Trump says he doesn’t know ‘who Putin is’

Donald Trump is dismissing claims made by Democrats that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee emails to benefit Trump’s campaign.

Responding to questions over whether Russia’s President Vladimir Putin might favor a Trump presidency, Trump tells reporters he “never met Putin, I don’t know who Putin is.”

The Republican presidential nominee says the incident with the hacked emails demonstrates that Putin and other world leaders no longer respect the United States.

He said he’s never spoken to Putin and knows nothing about him “except that he’ll respect me.”

He says that it may not even be Russia behind the email breach and suggests China may be the culprit.

The emails revealed that DNC officials favored Hillary Clinton over her rival Bernie Sanders. The revelation that led to the resignation of the DNC chief, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

— AP