to argue free from violence about places where ideas are in conflict. there is no moral equivalency between the united states of america, the greatest freedom loving nation in the history of the world, and the murderous thugs in putin s defense. i spoke with the republican senator this afternoon who told me, jake, that his hope is that over time, over the weeks and months of being in the white house, that president trump will see the great care that america takes to avoid those kinds of things, speaking, for instance, specifically of not bombing civilians deliberately in syria and aleppo which we know russia does and of course, u.s. air strikes may kill civilians but we know how the u.s. tries to avoid it. that s just one example of, again, where republicans have very sharp differences with the president on this. including some in his own administration. and there are people in his administration who seem to be suggesting that the united states is going to come down hard on russia
all right. republicans are denouncing president trump because of his apparent defense of russian president vladimir putin and his putting of the united states and putin s kremlin on moral equivalent grounds. we just heard from saab bastian gorkan, deputy assistant to the president. he claimed the media, we re taking trump out of context. listen for yourself. putin is a former kgb agent, he s a thug, he was not elected in a way that most people would consider a credible election. the russians annexed crimea, invaded ukraine and messed around in our elections. no, i don t think there s any equivalency between the way the russians conduct themselves and the way the united states does. let s be clear. has the u.s. ever made any mistakes? of course. is the u.s. at all like putin s regime? not at all. there is no moral equivalency
between the united states of america, the greatest freedom loving nation in the history of the world and the murder rouse thugs. we asked mr. gorka about this perspective from the gop, he dismissed it as fake news and potentially bias. that w let s discuss with cnn political commentator ana navarro and former white house political director jeffrey lord. the insistence, brother lord, of calling every criticism and every hard question fake and bias seems a little weak at this point, does it not? chris, chris, let me ask you, where is your clip of donald trump saying there is a moral equivalent between russia and the united states. do you have it? yes, we have it. he says moral equivalence? he says putin is a killer and he say, so, we have killers here. does he say moral equivalent?
he said the same thing about another judge who found that he had been involved in business dealings he should not have been involved in. in other words, if you agree with him, you re valid. if you disagree with him, you re invalid. and then he doubled down this weekend, basically equating putin s russia as a moral equivalency with the united states of america. i don t know how anybody, republican or democrat, could accept that. the bill o reilly, to his credit raised putin and what he does, a man who has ordered assassinations, has had members of the press anssassinated. political rifles assassinated. has stolen tens of billions of dollars from his country, and he says that s equivalent to the united states? no, it is not. the tweet about judge robart
what? when there was criticism from the obama administration of the united states, did jt you say they were blaming america first? look, all i m saying is he is saying fact. america is still the city on a shining hill. have we made mistakes, yes. are we morally equivalent, no. he never said that. what he did do, anna, when asked basically to condemn vladimir putin i think that s where o reilly was going, he s a killer, you seem to be deferential to him. why? he chose instead to levy similar criticism levied against putin on the united states. he s been doing it over and over again. donald trump has been consistent on anything, it has been on protecting, sheltering, commending putin throughout the campaign and now since being president-elect and being president. i would say to the leaders in my party who are offended, outraged by this equivalency, by these