--- title: Hillary Clinton 'Not Surprised' by Donald Trump Interview description: Hillary Clinton said she was not surprised that rival Donald Trump appeared on a Russian-owned television network to praise Vladimir Putin. canonical: https://time.com/4486306/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-rt-america/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-09T21:36:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:39.235Z article:section: Politics og:title: Clinton 'Not Surprised' by Trump Interview With Russian TV og:description: "I'm not sure anything surprises us any more." og:url: https://time.com/4486306/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-rt-america/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt470333d493f01166/6988a57a524fc0c58ddf96fe/gettyimages-601089318-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) meets with national security advisors during a National Security Working Session at the New York Historical Society Library on September 9, 2016 in New York City. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clinton 'Not Surprised' by Trump Interview With Russian TV twitter:description: "I'm not sure anything surprises us any more." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt470333d493f01166/6988a57a524fc0c58ddf96fe/gettyimages-601089318-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton 'Not Surprised' by Donald Trump Interview With Russian TV > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Sep 9, 2016 9:36 PM UTC  Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) meets with national security advisors during a National Security Working Session at the New York Historical Society Library on September 9, 2016 in New York City. Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) meets with national security advisors during a National Security Working Session at the New York Historical Society Library on September 9, 2016 in New York City. Justin Sullivan—2016 Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Sep 9, 2016 9:36 PM UTC Hillary Clinton said she was not surprised that rival Donald Trump appeared on a Russian-owned television network to praise Vladimir Putin. After a press conference on national security, Clinton was walking away from the podium when a reporter shouted out a question about [Trump’s interview with journalist Larry King on a state-owned Russian TV network](http://time.com/4485153/donald-trump-russian-television-network-rt/) Thursday. She shrugged for comic effect then returned to the podium. “Every day that goes by, this just becomes more and more of a reality television show,” she said. “It’s not a serious presidential campaign. And it is beyond one’s imagination to have a candidate for president praising a Russian autocrat like Vladimir Putin and throwing his lot in with him in the way that he has.” Clinton criticized Trump for not acknowledging that Putin has invaded Ukraine, saying the Republican nominee “approved of (Putin’s) wishlist” and doesn’t “even really” understand “what Putin has already done” and calling his praise “an unseemly identification.” Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Putin, including at a commander in chief forum on NBC Wednesday in which he argued that Putin has been more of a leader than President Obama. But his campaign claimed they did not know that the King interview—in which Trump bashed the American media as well as Clinton and Obama—would be broadcast on RT America. “Can I say I was surprised?” Clinton said. “I’m not sure anything surprises us any more.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4486306/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-rt-america/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4486306/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-rt-america/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton 'Not Surprised' by Donald Trump Interview With Russian TV","datePublished":"2016-09-09T21:36:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:39.235Z","description":"Hillary Clinton said she was not surprised that rival Donald Trump appeared on a Russian-owned television network to praise Vladimir Putin.","url":"https://time.com/4486306/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-rt-america/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","russia","2016 Election","Vladimir Putin","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt470333d493f01166/6988a57a524fc0c58ddf96fe/gettyimages-601089318-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt470333d493f01166/6988a57a524fc0c58ddf96fe/gettyimages-601089318-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) meets with national security advisors during a National Security Working Session at the New York Historical Society Library on September 9, 2016 in New York City.","caption":"Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) meets with national security advisors during a National Security Working Session at the New York Historical Society Library on September 9, 2016 in New York City.","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—2016 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"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":"https://time.com/4486306/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-rt-america/","name":"Hillary Clinton 'Not Surprised' by Donald Trump Interview With Russian TV"}}]}] ```