US President Barack Obama has compared his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein, implying that Putin rigs popularity polls in his own favor.
Obama made the comments on Tuesday, as he blasted Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for an interview with the Russian television network RT, where the New York businessman gave kudos to Putin for his popularity.
“When the interviewer asks him [Trump], ‘why do you support this guy [Putin]?’ He says, ‘He is a strong guy. Look, he’s got an 82 percent poll rating.’ Well, yes, Saddam Hussein had a 90 percent poll rating. If you control the media and you’ve taken away everybody’s civil liberties, and you jail dissidents; that’s what happens,” Obama said in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during a campaign event for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
“He loves this guy,” Obama further said of Trump’s alleged relationship with Putin,…