Tim Kaine: Donald Trump's 'personal Mount Rushmore' features Vladimir Putin, Saddam Hussein

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

last updated 5 October 2016

After making a few groan-worthy Apprentice-related jokes earlier in the vice-presidential debate, Tim Kaine redeemed himself with a sassy burn against Donald Trump and his admiration for certain foreign leaders.

"He loves dictators," Kaine said. "He's got sort of a personal Mount Rushmore: Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Moammar Gadhafi, and Saddam Hussein." Trump hasn't been quiet with his praise of Putin — in September, he said he has "been a leader far more than our president has been," and after Putin called him a "talented person" last year, Trump responded, "It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond."

Trump dubbed the North Korean leader a "maniac," but conceded it's "incredible" how Kim Jong Un was able to "take over and he's the boss," adding, "you've gotta give him credit." When it comes to Gadhafi, Trump reportedly made overtures to the Libyan dictator before he was ousted from power and killed in 2011; he allegedly tried to raise money from his regime, and rented his home in Bedford, New York, for Gadhafi to use while in the U.S. to visit the UN. He also managed to both compliment and diss Hussein during a rally in July, saying that while he was "a bad guy — really bad guy," he did do one thing well: "He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn't read them the rights. They didn't talk."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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