empire, but the famous doom's day clock is closer to midnight than it's been in decades of . e part of the reach is vladimir putin's drive to reassert russian power. here's what president trump and before that candidate trump has said about vladimir putin. >> i spoke indirectly and directly with president putin who could not have been nicer. putin did call me a genius and said i'm the future of the republican party. he's off to a good start. i like him because he called me a genius. he is really very much of a leader. he said nice things about me. i have nothing to do with putin. i've never spoken to him. i don't know anything about him other than he will respect me. if he says great things about me, i'll say great things about him. it would be nice if we got along. he could not have been nicer. he was so nice. if putin likes donald trump, guess what, folks, that's called an asset, not a liability. i hope we have a fantastic relationship. i don't love, i don't hate, we'll see how it works.