President Trump struck back Tuesday at the bipartisan criticism he's faced for allegedly drawing a "moral equivalence" between Vladimir Putin's Russia and America.
In a Tuesday morning tweet, Trump hit two birds with one digital stone -- once again denying any ties to Moscow, while suggesting his predecessor's nuclear deal with Iran never faced such scrutiny.
“I don’t know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy – yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem!” Trump tweeted.
Trump’s tweet came after days of criticism from Republican and Democratic lawmakers over the president’s off-the-cuff response when Fox News host Bill O’Reilly’s labeled Putin a “killer.
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“You think our country’s so innocent?” Trump countered to O’Reilly, during an interview that was broadcast Sunday before the Super Bowl.
That remark drew swift rebukes from lawmakers.
.@POTUS statement suggesting moral equivalence between Putin’s Russia and the United States of America is deeply troubling and wrong,” tweeted Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming who is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also had piled on the president after Trump put Iran “on notice” for apparent violations of a U.N. resolution banning ballistic missile tests.
“No enemy can paralyze the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said Tuesday during his first speech since Trump was sworn into office. “[Trump] says ‘you should be afraid of me.’ No! The Iranian people will respond to his words on Feb. 10 and will show their stance against such threats.”
Feb. 10 marks the 38th anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution. The text of Khamenei's speech was published by the country's MEHR news agency.
The morning message slamming the Obama administration’s nuke deal also came in sharp relief to kinder statements Trump made about former President Barack Obama in an interview with O’Reilly that aired on Monday.
“I don’t know if he’ll admit this, but he likes me,” Trump said. “I like him.”