--- title: Donald Trump Says Putin’s Killings Have ‘Never Been Proven’ description: Donald Trump doubled down on his defense of Vladimir Putin, saying there’s no evidence the Russian president has had any journalists killed canonical: https://time.com/4156335/donald-trump-putin/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-20T16:30:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:25.440Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump on Putin: 'Nobody Has Proven That He's Killed Anyone' og:description: "Nobody has proven that he's killed anyone" og:url: https://time.com/4156335/donald-trump-putin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump on Putin: 'Nobody Has Proven That He's Killed Anyone' twitter:description: "Nobody has proven that he's killed anyone" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Donald Trump on Putin: 'Nobody Has Proven That He's Killed Anyone' ## Video: Watch the Fifth Republican Debate In Four Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): Watch the Fifth Republican Debate In Four Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mQUMUx2k.m3u8) (4:00)  _Published 2015-12-16. Nine Republican presidential candidates faced off for the fifth Republican debate on CNN_  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 20, 2015 4:30 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 20, 2015 4:30 PM UTC Donald Trump doubled down on his [defense of Vladimir Putin](http://time.com/4154624/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-killing/), saying on Sunday there’s no evidence the Russian president has had any political opponents and journalists killed. “Nobody has proven that he’s killed anyone,” the Republican presidential front-runner said on ABC’s “This Week,” [according to the Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/12/20/donald-trump-on-putin-nobody-has-proven-that-hes-killed-anyone/). “He’s always denied it. It’s never been proven that he’s killed anybody.” “You’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, at least in our country,” Trump added. “It has not been proven that he’s killed reporters.” The real estate magnate last week received praise from Putin, who called Trump “bright and talented.” The presidential hopeful had previously brushed off accusations that Putin has assassinated political adversaries and journalists. Trump on Sunday also said he would [“get along fine” with the Russian leader if elected](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-hell-fine-russian-president-vladimir-putin/story?id=35872623). “If Putin respects me, and if Putin wants to call me brilliant … I’ll accept that, and I’ll accept it on behalf of our country,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4156335/donald-trump-putin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4156335/donald-trump-putin/"},"headline":"Donald Trump on Putin: 'Nobody Has Proven That He's Killed Anyone'","datePublished":"2015-12-20T16:30:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:49:25.440Z","description":"\"You're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty\"","url":"https://time.com/4156335/donald-trump-putin/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","Election 2016"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4156335/donald-trump-putin/","name":"Donald Trump on Putin: 'Nobody Has Proven That He's Killed Anyone'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch the Fifth Republican Debate In Four Minutes","description":"Nine Republican presidential candidates faced off for the fifth Republican debate on CNN","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/mQUMUx2k/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-16T05:38:16.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mQUMUx2k.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4156335/donald-trump-putin/","duration":"PT4M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4156335/donald-trump-putin/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```