conference Thursday morning, Clinton told reporters that the forum was "yet another test and Donald Trump failed yet again." 
 
 "We saw more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief," she said. "He trash talked American generals." 
 
 Iraq War 
 
 Trump repeated his claim that he was "against" the Iraq War, an assertion that has been repeatedly debunked. He praised the military campaign in Iraq in the first months after the invasion. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Donald Trump alters stance on military spending Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Donald Trump alters stance on military spending 02:10 
 
 Trump has repeatedly attacked Clinton over her support for the war, saying it showed poor judgment. Clinton, when asked about her vote to authorize the war, said: "I have said that my voting to give President Bush that authority was, from my perspective, my mistake," she said. "I am asking to be judged on the totality of my record." 
 
 JUST WATCHED Clinton walks tightrope on Obama foreign policy Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Clinton walks tightrope on Obama foreign policy 03:00 
 
 Undocumented soldiers 
 
 Trump said at the forum that he'd be open to "working" on a way for undocumented immigrants to serve in the US military -- a sharp contrast to his tone during a speech in Arizona last week where he said he would focus on deporting undocumented immigrants from the country. 
 
 "I think that when you serve in the armed forces, that's a very special situation," Trump said. "I could see myself working that. Absolutely. Now we have to vet very carefully, everybody would agree with that." 
 
 Veterans' health 
 
 A woman in the audience asked Trump during the forum what he'll do to stop the "20 veterans" from committing suicide daily. 
 
 "Actually it's 22. It's almost impossible to conceive that this is happening in this country," he said. "We're going to speed up the process, we're going to create a great mental health division. They need help." 
 
 Clinton, also asked about the issue, pointed to her recently rolled out mental health policy agenda. 
 
 "I have a whole section devoted to veterans' mental health. And we've gotta remove the stigma. We've gotta help people currently serving not to feel that if they report their sense of unease, their depression, that somehow it's gonna be a mark against them. We have to do more about addiction. Not only drugs but also alcohol," Clinton said. 
 
 Clinton on emails 
 
 Clinton, meanwhile, repeated "it was a mistake" to have used a personal email account and server while leading the department, and that she would "certainly not do it again." 
 
 "I make no excuses for it," she said. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Clinton on emails: I did what I should have done Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Clinton on emails: I did what I should have done 02:16 
 
 But Clinton defended certain emails, including those that contained information about the country's covert drone program, as not revealing classified information. 
 
 "There were no discussions about any of the covert actions in process being determined about whether or not to go forward," she said. "But every part of our government had to deal with questions, secretary of state's office was first and foremost, so there are ways of talking about the drone program." ||||| On Sept. 7, during a town hall event hosted by MSNBC, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated he would have "a good relationship" with Russian president Vladimir Putin. It wasn't the first time he's been friendly towards him. (Adriana Usero/The Washington Post) 
 
 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized U.S. foreign policy and the American political press corps Thursday during an interview on RT America, a state-owned Russian television network. 
 
 In a wide-ranging interview that aired Thursday evening, Trump spoke with journalist Larry King about the presidential race, American intervention in Iraq and the Middle East, and the potential intrusion by Russian hackers into Democratic Party databases. RT, which airs in several countries in English and Russian, is funded by the Russian government; though it characterizes itself as independent, the network has been regularly accused of pro-Kremlin bias. 
 
 The interview came as Trump faced sustained criticism for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he has regularly done on the campaign trail — to the discomfort of many members of his own party, who have distanced themselves from the comments. 
 
 1 of 60 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail View Photos The GOP presidential nominee is pressing his case ahead of Election Day. Caption The GOP presidential nominee is pressing his case ahead of Election Day. Nov. 7, 2016 Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 During an NBC presidential forum Wednesday evening, Trump went further in his praise and said that Putin has been a better leader than President Obama: “Certainly, in that system, he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader,” Trump said. 
 
 Asked during the RT America interview what has surprised him most about the political process, Trump unloaded on the American press. 
 
 “Well, I think the dishonesty of the media. The media has been unbelievably dishonest,” Trump responded. “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.” 
 
 “And all of a sudden it doesn’t look as good as it did when you actually said it. But there’s tremendous dishonesty with the media. Not all of it, obviously, but tremendous dishonesty,” he said. 
 
 The Trump campaign recently lifted a ban on various news outlets, including The Washington Post, which he accused of bias in its coverage. 
 
 Trump also dismissed accusations that he doesn’t have a firm grasp of military issues or a plan to combat the Islamic State. He said he has a “very distinct plan” and knocked foreign policy under Obama, Hillary Clinton, and former president George W. Bush. 
 
 “Hillary Clinton with her policies and Barack Obama — you know, look, we should have never gone into Iraq. Period. We should have never gone in. 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.” 
 
 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her Republican opponent Donald Trump answered questions on national security and foreign policy Sept. 7 during a "commander-in-chief forum" on NBC News. (Video: NBC News/Photos: Melina Mara/Post, Mike Segar/Reuters) 
 
 When King asked Trump if he believed reports that Russian hackers may have targeted Democratic Party databases as part of an effort to influence the American presidential election, Trump said he did not believe that to be the case. 
 
 “I think it’s probably unlikely. I think maybe the Democrats are putting that out. Who knows? But I think that it’s pretty unlikely,” he said. “I hope that if they are doing something I hope that somebody’s going to be able to find out so they can end it, because that would not be appropriate.” 
 
 King also asked Trump about Putin’s assertion that the hack was a “public service,” even as he claimed the Russian government was not involved. 
 
 “I don’t have any opinion on it. I don’t know anything about it. I don’t know who hacked. I’m not sure. You tell me. Who hacked? Who did the hacking?” Trump said. 
 
 Trump’s critics have regularly insinuated that he is overly cozy with pro-Russian interests. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, came under fire last month after he was named in a Ukrainian corruption investigation that tied him to a pro-Kremlin political party. Manafort, who has since resigned from the campaign, denied all such connections. 
 
 Before that, Trump was widely condemned in July when, in an off-handed remark, he called on the Russian government to intervene in the election by releasing thousands of Clinton’s private emails. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said during a press conference at one of his South Florida resorts. He added later, “They probably have them. I’d like to have them released.” 
 
 Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — one of Trump's closest advisers — received payment to deliver a speech at an RT party last year, where he sat next to Putin. In an interview with The Washington Post last month, he said that he saw no distinction between RT and news outlets like CNN or MSNBC. 
 
 Trump came under fire within minutes of the interview airing. Veteran GOP strategist John Weaver, a vocal anti-Trump Republican, expressed incredulity on social media. 
 
 “Condemning the free, 1st amendment protected American media on Russian owned @RT_com is outrageous, even by the lowest of Trump standards,” Weaver said in one tweet. 
 
 “I’m just stunned at the insanity of the campaign staff to even consider, allow a @RT_com interview, given the Russian ties already,” Weaver wrote in another tweet. 
 
 The Trump campaign played down the interview Thursday evening, explaining that they did not realize it would be broadcast on RT. 
 
 "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," a Trump spokesperson told The Post. ||||| Trump addressed thousands of supporters at an outdoor rally in Johnston County on Thursday night, seeking to build excitement in a crucial swing state just days before the election. 
 
 Trump was joined onstage at The Farm by a couple dozen retired military officers sporting “Make America Great Again” hats. The officers have endorsed his campaign. Trump’s speech focused heavily on military and national security issues – likely because the rally site was just down the road from Fort Bragg and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. 
 
 “I stand here tonight among true heroes,” Trump said. “I will never, ever let you down, I will tell you that, and you’ve been let down plenty over the years.” 
 
 Trump promised that if he’s elected, he’ll ensure “full and proper funding for all branches of the American armed forces.” 
 
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 He called for drastic changes to the American military mission abroad. “We will stop trying to build foreign democracies, topple regimes, and race recklessly to intervene in situations where we have no right to be there, folks,” he said. “Instead, our focus must be on keeping America safe and destroying ISIS.” 
 
 Trump spoke from a teleprompter and stayed on message, avoiding any mention of recent sexual assault allegations against him or other controversies that have rocked his campaign. He criticized Democrat Hillary Clinton but focused on the FBI investigation into her use of a private email server, calling her “the most dishonest person ever to run for office.” 
 
 “We know Hillary Clinton can’t be trusted with America’s security,” Trump said. “She was more interested in keeping her emails a secret than in keeping our classified intelligence a secret. Ending this criminal government corruption is one of the most important reasons you have to go out on Nov. 8 and vote.” 
 
 Clinton has said she’s confident the latest review of her emails will have the same result as the FBI investigation that ended in July when director James Comey said her handling of classified information was “extremely careless” but didn’t recommend criminal charges. 
 
 Trump also slammed President Barack Obama, who campaigned for Clinton in Chapel Hill on Wednesday and will return to the state Friday for rallies in Fayetteville and Charlotte. “This guy does nothing but campaign,” Trump said, suggesting Obama is neglecting his duties. “Instead he’s campaigning with somebody who’s under FBI investigation.” 
 
 Obama’s Chapel Hill speech included strong words about Trump, who the president said is is “unfit to be commander-in-chief” and “brags about how being famous allows him to get away with sexual assault.” 
 
 Trump promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act, noting that 95 of 100 North Carolina counties will now have only one insurance company selling policies under the health care law. 
 
 “It’s horrible health care – you don’t even get to use it,” Trump said. “It doesn’t matter, because if I win, we’re terminating it and you’re going to have great insurance.” 
 
 Before Trump took the stage, traffic in the rural area was gridlocked for more than two hours. People rode in the beds of pickup trucks and hung out their windows on Interstate 95 waving signs of every color and size emblazoned with candidate names and campaign slogans. 
 
 Two men hopped out of their car in the midst of traffic to sell hats with the slogan “Make America Great Again.” Nearby, Springhill Outfitters advertised the event on its electronic sign along with “hot specials on guns.” 
 
 Supporters said their candidate’s name stands for “This Republican Understands My Problems.” 
 
 Lisa and Patrick Smelik of Raleigh said they support Trump because they believe he’ll increase the number of jobs and because he’s “a true American.” 
 
 “We need jobs and we need lower taxes,” Lisa Smelik said. “He’s the right person for everyone ... He’s going to bring people together because there’s been such a divide.” 
 
 “He’s more of an independent,” Patrick Smelik said. “The Republicans have been in too much of a groove.” 
 
 Several women at the rally said they weren’t bothered by Trump’s boasts about sexual assault on a leaked “Access Hollywood” tape. 
 
 “Any man you meet, that’s how they talk,” said Talia Sutton of Lucama. “My husband talks the same way Donald Trump does. I’m not going to get mad. It’s his politics, it’s what he plans on doing for this country – that’s what matters to me.” 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Women attending Donald Trump's campaign rally in Selma, NC talk about why they choose to support the Republican candidate for president. 
 
 Dennie Johnson, 66, of Wilson County, and his wife, Cora Lee, 54, said they had never voted before this year. Trump got them to the polls, they said. 
 
 “I want change,” Cora Lee Johnson said. “And someone who will send the ones who ain’t legal back.” 
 
 Janey Lane, Heather Jones and Hunter Lane, of Micro, said they think Trump will support law enforcement officers like Hunter, who is a Fuquay-Varina police officer. 
 
 “We need somebody who supports them instead of hanging them out to dry,” Janey Lane said. “Someone who’s not part of the establishment. He’s not part of the good ol’ boys’ club. He’s not scared.” 
 
 But Lane said other countries should be afraid of Trump. 
 
 “I hope he does have his finger on the button,” she said. “We need the rest of the world to be afraid of us and not knowing what he might do will do that. We need someone who won’t apologize for us.” 
 
 Cindy and Joe Thornton of Benson have a drywall business, and their sons own a gym. This was their first political rally. 
 
 “It’s so hard for people now,” Cindy Thornton said. “Taxes, health care. People are struggling.” 
 
 And the Thorntons said Trump can fix that. 
 
 “Lower taxes, a flat tax, abolish the IRS,” Joe Thornton said. “He’s a businessman and I think the country should be run like a business. If businesses gave away everything like the government, they’d fail.” 
 
 Thursday’s rally won’t be Trump’s last visit to North Carolina before Election Day. 
 
 Trump’s campaign announced Thursday that he’ll hold a Raleigh rally at 3 p.m. Monday in Dorton Arena at the N.C. State Fairgrounds. He’ll also be in Wilmington on Saturday for a 1 p.m. rally at Wilmington International Airport. 
 
 Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, will hold a rally in Greenville on Friday. 
 
 Staff photographer Chris Seward contributed to this report. ||||| Questioned at a TV forum in New York, the candidates reveal clear faultlines on defence issues from the Middle East to women in the military 
 
 Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have struck a pointed contrast on deploying ground troops to Iraq in the first televised forum featuring the two presidential nominees. 
 
 
 
 During the town hall held by NBC News and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America in New York on Wednesday, Clinton pledged that the US was “not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again, and we are not putting ground troops into Syria”, while Trump disagreed. 
 
 Isis, Putin, Iraq: key quotes from Trump and Clinton's foreign policy forum Read more 
 
 The Republican nominee, who has long talked about the importance of “taking the oil” in the Middle East, said of Iraq: “We would leave a certain group behind and they would take the various sections where they have the oil.” 
 
 The forum, which featured the two candidates speaking separately but back-to-back, came just hours after Trump laid into Clinton as “trigger happy”. During an address on defense spending in Philadelphia earlier in the day, Trump suggested there wasn’t a country in the Middle East that Clinton did not want to invade – an assertion he repeated on Wednesday evening. 
 
 NBC News (@NBCNews) Trump: ISIS would not have formed "if we would've taken the oil"#NBCNewsForum 
 
 Watch live: https://t.co/r5knQOlmKe https://t.co/JvcKUKRR3k 
 
 The United States currently has roughly 5,000 troops deployed in Iraq, mostly as official non-combat advisers for the Iraqi military, along with special operations forces who conduct and assist in raids against Islamic State. Navy and air force pilots also participate daily in air attacks on the terrorist group. 
 
 The NBC News discussion, moderated by Matt Lauer at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan, centered on national security and foreign policy. While both candidates had fielded many of the same questions before, the evening marked the first opportunity of the general election for both candidates to tee up their arguments before the American public. 
 
 For Clinton, a skirmish with history. From Trump, an ambush of the facts Read more 
 
 It also arrived a little under three weeks before the first presidential debate on 26 September, serving as a test run for the first time Clinton and Trump will share the same stage with millions of voters watching at home. While Clinton was more controlled in her responses, reiterating the same talking points on issues ranging from the controversy over her use of a private email server as secretary of state to her support for the Iraq war, Trump maintained his signature freewheeling style that skirted specifics on policy. 
 
 Facing a question from an audience member on military sexual assault, Trump stood by a tweet from 2013, in which he suggested the epidemic was a consequence of allowing women to serve in the military. 
 
 “26,000 unreported sexual assults [sic] in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?” Trump had tweeted at the time. When confronted about the tweet, Trump defended his statement by saying “it is a correct tweet”. 
 
 He then demurred, however, from saying women should no longer serve in the military and insisted firmly if incoherently that “something has to be happened”. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Matt Lauer looks on as Hillary Clinton speaks during the NBC forum in Manhattan on Wednesday. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 
 
 Although he was specifically asked what he would do, if elected president, to curb military sexual assault, Trump remained vague. “We have to come down very hard on that and do something about that,” he offered. 
 
 Trump also touched on his bumpy relationship with various foreign leaders. In the aftermath of his surprise trip to Mexico last week, he contended that it had been a success because Luis Videgaray, the country’s finance minister, had resigned on Wednesday. Videgaray reportedly played a key role in facilitating the visit, prompting Trump to boast that “the people who arranged the trip have been forced out of government”. 
 
 Trump also furthered his so-called “bromance” with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, whom he repeatedly praised and cast as a better leader than Barack Obama. In particular Trump cited Putin’s 82% approval rating as a sign of the Russian leader’s acumen. 
 
 Trump went on to characterize his relationship with Putin as mutually beneficial. 
 
 “If he says great things about me, I’m gonna say great things about him,” Trump said. “I think when he calls me brilliant, I’ll take the compliment. OK? 
 
 “I think I would have a very, very good relationship with Putin and a very good relationship with Russia,” he added. 
 
 Clinton, by contrast, sought to re-emphasize her foreign policy expertise while defending her legacy while serving as Obama’s secretary of state. The Democratic nominee repeated once more that it was “a mistake” for her to use a private email while at the helm of the State Department. 
 
 “I have made no excuses for it. It was something that should not have been done,” Clinton said. 
 
 How the ‘Great Paradox’ of American politics holds the secret to Trump’s success | Arlie Hochschild Read more 
 
 She went on to reaffirm that there was neither evidence of her system being hacked nor that she had exchanged classified information on her private server. 
 
 “Nothing, and I will repeat this … none of the emails sent or received by me had such a [top secret] header,” Clinton said, while referring to an investigation by the justice department that ultimately brought no charges upon her. 
 
 The Department of Justice investigation did find a handful of classified markers in Clinton’s emails, some of which FBI director James Comey said she should have known about, but concluded there was no evidence she had intentionally mishandled classified information. 
 
 Moments before Clinton appeared at the forum, Democrats on the House oversight committee released an email exchange between her and former secretary of state Colin Powell, in which he advised her on how to bypass state department servers. 
 
 Asked by Clinton about restrictions on his use of a personal Blackberry, Powell responded that he had a personal computer hooked up to a private phone line “without it going through the state department servers”. 
 
 “Be very careful,” he wrote. “I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data.” 
 
 Clinton did not reference Powell in her remarks at the forum, choosing instead to express regret for her actions. She struck a similar tone when discussing her support for the Iraq war, although not without pointing out that Trump also backed the invasion but has refused to acknowledge his support. 
 
 “I took responsibility for my decision,” Clinton said of her vote for the Iraq war. “My opponent has refused to take responsibility for his support.” 
 
 Indeed, Trump falsely stated that he had been against the war all along – a claim that went unchallenged by Lauer. Clinton also pointed out there was “no difference” between her position on Libya and that of Trump. 
 
 “He’s on record extensively supporting intervention in Libya,” she said. 
 
 Trump, in turn, criticized the Obama administration as pursuing “the dumbest foreign policy” he had ever seen. 
 
 “The generals have been reduced to rubble,” Trump said, when pressed on the assertion he has made during his campaign that he knows more about Islamic State than military generals. 
 
 Asked what his own strategy would look like against the militant group, Trump declined to say. 
 
 “I have a substantial chance of winning – make America great again,” he said. “If I win, I don’t want to broadcast to the enemy what my plan is.” 
 
 A new NBC News/Survey Monkey poll found Trump holding a sizeable lead over Clinton among military and veteran voters, with 55% to her 36%. Clinton has nonetheless earned endorsements from a wide swath of national security experts, including former aides to Republican presidents George W Bush and Ronald Reagan, who have deemed Trump as too dangerous to assume the role of commander-in-chief. A number of surveys have also found voters more inclined to trust Clinton’s handling of terrorism over that of Trump’s. ||||| Donald Trump Donald TrumpOvernight Energy: GOP vows to fight new methane rule Clinton, whiskey and George Washington: You won’t believe what they have in common Assad labels Trump ‘natural ally’ to fight terror MORE on Thursday delivered an extended defense of his opposition to the war in Iraq, charging that rival Hillary Clinton Hillary Rodham ClintonDNC charter requires chairman be full time Clinton, whiskey and George Washington: You won’t believe what they have in common Katie Pavlich: Post-defeat, Dems veer left MORE is lying about him initially backing the invasion. 
 
 The Republican nominee has hammered Clinton for voting in 2002 to authorize the war, citing it as evidence that she lacks the judgment to lead the nation’s armed forces. 
 
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 Clinton has acknowledged her Iraq vote was a mistake and says that as president she will only use military force as a last resort. 
 
 But at a veterans forum on Wednesday night, Clinton said Trump’s position on the war, at the time, was no different from hers. She said that Trump initially supported the invasion but has since flip-flopped. 
 
 Trump has been a fierce critic of the war for years, but Democrats are raising questions about when his opposition began. 
 
 Delivering a speech on education in Cleveland, the billionaire businessman on Thursday accused the media of misrepresenting his position. 
 
 “Iraq is one of the biggest differences in this race,” Trump said. “I opposed going in and I did oppose it, despite the media saying no, yes, no, I opposed going in and I opposed the reckless way Hillary Clinton took us out, along with President Obama, letting ISIS fill that big terrible void.” 
 
 Trump said he did an interview with Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto three months before the war started, in which he said then-President George W. Bush should be focused on the economy instead of engaging in foreign wars. 
 
 The Republican said he gave another interview in March of 2003, just days after the conflict started, in which he was quoted as calling the war “a mess,” though he did not say which outlet printed that interview. 
 
 “If I had been in Congress at the time I would have cast a vote in opposition,” Trump said. “For years I’ve been a critic of these kinds of reckless, foreign invasions and interventions that have been a hallmark of trigger-happy Hillary and her failed career.” 
 
 Trump read a long passage from an Esquire article from 2004 in which he condemned the war at length. The magazine has since added a note to its article saying the interview took place after the war began and is not evidence that Trump opposed the conflict from the start. 
 
 Democrats are pointing to a 2002 interview Trump conducted with Howard Stern, in which the radio shock jock asked Trump if he supported the Iraq invasion. 
 
 “Yeah, I guess so,” Trump responded. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.” 
 
 Trump has backed away from those remarks, saying that at the time he was merely a private businessman and hadn’t given the matter much thought. 
 
 “I had no access to briefings or the intelligence surveys that she did,” Trump said on Thursday, referencing Clinton's background as senator. “I didn’t have access to anything that she did, and frankly nobody cared too much what I said, I don’t know why I was even asked the question.” 
 
 “But in Iraq my judgment was right and hers, with all of this great information and all of this intelligence information, was wrong,” Trump added. 
 
 Liberal opposition research groups on Thursday circulated several interviews Trump conducted in 2003 that they say cast doubt on claims he always opposed the war. 
 
 In the Cavuto interview that Trump cited, he also said: “It’s sort like either do it or don’t do it.” 
 
 And in a March 2003 interview with Cavuto, in which he was asked about the war’s impact on the economy, Trump responded: “It looks like a tremendous success from a military standpoint.” 
 
 Later that year Trump called the toppling of Saddam Hussein “a huge day for this country.” 
 
 But as the war dragged on, Trump’s criticism of the war escalated. 
 
 “Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that we're in,” he said in the Esquire interview. “I would never have handled it that way. Does anybody really believe that Iraq is going to be a wonderful democracy where people are going to run down to the voting box and gently put in their ballot and the winner is happily going to step up to lead the country? C'mon.” 
 
 “What was the purpose of this whole thing?” he continued. “Hundreds and hundreds of young people killed. And what about the people coming back with no arms and legs? Not to mention the other side. All those Iraqi kids who've been blown to pieces. And it turns out that all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong. All this for nothing!” 
 
 The Clinton campaign is seeking to raise questions about Trump’s position on Iraq because it is one of the lynchpins of his argument that she lacks judgment to be commander in chief. 
 
 “My opponent was for the war in Iraq,” the former secretary of State said on Wednesday night at the military-focused forum. “He said he wasn’t ― you can go back and look at the record.” 
 
 Trump is furious over the allegations and says the media is helping her muddy the waters. 
 
 “I see the lies last night that Donald Trump was always in favor of the war in Iraq, and that’s why I have to do this, because the media is so dishonest, so terribly dishonest,” Trump said. 
 
 “I just had to set the record straight because there’s so much lying going on.” ||||| poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201609/3046/1155968404_5118345926001_5118336792001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Trump on RT: Johnson shouldn't debate; Russian election interference 'probably unlikely' 
 
 In an interview on a state-funded Russian television network, Donald Trump said Thursday that he doesn’t want to see third-party candidates in the upcoming presidential debates, and that he believes Russian interference in American elections was "probably unlikely," 
 
 Speaking with Larry King on RT (Russia Today), the Republican nominee suggested that claims of Russian interference are likely coming from across the aisle. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 "I think maybe the Democrats are putting that out. Who knows, but I think it’s pretty unlikely," he said. 
 
 Trump went on to condemn any foreign influence in the U.S. election, deeming any such action "inappropriate." 
 
 "I hope that if they are doing something, I hope that somebody’s going to be able to find out that they can end it because that would not be appropriate at all," the Republican nominee said. 
 
 Trump was heavily criticized for repeatedly praising Russian President Vladimir Putin as a superior leader to President Barack Obama -- “He does have an 82 percent approval rating” -- in Wednesday evening's “commander-in-chief forum” broadcast on NBC. Hillary Clinton has accused Russia of actively trying to elect Trump. 
 
 A Trump campaign spokesperson later said that the Republican candidate expected the interview with King to be appear on his podcast, not RT. 
 
 In a wide-ranging interview, Trump went on to say that he didn't see Libertarian Gary Johnson and other third-party candidates as a “factor” in the election. 
 
 Asked about Johnson’s inability to recall the city of Aleppo when asked about the Syrian civil war, Trump said he didn’t think it would have much impact on the candidate, and even less so on the general election. 
 
 “I don’t know that it will hurt him that much frankly. Maybe it’ll hurt him a little bit,” the Republican nominee said. “I think he’ll scoot down.” 
 
 Trump, who has lately seen a slight uptick in polling despite an increasingly dire electoral map, forecasted that Johnson and another general election candidate – presumably Jill Stein, who is polling fourth nationally – would slowly fade away. 
 
 “They seem to be going down, the other two, they seem to be going down a little bit,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.” 
 
 King asked Trump directly if he would like to see Johnson on the debate stage, a prospect the New York mogul quickly shot down. 
 
 “No, I’d rather be Hillary and myself because we’re the only two with a chance of winning,” he said. 
 
 Current standards require candidates to be polling at or above 15 percent nationally to qualify for presidential debates. Johnson has long hovered above 10 percent without consistently crossing the needed threshold.
– Donald Trump didn't do much to distance himself from the Kremlin Thursday night with an interview aired on the Russia-funded RT America network. The candidate told host Larry King that it was "probably unlikely" that Moscow is interfering in US elections and that claims that it is are probably coming from the Democrats, Politico reports. He also slammed the "unbelievably dishonest" American media and discussed third-party candidates, saying they appear to be fading away and he doesn't want to see Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson on the debate stage. In other coverage: Trump was strongly criticized for speaking to a network widely seen as having a strong pro-Russia bias, with GOP strategist John Weaver calling it "insanity," the Washington Post reports. The Trump campaign said it thought the interview would appear on Larry King's podcast, not on RT. The Hill reports that during a speech in Cleveland Thursday, Trump insisted that Hillary Clinton was lying when she said he was for the Iraq war before he was against it. "If I had been in Congress at the time I would have cast a vote in opposition," he said. "For years I've been a critic of these kinds of reckless foreign invasions and interventions that have been a hallmark of trigger-happy Hillary and her failed career." The Washington Post looks at somebody who has been missing from the campaign trail since late July: Melania Trump. The possible first lady was in the audience for Trump's appearance at a military forum on Wednesday, but she hasn't spoken publicly since what turned out to be a partly plagiarized speech at the Republican National Convention and isn't expected to play a major role in the campaign's final weeks. The New York Times examines the education plan Trump unveiled in Cleveland Thursday. He promised $20 billion in federal funds to help poor students attend the schools of their choice, though it's not clear where he plans to find the $20 billion. The Wall Street Journal reports that Clinton's campaign has decided to try to send out a more positive message about her vision for America instead of focusing on attacking Trump. The candidate spoke about her faith to the National Baptist Convention in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, saying doing so "doesn't always come naturally to a Midwestern Methodist."