Besides jnt jrdonald trump jr. Soninlaw Jared Kushner also attended that meeting held over at trump tower in new york city on june 9th of last year. First reported by the netanyahu. T New York Times. And damaging information about Hillary Clinton before the meeting. And bring in cnns jeff zeleny. Were learning more about the setup to the meeting. Reporter wolf, were learning who set up the meeting, scheduled this meeting, an entertainment executive by the name of Rob Goldstone who set up this meeting to happen last june, a year ago in june at trump tower in new york city. Now, Rob Goldstone is someone who was working on the Miss Universe pageant, familiar with the trump family and donald trump jr. Indeed. He arranged to set up a meeting he tells in a statement to cnn confirming the report this morning in the New York Times as well as the Washington Post that he facilitated the meeting between the president s oldest son and this russian lawyer about some type of knelltive informati negative information on the clinton campaign. So they accepted the meeting. The timing comes about two weeks after the president then a candidate accepted and clinched the republican nomination, after he clinched the nomination. His as everything was coming together, clear he would be the nominee and clear the Trump Campaign wanted to hear what this russian operative had to say. It was negative about the clinton campaign. The reason this is significant, wolf, there are many sort of incremental developments. This is different in the sense its the first acknowledgement there was a meeting during the campaign between a top set of officials from the Trump Campaign and a russian operative happening during the campaign. We know about meetings that happened after the election, but this came in june of 2016. What is the Trump Administration, jeff, saying about this meeting . Reporter wolf, i expect well hear more at the White House Press meeting Sarah Huckabee sanders will hold off camera in about an hour. Kellyanne conway was on cnns new day downplaying and dismissing all of this. Its very typical to have principles in the meeting. We principals in the meeting. We had a fraction of the staff and money in clinton inc. In brooklyn. Youre trying to have viewers say, oh, my god, because these three principals imbued with some type of seriousness that wasnt true. Senior operators for the campaign. Lets not focus on what did not happen in that meeting. No information provided that was meaningful. No action taken. Wolf, the question, we do not know exactly what happened in that meeting. Shes right about that, but it is different in the sense this was not just a meeting with three principals but a russian operative coming to meet them specifically with information on their rival. Its already stirred so many questions on capitol hill. Senator susan collins, republican of maine, said a short time ago she wants to see the president s oldest son before the Senate Intelligence committee. So, wolf, what this does is, sort of reignite its, resparks questions about potential collusion the white house thought theyd moved beyond. And jeff zeleny at the white house. Thanks very much. And stand by for the press conference. And the president appears to be backing off an earlier tweet forming an election Cyber Security unit together with russia. Following his meeting with the russian president , President Trump tweeted this, putin and i discussed forman an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so Election Hacking and many other negative things will be guarded. But democrats and republicans, they quickly, immediately, scoffed at that idea. Its not the dumbest idea i ever heard but pretty close. When it comes to russia i as dumbfounded, disappointed. End of the day hes hurting his presidency. I dont think we can expect the russians to be any kind of a credible partner in some khyber Security Unit. It would be dangerously naive for this country. If thats our best election defense, we might as well just mail or ballot boxes to moscow. This is like the guy who robbed your house proposing a working on burglary. Its they who did this. Joining us from the state department, michelle kaczynski. What does the president now say about working with russia on Election Security specifically in the area of Cyber Security . After that tweet touting this impenetrable Cyber Security unit that could be formed with putin, seeming to say how great that would be, his other tweet later after he got all of this criticism including from the republicans you heard, just because he said Something Like that doesnt mean it can happen. And he said, it wont happen. It cant happen. So hes doing a complete turnaround on something that he seemed to be big on initially. I mean, the criticism on this has been pretty severe, including from some republicans and the analogies being made that forming some kind of working group like this with Vladimir Putin would be like, you know, trying to work on chemical weapons with syrian president bashar al assad. Hes apparently feeling that. Turning around completely on this idea. What exactly was discussed and said in that meeting, of course . Only those in attendance know for certain, wolf. Yes. Many pointed out he went from supporting that kind of cooperation in Cyber Security with the russians, at one point, 13 hours later, reversed himself in that second tweet. Michelle, there are still some areas of december s disagreemen. President trump accepted putins denial he meddled in the u. S. Election but the president tweeted he strongly pressed the russian leader on the issue. Is there any way that we can figure out whos right . Reporter there are a lot of problems here. Whenever youre dealing with russia and their statements, even their descriptions of phone calls or meetings, it always differs from the u. S. Account. And because its russia, you have to take whatever theyre saying with a pile of salt. I mean, russia still denies they had anything to do with cyber meddling in the United States. Then again, you know, donald trump and his campaign and the people around him have always played fast and loose with the truth and with facts as well. Theres will the difficulty is. I mean, as soon as the u. S. Description of what happened came out, all over social media there were doubts as to its voracity. There are reasons for that. But youre dealing with russia. However, you know, we should point out that whenever somebody like secretary of state Rex Tillerson describes what is said, when hes asked directly, did the president accept that . Tillerson denies that the president accepted putins claims, but he keeps saying that he talked about concerns that the American People have. He never says that those concerns are shared by trump himself. And remember, it was only one day before this meeting with putin that he was there in poland casting enormous doubt on whether russia did play a role as well as, you know, as some describe it, throwing the u. S. Intelligence community under the bus. Wolf . Interesting. Michelle, thank you. Michelle kaczynski at the state department. Talk about all of these developments with my next guest. Democratic senator jack reed of rhode island. Ranking member of the Senate Armed Services committee and a member of the Senate Committee on intelligence. Exofficio, on that committee as well. Whats your level of concern that the president ial oldest son had together with the then Campaign Chairman and Senior Adviser, the soninlaw, Jared Kushner with this russian lawyer. Very serious. Why . First, the whole pretense of the meeting and the son indicated, was to get information from the russian government about Hillary Clinton. Thats essentially going to a foreign power and asking for help in the election. That was the pretense. And tweeted this morning, donald trump jr. , eldest son, obviously, being sarcastic in the tweet. Obviously im the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent. Went nowhere but had to listen. So hes saying and some supporters Trump Supporters saying it was opposition research. What all campaigns do. Not Operations Research based on soviet excuse me, russian intelligence. Thats the difference. This was an individual who had clear and close ties to the russian government, to their Intelligence Services perhaps. We dont know. We have to probe that, but this was not a meeting with an american political activist, someone who was part of the campaign, and it was a very, very particular meeting involving the three principals, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and donald trump jr. This was not a casual sort of meeting. This was very deliberate. You have the three most significant people on the campaign at that juncture. Youve done research. What do we know about this lawyer, this russian lawyer, who came to this meeting, her last nate, woetzelknitsskyia. Very little, quite frankly. One of the questions that the Intelligence Committee will take up. What i read in the press, act niv trying to reverse the legislation that caused the russians to stop their adoption program. The mag nitschke act. And seems to be someone described publicly as having close ties to the kremlin and active on behalf of the kremlin. That was, im sure, a part of the, of her attraction to the campaign. Sorry. You can as a part of your Intelligence Committee investigation, donald trump jr. To come from the committee and testify . I hope so. That claim has already been made. Its appropriate he does that to clear this up. What ash Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner . We have been trying to pursue them to come and testimony. Thats led by the chairman and Ranking Member mark warner of virginia. But we are doing that, and in addition im sure this is falling under the embed of the special prosecutor. He has to be interested in this, too, because of his mandate to see if there are connections between the Trump Campaign and the russian government. Do you know if there are any followup meetings . This meeting, apparently, if you look to what donald trump jr. Said, lasted 20 minutes, to a half hour. Do you know of other incidents similar to this or going further . I dont. This is a pattern of not acknowledging a meeting then acknowledging a meeting and discovered there were other meetings not acknowledged. Took place with general flynn, with attorney general sessions didnt indicate he met with the Russian Ambassador initially. A troubling pattern of behavior. More and more comes out about more extensive meetings on these and other subjects. Initially didnt come up involving Jared Kushner, the soninlaw as well. Exactly. You issued a statement following the president s meeting with the russian president Vladimir Putin and wrote, President Trump may have accepted putins assurances that russia did not meddle in the u. S. President ial election but i can assure you the American People do not share his confidence in mr. Putins claims. The crucial work of u. S. Intelligence agencies, law enforcementance the special counsel and bipartisan congressional panels will continue until we get to the bottom of what happened and can helps prevent continued russian interference in future democratic elections. What do you know actually emerged from the extensive conversation that these two president s, putin and trump, had on russian meddling . Its hard to know definitively, because there were only four people, principals in the room and two translators and theres various stories. What i think was a huge missed opportunity. And i think before the meeting. The president would have been better served and we would have been better served if instead of trying to make an arrangement with the russians who penetrated our election he stood with traditional allies, democratic krunlts, france, germany, others, called out the russians and then went in to that meeting with a solid assurance that the International Community was rejecting russian involvement in democratic elections and we wouldnt tolerate it and make that demand. He avoided that. He didnt do that. He went in, listened to putin and apparently one side thinks everythings okay and the other side wants to get on. His comments, lets get on with business with the russians rather than lets stop them from interfering in our elections. He did tweet at one point in that, on that Cyber Security issue. This is the president , the fact that president putin and i discussed a krib are Security Unit doesnt mean i think i can doesnt mean i think it can happen. It cant. But a ceasefire can and did. You welcome the achievement of the ceasefire . The ceasefire is very important. Any step in syria to lower the level of violence and take pressure off the jordanians. Its right along their border. The more difficult issues will be the area not there along the jordanian border but in the euphrates valley along syria, iraqi border. Thats where isis is retreating to. Thats where our surkirogate forces are headed, assad and irans and russians, thats the test case. Senator jack reed, thanks for joining us. Good to have you on the program. Get republican perspective on us a this. A republican from mississippi, senior Armed Services committee as well. Thanks for joining us, senator. Thank you. Glad to be with you. What kinds of concerns if any does this meeting that donald trump jr. Had with this russian lawyer raise for you . I do not think the American People are going to be horrified by this, and i agree with donald trump jr. He was told that there was in information unfavorable to their general election opponent. He went to a meeting. Turns out there wasnt much there and instead the russian attorney wanted to talk about the magnitschke act and russian adoptions. A pretty quick meeting and he concluded that it didnt amount to much. I just think thats pretty much of a great big nothing when it comes to whether there was some sort of collusion between russia and and general Election Campaign organizations. Senator, let me ask you, because youre a United States senator. A senior senator. Would you go to a meeting with a russian lawyer, not even knowing who this person was . Someone simply saying you know, we have damaging information about your political opponent and you would bring your Campaign Chairman, a Senior Adviser to a meeting like this . Would you simply go in blindly into a meeting like this . Well, donald trump didnt go. As far as im not saying donald trump. Nocht saying donald trump. Im saying that Donald Trumps eldest son went into a meeting. He accepted a meeting like this and brought the Campaign Chairman at the time Paul Manafort and the president s soninlaw Jared Kushner, Senior Adviser to the campaign. Would you simply go into a meeting like this not even knowing who this person you were going to have a meeting with and what the agenda was . Well, i as a public official or candidate would not do that. Some somebody on behalf of a campaign was told there was information that might be of interest to the public, i just dont think the American People will be up in arms that that meeting took place. Do you think he should testify, if theres nothing wrong, donald trump jr. , you just heard your colleague senator reed, senator collins, others say he should come up to capitol hill and answer questions about this meeting. Would you rk thwelcome that . I like senator jack reed and he and i have worked together on many issues in the Armed Services area, and certainly senator collins is my colleague and if they want to ask questions, then i would listen to them, and and look at the propriety of that. I really dont have any knowledge of the subpoena power there, but as far as asking a few questions, i dont see the harm in it. Yeah. I just dont think its a very big issue. I dont think their necessarily ready to start subpoenaing donald trump jr. But inviting him, a volunteer way, to come in and answer questions about this. I think thats what they would like to do. Let me move on to this other sensitive issue. Youve been involved in National Security as well. President trump seems to be backing