Donald Trump refuses to call Vladimir Putin ‘evil’ on Fox News

Donald Trump shied away from walking back on his praise for Russian president Vladimir Putin in an interview with Fox News late on Thursday, even as host Sean Hannity gave him multiple opportunities to do so.

Prompted to recognise Putin as “evil”, Mr Trump instead defended his description of the Russian leader as “smart”, saying: “Well, I was referring to the fact that he said this is an independent nation, talking about Ukraine, and I said that ... this was before there was any attack. He’s calling it an independent nation.”

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