country. >> tonight the violent right and the explosion of fascism in plain sight. and the source of the leaks in fulton county out himself in open court. >> so that i can sleep well tonight, judge. i did release the videos 21 outlet. >> all the big news coming out of president biden's meeting with president xi of china, and what we know about what happened in the israeli raid on the hospital, when all in starts right now. good evening from new york i'm chris hayes. president joe biden just wrapped up a four-hour summit with chinese president xi jinping, in northern california. we are expecting the president to take questions from the press, and a minute now. right there at that venue in california. today's event was the first time that president xi and president biden had met face to face in the year. it's only the second time they've spoken in person since biden was elected president. it was also the first visit of president xi to the united states since he met with then president trump at mar-a-lago, of course, more than six years ago. two presidents held an extended bilateral meeting for two hours this afternoon, before moving to a smaller more private meeting at about 4:30 pm eastern time. there is a lot to talk about, to say the least. the top of the agenda number of unfolding shield political crises. the white house is seeking help from china to curve the flow of illegal fentanyl in the united states, -- where there are often fabricated and shipped to the u.s.. fentanyl the powerful scent that it opioid is manufactured in chinese labs. it's been a contributing factor to the shockingly fast overdose crisis in this country. the pentagon is also hoping to resume normal military to military communications with beijing. those have been on hold, we haven't had them since then speaker of the house nancy pelosi controversial visit to taiwan last year. taiwan, of course, is according to the chinese communist party, and president xi, part of china. they did not like the visit, to an independent taiwan by the speaker of the house. there's also an ongoing war in ukraine and gaza, that was top of mind for the two leaders. there are some hope and washington that china could healed its influence with iran to present the current war in the middle east widening into a wider conflict. the white house would like to see china pressure north korea into seizing supplying weapons to russia amidst the war in ukraine. joining me now is nbc news white house correspondent monica alba. monika, what was the meeting today and what the event they are at is? >> well, chris, we understand from president biden himself, he called this some of the most productive an expansive conversations that he has had with president xi of course everything you just outlined, all of these events of the last year did put some pressure on this meeting. the expectations were a bit lower because the assumption here is that they could be deemed a success if things return to a baseline of a little bit of predictability. the resumption of the military to military communication, that was a high priority. we're told by senior administration officials that that is an outcome of these talks today, as well as china's commitment to help stem the flow of fentanyl in the united states. we understand from those who were in the room with president biden on the u.s. side that this was a bit more of a personal exchange, they said, even in that meeting that they last had face to face about a year ago on the sidelines of the g20 summit in bali, because that is when the world was emerging from the covid pandemic. even the seating was for the part. there is more distance between the two leaders, whereas today, they were much closer. they were sitting at the same table, they've had the brief walk that you saw there in the footage. they also had lunch together. it was just a bit of a different tone in terms of the closeness and what could be exchanged here. again, the white house is saying that there was some real progress made. we need to understand the specifics of that, and going into it they didn't want to heighten the expectations and case things didn't go as well. it seems, from my conversations with officials, that everything they had hoped from for a very basic level was met. the promise to continue to work on some of these issues. some of the thorny aspects as well, chris, of course, we know when it comes to taiwan, for instance, that there was a large time set to discuss the elections that were set to take place here next year, and the chinese parties and how they view that differs very much from what the u.s. says in respect to taiwan and not interfering with taiwan's independence, and then we also know when it comes to the war in gaza it sounds like from senior administration officials that president biden did most of the talking when it comes to the middle east. that's how it was presented to reporters, and president xi spent more time listening. so, of course, there is a message there that is conveyed, we expect to china to pressure iran and its proxy groups not interfere in any way that would widen or deepen that conflict. we know that that was part of what was discussed as well. then there were other major issues like climate change, something that the two countries have pledged to work together on in effect to say, if we don't do it, if these two superpowers don't come together on that, there is little hope for others and other countries to step up and do more. they have also pledged to work together in that arena. i have to tell you chris, that was so much stage craft, so much behind the scenes effort that went into it from the flowers in the room. the seating, who was going to enter first, the camera angles, the chinese officials wanted to know everything shot by shot in terms of what president xi was going to experience. that gives you a sense of just how they were approaching all of this. but now we will hear from president biden in the solo news conference, where he is going to give his own take of how the talks went. president xi for his part has left the meeting to go to his own dinner here in san francisco this evening, with top u.s. ceos and business leaders in order to make his pitch to why he would want to see more u.s. investment in china as the chinese economy continues to struggle post-pandemic. so, two differing approaches to how they will communicate with the american people about how these talks went today. from both sides, it does seems like there was some progress made on some key issues, some areas of cooperation while agreeing that really the goal here was not to make matters worse. to continue this intense diplomacy and continue to focus on the strategic competition, to make sure that nothing goes off the rails here, when we have seen some close calls in the south china sea and taiwan strait in recent months. chris? >> the context here, monica, of course you have a 20-year period after the admission of china -- the granting have the trading status, the two largest economies in the world, over the last few years we've seen what many people call decoupling, sort of untangling of the economic connection between the two nations. we've seen a decline in foreign direct investment in china. we've also seen increasingly adversarial and nationalist rhetoric on both sides of the divide. -- and from the chinese government, and it's spokespeople as well as from china's public opinion on chinese social media sites and the like, robert gibbs is with us he served as white house press secretary for president barack obama, he is a former director of the cia and both join me now. john, let me start with, you this is the largest country in the world, it is the largest economy in the world in aggregate terms, it has been, you know, one of the most important trading partners with the u.s., important country in every possible sense, and things really had been on a down word trajectory between the two countries over the last few years, what do you see has the most important agenda here coming out of this meeting from the u.s. side? >> well, i think, chris, it's getting things on a better track, we have had a fair amount of tension in the relationship over the next -- it's in both countries interest for them to have -- as you point out there is three quarters of a billion dollars in trade that takes place between the two countries, choosing thing wants to make sure that china is going to still be able to work with the united states because he is dependent on that trade, the u.s. economy in order to fuel his economy. also, i think they're about 300,000 college students in the united states, so there is broad ties between the two countries and as it was pointed out we need to make sure that there will be communication and discourse particularly military to military communications will we avoid any type of unintended escalation of tensions on the military realm. therefore, i do think having a four-hour meeting, that's a good sign, and i do think both president xi and president biden want to come out of this meeting to be able to say that things are on a better track. it doesn't mean that we will not have differences of views, and tensions, but the fact that we have the leaders of the two largest economies in the world talking to one another and trying to resolve some of these outstanding differences, it's a very positive development. >> robert, this will be the first primetime presidential press conference in a bit from president biden, and i suspect he will talk at the beginning about the meeting today with president xi and about u.s. china bilateral relationships, but, -- to donald trump's increasingly unnervingly authoritarian rhetoric to the on going war in gaza and the u.s. support of israel in that effort? >> yes, chris, i think there's no doubt. first and foremost the president will want to update the american people, and the world on what was discussed during the four hour meeting. you know, the reporters were led into this, the idea of how do these two countries identify areas of cooperation? it's hard to flip to the newspaper, hard to watch the news and not see and issue that -- that doesn't require some of that cooperation. that's why today's meeting was important and it sounds like some progress was made. we will hear directly from the president about that, anytime you have the president in front of the press corps you are likely to have a full range of questions, my guess is what is happening in the middle east will be extraordinarily important, you have inflation report yesterday which is tremendously important as it relates to economic growth. and political questions no doubt as well. >> john, on the sort of geopolitical aspect of this, particularly with the military to military relations, i have to admit i remember how controversial the trip was from the chinese side of nancy pelosi, i remember the threats in the very bellicose rhetoric coming from beijing in the lead up to that. i had forgotten that normal military to military relationships had been suspended as a result. can you just explain what do military to military relationships mean and why are they important for two nations that are neither sort of openly in conflict nor really allies? >> well, as we address issues that come up with the two countries that involve military forces, so for example when there are tensions in the east china sea or areas of the pacific it's a way to make sure that there is no misinterpretation of any types of activities that one military might be making when we have the chinese balloon, the intelligence gathering balloon drift over the united states last year this is where the military to military communication on a realtime basis is so important. so there can be a discussion to prevent any type of escalation and having that regular engagement, and the opportunity to talk at the highest levels it's so important. that's why i'm hoping that one of the real outcomes of the meeting will be a reestablishment of that. so that both militaries cannon fact talk to one another and prevent any type of preventable problem that could arise, whether it be in the air, sea or land. >> robert, one of the main sort of strategic questions in a political sense for the president and i think we're second guessing, it's the degree to which he put the rhetorical sights on demands -- in the presidential election, that's a twice impeached four times indicted ex president donald trump. it seems like there's been then back and forth about what to do, how much the current president should communicate about him. i imagine he will get questions about that today, and i'm curious what you are looking for in terms of how he and the political team there are thinking about framing this contest as we approach an election year? >> yes, chris i think from just a stark political view, you have to assume at this point that donald trump is the very likely republican nominee. and, we know that both sides -- we are in a polarized environment so to reach the people that will hopefully decide the election, you will have to sift through a lot of people who have their minds made up. i think it's tremendously important politically for the president to continually frame this race, and from what the choice is and to put that choice in front of the american people, and not shy away from drawing that contrast. the campaign will be long, hard it will be close and the sooner that you begin to force that choice and to have people in this country look at the choice from the perspective, the viewpoint you want them to have that choice from, the better off i think the president is going to be politically. >> you know, john, part of the presidents remark and the questions he answered there will be a domestic u.s. audience, and a chinese audience to see how he is describing what transpired in the room. there will also be an international audience particularly on the question of israel, hamas and gaza. i'm curious, this is a place where diplomacy matters quite a bit. there is a domestic israeli audience, an audience in the region for it, global public audience and i'm curious what are you looking for are tracking about how the president talks about the status of that conflict? >> he will say that he and president xi had a discussion of about the israel hamas conflict, as it was pointed out earlier, president xi was in a listening mode. that's because the united states and biden have been actively involved in trying to do something to be able to bring the tensions down, bring the war to an end. china has become active in the middle east, it was recently responsible for brokering the reestablishment of relationships between iran and saudi arabia. china has a large stake in the region, i don't believe china wants to see the region go up in flames, that's why it's important for president biden and president xi to talk about how they can work together to try to prevent any type of broadening of this conflict. and try to ensure that china uses its influence with iran to discourage hezbollah from engaging in an even larger activity in the northern border of israel. that's something i think president biden was looking forward to weighing in with president xi to see whether or not he would do if he could prevent any further conflict in the middle east. >> there's also an interesting political conflict. i want to ask you, robert, about it. we have seen both of the polling, the u.s. public opinion that china has gone down there has been a rise in anti china sentiment, it's been whipped up particularly by politicians, sometimes who explicitly say things like, in the republican party we shouldn't be talking about ukraine and helping them against russia, the real enemy is china we need to be putting our attention there, u.s. members of congress calling to expel chinese students from universities or surveil the more actively, i'm curious what you think about how president biden communicates what is a worrying degree of demagoguery about u.s. and china relationship domestically. >> yes i think it's an important question, chris this is a relationship that is complicated, it's a very competitive relationship and as it probably should be. so i think you will have to watch the president walk a bit of a fine line holding the chinese accountable, making sure that he delivers in private with president xi and also in public, distinct and clear messages about what is important in the relationship, and what the united states needs to get out of it. at the same time walking away from the harshest of rhetoric. in reality we can't push these people aside, we can't push the relationship aside. it's imperative as john said that there is open communication, and we are working together, north koreans, russians, we won't be able to imprint on them without the help of the chinese. >> there is something a little ironic in the occasion for today's summit and that they discussed, john, the middle east which is that for literally decades, a running theme has been that u.s. policy has been too focused on the middle east it's been sort of drawn into the thick of the middle east politics, and international affairs time and time again. and it has curtailed what should be a strategic pivot to asia, that should be the place where more u.s. foreign policy resources are being directed, here we are, the big summit apec, president xi is here and there is an extremely intense and deadly conflict in the middle east, that the two men had to talk about. >> well, i think the middle east is going to play a prominent role in global politics and a very big part in national u.s. security policies. i do think that the united states need to be able to address these issues, dealing with russia's invasion of ukraine, but also to be actively involved in trying to mediate some of these tensions that exist in the middle east that erupt into war. so i do think this is something that president biden fortunately has had decades long experience and he is not a novice to any of these issues, nor is president xi, president xi has been in office now for 11 years or so. therefore, i think it is going to be a discussion between two individuals who are very stewed observers of the international scene. the united states and china have different interests and different objectives and goals when it comes to a lot of regions in the world including the middle east. that doesn't mean that we have to have a contentious relationship and that we will be at odds with one another. i do think that because of china's interest in trying to make sure you continue to fuel its economy that it doesn't want large-scale conflict to erupt in any part of the world because that is detrimental to chinese economic interest, and its political interest in terms of trying to expand its influence around the globe. >> just to reset here what we are watching it is the apec summit the -- president using ping is in the u.s. he and president biden met today for a series of meetings, started with a large bilateral meeting, it went down to a smaller meeting, it's only the second in-person meeting, the first time president xi has been here ever since he visited mar-a-lago. joe biden after a long day of meetings coming out to talk to the press. >> have a seat. as you know i just concluded several hours of meetings with president xi, i believe it was some of the most constructive conversations we've had. i've been meeting with president xi since both of us were vice president almost ten years ago. our meetings have been straightforward, we haven't always agreed but they've been straightforward. and today to build on the ground work-related -- we've made some important progress, i believe. i, i'm pleased to announce that after many years of being on hold we are restarting cooperation between the united states 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