A clip of a 2016 interview between President Donald Trump and former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly that shows then-candidate Trump objecting to the mainstream interpretation of Russian President Vladimir Putin has resurfaced amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In the clip, O’Reilly sparred with Trump over his analysis of Russia, and asserted that “Putin is a killer.”
President Trump retorted that “We have a lot of killers” in the United States. Trump added, “You think our country is so innocent?”
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O’Reilly shrugged, and President Trump repeated his question: “Do you think our country is so innocent?”
The former Fox News host shot back that he didn’t “know of any government leaders that are killers in America.”
“Take a look at what we’ve done,” said Trump in response. He said that the United States had “made a lot of mistakes” and added that he had ” been against the war in Iraq from the beginning.”
O’Reilly then tried to say “mistakes are different than” the behavior of Putin when Trump interrupted him.
“A lot of people were killed,” Trump said, before adding that there are “a lot of killers around. Believe me.”
Trump made similar remarks in 2015 during an appearance on Morning Joe.
“He’s running his country and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country,” Trump said when asked by Joe Scarborough about Putin’s alleged killing of journalists and political opponents. He was comparing Putin to former President Barack Obama, then Joe Biden’s boss.
“I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know,” said Trump. “There’s a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, a lot of killing, a lot of stupidity.”
The remarks echo those exchanged between Joe Biden and Putin before the conflict in Ukraine began. Biden referred to Putin as a “killer” and Putin retorted that it “takes one to know one.”
More recently, during a South Carolina rally on March 12, the President Trump said that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he was still in the White House, adding that “this could lead to World War 3. I see what’s happening, because if you think Putin’s going to stop, it’s going to get worse and worse.”
Trump added that Putin is “not going to accept it” and the United States lacks “anybody to talk to him.” Trump explained, “You had somebody to talk to him with me.”
“Nobody was ever tougher on Russia than me,” he continued, “I’m the one who stopped the pipelines,” referencing the Nord Stream II pipeline.
While in office, Trump reportedly told Putin he would bomb Moscow if the Russian government moved against Ukraine while he was in office. Trump relayed the exchange with his Russian counterpart to golfer John Daly, who posted video of Trump recollecting his threat to social media.
“He was a friend of mine, I got along great with him,” the 45th President told Daly. “I said, ‘Vladimir, if you do it, we’re hitting Moscow.’”
“And he sort of believed me, like 5%, 10%,” Trump boasted to the pro golfer. “That’s all you need.”
Russia invaded Ukraine last month after years of disagreements regarding the Donbass region. Russia says it launched its military offensive to protect ethnic Russians from Ukrainian state violence in that region, while Ukraine and the international community insist that Russia’s attack was completely unprovoked.
