Hello. Great to have you with us on this monday. Im pamela brown. Were going to take you to the White House Press briefing which is oftf camera. We begin with an admission by the president s son that he met with a russian during the president ial campaign. He says in the summer of 2016 he met with a russian attorney who claimed to have information helpful to his fathers campaign. Sources tell the New York Times this woman claimed to have dirt on hillary clinton. And it wasnt just trump junior who attended to find out what the attorney had. The president s soninlaw and now advisor was there as well as was then Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort. When asked about the substance, heres what Kellyanne Conway told cnns new day. Its very typical to have principles in the meeting. We had a fraction of the staff and a fraction of the money that they had over there in clinton inc in brooklyn. Youre trying to have your viewers think because the principals were in there it was em bued with seriousness that simply is not true. This was Standard Operating Procedure for the campaign. Lets focus on what did not happen in that meeting. No information provided that was meaningful. No action taken. The president s son responding to all of this with a sarcastic tweet. It does confirm his intent going into meeting was to get information on the opposition. You see the tweet on your screen. And joining me now mark mazetti. Mark, great to have you on. This tweet is significant, because it contradicts some earlier statements from donald trump junior, right . Yeah. Theres been an evolving story here really going back several months. A few months ago we asked donald trump junior among other senior members of the campaign if theyd had any contacts with russians during the campaign, and he said absolutely not, and certainly not anything on policy. On saturday the statement we got from him was that there was such a meeting, but it was about adoptions and it sort of seeped into this issue of an act which is something that the kremlin wants repealed. And sunday we have a story that it was because there was an offer of damaging information about hillary clinton, and then a we have the tweet today. Yes, theres a number of statements, and they really have kept changing. All this raises the question, because don junior, donald trump junior has repeatedly said he didnt know when who he was meeting with. He was left in the dark and he had a meeting and brought along Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. Did he know he was meeting with a rational national, even if he didnt know her name . It certainly has the appearance that his intermediary, his acquaintances, as he said, gave him some indication of who he was going to be meeting with, if not specifics about the name or whether hed remember the name, he seemed to think it was significant enough to have other Senior Campaign officials at the meeting. Manafort and kushner. And so if we are still obviously trying to learn more about what transpired during the meeting and why it was set up, but this is someone, his intermediary was someone who we now know is connected to his client, a pop star in russian whose father, donald trump, the president , worked with during the 2013 Miss Universe pageant. Theres a lot of linkages. What do we know about the russian lawyer and her links to the kremlin . She certainly has done work that on cases that advance the interests of the kremlin yk even if shes not a direct government official, she has been advocating in the United States, lobbying to repeal the magenski act. The kremlin wants that repealed. Theres been a lot of tit for tat in washington over that. She is connected in moscow with through her business ties to her firm, and so and family connections as well. So its its an evolving thing. But it is certain that at the very least her lobbying interests are very much in parallel with what the kremlin wants. And don junior also said that nothing came of it in terms of what she was allegedly offering in terms of helping the Trump Campaign and hurting Hillary Clintons campaign. Do we know if there was any followup after this meeting, this initial meeting . We dont, and the on the record claims from donald trump junior and others was there was no followup, that there was a one off and ended after a half hour without anything really coming of it. And just before i let you go, as you point out, months ago you were asking this question, did you ever meet with any russians during the campaign, and the answer was no. Are you getting any sense from those youre talking to close to the white house, close to don junior as to why they said no when the meeting did in fact happen . Its a good question, and, i mean, certainly if we just think about whats happened over the last six months weve gone from the president himself and his advisors saying no government, no meetings with any government officials or russians period, whatsoever, and weve seen a steady stream of reports of meetings. I dont know. Whatever was claimed back in january or february we now know is not to be the case, and it is a continuing nagging question why people dont seem to keep forgetting about these meetings that they had. And just quickly, theres no indication the president knew about this meeting, correct . Theres no indication at this point that the president knew about the meeting. Okay. Mark, thank you very much. Thank you. I want to bring in any panel now. A former cia counterterrorism analyst, mark preston, mackenzy england, and shamila s a shodri. To break it down, how significant is it that this is the first time weve heard about the willingness to meet with the russian and possibly accept help from a Russian National . Its very significant. T interesting to hear Kellyanne Conway say nothing came out of meeting. Thats not necessarily the issue right now. The issue is there was a meeting with a Foreign National talking about potentially tampering with our election system, passing off Opposition Research. I should tell our viewers, and we know this. Opposition Research Gets passed around all the time. However, i dont know of an instance where it was from a Foreign Government or at least talk about a Foreign Government being handed over. Its significant because its july right now, and we are still talking about this issue, and we are seeing a stalled agenda for President Trump. And also, Jared Kushner, the fact that he was in this meeting. Do you make anything of that . The fact that the son was there is an issue, the fact that Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were there is a bigger issue. These meetings just dont happen. I know that theres talk about oh, they just kind of got invited to a meeting and went to it. That doesnt happen on campaigns. It certainly doesnt happen here at cnn. And Kellyanne Conway was making the point that we were a small shop. This wasnt that unusual, but from your perspective, it was significant to a degree. I want to go to the point that Opposition Research being shared is not unusual. When it comes from a Foreign Government, a foreign adversaries, someone connected to russia, what kind of a red flag would that raise to you . That would be a huge red flag. And what were focusing on is what don junior did because he was the con dduit for the meeti. But Jared Kushner is a Government Employee with access to the top secret that the United States government has. The fact that he was not willing to put this on his security form when it first came out was a very problematic thing. If youre now meeting with an individual like you said, somebody who has access to a lot of the greatest secrets the United States has, and you forget to tell about i met with a russian lawyer with ties to the kremlin, probably tied to the security services, thats a huge problem. And again, he has said repeatedly, mackenzie, that he didnt know who this was. He didnt know the name. He just said this was an associate of him said will you meet with this person . Youve advised campaigns before. Is that unusual to take a meeting with someone you dont know and bring in other high profile people from the Campaign IncludingPaul Manafort and Jared Kushner . Its very unusual. You wouldnt want to put all your star power with a loose connection to the grown. You would want to spread out your Staff Resources if they were such a small shop. Why arent they busy doing other things. It speaks to the mob style lobby where youre an acquaintance of the family, its that easy to get a meeting. We should all be to lucky to have a meeting with the white house. When a friend of the family suggests, its okay. Thats something that will plague this administration. Weve had reporting that the russians were trying to use carter page who was connected to the pain to get into the campaign and hopefully provide intelligence, something hes denied. This this case you hear about Something Like this happening, what comes to mind . Would it be concerning to you that the russians were tieing to use this lawyer to get into the campaign essentially . I think the russians are going what theyre supposed to do as a Foreign Government wanting to collect more information on americans. Theyre able to do it because the Trump Administration is populated with people who are easily influenced as was the campaign, and i think thats what were seeing in this yet another example of a questionable meeting, and in this case, i think donald trump juniors behavior is indicative of how the Trump Organization governs itself. Ask for forgiveness later. What whatever you think needs to be done first. Well, to that point, mark, this has happened repeatedly where they deny something and then low and behold, something did happen. In this case there was a meeting between don junior and a Russian National. Why dont they get ahead of this . Why didnt they be up front about it months ago when it started to become an issue and focus . Why wait for the news to cover it and then change the story the next day . A couple things. I think it does go to the culture of how theyve worked with the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization is not the government. There are a different set of rules. They use a different kind of language. If you notice how the president actually speaks, he talks like a marketer than he does as a commander in chief. There may be a naivete from Jared Kushner and donald trump junior saying we can get away with this. Were in power and dont have to follow the rules, but you do have to follow the rules even more so in this position. He really has put the white house in an awkward position. It strikes me that not only, of course, was he transparent about the meeting until pressed about it, but also that he changed his story first saying it was about optioadoptions and next day saying there was incriminating information was offered about hillary clinton. Is it illegal . Is it illegal to meet anybody . No . Looking at the other side, if someone says youre in the middle of a heated campaign, youre trying to win, someone says ive got some information thats going to help your campaign thats right, but the interesting thing about president ial campaigns is youre going to run into people like that all the time, and you have to learn what is real and whats not . If you have an individual who says ive got this hot juicy thing were going to torpedo the other side, you have to be careful. Even though theres a relationship between don junior and some other folks that led to this one russian lawyer, you need to do preliminary vetting, especially given we know donald trump had just won the republican nomination. He was theoretically going to become the president of the United States in a 50 50 chance. The fact that youre meeting with individuals with a shady background is difficult to swallow. All right. Stick around. A lot more to discuss. Senator Lindsey Graham calls it one of the dumbest ideas hes ever heard, and now President Trump already backing off his plan to partner with Vladimir Putin on a Cyber Security unit. Plus how a misleading fox news clip inspired the president to accuse james comey of breaking the law. The details just ahead. And moments away from hearing the white house try to explain all of this. The briefing coming up. Stay with us. Reless foundation from maybelline new york. Beyond matching skin tone. Fits skins texture. Blurs pores. Controls shine. Our most natural look. Now, in more shades than ever maybellines fit me make it happen maybelline new york. You myour joints. Thing for your heart. Or your digestion. So why wouldnt you take something for the most important part of you. Your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. Heri think i might burst. 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Trumps reversal came after backlash from some top Senate Republicans. I am sure that Vladimir Putin could be of enormous assistance in that effort since hes doing the hacking. Its not the dumbest idea ive heard, but its close. Tillerson and trump are ready to forgiver and forget when it comes to Cyber Attacks on the American Election of 2016. Nobody is saying mr. President , the russians changed the outcome. You won fair and square, but they did try to attack our election system. They were successful in many ways, and the more you do this, the more people are suspicious about you and russia. The panel is back with me now. Mark, first to you. Why did the president change his mind . Thats an unfair question to ask. For us to actually get inside President Trumps mind and try to figure out what hes doing i dont know other than than realistically what he did. I wouldnt say it was irresponsible, but it was illtimed. It wasnt that smart right after the meet, and were seeing republicans on capitol hill that have been critical of him for putting that out. Literally, i think john mccain said it best and said it would be great if Vladimir Putin joined with us. He wouldnt be doing it because hes the one responsible for it. I dont know why he pulled it back, but weve said this time and time again, and well say it throughout the years of his presidency. His words matter and he needs to be careful of what he says. His tweet was after the unit was called a significant accomplishment by steve mnuchin. Lets listen. I think this is a very important step forward that what we want to make sure is that we coordinate with russia, that were focussed on Cyber Security together, that we make sure that they never interfere in any democratic elections or conduct any Cyber Security, and this is like any other strategic alliance, whether were doing military exercises with our allies or anything us. This is about having capabilities to make sure that we both fight cyber together, which i think is a very significant accomplishment for President Trump. Okay. So mackenzie, clearly the president and people within his administration are not on the same page here about this. Whats going on . Well, thats also a pattern that we see with this administration. Take on the same trip the president concluded, we positively confirmed the commitment to the nato allies that an attack against one is against all. But in his last trip