Who would be Putin’s ‘puppet’? Trump, Clinton level accusations during debate

Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton said that Russian president Vladimir Putin would prefer to see the other win the election.

“That’s because he’d (Putin) rather have a puppet as president,” Clinton said.

“No puppet. You’re the puppet,” Trump said in response.

The exchange came during a fight between the candidates about Russia and its involvement in the U.S. election through hacking emails among the Clinton campaign.

Clinton said 17 agencies have concluded it was the Russians that hacked the emails.

“She doesn’t like Putin because he’s outsmarted her every step of the way,” Trump said.

But it was the “puppet” line that attracted plenty of attention on social media.

This story was originally published October 19, 2016 at 10:13 PM with the headline "Who would be Putin’s ‘puppet’? Trump, Clinton level accusations during debate."