Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused on Sunday to condemn President Donald Trump's comparison of Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime to the United States.
During an interview with Fox News host Bill O'Reilly that will air during the Super Bowl, Trump talked about his "respect" for Putin.
“I do respect him. Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get along with them,” Trump said, excusing Putin's killing of journalists. “There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers."
"Well, you think our country is so innocent?” the president added.
CNN host Jake Tapper pressed McConnell about Trump's remarks during a Sunday interview.
"He is a former KGB agent, a thug, not elected in a way that most people consider a credible election," McConnell said of Putin. "No, I don't think there is any equivalency with the way the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does."
But the Senate Majority Leader refused to rebuke Trump for the remarks.
"Look, Jake, I can speak to myself and I have about my feelings for Vladimir Putin," he told Tapper. "I'm not going to critique every utterance of the president."
