NBC's Katy Tur, who has a long history reporting on the president, speaks with Sen. Deb Fischer (D-NE) about President Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin. Tur is concerned that Donald Trump's morally neutral approach to world affairs combined with his apparent closeness to the Russian dictator could lead him down a "dangerous path."



She notes Putin's history of dealing harshly with personal and political opponents: "As we know, there's -- since 2000 there's been a couple dozen suspicious deaths of journalists in Russia who came out against the government there."





TUR: Senator, the junior senator in your state, Senator Ben Sasse, came up strongly over the weekend condemning Donald Trump's assertion that we are just as bad as Russia. When he said that, you know, we -- America does bad and terrible things, too, when Bill O'Reilly asked him if Vladimir Putin was a killer.



Why -- what is your sense of why this president is going above and beyond -- bending over backwards, if you will -- to stay away from criticizing the Russian president and to almost give him an excuse? As we know, there's, since 2000, been a couple dozen suspicious deaths of journalists in Russia who came out against the government there. Donald Trump has made no secret about going after journalists and his distaste for any news that doesn't agree with him here. Do you find that this is a dangerous path he is heading down?



FISCHER: I know that Putin is a thug and he runs a gas station, and the prices are low right now. And so he is going to continue to be belligerent; he is going to continue to be aggressive. I've led a codels to Eastern Europe; I led a codel to Estonia, the Czech Republic, and Romania. And we have a very full understanding of who Vladimir Putin is. And he is not a friend of the United States.



It's up to President Trump to establish relationships with foreign leaders, but also to recognize them for who they are. And I believe that President Trump will recognize, or does recognize right now, who Putin is. And he will develop that relationship and he will know how to confront him.



TUR: Very quickly, what makes you say that he does recognize who Putin is when he hasn't said so publicly?



FISCHER: Well, I think when you're at the beginning of an administration, you really don't want to go out and start attacking people that you're going to have to work with.

Links to some of Tur's past encounters with the president below: