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Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump Would Be Putin's 'Puppet'

By Gregory Krieg

LAS VEGAS (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that Donald Trump would be a "puppet" for Russian President Vladimir Putin, if the Republican presidential nominee were elected to the White House.

After Trump attacked Clinton during the third and final presidential debate, saying Putin had "no respect" for her, the Democratic nominee shot back, "Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the United States."

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"No puppet. No puppet," Trump shot back. "You're the puppet! No, you're the puppet."

Clinton had been seeking to deflect from the substance of hacked emails posted online by Wikileaks -- a theft the US government says Moscow likely carried out -- by putting the spotlight on Trump's past praise of the Russian leader.

"You are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list: break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do," she said. "You continue to get help from him because he has a very clear favorite in this race."

The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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