President Trump walks down the steps as he arrives on Air Force One at the Palm Beach International Airport for a visit to his Mar-a-Lago Resort for the weekend on Feb. 3 in Palm Beach, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- President Trump has long been effusive in his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike.
In an interview with Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, which will air ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday, Trump doubled down on his “respect” for Putin — even in the face of accusations that Putin and his associates have been accused of murdering journalists and dissidents in Russia.
“I do respect him. Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get along with them,” Trump told O'Reilly.
O'Reilly pressed on, declaring to the president that “Putin is a killer.”
Unfazed, Trump didn't back away and compared Putin's reputation for extrajudicial killings to the United States's.
“There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers,” Trump said. “Well, you think our country is so innocent?”
Trump added that he believes that the United States is “better” getting along with Russia than not.
“If Russia helps us in the fight against ISIS, which is a major fight, and Islamic terrorism all around the world, major fight. That’s a good thing,” Trump said. ISIS is another name for the Islamic State.
It wouldn't be the first time that Trump has brushed aside the topic of Putin's political killings.
[Donald Trump isn’t fazed by Vladimir Putin’s journalist-murdering]
In an interview with “Morning Joe” hosts in 2015, Trump was pressed on the same issue and gave a similar answer.
“He kills journalists that don't agree with him,” the show's host Joe Scarborough pointed out.
“Well, I think that our country does plenty of killing, too, Joe,” Trump added.
As recently as this week, a prominent Putin critic exhibited symptoms of poisoning for the second time since 2015. The incident drew the attention of Republican Sen. John McCain, a strenuous Russia critic, who tweeted two newspaper editorials, which call for the United States to denounce the incident as an act of political retribution. He called both editorials “a must-read.”