Even though Matt Lauer has been taking heat for pitching softball questions to Donald Trump at last night's Commander-in-Chief Forum, that didn't stop the Republican presidential nominee from scoring a lot of own goals.
In particular, Trump cited Russian President Vladimir Putin's poll numbers to show that he was a better leader than President Obama, which earned him scorn from pundits on both the left and the right.
CNN this morning had a panel of military veteran voters -- one undecided voter, one in favor of Clinton, and one in favor of Trump -- to discuss his performance on Wednesday night. Undecided voter Pam Campos-Palma, for one, declared that she was completely appalled at the way Trump gushed over Putin's leadership.
"His complete praise of Putin was really appalling," she said. "In my view, it completely disqualifies him on the spot as our Commander-in-Chief."
Trump supporter Amber Smith responded that she didn't believe Trump was praising Putin, but rather saying that the United States needed to do deals with our adversaries.
Smith, however, said she didn't agree with Trump's assertion that Putin was a stronger leader than President Obama.
Finally, Clinton supporter Alexander McCoy shredded Trump for citing Putin's poll numbers as evidence that he was a great leader.
"[Those] popularity polls were produced by Russian state-controlled media," he said.
Check out the full clip below.
