He then added this. Based on the fact that no president has been tougher on russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the democrats. They definitely dont want trump. They didnt dont want trump, he said. Even though last week russias president admitted he did favor mr. Trump, at least in the last election, which is what Intelligence Agencies had been saying for a long time, but putin finallied a mid it. President putin, did you want President Trump to win the election . And did you direct any of your officials to help him do that . Translator yes, i did, because he talked about bringing the u. S. russia relationship back to normal. Now President Trump says the russians actually dont like him, despite what President Putin just said. Which is weird because not only did truputin say he liked trump the last election, but because of that Helsinki Summit, Relation Ares with russia had suddenly changed in matter of hours. He said that. It was recorded. Everyone heard that. Lets play it. The intelligence community. Just yesterday he launched plans to yank the Security Clearances of former top intelligence officials, some of whom were the very people who warned him about russian interference during the 2016 campaign. He continues to attack the russia probe, calls the russia story a hoax, but now he is also warning about the russian threat, except with this democratic twist. So what changed . Well, today Secretary Of State pompeo was asked what happened between clo Behind Closed Doors between the two president s. What is your understanding of the agreements that were made between President Trump and President Putin there . The president has been clear about some of the things that were agreed to. Were going to put together a business council. Well start processes. There were many things that came from what i view as an incredibly important meeting between President Trump and President Putin, one that im i think the world will have benefitted from when history is written. Not easy to write history, though, when there is no one actually taking notes. In any case, its hard to glean much from that. Pompeo doesnt say he knows all of what was discussed. He said the president has been
he just said he met and spoke with them. Not surprising, the russians have been interested to fill this information vacuum. Russias ambassador saying President Putin and trump reached key deals during their talk on key issues in syria and ukraine. Thats where we are tonight, russias leader suddenly seeming more transparent than americas. And if that does not make you concerned, im not sure what will. Russia took a step to reducing their limited transparency further. What have you learned, jeff . Anderson, were learning tonight that the white house is going to change its policy toward reading out these phone calls and these meetings that the president makes with foreign leaders. Our Kaitlan Collins is reporting tonight that the white house is either temporarily or permanently changing its practice of sending out those readouts of meeting. Now this is separate from the Helsinki Summit, but this is also very interesting and very important for this reason. The president , of course, talks to many world leaders, but theyve not always been as good as previous president s in terms of reading out and explaining the fact that the phone call happened for one, and two, what
meeting. Do we get the white house to release any more information about what actually went on inside that room . We dont. And the story, frankly, has become the fact that we do not know what else was discussed. You heard the Secretary Of State, mike pompeo. Talking earlier today. He called it an incredibly important meeting. Thats about the extent of the readout we have gotten from the meeting. We have gotten flor the russian side in terms of what they talked about generally. But anderson, this could change tomorrow. The Secretary Of State is going to the Senate Foreign relations committee. He is going to be grilled tomorrow on exactly what happened in the meeting. So hell have to have some type of answer. This is going to be in a public forum here. But as of now, the white house has given very constant information about what has happened privately. Of course everything publicly has changed several times. So who knows what happened privately. And as far as the next meeting between President Trump and putin, has anything been agreed upon . It has not. The kremlin today acknowledged that they had been invited. But that was one incredible step short of accepting the
invitation. And this could be something of an embarrassment for the white house if the kremlin does not accept it. This was extended. The invitation was extended very hastily last week on twitter. John bolton, the National Security adviser was instructed by the president to invite putin here to washington. That was not received that well by republicans, certainly on capitol hill. Speaker paul ryan said today Vladimir Putin is not welcome on capitol hill. John cornyn, the number two republican in the senate said this meeting should not happen. Should it be placed on the back burner. So we do not know if the meet willing happen, when it will happen. But if the kremlin does not accept the president s invitation, anderson, that will certainly make the white house look sort of foolish. Usually all of these things are agreed upon privately before theyre announced publicly. Jeff zeleny, thank you very much. Latest reactions as well as the claim that russia is now targeting democrats working for democrats. Showing Us Democratic congressman adam schiff. Congressman schiff, i wonder what your reaction, this move by
the white house to stop announcing calls with foreign leaders. To some people it may not sound like a big deal. It certainly sounds like chipping away at transparency. It certainly is chip away at transparence it is. I think its the impact of some of his conversations leaking in the past, leaking do not congratulate putin, and then of course he goes and congratulates him. This is a president who doesnt trust his own staff, doesnt trust really anybody around him. This is why he wanted to go into that meeting with putin without any witnesses. And you know, watching mike pompeo and Sarah Huckabee sanders try to answer the question what did the president commit to or what did they even discuss, you know, its not difficult to read between the lines, both of them saying basically we have no idea. We really have no idea what they talked about, except in the most general terms. Well, i guarantee you the russians have a very specific idea of what the president had to say. And they are framing that discussion now in the absence of any commentary by the united
states. And this is the other problem, that is if they cease to do any readouts of phone conversations, we may not know they take place at all. And if they do take place and a Foreign Government decides to set the agenda of what was discussed, we wont have necessarily any pushback from the United States. Its also amazing that i mean, in any other time, you know, a oneonone meeting with a foreign leader might not seem like such a dangerous thing for a president of the United States to do, but the idea that its President Trump is the one briefing the Secretary Of State, the secretary of defense, anybody at the white house about what was actually discussed when we know the president has in the past said things to Sarah Sanders or others that turned out not to be the case or he reversed it later after they went out publicly and said, well, this is what happened, and then the president undercuts them the very next day. So if hes the only narrater of
events to the secretary of defense, the Secretary Of State, hes not necessarily the most reliable of narraters. Well, thats certainly the case, even when he says things publicly, he tries to reinvent them afterwards. Even when he said would, he now he shes meant wouldnt. Of course there is nobody to correct the record on anything that was said privately with Vladimir Putin. But this is just it. The president really doesnt want a witness. Hes not willing to stand behind publicly what he is saying privately, and that ought to concern all of us, because weve already seen the damage that he did publicly. But its extraordinary. You know, even as a member of congress, i know this is true for my colleagues, when we have important meetings, we want someone else there, in large part because if there is followup to be done, we dont want to rely solely on our own recollection. We also dont want to rely solely on our impression of what the other party said. So i always want staff present
and to be able to say, okay, how do we operationalize this and what than, and what did you think of this comment. Were getting none of the benefit of that. The president is getting none of the benefit of that. And i think that is obviously to the detriment of our country. Im wondering what you make of the president s invitation to putin to come to the white house. This fall Ambassador Nikki Haley very clearly said the u. S. Doesnt trust putin or russia. Im not sure she is speaking for the president there. She also said you cant get to the end of the other side if you dont have those conversations, meaning those kind of conversations with russias leader. There a chance another meeting could be a good thing . Well, you know, if the russians are hesitant at all a, its because the Helsinki Summit could not have gone better for them, and they may view this as an effort by the president to somehow redeem himself. But in terms of Ambassador Nikki Haleys comments, she often strikes me as the ambassador to the United Nations from a country of her imagination representing a president of her imagination who bears no resemblance to this president ,
because plainly, what shes articulating is not the view of this president. This president thinks putin is a chum and admires his strength and talks about the strengths of his denials. In the trump world, if you deny something, it didnt happen. Thats all that matters. People admit anything are just losers. But of course thats not how the real world works. And last, i want to ask about the president s tweet today that russia will be pushing, in his words, very hard for democrats in the midterms because nobody has been tougher on russia than President Trump. Does that i dont know where thats coming from. It just seems in stark contrast to what putin said last week and what mr. Trump himself said last week, which is in the four hours since the summit began, is there has been essentially a reset on relations. Honestly, anderson, where it comes from is the fifth grade. Its a version of i know you are but what am i. For this president to claim nobody is tougher on russia, who has denigrated nato and who has talked about inviting russia back into the 2k3g8, he is a dr come true for the russians and the idea that the russians oh, dont want mr. Difficult, tough trump is a complete fiction, and it would be laughable if it was coming from somebody other than the president of the United States. Philip blum made the point that this could be the groundwork to blame russia if the democrats take the house or the senate in november. You know, thats always a possibility, that he is laying the mattress to blame the russians for a loss in the mid terms. But honestly, i think that may give him more credit than is due. I think this is just what the president does, which is whatever you level against me, i level back at you, but i do it doubly hard. That seems to be whats going on here. Congressman schiff, i appreciate your time. Thank you. Thanks, anderson. Joining us now cnn intelligence and analyst bob baer. Also mike rogers, former House Intelligence Committee chairman. I wonder what you make of this practice of the white house of formally disclosing calls with foreign leaders. Listen, i think its very, very worse for a couple of reasons. If there were in Fact Concessions remember, Foreign Minister lavrov of russia said there were important concession made by the president or the president of the United States, and then this week we found out through a third party that the president had called turkey, he had called israel, which tells me something is cooking on syria, i just think finding out from foreign partners is always a bad idea. It advantages their narrative. And with Vladimir Putin, we have to understand something. This guy is a master at information warfare. And so any advantage he has in that, and thats not targeting the United States necessarily,
foreign intelligence service, people who are cooperating with the cia around the world, theyre going to get messages that are very, very different than they might hear today. Thats what concerns me about really shutting down the ability for the United States to put its spin on these phone calls so that you dont get this problem where somebody walks out and said oh, the United States made serious concessions here. Well, bob, it does seem like the white house and the president just dont place, a, all that much importance on transparency, and dont trust the people around them. Well, exactly, anderson. He looks at the federal bureaucracy as the deep state. He truly believes that. He doesnt trust the National Security council. He doesnt trust rank and file state department. He didnt want a transcript from helsinki because he was convinced it would leak out. Hes doing Foreign Policy himself, and relying on his memory, of course, is not going to work. And you have Vladimir Putin, who i have no doubt made a transcript of that meeting and is going around the kremlin now
and say look what i won. He has gone out to the oligarchs and said look, this is a great breakthrough. Sanctions are going to come off. Who knows what he is saying. But onesided like this, we just dont know what the president agreed to, and the russians are out. You can trust it in the ukraine, i got everything i want. You guys give up now. The americans are on our side. Its undermining our Foreign Policy. Chairman rogers, its an interesting idea and other former intelligence people have also suggested the idea that the russians may have a recording from inside that meeting. Whats significant about that, not only to bob baers point, but also if, in fact, the president then came out, or the white house came out and said, well, this is what happened in that meeting. Here are the things that were discussed, and then it turns out thats at odds with, you know, a transcript that comes out of russia or a recording that comes out of russia, that would be damaging for the president and for the credibility of the presidency. It would. But i dont think how this is going to play out. I think putin had this thing
scripted pretty well. He gets to come out and say anything he wants that happened in that meeting. He gets to talk about the fact, again, when lavrov came out and said really big concessions were made by the United States. He didnt say what they were. So now they get to over the next few days, few weeks, they get to dribble out what they want as far as concession and say, well, really, thats what happened in this meeting. Im guessing that if there was a recording, it probably went in the bottom of the drawer. Remember, lets say that putin comes in and says, you know that referendum in ukraine, we caught to talk about that. And trump, remember, this is the guy who walked out of this meeting and thought it was great idea to turn over u. S. Citizens to russians for interrogation, including a former ambassador. If in that meeting, you can only imagine he is not prepared for the meeting. He said that. He probably doesnt have a great grasp because he wasnt getting briefed by his entire of his National Security council and National Security team. So putin says how about that
referendum in ukraine. He says yeah, thats something we should talk about. Bam, he comes out and putin gets to define that. He gets to say guess what . He agreed to some referendum in ukraine about should russia be there or not. I guarantee you that is on russian terms, not u. S. Terms. Thats why this kind of an action to me is really soft mark. Its boneheaded. You have great people around you. The president needs to listen to them. And this needs to be a policy. And i think bob was right when he said hes kind of going at it alone. Yeah. He really wants to go at it alone in turkey. He wants to go at it alone in israel, because he thinks he is smarter than everyone else in the room. My mother always said when youre the smartest guy in the room or think you are, time to find a new room. I think the president needs to slow down and think about the consequences of what hes doing. I mean, just listening to you talk, i got to say, its nuts that this is real, that this is actually this is w