Yasmin vossoughian. After siding with Vladimir Putin on u. S. Intelligence on meddling in the election, in an interview that aired last night President Trump expressed unhappiness with the way his Campaign Aides who have been charged or pleaded guilty in the russia probe as he pointed to the word of putin to back up his own claims. He said there was no collusion whatsoever. I guess he said as strongly as you can say it. They have no information on trump. It was an interesting statement, too. You know, many years ago when i was there what was it, 13, 14 . A long time ago. He said there were many, many businesspeople there. In all fairness i was a very successful businessman but i was one of a lot of people. One thing you know, if they had it, it would have been out. As putin confirmed today, he didnt have such information on you apparently . He knew exactly about it. He has been saying it. It makes him angry when he sees it. It is very interesting. You look at what is happening, that whole thing. He understood it. I dont know if you could see it, he was incensed talking about it. But he is willing to take those 12 people, there is no extradition, but hes willing to let Robert Muellers people go over there and bring a big investigation of those people, working together with russian investigators. Weve had a phoney witchhunt deal drive us apart. This is the biggest wedge. This was the biggest wedge. It is the thing that he told me when he went in. He said, what a shame. He felt it was very hard for me to make a deal because of, you know, all of this nonsense in much of the case. You use the word nonsense . You have to understand. You take a look and you look at all of these people. I mean some were hackers. Theyre not you know, 14 people, and then they have 12 people. These arent 12 people involved in the campaign, and then you had many other people. Some told you look at flynn, it is a shame. But the fbi didnt think it was lying. With paul manafort, who really is a nice man. You look at what is going on with him. It is like al capone. 2005 tax case. On a case that, i guess, is very old. It is just a sad thing. It is a very sad thing for our country. Wait, wait, we have more. After yesterdays summit in helsinki, russian president Vladimir Putin also sat down with fox news, but this time host chris wallace, and laughed off questions about bob muellers probe and whether russia meddled in the 2016 u. S. Election. Watch this. I have here the indictment that was presented on friday from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, that says that 12 members of Russian Military intelligence, the gru, and they talk specifically about units 26, 165 and 74, 455. They say you smile. Let me finish. They say that these units were specifically involved in hacking into Democratic Party computers, stealing information and spreading it to the world to try to disrupt the american election. May i give this to you to look at, sir . Here. Interpreter well, let me start answering your question with something a little bit different. Lets have a look at it this way. People are talking about a purported interference of russia with the election process in the United States. I have mentioned this in 2016 and i want to say it now again, and i really wish for your american listeners to listen to what i say. First of all, russia as a state has never interfered with the internal affairs of the United States, let alone its elections. Why do you think Robert Mueller issued this indictment three days before you and President Trump met here at the summit . Interpreter im not interested in this issue, this single bit. It is the internal political games of the United States. Dont make the relationship between russia and the United States, dont hold it hostage of this internal political struggle. And it is quite clear to me that this is used in the internal political struggle and it is nothing to be proud of for american democracy to use such dirty methods in the political rivalry. Shortly after the president s summit with putin came to an end the Justice Department revealed it charged maria butina, a russian gunrights advocate with attempts to broker a meeting with candidate trump and Vladimir Putin to advance their interests. They say she worked at the behest of a high public elections, who has been linked both to russias Security Services and organized crime. We have Court Filings describing an effort to shift the republican partys views on russia, alleging she viewed the n. R. A. As a pretty powerful force for shifting republican policies. The n. R. A. Is not named in court records, but its ties to butina has been previously reported. She did not respond to a message seeking comment. Multiple Law Enforcement sources say she was under investigation for some time and was actually arrested sunday because they believed she would soon move. A statement from her lawyer said she is not an agent though of the Russian Federation and noted her cooperation with, quote, various Government Entities for months, adding the substance of the charge in the complaint is overblown. All right. Turning back now to that extraordinary trump putin News Conference where the president of the United States sided with the russian state over the u. S. Government. Interpreter once again, President Trump mentioned the issue of the socalled interference of russia with the american elections, and i had to reiterate things i said several times including during our personal contact that the russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal American Affairs including election process. During todays meeting i addressed directly with president putin the issue of russian interference in our elections. I felt this was a message best delivered in person. I spent a great deal of time talking about it, and president putin may very well want to address it and very strongly because he feels very strongly about it and he has an interesting idea. Would you now with the whole world watching tell president putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you warn him to never do it again . So let me just say that we have two thoughts. All i can do is ask the question. My people came to me, dan coates came to me and some others. They said they think it is russia. I have president putin. He just said it is not russia. I will say this. I dont see any reason why it would be. I have confidence in both parties. I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. You heard the president mention dan coates there. For his part, within hours director of National Intelligence responded to the president siding with Vladimir Putin, saying in a statement, quote, the role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and factbased assessments possible for the president and policymakers. We have been clear in our assessments of russian meddling in the 2016 election and theron going, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security. Two sources tell nbc news that coates statement was not approved by the white house nor did the white house have input on the language, although a headsup was given that its release was imminent. During that News Conference, President Trump also said that not only is the United States to blame for russian aggression, he was able to work out decades of hostility and mistrust within four hours. Our relationship has never been worse than it is now. However, that changed as of about four hours ago. I really believe that. As president i cannot make decisions on Foreign Policy in a futile effort to appease partisan critics or the media or democrats who want to do nothing but resist and obstruct. As he returned to washington on Board Air Force one, President Trump defended his remarks tweeting, quote, as i said today and many times before, i have great confidence in my intelligence people. However, i also recognize that in order to build a Brighter Future we cannot exclusively focus on the past as the worlds two Largest Nuclear powers we must get along. All right. A number of Top Republicans are rebuking President Trump in the wake of his summit with Vladimir Putin over his refusal to call putin out for interfering in the 2016 election. In a statement, House Speaker paul ryan said in part, there is no question that russia interfered in our election and continues attempts to undermine democracy here and around the world. There is no moral equivalence between the United States and russia which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals. Speaking in the halls of capitol hill, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell told reporters that the russians are not our friends and i entirely believe the assessment of our Intelligence Community. Chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, senator john mccain, said President Trumps summit was, quote, one of the most disgraceful performances by an american president in his memory. He added the damage inflicted by President Trumps naivety egotism, false equivalence and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in helsinki was a tragic mistake. And the senate of the Foreign RelationsCommittee Bob corker was among the lawmakers with equally blunt assessment. Watch this. I did not think this was a good moment for our country. Sometimes the president cares more about how a leader treats him personally than forcefully getting out there and pushing pushing against things that we know have harmed our nation, and i thought thats what we all experienced today. Today was a terrible day for the american brand, for the American People and for all of our allies. I thought it was shameful and i never thought i would see an american president throw the Intelligence Community under the businessli bus like that and agree with a dictator and authoritarian like he did. So it is not a good day for the country. Meanwhile, the condemnations continued. Former government, mitt romney tweeted out in part, claiming a moral equivalence between the United States and russia not only defies reason and history, it undermines our National Integrity and impairs our global ability. Senator graham tweeted out that it was a missed opportunity to hold russia accountable from the 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning regarding future elections, adding that President Trumps answer will be seen by russia as a sign of weakness. And trump ally and former House SpeakerNewt Gingrich called the president s remarks the most serious mistake of his presidency and one that must be corrected immediately. All right. Still ahead. More on the criticism President Trump is facing this morning after that oneonone summit with Vladimir Putin. Were going to talk about that and what the political fallout could mean going forward, of course. Those stories and a check of your weather when we come back. 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Show more of you. vo is ahhhmazing simple goodness meaty morsels. A tender texture. With real meat and a blend of peas and carrots i can see. A totally new kind of awesome going on here avo beneful simple goodness. Tender, meaty morsels with real ingredients you can see. upbeat dance music upbeat dance music bell ringing he just tweeted out this morning, our relationship with russia has never been worse thanks to many years of u. S. Foolishness and stupidity, and now the rigged witchhunt. Thats by far the most ridiculous tweet of late, and that is insulting to past administrations. It was not a very forceful presentation from President Trump with putin standing right next to him. I dont know. Not forceful at all. This was the time and place for the president to look putin squarely in the eye and say, you will be punished for what you did in 2016 and dont ever think about doing that again. But he didnt, and thats what made it disgusting. Thats what made his performance disgusting. That sets us back a lot. As you can see a lot of highlights from fox news. If fox is thinking that, then obviously it was from fox news and fox business where President Trump is used to getting favorable coverage, but nonetheless they couldnt keep up the favorable coverage yesterday. I think it says a lot about what it all could mean for the president politically. Joining us National Political reporter Kaitlyn Hughey burns. Great to have you with us. Good morning. Lets pick up on the point we were just mentioning there with fox nusfox news. What is the political fallout . Obviously the president is being criticized a lot, but couldnt it be political as we see them coming forward, or are they not coming forward enough . We saw a swift backlash from republicans across the spectrum. You had the typical critics like jeff flake and john mccain with the forceful statements. You had people like Newt Gingrich and others saying it was a mistake. The question is how long does this last . This reaction was very reminiscent, to me at least, about charlottesville, remember . Of course, yes. And other controversies that the president weighed into. And you saw the swift backlash from republicans only to move on to another issue. I raise that because were in the middle of a primary season right now, republican primary season. We havent seen many candidates really separating themselves from donald trump if theyre running in a republican primary or running in states where he did well. What do you think was more damaging, the fact that the president wouldnt admit russias fault in all of this . Pointing the finger at russia directly, having Vladimir Putin standing right next to him and saying, you did this, you cannot do this, and there will be repercussions for this . Or the dressing down of his own intelligence agencies up to the very end of the press conference when he wasnt even prompted by the question, when the question was to Vladimir Putin and then President Trump decided to weigh in once again, and his last words were, the fbi, my own fbi is a disgrace. To the point that dan coates himself released a statement that you displayed earlier, shows you everything there is to say about how the intelligence and justice communities are feeling about the president s reaction here. I would also note though that, you know, the president cannot separate apparently the russia meddling with the allegations of collusion. Such a good point, yeah. He thinks to recognize meddling is to somehow raise questions about the legitimacy of his own election. So weve seen him over and over and over again defy the intelligence coming out from officials. And also even as his own administration often acts on that intelligence, right . We saw the doj indictments a couple of days ago. We have seen the administration impose sanctions on russia as a result of evidence found in the Mueller Probe. Can we quickly ask you about the conspiracy charges brought against the rush an national . How will that affect the mueller inve