Retired general: Trump's Putin remarks may be 'most anti-American statement' ever by president

Former Gen. Barry McCaffrey on Monday said President Donald TrumpDonald TrumpA case for leniency: Trump should pardon Army Lt. Clint Lorance Third instance of Conway discussing 'Bowling Green attack’ surfaces Conservatives should oppose any Trump effort to cut California funding MORE’s recent comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin may be “the most anti-American statement” ever made by a commander-in-chief.

“I’m actually incredulous that the president would make a statement like that,” McCaffrey told MSNBC.

“One could argue that’s the most anti-American statement ever made by the president of the United States. To confuse American values with Putin, who is running a criminal oligarchy.”

Trump in an interview pushed back when Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said Putin is “a killer.”

“There are a lot of killers. We've got a lot of killers. What, you think our country is so innocent?" Trump said.

McCaffrey told MSNBC that the president's comments shed light on “an astonishing state of affairs,” adding that “it’s hard to know what to think about it.”

Putin "kills people abroad and at home," he said, also touching on the imprisonment of journalists, seizures of business property and invasions of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. 

Vice President Mike PenceMike (Michael) Richard PenceRetired general: Trump's Putin remarks may be 'most anti-American statement' ever by president Democrats plan all-night protest ahead of DeVos vote CNN says it passed on booking Conway for Sunday show MORE on Sunday argued Trump was not trying to compare the two countries.

“I simply don’t accept that there was any moral equivalency in the president’s comments,” he told CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”