Mr. O’Reilly: “Do you respect Putin?”
Mr. Trump: “I do respect him.”
Mr. O’Reilly: “Do you? Why?”
Mr. Trump: “Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get along with them. He’s a leader of his country. I say it’s better to get along with Russia than not. And if Russia helps us in the fight against ISIS — which is a major fight — and Islamic terrorism all over the world — major fight — that’s a good thing. Will I get along with him? I have no idea. It’s very possible that I won’t.”
Mr. O’Reilly: “He’s a killer though. Putin’s a killer.”
Mr. Trump: “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?”
Blaming America First
This weekend, Mr. Trump dismissed a question about why he respected “a killer” like Mr. Putin by drawing a moral equivalency between the United States and Russia.
“You got a lot of killers,” Mr. Trump told Bill O’Reilly of the slavishly pro-Trump Fox News. “What, you think our country’s so innocent?” Mr. Trump also said he respected Mr. Putin, noting: “He’s a leader of his country. I say it’s better to get along with Russia than not.”
.. Since taking office, Mr. Trump has shown little support for America’s traditional roles as a champion of universal values like freedom of the press and tolerance.
.. But on Saturday, Mr. Trump spoke by phone to the Ukrainian president and later issued a statement that did not condemn Russia, played down the conflict as a border dispute and made no reference to sanctions.
GOP senators blanch at Trump’s latest defense of Putin
A trio of Republican senators reacted sharply Sunday to President Trump’s latest apparent defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin, rejecting Trump’s suggestion in an interview that America cannot claim moral superiority to Putin’s Russia.
McCain, Again the Maverick, Challenges President Trump
Plus, he said he has good relations with key Trump security nominees: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and national security adviser Michael Kelly. White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, he noted, was Wisconsin chairman of his 2008 presidential bid, and he has traveled abroad on congressional delegations with Vice President Mike Pence.
.. Mr. McCain also noted that Breitbart News, the site previously overseen by top Trump adviser Stephen Bannon, has “attacked me incessantly for years.”
.. But the area that seems to most bother Mr. McCain isn’t personal; it is a seemingly deep disagreement with the new president over his desire to strengthen ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The last two American administrations, of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, similarly started “with the mistaken belief there would be improved relations with a hardened KGB colonel,” Mr. Putin, only to be disappointed, he said.
“The difference now versus before is he’s invaded a country”—Ukraine—and, he added, has tried to influence an American election.