“There are a lot of killers,” Trump said. “We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?”

Congressional Republicans have broken with Trump over dozens of controversial statements he has made during his campaign, his transition and now his presidency, but no issue appears to have flummoxed lawmakers as much as his consistent defense of Putin. Trump’s coziness is at odds with years of GOP foreign-policy orthodoxy calling for a more aggressive stance toward Putin’s regime.

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In a CNN interview Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) rejected any comparison between the two nations, citing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, its incursions into Ukraine and its interference in the U.S. presidential election.

“I don’t think there’s any equivalency between the way that the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does,” he said, adding: “I’m not going to critique the president’s every utterance, but I do think America is exceptional. America is different. We don’t operate in any way the Russians do. I think there’s a clear distinction here that all Americans understand, and no, I would not have characterized it that way.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) weighed in on Twitter: “When has a Democratic political activists been poisoned by the GOP, or vice versa? We are not the same as #Putin.”

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And on ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) lambasted Trump’s remarks and called on him to “show moral leadership about this issue.”

“Let’s be clear: Has the U.S. ever made any mistakes? Of course,” Sasse said. “Is the U.S. at all like Putin’s regime? Not at all. The U.S. affirms freedom of speech. Putin is no friend of freedom of speech. Putin an enemy of freedom of religion. The U.S. celebrates freedom of religion. Putin is an enemy of the free press. The U.S. celebrates free press. Putin is an enemy of political dissent. The U.S. celebrates political dissent and the right for people to argue free from violence about places where our ideas are in conflict.

“There is no equivalency between the United States of America, the greatest freedom-loving nation in the history of the world, and the murderous thugs that are in Putin’s defense of his cronyism. There’s no moral equivalency there.”

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