Rubio disputes Trump’s Russia-U.S. comparison

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Donald Trump’s onetime campaign rival, is disputing the president’s implication this weekend that the United States isn’t so pure when it comes to criticizing Russia’s human rights record.

Rubio, a prominent member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tactics go far beyond anything seen in the United States.

“We are not the same as #Putin,” he wrote on Twitter, asking when a Democratic political activist in the U.S. “poisoned by the GOP, or vice versa?”

When has a Democratic political activists been poisoned by the GOP, or vice versa? We are not the same as #Putin. MR

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 5, 2017

Only reason we should ever lift sanctions on #Putin is if he meets conditions of sanctions & ends violations of #ukraine sovereignty. MR

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 5, 2017

Trump told Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly in an interview airing Sunday that he respects Putin, despite his constant efforts to undermine U.S. policy.

{mosads}“I do respect him. Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get along with them,” Trump said.

When O’Reilly stated that “Putin is a killer,” Trump implied the U.S. government has sanctioned extrajudicial killing as well.

“There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers,” Trump said. “You think our country is so innocent?”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also objected to the comparison on Sunday.

“I don’t think there is any equivalency between the way the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does,” McConnell said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Rubio and Trump clashed bitterly during the primary. Trump mocked him as “Little Marco” and joked about his profuse sweating in pressure-packed situations, while Rubio made fun of Trump’s hand size, alluding to his manhood.

He eventually endorsed Trump and supported Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s nomination, after asking tough and pointed questions about his relationship with Russia at the former Exxon Mobil CEO’s confirmation hearing.