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  • 3/25/2025
Biden called him a "killer." Trump said "we get along." Obama called him "a bored kid." Here's what U.S. presidents have said about Russian President Vladimir Putin...
Transcript
00:00I'd like to congratulate President Putin for being the only person that caught a fish today.
00:04So you know Vladimir Putin, you think he's a killer?
00:08I do.
00:08I like Putin, he likes me, you know, we get along.
00:19I looked the man in the eye. I found it to be very straightforward and trustworthy.
00:25And we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul.
00:47A lot of people never really dreamt that an American president
00:50and a Russian president could have established the friendship that we had.
00:57We were enemies for a long period of time. When I was in high school, Russia was an enemy.
01:05Now the high school students can know Russia as a friend.
01:12He's got that kind of slouch, looking like the board kid in the back of the classroom.
01:20I don't have a bad personal relation with Putin. When we have conversations,
01:30they're candid, they're blunt. I know the press likes to focus on body language and
01:34he's got that kind of slouch, looking like the board kid in the back of the classroom.
01:40But the truth is, is that when we're in conversations together, oftentimes it's very productive.
01:46I respect Putin. He's a strong leader, I can tell you that, unlike what we have.
02:09President Putin called me up very nicely to congratulate me on the win of the election.
02:14Putin's a killer. A lot of killers. We've got a lot of killers. Why do you think our country's
02:19so innocent? I like Putin, he likes me. You know, we get along. Wouldn't you say it's smart to get
02:24along? Okay, smart. So what specifically will you do differently to change Vladimir Putin's
02:34behavior? Well, first of all, there's no guarantee you can change a person's behavior or the behavior
02:39of his country. Autocrats have enormous power. They don't have to answer to a public.
02:44Why do you think he hasn't changed his behavior in spite of
02:47everything the U.S. has done to this point? He's Vladimir Putin.

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