Another day, another controversy involving Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the press. As the millions of viewers of Bill O’Reilly’s Super Bowl Sunday interview with President Donald Trump heard, in the interview, O’Reilly brought up the issue of Trump’s favorable remarks about Russian president Putin.
O’Reilly said that Putin is a “killer,” to which Trump responded: “We’ve got a lot of killers,” adding, “You think our country’s so innocent?”
Trump’s comment ignited another firestorm of controversy and criticism, but it was O’Reilly’s characterization of Putin as a “killer” that got the Russian government fuming.
As the BBC reports, the Kremlin wants an apology from Fox News, where O’Reilly’s show, “The O’Reilly Factor” airs. The Super Bowl coverage on Sunday aired on Fox.
The New York Times adds that, according to reports from Russian state-run news agencies, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov called O’Reilly’s remark “unacceptable, insulting,” continuing, “Of course, we would prefer to receive apologies to our president from such a respectable television network.”
O’Reilly was already scheduled to include additional material from his interview with Trump on tonight’s edition of “The O’Reilly Factor,” on the Fox News Channel. Deadline reports that O’Reilly will also address the Russian apology demand on the show tonight.
— Kristi Turnquist
kturnquist@oregonian.com
503-221-8227
@Kristiturnquist
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