On Fox News Sunday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich defended Donald Trump’s praise of Vladimir Putin and his appearance on Russian propaganda network RT.
Host Chris Wallace quoted Trump and Mike Pence’s praise of the Russian president.
Gingrich replied by noting former President George W. Bush’s closeness with Putin. Putin “certainly has been a very strong leader,” he added.
“Let’s go all the way back to George W. Bush, who said he looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul. Let’s go back to Hillary, who actually got a button out of a hot tub, painted the wrong word on it for ‘reset’—she actually painted ‘overcharge’ because her interpreter was wrong. That was her opening. Let’s go just to this week where Secretary Kerry was sitting down trying to work out a deal in Syria with the Russians.”
Wallace followed up, “but, you can’t be comfortable with this continued praise of Vladimir Putin?”
“I’m not comfortable or uncomfortable with it,” replied Gingrich. “I think that Putin is a fact.”
Gingrich also defended Trump’s appearance on RT. “Donald Trump went on Larry King. I don’t think Larry King is an arm of Russian propaganda.”
Watch the full clip here:
