Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday defended President Trump's comments in which he appeared to draw parallels between the United States and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We now have a president who is reengaging a world from which America has been stepping back over the last eight years," the former Indiana governor said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

In a clip of an interview set to air before the Super Bowl, Trump responded to a remark about Putin being a "killer" by saying, "We got a lot of killers — what, you think our country's so innocent?"

When asked if Trump was making a claim of moral equivalence between the U.S. and Russia, Pence rejected the notion.

"There was no moral equivalency," Pence said, adding, "What you heard there was a determination to attempt to deal with the world as it is. Let's start afresh with Putin, and to start afresh with Russia."

When pressed by host John Dickerson on his comments, Pence repeated: "What I can tell you is that there is no moral equivalency in what the president was saying.

"We recognize the extraordinary superiority, the ideals of the American people," Pence added.

Dickerson then pressed Pence again, asking if he believes the U.S. is morally superior to Russia: "Yes or no?"

"I believe that the ideals that America has stood for throughout our history represent the highest ideals of humankind," Pence replied.

"Shouldn't we be able to say yes to that question though," Dickerson asked.

Pence replied: "I think it's without question ... that American ideals are superior to countries all across the world."

According to Pence, the president is simply trying to "see if we can have a new relationship with Russia."