In a radio interview over the weekend, Sen. John McCain lambasted Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump for his effusive praise of Russian President Vladmir Putin.
Trump has repeatedly hailed Putin as a "real leader" after the Russian president called him a "brilliant and talented person."
Asked about Trump's comments on Concord News Radio, McCain said, "The thing that is so concerning about Mr. Trump's compliments of Vladimir Putin is Vladimir Putin has slaughtered his own, murdered his own people, including people I knew. He has, his equipment has shot down an airliner and killed a couple hundred people."
"He's a bully and thug and to pay a compliment to this KGB apparatchik murderer is something that I just can't find in anyway plausible and is incomprehensible," added the Arizona senator.
"For him to provide propaganda, which is really what he just did for Vladimir Putin, who is a thug and a murderer, I think is really astonishing and shows either profound ignorance or an attitude that contradicts everything about the United States of America and our relations with our adversaries," McCain said, adding that the U.S. should still talk with Putin, citing Ronald Reagan's tough rhetoric as the proper way to deal with Russia.
McCain also addressed Trump's invective over his war record, saying that sort of personal attack comes with the territory of being in the political arena.