Watch: Did President Donald Trump just confess that the US is a country of killers? [VIDEO]

US President Donald Trump seems to no qualms when it comes to wading into controversy. On Saturday evening local time, he came to the defence of Russian President Vladimir Putin while giving a TV interview by asking if Bill O'Reilly of Fox News — who was interviewing him — thought the US was "so innocent."

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Trump has made controversial remarks before, like the time he blamed China for climate change and global warming, or when he shut up a journalist from CNN at a press conference by calling it "fake news." The effect has rubbed off on members from his administration, with White House spokesperson first lying about the crowd at Trump's inauguration, and then Trump's advisor Kellyanne Conway saying that Spicer was stating "alternate facts," a term that has given rise to chagrin and mirth in equal parts on the Internet.

What Trump said

In a clip released from the interview on the show The O'Reilly Factor, host and interviewer asks Trump if he respects Putin. Trump replies that he does, and that he respects a lot of people. However that does not mean he gets on with them.

O'Reilly asks: "But he's a killer! Putin's a killer!" Trump shockingly replies: "There are a lot of killers. We've got a lot of killers. What, you think our country is so innocent?" The interview is expected to air in a few hours.

The aftermath

The rhetorical question by Trump could be construed by many as an admission that the US also kills innocent people. Once that happens, it may not take too much time for terrorists and extremists to be picked up and used to radicalise impressionable people.

The statement could also open a can of worms with the US intelligence establishment, with long-buried black ops coming back to haunt perpetrators as probes are initiated due to public pressure. And that pressure will only increase if the US agencies defend their own and choose to say that nothing of the sort happened. It could even enrage Trump, because he would be made out to be a liar in that case.

Watch the video here: