President Donald Trump's Sunday comments in defense of Vladimir Putin were disturbing, a former ambassador and a congressman agreed on Monday, and reflect a lack of understanding about the differences between the Unites States and Russia.
"It's deeply disturbing what he said," former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, where he appeared with California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff during a segment to discuss Trump's pre-Super Bowl interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.
"There's no moral equivalency between the way we fight, our soldiers fight, and Russia."
On Sunday, Trump asked O'Reilly if the United States is innocent, after the Fox News star called Putin a killer.
"There are a lot of killers. Lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent? You think our country is so innocent?" Trump said.
"Take a look at what we've done, too," he continued. "We've made a lot of mistakes. I've been against the war in Iraq since the beginning. A lot of people were killed. A lot of killers around, believe me."
"Aleppo is a crime against humanity," McFaul said. "We don't poison opposition leaders. We don't assassinate them as has happened in Russia two years ago. But I have to assume that maybe President Trump doesn't know all that history."
Schiff said he agrees with McFaul that Trump doesn't know the history or what the Russian president dos, and even if he did know, "it wouldn't matter."
"You have either to be with him or against him," said Schiff. "Vladimir Putin has been with him.and he's been with him, [during the] election, with the Russian interference, and [by] saying nice things about him."
And now, Schiff said it seems that no matter what, it seems that there's "nothing Putin can do to get Donald Trump to admit error, which is concerning to me since we have escalation of violence by the Russians in Ukraine.
"Can we expect Donald Trump to call out Putin on this and admit his new Russia policy is a failure? I think the Russians can get away with anything right now and that concerns me tremendously, more than the indefensible statement he made."
Flattering Putin also won't entice him to he help in the United States' fight against ISIS, Schiff continued, and he predicts Trump will soon learn that lesson.
McFaul said he does believe believe the White House and Trump should work with Putin when it's in the national interest or serves a security or national interest.
"So far, Trump's policy toward Russia is to get along, be nice to them," said McFaul. "That's not a policy."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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