Particular meeting of seven very important countries, it was unity. I think most important of all, we got along great. We got along great. Nice try. But the New York Times reports any signs of unity were largely for show. Quote, behind the scenes at the annual gathering of the some of the worlds leading powers, President Trump still found himself at odds with his counterparts. On sunday over issues like trade, Climate Change, north korea, russia and iran. At todays News Conference, the president continued to push for russia to be added back into the group after being exiled from the g7 after it annexed crimea back in 2014. Well, after conducting what he, himself, called a lively discussion about his desire to welcome back russia at a group dinner on saturday, today the president appeared to act as an agent again for moscow. Why do you think its appropriate to invite russia to the g7 given that theyve meddled in the 2016 election . And are you worried that if russia does come to the g7 that it might hurt you politically because its only going to be a couple of months before the 2020 election . A lot of bad things happened with president putin and president obama. He was outsmarted by putin. He was outsmarted. President putin outsmarted president obama. Wait a minute. And i can understand how president obama would feel. He wasnt happy. And theyre not in for that reason. I think it would be better to have russia inside the tent than outside the tent. I do nothing for politics. Well, next years g7 will be hosted by the United States and the president has already floated the possibility that it will take place at his own golf club down in miami but wouldnt rule out the possibility of inviting russian president Vladimir Putin himself to join the group. As the g7 host next year, youre allowed to invite other countries to come, guest countries even though theyre not necessarily part of the overall group. Would you consider inviting Vladimir Putin under those circumstances . Well, i dont know that hed accept. Those are tough circumstances. Would i invite him . I would certainly invite him. Whether or not he could come psychologically, i think thats a tough thing for him to do. For more, im joined by yamiche alcindor, you saw her there for pbs newshour traveling with the president in france. Brad stevens, oped columnist for the New York Times. What a group. Thank you. Yamiche, that question you put to him i think is serious, and i he doesnt he understand that it looks like a continuing pattern of his agency for russia . That the whole question of the scandal involving russia getting involved with our elections in 2016, his role in playing footsie with him, if you will, and then he continues to play the role of russian friend as if the dossier was in technicolor and hes afraid theyre going to drop it tomorrow. Hes shameless. Your thoughts . Well, opponents of the president would say there is something obviously weird going on with russia. His opponents would say that he obviously has some sort of affinity for russia. Maybe hes even feeling pressured by his business connections with russia. Of course the president himself would say that he is really is interested in having russia being part of the table because so many people are talking about russia. So many people are talking about annexing russia. When i pressed him and said why do you keep changing and doubling down on the idea that obama was outsmarted when every other country in the world has said that its because russia annexed crimea why they were kicked out of the g7. He wouldnt answer that question. Instead he went back to what opponents say is his nervous tick, to blame president obama for all sorts of stuff. In this case, hes blaming obama for the g7, immigration, not being tough on china. But there, his opponents would say, Something Weird going on with President Trump and russia in this case. Ambassador mcfaul, your thoughts on what the russians must think at the highest levels at this american president operating as their agent . Well, theyre delighted by it, of course, because it divides the g7 at a time when we could actually really use unity, on how to deal with the global economy, how to deal with china. Instead were having ridiculous, i want to emphasize that adjective, ridiculous discussions about inviting Vladimir Putin back to the g8. You know, im not i didnt write art of the deal, but i did do some diplomacy. I dont understand why President Trump continues to offer something for nothing. Why is that a good deal for the American People . Lets let him come back in for nothing. He has to do nothing. Obviously nobody else is going to agree with him and i really cannot understand why the president continues to double and triple down on this courtship, this fawning of Vladimir Putin. Well, youre a columnist. Youre entitled to speculate, sir. It really looks like he wants to keep putin happy. Thats definitely the appearance and its against political interests, which makes it that much more curious, but, you know, i think what ambassador mcfaul is so important to emphasize. I mean, by all means lets invite russia back to the g8 after theyve withdrawn from crimea, after theyve stopped waging war in eastern ukraine, after theyve accounted for an act of terrorism that brought down a malaysian airliner, after they dealt with Nuclear Terrorism against dissident figures in Great Britain and, most of all, after weve had a full reckoning with them about their attempts to undermine democratic elections in the United States. Thats exactly the kind of deal by which you could imagine russia coming back into a knew sort of g7 plus one or g8. But, you know, there is also there could be another thing youre talking geopolitically and what a fair deal would be state to state. About trump personally, i wonder, why is he doing it personally . Hes not doing it in the interest of the United States, which is what youd be discussing. Those trade matters would be important for him if he was a statesman. Hes not a statesman. Hes donald trump. Look, however you feel about the outcome of the mueller report, one thing that is absolutely clear is that donald trump gave his adversaries every reason to have good suspicions about ulterior motives when it came to his thinking about russia because some of some of his positions simply are nonsensical unless there is some motive that none of us fully understand. Well, yamiche mentioned right there, she also pushed the president today on why he continued to blame former president barack obama for russias exclusion from the g7 and offered his own revisionist history about russias annexation of crimea. Why did you make the misleading statement that russia outsmarted president obama . Well, he did. When other countries said the reason that russia was kicked out was very clearly because they annexed crimea. Why keep repeating what some people would see as a clear lie. I know you like president obama, but it was annexed during president obamas term. That was not a good thing. It could have been stopped. It could have been stopped with the right whatever. Christopher, i have never seen more ridiculous blame shifting. You take a country that grabs another country, grabs crimea out of ukraine, and he blames obama. Talk about blaming the victim. Hes blaming obama because he didnt send the troops in . Yeah, because he didnt want to go to war with a Nuclear Power to try to save crimea. Yeah, exactly. And whats his answer . He could have done whatever. Oh, come on. Its absolutely absurd. But i think coming back to the question of inviting russia back to the g8, it was invited in the first place in the 1990s not because it deserved to be a member. It wasnt one of the most eight most industrialized economies. It was a fledgeling democracy that the g7 wanted to encourage to become more democratic. Well, since Vladimir Putin has been president or ruler of russia, it hasnt been a fledgeling democracy, and its done all of those things that bret rattled off in russian crimes. Since it shouldnt have been in in the first place and since it was brought in to be something that its not, why even begin to talk about bringing it back in now . And even putin knows its ridiculous. Thats why when hes been asked about it, he said he thinks the g20 is a more suitable place for him to be and the g20 basically accounts for 80 of the worlds domestic product, whereas the g7 or g8 only accounts for about 40 . That was well said. Thank you. Because i do remember yeltsin, he stood up to the red army personally. At personal physical risk and changed history over there. And putin brought it back the other direction. Absolutely. As i mentioned earlier, the president suggested he may host the g7 summit. Somebodys laughing already. At his Trump National dural golf resort near miami, despite concerns it would violate the constitutions emoluments clause prohibiting officers of the u. S. Government accepting a thing of value from a foreign state, in this case seven countries including russia, he wants to give them a break. Anyway, it clearly states this is in the constitution. No Person Holding any office of profit or trust under the United States shall without the consent of the congress accept of any president emolument present, rather, office or title of any kind, whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state. The president downplayed and turned todays News Conference into an infomercial. Here he is like a pitchman on the Atlantic City boardwalk selling, in this case his dural country club. Dural happens to be within miami. Its a city. Its a wonderful place. Its very importantly only five minutes from the airport. The airports right next door. With dural, we have a series of magnificent buildings. We call them bungalows. They each hold from 50 to 70 very luxurious rooms with magnificent rooms. We have incredible conference rooms, incredible restaurants and we have many hundreds of acres so that in terms of parking, in terms of all of the things that you need, the ballrooms are among the biggest in florida and the best. Each country can have their own villa or their own bungalow. I dont know what to say except, ambassador ambassador, he wants this is a trade show. This is the marketing director for dural in the guise of a u. S. President and world leader. Since when do we need ballrooms for g7 summits . I have a suggestion. There is this place called camp david. I dont know if the president s heard of it. Hes been there a few times. Its a government property. Fantastic security. President obama hosted the g8 summit there in 2012. I think thats a fantastic alternative. You know, i was wondering, bret, this is rich for a column, so im going to let you columnize here. The president of the United States blatantly pitching for his own property in the face of the emoluments clause. I want your money. Right. I mean, look, this is this is they made bad b movies in the 1980s about dictators in distant countries behaving right. In the fashion that you just witnessed with the president , but, you know, look, it also says something important, which is that the president has never stopped being essentially a grifter looking out for the interests of the most Important Organization in the United States, which is not the white house, not the u. S. Not the federal government, its its the trump organization. The trump family. Which is, of course, the trump family. And so in that sense you really have excuse me. Im almost insulting thirdworld countries, but the thirdworldization of america, in which the interest the personal financial interests of the president and his family are the central consideration in statecraft. Thats amazing. And, you know, youre watching this and youre thinking, what what what combination of drugs did i take this morning that i actually saw that on tv . Well, lets go to yamiche who is a student of this president if i could. I wonder if you could, yamiche, tell us as a reporter, analytical question, not exactly reporting, but analysis here. Is there something going on with this guy . I mean, greenland, dural. Its like hes become hes met forev metamorphasized into the cartoon of donald trump. Do you notice anything different or is this standard m. O. . Well, the president the moment he took office was really saying that he was going to be a businessman, that the country needed that. What hes really exhibiting is an interest in his personal business, making money some people would say off the presidency. Ive been talking to watchdog groups, including the citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. Theyre looking at possibly having a lawsuit against President Trump because they think there might be an ethical violation there. You also hear the president saying he was going to lose between 3 and 5 billion from being president. Analysis from the Washington Post and others hes made millions of dollars first by actually physically going to his properties on several weekends in new jersey and in florida, and also the Trump National hotel in washington, d. C. , a lot of International Leaders and republican lawmakers have held fundraisers there. So we see that the president has already been making millions of dollars off the presidency. I think what weve seen in the last couple of weeks, people would say and some of hi opponenhis opponents would say is the president trying to maximize the profits hes been making off the presidency. I dont know what to say. We had great president s. Fdr, eisenhower, kennedy all in a row and then we get this guy. Anyway, yamiche alcindor, mike mcfaul, bret stephens, christopher dickey. Coming up, it gets worse, dirt ball politics. Trump allies are unleashing dogs on journalists releasing Oppo Research and compiling dossiers on potentially embarrassing social media posts in order to try to intimidate reporters. He wants the media to stop reporting on him objectively. Hes going after peoples families, people who work for them in their organizations, anything to stop people from reporting on him. Plus, bombshell new poll numbers tonight show a major swing in the democratic race for president. The poll shows a virtual threeway tie right now. It could be an outlier but its fascinating, except for joe biden because biden in big trouble here. Hes now slipping behind the two progressives on the left, behind bernie, behind elizabeth. Well get much more on that tonight. A lot of news tonight on this monday. Stick with us. Thats why with dell Small Business technology advisors. Youll get tailored product solutions, expert tech advice and oneonone partnership. Call an advisor today at 877buydell. 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Xfinity mobile is a different kind of Wireless Network designed to save you money. Save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus get 250 back when you buy an eligible phone. Click, call or visit a store today. As you know, i have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth. A few days ago i called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are. They are the enemy of the people. You know, you read the fake news. Its fake. And disgraceful. Just stick with us. Dont believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. And just remember, what youre seeing and what you are reading is not whats happening. What he says is happening is happening. Welcome back to hardball. President trump has made no secret about his disdain for the news media, or his fear, rather. Frequently naming them the enemy of the people for his purposes. This weekend we learned that President Trumps allies are escalating his war on journalists. According to the New York Times, a Loose Network of conservative operatives allied with the white house is pursuing what they say will be an aggressive operation to discredit news organizations deemed hostile to President Trump by publicizing damaging information about journalists. Those operatives have already released information about journalists at cnn, the Washington Post and the New York Times. One source tells the times that operatives have closely examined more than a decades worth of public posts and statements by journalists. The research is said to extend to members of journalists families who are active in politics and other opponents of the president. Arthur schwarz, an informal adviser to the president s oldest son donald trump june r. Believed to be one of the operations leaders. Unable to challen