General: Trump’s Remark About Putin Is ‘Anti-American’

A retired general has alleged that President Trump made “the most anti-American statement ever” by a commander-in-chief when he said the U.S. government has “a lot of killers,” The Hill reported.

“I’m actually incredulous that the president would make a statement like that … to confuse American values with (Vladimir) Putin, who is running a criminal oligarchy,” Gen. Barry McCaffrey said on MSNBC. “It’s hard to know what to think about it.” He proclaimed that the Russian leader “kills people abroad and at home.”

The general was responding to a Fox News interview on Sunday, when the network’s Bill O’Reilly asked Trump: “Do you respect Putin?” The president replied, “I do respect him,” prompting the host to ask: “Do you? Why?” The president explained: “Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get along with him. 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."

O’Reilly fired back: “He’s a killer, though. Putin’s a killer.” Trump answered: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, you think our country’s so innocent?”

The Washington Post reported that Russian officials are angry with O’Reilly. “We consider such words by the Fox News company correspondent to be unacceptable and insulting,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with the news media. “And honestly, we would prefer to receive an apology addressed to the Russian president from such a respected television station.”

In a later interview on Sunday, Trump told Westwood One Sports Radio: “Well, I don't have to clarify it. The question was do you respect him — he's a head of a major country.”

Liz Cheney, daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, joined McCaffrey in blasting Trump. She tweeted: “@POTUS statement suggesting moral equivalence between Putin's Russia and the United States of America is deeply troubling and wrong.”

Source: The Hill
Photo: YouTube