President Donald Trump made a "very serious" and even "disastrous" mistake in his latest defense of Russia, the former undersecretary of defense under George W. Bush told Newsmax TV on Monday.
Jed Babbin said he was disturbed by Trump's response to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, who asked about his respect for Russian President Vladimir Putin and branded him "a killer" — to which Trump to shot back: "There are a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent?"
"It is equating and giving moral equivalence to a killer, to Russia," Babbin told host Steve Malzberg on "America Talks Live." "I mean they're invading other countries, they're conquering, subjugating their neighbors, they assassinate journalists.
"For President Trump to say what he said is really nothing short of disastrous. It puts him one inch away from being among the people [former Soviet Union leader] Joseph Stalin used to say were useful idiots."
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Babbin, a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, labeled Trump's statement "a serious mistake."
"And it comes from the fact that he is not an ideological man," Babbin added. "Trump does not have an ideology, so he's looking to make deals, and in this case, you have to have a basis for your ideology, and our ideology is our Constitution, and to equate that with Putin's Russia is a significant mistake."
Babbin also believes Trump's statement was not just one of his off-the-cuff throwaway remarks.
"I think he means it, and that's really one of the big problems, because what he said is not just conveying a moral equivalence to Putin's Russia," Babbin told Malzberg. "What he's basically saying is 'we need you, we are desperate, we have to have you as an ally in fighting ISIS and global terrorism.'"
"And if he believes that, No. 1 he's confessing a weakness which Putin will exploit, and No. 2, he's flat wrong. We don't need the Russians. Yeah, it'd be nice to have them by our side, but at what price?
"The Russians never do anything without a price, and for Mr. Trump to say what he said gives them a legitimacy in their presence in Syria and in the Middle East, and don't forget they're in partnership with Iran which is clearly not one of the good guys. Even Mr. Trump has to realize that."
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said Monday it wants an apology from Fox News over O'Reilly's "unacceptable" comments — dubbing Putin a "killer" — during his interview with Trump before the Super Bowl.
"We consider such words from the Fox TV company to be unacceptable and insulting, and honestly speaking, we would prefer to get an apology from such a respected TV company," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
Babbin is co-author with Herbert London of "The BDS War Against Israel: The Orwellian Campaign to Destroy Israel Through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement," published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
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