O’Reilly: ‘Got to hand it to Putin’

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Thursday said Russian President Vladimir Putin deserves some credit for realizing “he can pretty much do what he wants to do.”

“In a way, you’ve got to hand it to Putin,” O’Reilly said. “He knows that the west is weak and that Mr. Obama will not likely rally Europe.”

O’Reilly said Putin is “smirking at the world” because he realizes that the United States and Western European countries are issuing empty threats to get Putin to withdraw from the Ukraine.

{mosads}He said that France only wants to have “mediation” with Putin and that Germany doesn’t have the power to take Putin down because Russia is its biggest energy supplier.

O’Reilly said this makes it near impossible for President Obama to rally the western nations against Putin, adding that that makes Obama look weak.

“Putin is having a grand old time violating international law and watching the western powers kneel,” O’Reilly said. “Putin knows he can pretty much do what he wants to do, and he’s enjoying the spectacle.”

Watch the full clip above.