At a Christmas campaign rally on Monday, presidential candidate Donald Trump shared his negative opinion about the media.

"I would never kill them, but I do hate them. And some of them are such lying, disgusting people. It's true," Trump said on Monday night.

Trump was responding to criticism over his statements that it was a "great honor" for Russian President Vladimir Putin to praise his candidacy. The candidate appeared on MSNBC with Joe Scarborough and did not budge, even after Scarborough told him that Putin kills journalists. He doubled down when ABC George Stephanopoulos asked him about Putin's support on Sunday.

On Monday in Michigan, Trump bragged about Putin's remarks.

"He said, 'Trump is brilliant. He's great. He's a leader. He's the leader of the parties.' And he said nice things. ... All of a sudden I'm hearing things like, 'Oh, isn't it terrible that Putin is saying that,'" Trump recalled. "That's not terrible. That's good. That's like a good thing — not a bad thing."

"They said he's killed reporters. And I don't like that. I'm totally against that. And by the way, I hate some of these people. But I would never kill them. I hate them," Trump joked as his supporters cheered and laughed in approval. "These people — honestly, I'll be honest, I'll be honest — I would never kill them. I would never do that."

"I would never kill them and anybody that does I think would be despicable," Trump said of reporters at his Monday rally. "They say, 'He killed reporters.' I said, 'Really? He says he didn't. Other people say he didn't. Who did he kill?' [They say,] 'Well, we don't know, but we hear that.' I said, 'Tell me, who did he kill!?'"