Putin Laughs When NBC Reporter Asks If He’s A Killer

An NBC reporter didn’t hold back while interviewing President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

NBC reporter Keir Simmons in his interview with Vladimir Putin was quoted saying “President Biden was asked whether he believes you are a killer, he said, ‘I do’. Mr President, are you a killer?”.

Putin immediately laughed and responded by saying “over my tenure, I’ve gotten used to attacks from all kinds of angles and from all kinds of areas under all kinds of pretext and reasons”.

Watch a small excerpt of the interview here:

“Mr. President, are you a killer?” pic.twitter.com/xiVvUHX9Yl

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 11, 2021

In Putin's NBC interview, both times he was asked about whether he is a killer, he laughed in the same rehearsed way and brought up Chechnya. A good follow-up would have been to ask him whether he thinks that droning terrorists is the same as killing the opposition & journalists. pic.twitter.com/NJXrcKMh5S

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) June 12, 2021

The Hill had more on the story and had these details to add:

Russian President Vladimir Putin laughed when he was asked by an NBC News reporter if he was a “killer,” a term used by President Biden and others to describe him.

“Mr. President, are you a killer?” NBC reporter Keir Simmons asked in an interview with Putin ahead of his first meeting with Biden since the U.S. president took office.

Putin laughed at the question before responding, “Over my tenure, I’ve gotten used to attacks from all kinds of angles and from all kinds of areas under all kinds of pretext and reasons and at different caliber and fierceness, and none of it surprises me.”

When pressed for an answer, Putin avoided the question, saying, “Sentiments in terms of who calls someone what kind of labels, this is not something I worry about in the least.”

The question came after Biden said in an ABC News interview in March that he believed Putin was a “killer.”

He laughed but didn’t quite say no. https://t.co/1fGjV09hMO

— Slate (@Slate) June 13, 2021

Putin laughs when asked by NBC reporter if he's a 'killer' https://t.co/ydhC8s0VcK

— Cecilia Attias (@CeciliaAttias) June 13, 2021

The Slate covered the interview too:

NBC News has released a few excerpts from a sit-down interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin that included the question, “Are you a killer?” During the interview, which is scheduled to air Monday, journalist Keir Simmons asked Putin, “The late John McCain in Congress called you a killer. When President Trump was asked, was told that you are a killer, he didn’t deny it. When President Biden was asked whether he believes you are a killer, he said, ‘I do’. Mr President, are you a killer?”

Putin laughed but didn’t quite say no. The Russian president didn’t really answer the question, only saying he had heard lots of these types of accusations during his tenure, “none of it surprises me,” he added. Putin got a bit sociological about the question, saying that the “harsh rhetoric” was “an expression of overall U.S. culture” and he went on to blame Hollywood. “There are some underlying deep things in Hollywood—macho—which can be treated as cinematic art, but that is part of U.S. political culture, where it’s considered normal. By the way, not here, it is not considered normal here.”

Putin later in the interview called Trump an “extraordinary” man and Biden just a career man.

Putin calls Trump an ‘extraordinary individual,’ Biden, a ‘career man’ https://t.co/kbY1ysMkFA

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 12, 2021