Page 15 - Note Taker News Today

Should he take steps for whatever reason. >> interesting. much more to come on that tomorrow. but on today right now, samantha, greg miller i had on from "the washington post" reporting about how the president has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal notes and information about his face to face meetings with vladimir putin from being public or going to his closest advisers. what would these photos look like? what would they contain? >> kate, i have planned, executed and memorialized presiden...

Trump has gone to extraordinary tlongs conceal details of his conversations with russian president vladimir putin. including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes, taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the lindquist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials. >> every step that the president has made going into these meetings with vladimir putin has been a misstep from the count counterintelligence perspective. not to ...

Security analyst, samantha venegrad. sam, i know you have been involved in presidential meetings before, including with president putin. what should president trump have done after that? which steps should he have taken? >> ana, i didnt take notes during presidential meetings, because i liked looking at my own handwriting. past presidents wanted to have note takers present because notetakers are an important first step towards conducting a safe meeting. they are human witnesses to what is and is...

With the russians and only have an interpreter there. but since then, the tradition has been one of sharing, of more transparency because we have such a complicated government with so many different sprawling relationships that really makes a difference that people are brought up to speed. after all, these are the people we trust with the utmost secrets of the government. to trust them with that is no stretch at all. it is traditionally what is done. head of brookings worked with president clint...

The sole note taker so that people in his administration would not know what he said between vladimir putin -- to vladimir putin and vice-versa. and by the way, show, if helsinki is any indication of what was said, we know publicly when he sold out the u.s., publicly when he blamed america for russians sbooerns. interference. if thats what he said publicly, heaven knowles what he said privately because well never know because dent have proximate cause in with him and he took the notes. >> i thin...

America. steve: okay. so its a bombshell. what do you make of the fact that the president didnt have any note takers when it came time to sit down with vladimir putin? >> >> i dont know why anyone is surprised by this either. the presidents administration has been victimized by series of per neighbors leaks and some cases mike flynn criminal leaks and investigation into all of his dealings with russia. steve, if that was accompanied by a story about the presidents, you know, passive behavior tow...

With president trump. where was the story about president obama and all of his illicit dealings with iran? note taker? they didnt even acknowledge the meetings existed. forget about a note taker. again, its just this -- brian: we never would have found out about the money if it wasnt for iranian television. the piles of cash. the president, you know, has not been critical of vladimir putin. almost said nothing. his actions, for example, he came down on western europe for being attached to his na...

Thats separate from the interpreter. i think thats getting really mixed up in the coverage of this. the interpreter does not take notes to report out to anybody. theyre incapable of doing that. their job is to try to make that conversation happen. i oftentimes was the note taker in those meetings and so president obama always had a note taker. he always had an interpreter and he usually had seenior staff the national security adviser and then we always read those meetings out, a, to the press, b...

Before he got up from the table he would take those notes, put his initials and hand it to the secretary of state or staff secretary and those notes from the meeting, anything i wrote down, even if it was a doodle, would become part of the file on that country and that leader. talk about the rest of the white house staff is flying blind without a record of what the president says to a foreign leader? >> right. i mean thats right, this isnt just unusual, this is highly abnormal bordering on unpre...

Not about japan. were talking about rush a tsia country that interfered in the 2016 election specifically to help elect donald trump. his interactions with the russian president are of greater interest and of greater significance in many ways than his interactions with the prime minister of japan or somebody from another country. >> michael mcfall, youve been in a position to need such information as might be generated in one of these conversations when you served as the ambassador to russia. is...