As a surge in cases of a more contagious Covid Variant is worrying Health Officials there and now here at home. Thanks for being here, everybody. Happening rival at this hour, President Biden is meeting with nato allies in brussels. The president will soon be meeting with turkeys president on the sidelines of this summit. This is President Bidens first inperson gathering with nato leaders where this morning he is calling the alliance critically important and a sacred obligation in stark contrast to his predecessor. This all comes ahead of bidens highly anticipated meeting with russian president Vladimir Putin on wednesday in geneva. Lets begin with jeff zeleny live in brussels for us now. The president has already had some tough words just today for russia and china. What did he say . Reporter well, President Biden has been repeating that message everywhere he goes throughout his European Tour here about the rising aggression from russia and the rising threats from china. Hes doing the same thing here at nato headquarters. Hes in meetings right now behind me here at nato headquarters. The meetings are running long, were told, perhaps an hour long or so. That is generally a sign when World Leaders get together, some 30 or so here, they are having a variety of discussions on a variety of things. But russia and china, of course, key among them. The biggest pledge President Biden is trying to convoy is he believes in this transclick alliance. Hes trying to reaffirm americans commitment to the Military Line of course that President Trump when he was in office once threatened to remove the u. S. From nato. But earlier today as President Biden arrived here, he said this there is a growing recognition over the last couple years that we have new challenges, and we have russia that is not acting in a way that is consistent with what we had hoped as well as china. I want to make it clear, nato is critically important for u. S. Interests in and of itself. If there werent one, wed have to invent one. Reporter so President Biden clearly trying to steer the conversation. And for the first time when nato releases a strategic statement really of their meeting and plants, it will mention and plans, it will mention the rising threat and concern of china. That is essential. Everything is leading up to the meeting on wednesday in geneva with Vladimir Putin. I am told that President Biden is really having a conversation with every leader he meets here and, indeed, over the weekend talking about putin. Sort of get something input here. Hes trying to build a consensus as he moves into a geneva on wednesday. Behind the scenes, when hes not meeting with World Leaders, hes preparing for that summit. Kate . Absolutely. Jeff, thanks for the reporting. Appreciate it. For more, joining me is cnn political analyst david sanger. Hes of Course National security correspondent for the New York Times. David, first on the meeting thats going to be happening, we think this hour, President Biden meeting with the turkish president erdogan. When it comes to a meeting with president erdogan, it was put this way actually in the New York Times today, and i thought it was well put. I want to read it, how do you not lose turkey while you try to curb erdogan . How important is the answer to that question right now . Its pretty important because president erdogan is certainly the Problem Child of nato at this point. He has bought Russian Air Defense systems, hasnt fully deployed them yet. And expected the United States would continue to supply him with f35 fighter jets even though the russian air system is made to defeat the f35s. He has repressed descent, hes closed media in turkey. Hes basically in the biden world of democracies versus autocracies, hes hard on the cassi side. Theres no provision in the nato charter for throwing a country out. The u. S. Couldnt afford to if it wanted to because hes providing the air access we will need over afghanistan if things go bad after the u. S. Withdraws. Lets jump ahead to what this is all building toward, right. Bidens meeting with Vladimir Putin. In a new interview with nbc news, putin laughed when he was asked if he was a killer by the correspondent who he was speaking with, keir simmons, and also when asked, though, about the ransomware attacks, the u. S. Intelligence has said originated out of russia, wthat weve seen more and more of. I want to play what putin said. Mr. President , are you waging a cyber war against america . Translator where is the evidence . Where is proof . Its becoming farcical. We know it well. We have been accused of all kinds of things, election interference, cyberattacks, and so on and so forth, and not once, not one time did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof. Just founded accusations. David, if this is how putin is responding to biden when theyre face to face, can biden get anywhere in Terms Of Making Quote Unquote Progress with russia . Its going to be hard. If you think about the past 70 years of meetings, first with soviet leaders and then with russian leaders, kate, theyve always been about Nuclear Weapons or had those in the background. The thing about Nuclear Weapons is weve always known where theyre located. We could count them. And you could see when they were launched. The problem with Cyber Weapons is you cant see them being developed, you cant verify whether theyve been dismantled. And its very difficult to prove at least in a public understandable way where they were launched from. Now we dont have any doubt that the svr, the most sophisticated of the russian intelligence agencies, was behind the solar winds with attack which was last discovered last december against american federal agencies, against corporations. The Ransomware Groups are harder to pin down, but we know many of them are based inside russia. But that doesnt mean the russian government was running them, and it makes denials like this all the easier. And so how do you get to an agreement to go limit, say, the targets and so forth if putin wont even admit that theyre harboring the hackers . I mean because as one u. S. Official had put it in terms of how biden is talking about this meeting, ahead of it as hes at the nato summit, the one official described it as what hes looking for is a stable and constructive relationship with russia, but also saying that well respond in the face of russias harmful activities. And im trying to figure out what really is possible here. Whats stable and constructive . Because its not like the u. S. Is never not having to respond to harmful actions by russia these days. Thats right. So stable and constructive is different than were going to reset relations. Were going to have some form of glass notes. Remember that phrase from early in the after the fall of the berlin wall. That were going to develop a friendship. What hes saying is, you know, all we want to develop are some guardrails to keep us from escalating into a worse conflict. So thats part of the problem. But the second problem is that while we have done many things to the russians, mostly financial sanctions after they annexed crimea in response to these cyberattacks, in response to the Manipulation Efforts in the 2016 election, the pace, the sophistication of the attacks has only increased. Whenever you talk about really raising the pain on the russians, which would mostly mean going after their oil and gas revenue, the concern is how do you get off that escalation ladder . What do you do when they come back harder, particularly since we live in the glassiest house, right . We live in an Internet World where its easy to get into a company, a gas pipeline, a beef manufacturer. Someplace that is not particularly hard. The glassiest of houses. Im going to use that. David, thank you very much. Always good to see you. Appreciate it. Coming up for us, cnn and other Top News Organizations demanding answers after reporters are targeted in a secret effort by the trump Justice Department. So many questions of what actually they were looking for, what they wanted, who knew about it. A big meeting today, and the Attorney General just spoke out for first time on this. And theres a new man in charge in israel. Benjamin netanyahu is not leaving quietly. Coming up, his parting shot and the uncertain path forward now for the country. At fidelity, you get personalized Wealth Planning and unmatched overall value. Together with a dedicated advisor, youll make a plan that can adjust as your life changes, with access to taxsmart Investing Strategies that help you keep more of what you earn. And with brokerage accounts, you see what youll pay before you trade. Personalized advice. Unmatched value. At fidelity, you can have both. More than this at fidelity, you can have both. Theres interest you accrue, and interests you pursue. Plans for the long term, and plans for a long weekend. Assets you allocate, and ones you hold tight. At thrivent, we believe money is a tool, not a goal. And with the right guidance, you can get the financial clarity you need, and live a life rich in meaning, and gratitude. To learn more, text thrive to 444555, or visit thrivent. Com. Keeping your oysters Business Growing has you swamped. You need to hire. I need indeed indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventyfivedollar credit when you post your first job at indeed. Com promo front desk. Yes, hello. Im so. Please hold. I got you. All by yourself. Go with us and get millions of flexible booking options. Expedia. It matters who you travel with. Its another day. And anything could happen. It could be the day you welcome 1,200 guests and all their devices. Or it could be the day theres a cyberthreat. Get ready for it all with an advanced network and managed services from Comcast Business. And get Cybersecurity Solutions that let you see everything on your network. Plus an expert team looking ahead 24 7 to help prevent threats. Every day in business is a big day. Well keep you ready for whats next. Comcast business powering possibilities. You come and go karmakarmakarma karmakarma chameleon you come and go you come and gooo loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreams red, gold [ Tires Screech ] [ Crickets Chirping ] for those who were born to ride theres progressive. With 24 7 roadside assistance. Karmakarmakarmakarmakarma chameleon. My cholesterol is borderline. So i take garlique to help maintain healthy cholesterol safely and naturally. And its odor free. Im taking charge of my cholesterol with garlique. We have breaking news just in. Attorney general Merrick Garland has just spoken out for the first time after it was revealed the Justice Department under former President Trump secretly seized phone and email records of reporters at major media organizations, massive amounts of data. Garlands statement comes just hours before he is set to meet with the leaders of cnn, the New York Times, and the washington post. It goes much further than that. Cnns paula reid is joining me now with more on this. Paula, tell us what the Attorney General said. Reporter kate, in his statement, the Attorney General says that there are important questions that need to be explored about how the trump Justice Department went about obtaining these records. Now just to underscore how extraordinary it is, its highly unusual to obtain lawmakers records like this outside of an investigation into corruption. In the course of the Justice Department does frequently investigate leaks. The biggest question we have right now is what exactly happened. Why were these records seized . Who oversaw this . Who knew what when . Former attorneys general and the Deputy Attorney general, theyve denied being involved in many of these record requests. Going forward, according to the statement, the Deputy Attorney general, lisa monaco, she is going to be reviewing the Justice Departments procedure for obtaining records from lawmakers like this in the future. Now suggesting that the current procedures, whatever they may be, are inadequate and suggesting perhaps they were not followed in this particular case. Still so many questions. Were also reporting out another secret request for records from thenwhite House Counsel don mcghan. Again, extraordinary to secretly obtain the records of thenPresident Trumps top lawyer. And apple was barred from actually disclosing this until just this last may. To this point in our reporting, its not clear if mcghan was the target of an investigation or if his records were swept up in a larger request related to something different. What were seeing is this pattern of unusual requests in what appear to in some cases be leak investigations. But the Common Thread we see in all three of these instances is that these were people that thenPresident Trump were frustrated with. Democratic lawmakers, white House Counsel who resisted the former president s calls to fire thenspecial counsel. Its also very difficult to believe that when it comes to don mcghan that thenAttorney General Jeff Sessions and thenDeputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein wouldnt have known about a request for the white House Counsels records. But in talking with sources, there are some concerns that perhaps his information was swept up. That they didnt actually know who it was, whose information they had, and that wasnt actually disclosed until apple revealed it to their customer. I talked to a lot of former justice officials and said thats scary, thats going to be scary to a lot of americans. The fact that the white House Counsel doesnt have much protection when it comes to his records being swept up. Now of course were also investigating reporting on the requests for records from several journalists including our colleague, Barbara Starr, here at cnn. Later today, several several top officials from various News Organizations will be meeting with the Attorney General to discuss efforts to obtain reporters records. Paula, thank you so much for that. There is a lot to dig through here. Joining me for more on this is cnn legal analyst paul callen. Your reaction to the statement from the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, ahead of this meeting today. Well, you know, this entire situation is quite shocking from a legal standpoint. To think that the counsel to the president of the United States, trumps counsel, could be investigated, subpoenaed by the his own Justice Department is just an indication of how dangerous the situation is. I mean, if hes investigating his own counsel, what about american citizens . What about the congress . What about journalists around the country . This is far more dangerous than even when we saw during the Nixon Administration where he, of course, had his enemies list and was impeached. But he was never really charged with an abuse of the Subpoena Power to this extent. Speaker pelosi has said that it is beyond belief, in her view, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Attorney General bill barr under trump, of course, did not know about these subpoenas and this effort. Do you agree . Yeah. It is it is quite shocking that that would be the case. But just in terms of the way the American Power system, the American Government is structured, you have to remember that the president is the chief Law Enforcement officer in the country. And the Justice Department works for him. And his discretion is very, very wide. Hes only checked by the courts. But the courts have to know that its going on. And sometimes subpoenas are issued without judges even knowing about it. Because remember, prosecutors have the right to issue subpoenas without judicial consent in many situations. So when you have a president whos abusing his power, the system the way its set up now, its very difficult to control that except through impeachment or not reelecting him. And the secret courts are a category all of their own, as well. I mean, and seemingly every day we are learning of new subpoenas that this is getting broader and wider. And its whats still not clear, and paula was speaking to this, is who really was being targeted. Why they were being targeted. They were being targeted for a subpoena, but are they the target of an investigation . We know in Barbara Starrs circumstances, we know that she was not a target of an investigation. Why isnt the Justice Department explaining why cant the Justice Department explain the circumstances around this more . Certainly the Justice Department could explain it if they want to. Theres nothing prohibiting that. But the Justice Department likes to hold on to its ability to conduct secret investigations. Sometimes youre investigating intelligence matters, sometimes youre investigating mob figures. And for instance, if youre looking at their bank records or other kinds of records, you certainly dont want them to know that youre doing that as youre putting the case together. But of course in the situation that we have here where journalists like Barbara Starr and other people who kind of work for the Public Interest we always hope, unlike mob figures, theyre being treated pretty much the same way. And you know, the cnn example is a great example. Counsel to cnn, david vigilante, was issued a subpoena, and he was gagged, the subpoena said he couldnt even tell Barbara Starr or others at the network that the subpoena had been issued. And this went on for a long period of time. By the way, the penalty for violating that gag order could be years in prison. It could be a felony violation. So this is an area where you can have tremendous abuse of power, and i would hope the Justice Department will be more open about what went on in this case and whether we need more controls in these kinds of investigations. Yeah. What the controls would be, what Policy Change could be happening. It might be necessary in the Justice Department after this comes to light. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ahead, a potential Nuclear Disaster brewing in china. What the u. S. Government is watching now as some warn of an immine imminent radiological threat. Where Everybody Knows your name and theyre always glad you came welcome back, america. Jess when you have auto glass damage. It sure is good to see you. Schedule safelites new drop and go service. A. Just drop off your keys and go enjoy your day. Well send you text updates and let you know when its ready. Schedule drop and go today. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Look, this isnt my first rodeo and let me tell you something, i wouldnt be here if i thought Reverse Mortgages took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. Its just a loan designed for older homeowners, and, its helped over a million americans. A reverse Mortgage Loan isnt some kind of trick to take your home. Its a loan, like any other. Big difference is how you pay it back. Find out how Reverse Mortgages really work with aags free, noobligation Reverse Mortgage guide. Eliminate monthly Mortgage Payments, pay bills, medical costs, and more. Call now and get your free info kit. Other mortgages are paid each month, but with a Reverse Mortgage, you can pay whatever you can, when it works for you, or, you can wait, and pay it off in one lump sum when you leave your home. Discover the option thats best for you. Call today and find out more in aags free, noobligation reverse Mortgage Loan guide. Access taxfree cash and stay in the home you love. Youve probably been investing in your home for years. Making monthly Mortgage Payments. Doing the right thing. And its become your familys heart and soul. Well, that investment can give you taxfree cash just when you need it. Learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse Mortgage Loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio, and so much more. Look, Reverse Mortgage