Donald Trump 'respects' Russia's Vladimir Putin, says US isn't 'so innocent'
Updated
US President Donald Trump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he hoped to work with him to defeat the Islamic State (IS) terror group.
Mr Trump has faced criticism, including from his own side of politics, for the mutual admiration between he and Mr Putin.
For his part, Mr Putin has called Mr Trump a "very bright and talented man".
In an interview with Bill O'Reilly's Fox News program, Mr Trump was challenged on Mr Putin's poor human rights record.
O'Reilly said about the Russian leader: "But he's a killer. Putin's a killer."
Mr Trump responded: "There are a lot of killers. We've got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country's so innocent?"
In the interview Mr Trump signalled that US-Russia relations could be in line for a makeover, even after US intelligence agencies determined that Russia meddled in the US presidential campaign.
"I do respect him," Mr Trump said.
"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, that's a good thing."
But the Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell, has distanced himself from the Russian President.
"Putin's a former KGB agent. He's a thug. He was not elected in a way that most people would consider a credible election," Senator McConnell told CNN's State of the Union.
"The Russians annexed Crimea, invaded Ukraine and messed around in our elections. And no, I don't think there's any equivalency between the way the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does."
President skirts voter fraud question
O'Reilly also asked Mr Trump to back up his claims that millions of illegal votes were cast in the election.
Mr Trump didn't answer directly, but asserted that immigrants in the US illegally and dead people were on the voter rolls.
"It's a really a bad situation, it's really bad," he said.
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the November 8 election, in which Mr Trump won the Electoral College vote but lost the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes to Hillary Clinton.
Mr Trump recently announced on Twitter that he would call for a "major investigation" into voter fraud, but the plan for Trump to take some type of executive action on the issue has been delayed, senior administration officials said last week.
ABC/AP
Topics: donald-trump, us-elections, world-politics, forms-of-government, united-states
First posted
