Hannity not as soon as, however twice, introduced up the blowback to Trump’s feedback.
“I feel you additionally acknowledge he’s evil, do you not?” the Fox host mentioned.
Trump once more didn’t go that far, however Hannity gave it one other strive.
“Let me return to the problem of the criticism, as a result of I’ve identified you nicely over 25 years,” he mentioned. “And while you obtained criticized for saying that Vladimir Putin is wise, we’ve had many conversations, and also you’ve usually quoted to me Solar Tzu, ‘The Artwork of Conflict’: Hold your pals shut and your enemies nearer. Is that the way you considered Vladimir? Did you view Vladimir Putin and other people like President Xi and Kim Jong Un and the Iranian mullahs as enemies that you just wanted to maintain shut?”
Trump, in response, didn’t name his former counterparts enemies.
“I obtained together with these folks. I obtained together with them nicely,” he mentioned. “That doesn’t imply they’re good folks. It doesn’t imply something apart from the truth that I understood them and maybe they understood me — possibly they understood me even higher. That’s OK, as a result of they knew there could be a giant penalty.”
Hannity pressed but once more, telling the previous president he needed to grasp his pondering, whereas additionally attempting to place phrases into Trump’s mouth.
“The pondering is, we obtained alongside however you knew that they had been searching for his or her pursuits always,” Hannity mentioned, with the previous president interjecting, “One-hundred p.c.”
The Fox Information host continued: “And also you understood that they had been able to evil issues.”
“Putin is for Russia, and also you see what occurred,” Trump responded. “And that’s all as a result of they didn’t respect our chief. Look, there was no person, and Putin will inform you this — if he was telling the reality, and I’m certain he has informed it to all of his inside sanctum — no person was more durable on Russia than me.”