President Trump said Sunday that he respects Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite accusations that Mr. Putin and his supporters have murdered opponents in Russia.
In an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, which will air ahead of the Super Bowl, Mr. Trump said believes the U.S. is better off cooperating with Russia.
“I do respect him. Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get along with them,” Mr. Trump said.
Referring to reports that the Russian leader has ordered the murders of journalists and dissidents, Mr. O’Reilly asserted that “Putin is a killer.”
Mr. Trump replied, “There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers. You think our country is so innocent?”
The president said Russia can be helpful to U.S. interests, such as defeating the Islamic State.
“If Russia helps us in the fight against ISIS, which is a major fight, and Islamic terrorism all around the world, major fight. That’s a good thing,” Mr. Trump said, using an acronym for the terrorist organization.
Sen. Ben Sasse, Nebraska Republican, said there is no “moral equivalency” between the U.S. and Russia.
“Has the U.S. ever made any mistakes? Of course,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
But he added, “Is the U.S. at all like Putin’s regime? Not at all.”
“Trump affirms freedom of speech. Putin is no friend of freedom of speech. Putin is an enemy of freedom of religion. The U.S. celebrates freedom of religion,” Mr. Sasse said. “There is no moral equivalency between the United States of America, the greatest freedom living nation in the history of the world, and the murderous thugs that are in Putin’s defense of his cronyism.”
On the same program, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said there’s no comparison of U.S. leaders to Mr. Putin.
“This is a man and a regime that has taken down a passenger plane in Ukraine, killing hundreds of people,” the Minnesota Democrat said. “This is a regime that, we believe —17 intelligence agencies in our own country have said — has tried to influence our own election.”
She said of Mr. Trump, “I really do resent that he would say something like that.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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