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In a sit-down with CNN's Dana Bash at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the GOP vice presidential nominee said Donald Trump was speaking "boldly" as did the 40th president of the United States.

"I think it's inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country. And that's going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes president," Pence said.

But pressed by Bash on the difference between the two nation's governments -- namely that in the US democracy presidents share power with Congress, Pence acknowledged that Trump was not advocating for a dictatorship.

"Donald Trump said last night he doesn't particularly like the system," Pence said in reference to Russia.

The Republican governor was responding to comments Trump made the previous night at a "commander in chief forum" on NBC News.

"Certainly, in that system, he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader," Trump said, when asked about his repeated praise and kind words for Putin despite Russia's increasing aggression toward the United States.

Pence also defended Trump's comments that "the generals have been reduced to rubble" under the Obama administration, responding to critics that interpreted those words to mean Trump was putting down the US military.

"I think he was talking about the commander in chief reducing the influence of generals to rubble," Pence said. He added that Trump was describing a "sense that he got recently that in fact our President had not taken all of the counsel of our military advisers in confronting and defeating ISIS."

Trump has been focusing on his national security policy in the past few days, including announcing that his plan to combat ISIS would include ordering military generals to put together a plan to defeat the terrorist group in his first 30 days.

That has stood in contrast with statements Trump made last year that he had a "foolproof" plan to defeat ISIS already.

Pence refused to answer whether Trump has shared his secret strategy with his running mate: "I'll keep our private conversations private," he said.

But he did say that the military could do more under a Trump administration than it has under an Obama administration when asked why the military would have different ideas under Trump than it does now.

"The military commanders serve at the pleasure of civilian authority. The commander in chief makes the call," Pence said. "And I'm confident that our military commanders can bring forward the ideas once the commander in chief makes the mission clear, and Donald Trump has made the mission clear."

Pence refused to say whether Trump would consider sending in significant ground troops to the Middle East, saying he would not "signal to the enemy" his plans.

Throughout the interview, Pence compared Trump and Reagan, saying he believes they are similar leaders. He was at the presidential library to give a speech on the comparison between the two men.

"Their styles are different, surely, between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, but I think both men are truth tellers," Pence said. "They speak plainly about the failings of the administrations of their time, but they also, I think they both give voice to the aspirations of the American people, that we can be better, we can bet stronger."

He added that comparison applies to one of his favorite adjectives to describe Reagan: "Humble."

As Bash questioned how that word could describe a man with his name on so many buildings, Pence said Trump reveals his "humility" in private.

"Ronald Reagan had his name on a lot of marquees. I think at their very core, both men are the kind of leaders that have a core of humility," Pence said. "Donald Trump is always the first person to say, when we say enormous crowds turn out for rallies ... he's always the first one to say, 'This is a movement. This is not about me. This is about the ideas we're advocating.'"

As the vice presidential nominee, Pence will have his own debate against his Democratic counterpart, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, this fall.

Pence said he's preparing "in a very traditional way," despite reports that Trump has eschewed any mock debates or typical debate prep.

"My running mate is a masterful debater," Pence said. "I'm confident he's going to acquit himself well."

As for Pence, he noted that he's been focused on his state as governor of Indiana, and is working to get up to speed on national and international policy.

"We're really taking some time to brush up," Pence said. "I want to make sure that I'm ready to tell Donald Trump's story to the nation."

And he confirmed that his camp has a stand-in for Kaine for mock debates.

"We actually do. I'll leak it to you later," Pence said.

Trump's first debate is September 26, while the sole vice presidential debate will be October 4.

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In 2000 Donald Trump told Fortune magazine, Its very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.

During this primary season, Donald Trump made a point of not taking outside donations, but now he is. Some of Trumps campaign money is making its way back to the candidate himself, becauseunlike any other candidate in modern history, Trump is using his businesses for his campaign.

Legally, Trump has to pay no more than fair market value, so we crunched the numbers to see how much hes essentially paying himself, reports CBS News correspondent Julianna Goldman.

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In a recent speech, Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton "trigger-happy and unstable." He vowed to fight defense spending cuts and support veteran...

Donald Trump has contributed more than $52 million to his presidential campaign.

I didnt need to do this folks.Im spending a lot of money, Trump said during a rally in Ohio.

But the Republican nominee has offset some of that by pouring $7.2 million dollars -- just over eight percentof the money his campaign has spent through July -- into his own businesses.

Since Trump moved into the general election phase, that spending has increased.

During the first year of his campaign, he spent on average half a million dollars a month at his own companies. But as his campaign ramped up from the end of June through July, he spent $1.2 million at Trump businesses.

Theres a good chance that Donald Trumps the first candidate for president who makes money off the whole endeavor, said Charlie Spies, a Republican election lawyer who was Mitt Romneys CFO in 2008. The difference with the Romney campaign -- hesa numbers guy, that hes very cheap, I think in terms of how money is spent, so we were looking to save as much money as possible.

Take the candidates travel expenses. Campaigns typically split about the cost of flying with the press corps who fly on their planes -- a practice Clinton started this week. On Monday, Trump allowed a small group of reporters onto his plane. Its unclear if they were charged, but he told them it wouldnt be a regular occurrence.

Throughout the campaign, hes paid his own aviation company $5.6 million to fly his multiple planes like his luxury 757.

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He also spent more than $423,000 to rent out his private Mar-a-Lago club. And in July, Trumps campaign paid $48,239 to rent the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County. By comparison, holding an event for thousands of people at the nearby Westchester County Center costs about $10,000.

On rent, the campaign has spent over $830,000 for office space at Trump Tower. In July, it paid over $169,000, up 133percent from May. Trump officials reportedly saidthey expanded into more office space in anticipation of additional staff.

So as much as it looks like he is putting money into the campaign, he is filling space in his building that otherwise, there would be no revenue off of, so it absolutely is circular, Spies said.

Spies said what Trump is doing is not illegal, but its discouraging big-dollar Republican donors from giving money to their nominee.

When they see things like buying Trump brand products and flying on the Trump plane, it doesnt inspire them to give, Spies said.

The spending on Trump brands is still well below what the Republican nominee has personally invested in his campaign, but it also comes with free publicity that cant necessarily be valued.

The campaign did not respond in time for our story but provided this statement to CBS News after the story aired:

Mr. Trump continues to contribute his own money to the campaign, including $2 million dollars on this report which more than accounts for things like rent at his own properties, which he is required to pay according to FEC laws. To date he has contributed over $60 million dollars to fund his campaign and to say he has profited in any way is totally and completely false, campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks said.

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In the weeks since Donald Trump began making an overt appeal to African-Americans, one of the greatest criticisms he has received is that his appeals are made before largely white audiences. This weekend, Trump is addressing those concerns head-on, traveling to Detroit, Michigan, to attend a black church service and interview with the presiding bishop.

He will attend the Saturday service at Great Faith International Ministries and will also participate in an interview with Bishop Wayne Jackson that will air on Jacksons Impact Network. This is the first time that Trump has attended a black church during this cycle. Conversely, his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, have visited several Sunday services at various black churches.

Pastor Mark Burns, a frequent introducer at Trump rallies, will be meeting Trump in Detroit. A vociferous supporter of Trump who has long proclaimed that Trump would be better for African-Americans than any Democrat, Burns says that Trump will deliver brief remarks that echo his economic message.

"Well I think youll be able to see how Mr. Trump really does care and can relate to the African-American community more so than has Trump at a majority African-American congregation," Burns said. This is just the beginning.

Trump first began making his heavy-handed appeals to black voters earlier in August, asking black voters, What the hell do you have to lose? and at times citing misleading statistics about how many African-Americans live in abject poverty and are unemployed.

Today, Trump began the first of his weekends outreach, traveling to Philadelphia to meet with 14 business and religious leaders in the black community. He also met with a diverse group of members of the Republican Leadership Initiative, a program sponsored by the Republican National Committee.

But with this address, Trump places himself in unfamiliar territory with a potentially wary crowd. To account for such uncharted circumstances, the Trump campaign, in concert with African-American advisers and black Republicans, developed a script for Trump, with Jackson providing a list of questions for which the candidate could prepare, as first reported by The New York Times.

Jackson said, during an interview on CNN, that he also submitted a prayer beforehand when Vice President Joe Biden was in town and pushed back against reports that the campaign had edit rights.

"That's not true. That's not true. That is not true. That -- then it would be tainted. It would be tainted and it would not be good. No. This has never been discussed with me, Jackson said.

Plans have also been discussed to have Trump tour an impoverished neighborhood with supporter and former candidate Dr. Ben Carson.

"The reason that Donald Trump is willing to go into this territory is because hes not necessarily trying to cultivate votes like your typical politician does, Carson told ABC News in a recent interview. He recognizes that there is no way we can have a strong country if we have big pockets of weakness. And he also realizes that in this election cycle he probably wont get the majority of their votes.

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Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles President Alfonso Aguilar told CNN he felt disappointed and misled by Trump and his campaign after recent speculation the Republican nominee would soften his stance on undocumented immigrants.

"For the last two months, he said he was not going to deport people without criminal records," Aguilar told CNN's Carol Costello on "Newsroom." "And then we heard yesterday, and I was totally disappointed -- not surprised, but disappointed -- and slightly misled, because he gave the impression and the campaign gave the impression until yesterday morning that he was going to deal with the undocumented in a compassionate way."

Trump on Wednesday returned to the same immigration rhetoric that saw him clinch the GOP nomination, telling an audience in Phoenix that there would be "no amnesty" for undocumented migrants living in the United States under his presidency.

Aguilar, who has been critical of Trump's tone and posture on race and immigration in the past, slammed Trump for his plan, with Aguilar describing it as being "even worse than what he initially proposed."

"They're going to leave the country, self-deport or be removed, and there's no guarantee that they will return," Aguilar said. "I mean that speech was a restrictionist speech. And I just think he's embraced Jeff Sessions and people like Ann Coulter and forgotten about building a coalition to win this election. I'm so sorry, but I just can't be part of that."

But Aguilar remained adamant that he would still not vote for Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, in November.

"I mean, people who think that she's (Clinton) committed to immigration reform, she's misleading them just like Donald Trump misled us," Aguilar said. "So, look, I don't think we have a good choice right now. I think I have to talk to our coalition of leaders and figure out, you know, what our next step is, but certainly, it's not going to be to support Trump nor Hillary Clinton."

Monty also officially distanced himself from the Republican Party's standard-bearer Thursday, telling CNN he had stepped down from the council.

"We need more security but when he called for the deportation of (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients, that is just unrealistic, cruel, (and) not productive for the economy because they're working, they're going to school," Monty told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday. "And the biggest thing for me was when he completely punted on the issue of what to do with the 11 million, when we discussed that with him."

Monty added, "And when I saw that, I had to resign because I'm not going to be a prop for his image like the president of Mexico was yesterday."

Monty said he too was not prepared to vote for Clinton and had decided not to vote for either of the candidates at the top of the ticket, supporting Republicans further down the ballot instead.

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Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, today called Donald Trump a diplomatic embarrassment when asked on Good Morning America about the real estate moguls trip to Mexico Wednesday.

"I think it was kind of a diplomatic embarrassment, Kaine said of Trumps unexpected meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Hes been talking for a year about were going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it and then he goes and he sits down and goes eyeball to eyeball with the president of Mexico and, what, he forgets suddenly to bring it up or hes too afraid to bring it up or he chokes in the meeting.

"Its just kind of an indication that the guy talks out of both sides of his mouth.

Kaine was referring to Trumps claiming that he didnt discuss with the president who would pay for a wall between Mexico and the United States, even though the president later tweeted that he told Trump his country would not pay for it. A central tenet of Trumps immigration policy is to build a wall for which Mexico would pay.

Kaine also this morning discussed Trump's immigration speech later Wednesday in Arizona, saying it was a division and deportation nation strategy.

During a fiery speech Wednesday night, Trump outlined his immigration policy, reiterating his call for building the wall and telling people living in the United States illegally that there would be a deportation force and no path to citizenship.

"Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation. There will be no amnesty, Trump told the crowd.

Kaine contrasted the Clinton-Kaine immigration policy with Trumps plan. Kaine said that in the first 100 days of any Clinton administration, he and Clinton would "build a comprehensive package that includes basically support for DREAMers, that includes support for employers, that includes a path for hardworking people to earn the ability to stay here as citizens over many years and also border security.

The Democrats immigration policy is "very different from the division and deportation nation strategy of Donald Trump, he added.

Kaine addressed the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll that shows Clinton with 56 percent of adults viewing her unfavorably, compared with 63 percent of adults viewing Trump unfavorably.

"This is going to be a tough race and I didnt have any illusions about it and Hillary Clinton doesnt either. We have felt from the beginning that this would be tough, Kaine said. We like what weve seen since both conventions because we put up a bit of a lead in most of the battleground states. But its not a big lead and that just means weve got to make our case every day.

"Hillary yesterday -- while Donald was doing his high-profile talking different messages on the two sides of the border -- she was at the American Legion in Ohio talking about Americas role in the world to that important veterans organization."

The Virginia senator also weighed in this morning on NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernicks decision not to stand for the national anthem.

You got to respect peoples ability to act according to their conscience, Kaine said. I mean, Id do it differently. I think if you really thought about issues and about this country, you would do it different.

And when I heard him explain his rationale, it didnt really make that much sense to me, but you got to respect peoples ability to act according to their conscience. So I wouldnt presume to tell him what to do.

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