Hillary Clinton compares Putin to Hitler

Charles Lanes on Hillary Clinton's controversial comments

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," March 6, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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O'REILLY: "Personal Story Segment" tonight, speaking at UCLA Hillary Clinton compared Putin's invasion of Ukraine to Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938. The Factor also made that comparison earlier this week. Here is what Mrs. Clinton said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: The claims by President Putin and other Russians that they had to go in to Crimea and maybe further into eastern Ukraine because they had to protect the Russian minority. And that is reminiscent of claims that were made back in the 1930s when Germany under the Nazis kept talking about how they had to protect German minorities.

I'm not making a comparison certainly but I am recommending that we perhaps can learn from this tactic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: Joining us now from Washington Charles Lane a "Washington Post" opinion writer and Fox News analyst. Now I say Mrs. Clinton's point is historically valid and you say?

CHARLES LANE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I say her point is also historically valid. I think it's possible to overdo this analogy but on the particular point she was making, it's absolutely correct. And by the way, this referendum that Putin is planning for the Crimea reminds me a lot of the one Hitler ran in Austria after he moved his troops into Austria in 1938.

O'REILLY: Sure. It's the same tactic. Look Putin -- Putin is not an idiot. He knows what Hitler did because it did and you know, and a lot of people on the left are just outraged that you're talking about Hitler. But what people don't really understand and I think you do, Mr. Lane -- you're a student of history -- is that what's going on in Europe right now directly relates to World War II. All of the boundaries that were drawn by Stalin and by FDR -- Churchill didn't have much to do with it, all right -- have caused friction ever since. And the classic bully that Hitler was is the same kind of bully that Putin is. I don't see a lot of difference in

style.

LANE: The big difference, I think the important difference and the reason why the analogy is far from perfect is that Hitler had a sort of global Aryan supremacy ideology with the justifications for the Holocaust and all of that built into it. You don't see anything like that in what Putin is

doing.

Putin is aggressive but his goals are sort of traditional within the Russian mind set. I think the -- and you mentioned the borders, that's very important. Another point where they are similar is that both of these guys are products of collapsed empires who saw the humiliation of Hitler after World War I; Putin after the Cold War of the empires that they had

served.

O'REILLY: And they use -- and they use that to galvanize their power by saying to the German people and the Russian people I'll restore the grandeur of this country. But I think you are making a mistake in the sense that when Hitler rose to power -- and I'm writing a book on World War II right now -- when he rose to power, all right, he didn't do all the concentration camps and all the extermination stuff until the war started. I mean there were certainly signs that he was going to do it.

But Putin is a human rights violator. He is suppressing the press. He is doing exactly what the Nazis did in the mid-1930s almost -- it's almost a playbook right down. But here is what I don't understand and you hang with this people and I don't. Why is the left upset about what Hillary said? It's absolutely right.

All right, why -- why? Because you mentioned Hitler? You can't do that? That's insane.

LANE: Well I don't know why anybody would object to the analogy. But I can imagine a reason to object to Hillary saying it. I mean there are some times --

O'REILLY: Why?

LANE: Well there are some times when, you know, she is sort of the wrong person to say this true thing because at this particular moment given her past position and her attempted future position it is an inflammatory thing for her to say.

O'REILLY: Why? I don't understand why. She is a former Secretary of State. She knows Putin, she knows Russia. She certainly has a credibility to speak to the issue. I don't know why people on the left are so upset. I know why people on the right are upset because they hate Hillary. No matter what she says they are going to hate her. All right so I understand

that.

But the people on the left, I mean what -- what is your objection to stating the truth?

LANE: I have no objection to stating the truth. I have a concern that when truth comes out of the mouth of someone the Russians believe is essentially part of the ruling circles in Washington as they put it.

O'REILLY: Oh you think it's going to ignite more bad feeling that Hillary said this?

LANE: It -- it was probably not the best chosen moment for her to say this thing.

O'REILLY: Too provocative?

LANE: It was a little on the provocative side, yes.

O'REILLY: Well I hope they don't have satellite TV over there watching this program. All right?

LANE: I thought you wanted an audience everywhere.

O'REILLY: I know and we're on like 130 countries now. But I don't have the stature of Mrs. Clinton. But she is absolutely right on. Putin is a tyrant, a human rights violator, not to the level of Hitler -- not. I agree with that. Ok? But the same playbook, the same kind of deceit, the same kind of technique -- you get out of line and I will take care of you. That's Putin. Last word.

LANE: And by the way -- he has nuclear weapons which Hitler did not.

O'REILLY: Hitler was that close to getting them -- that close. Mr. Lane, thank you.

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