US President Donald Trump has come under fire from Republican figures for defending Russian President Vladimir Putin and acknowledging that there are “a lot of killers” in the US government.
Trump stirred a controversy on Sunday, when he said during an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that Putin deserved “respect” for fighting the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group.
“But he is a killer,” O’Reilly interjected, only to be shut down by Trump’s response: “We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent?”
The Super Bowl interview set off a series of attacks against Putin by Republican figures, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calling him a “thug.”
“The Russians annexed Crimea, invaded Ukraine and messed around in our elections. No, I don’t think there’s any equivalency between the way the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does,” he told CNN.
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