To homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you welcome to kasie d. C. Im kasie hunt. We are live every sunday from washington from 7 00 to 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Tonight, trump putin, the sequel, the leadrs meet in helsinki. Things get tricky ahead of the summit. Later republican congressman Ryan Costello joins me live. He says his colleagues conclusions on the russia investigation should be taken with a grain of salt. But just hours from now, President Trump and President Putin are set to meet. Things were always going to be a little awkward to begin with. And then came the indictments of a dozen russians laid out in forensic detail. It leaves a lot of questions, like whether holding those accountable will come up in their conversation. The russians who were indicted, would you ask putin to send them here . Well, i might. I hadnt thought of that, but certainly ill be asking about it. Again, this was during the Obama Administration. Presented with all of this new information, there is also the question of how hard the president will press Vladimir Putin on his governments role. I know youll ask will we be talking about meddling, and i will absolutely bring that up. I dont think youll have any, gee, i did it, i did it, you got me. There wont be a perry mason here, i dont think, but you never know what happens, right . Jonathan swan of axios citing sources close to trump if and
when trump confronts putin tomorrow, it wont be with genuine seriousness or enthusiasm. The president no longer doubts the intelligence assessment. Quote, he just cant get past a Senior Administration official told us, his voice trailing off, quote, that its about his election. All of this while the president casually recasts who is a friend and who is a foe. Who is your biggest competitor, your biggest foe globally right now . Well, i think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe. What they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldnt think of the European Union, but theyre a foe. Russias a foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically certainly theyre a foe. But that doesnt mean theyre bad. It doesnt mean anything. It means that theyre competitors. They want to do well and we want to do well. I want to welcome in my panel. Former Chief Of Staff at cia and Department Of Defense and Msnbc National Security analyst jeremy
bash. Politics reporter for the daily beast and msnbc contributor betsy woodruff. The man who puts memo, nbc News National reporter mike. Joining us from london, London School of economics brian class. And from helsinki finland, chief correspondent affairs, host Andrea Mitchell reports nbc, Andrea Mitchell. Its such an honor to have you here. Thank you for staying up with us. Thank you. Absolutely. I have watched so many of these meetings, dozens of types of meetings with foreign leaders over the years. This seems like everything this president does, stunning in a way that is extraordinarily difficult to kind of understand and explain. Whats your latest reporting going into this summit . And can you put it in some Historical Context . What do you think is important here and different than what youve seen before . Sure. I think this is unique because weve never had a summit with a
kgb spy master, someone who has, you know, completely studied and examined donald trump, and a president who spent the weekend golfing and has not been preparing. There were no principal meetings, no planning for the summit, no deeply organized strategy sessions, what is the agenda, what are the goals, what do they want to get out of it. So, we could be surprised, they could come out and say weve made progress on nuclear weapons, that were going to revive, expand, extend, Start Nuclear weapons agreement which expires after 2022. But will donald trump confront putin on the fact hes already busted out of one mediumrange, the Inf Treaty By deploying a banned missile . Unlikely. He doesnt know those kind of details. He hasnt been with his advisors. Weve seen him all over the lot as He Crisscrosses Europe the last week. And its really startling that hes going to be meeting one on one. Were not going to have a record of this one on one meeting. And that is alarming to a lot of former advisors in both Political Parties who have worked so closely to plan a summit like this. This is even less planned and more impromptu than singapore was, and thats saying a lot. Andrea, i mean, this is somebody Vladimir Putin has a history of being, as you point out, the former kgb official who does things to either flatter and try to embrace his host in a way that puts them off guard as he did with george w. Bush, or tries to unsettle them as he did with Angela Merkel at times. Do we have any indication that thats kind of where Vladimir Putin might be going with this . And the last time that they did talk, there seems to be some agreement on how to handle issues in syria that then quite frankly putin walked away from. It seems like the Policy Stakes could be very high. Well, there are a lot of issues there, especially with syria, because the administration is planning really ramping up its very
aggressive posture on both sanctions and other activities against iran. They are keen to some Big Decisions on iran coming and they have already, as we reported over the weekend, told the top three european allies who were very concerned about the iran nuclear deal, about our withdrawal from the nuclear deal, there would be no waivers, no exceptions their companies are going to have to get out of tehran or risk not doing business with the United States, which is not a choice for them. They have to be able to tradein dollars, deal with american banks. So, they have to get out of iran. This is going to squeeze iran. There are other steps that are being taken on the energy front to compensate for what may be what will be a drop in Iranian Oil Exports if these other major european companies, france, britain and germany have to pull out. So theres a lot there. And this conversation about syria where Vladimir Putin has been working with iran gets
really complicated on the ground. Is this a way of the u. S. Backing out of syria, abandoning rebels, saying were doing it because of iran, and somehow working with putin but not to undercut assad, to continue propping up his client, Bashar Alassad . So, theres that. But primarily on the mueller front, every signal from everything the president has said in the last days, months, particularly since the indictment, is to blame the victim, blame the democrats for not defending themselves better, blame obama for saying it happened on his watch out of context and give putin and the kremlin a free ride. Jeremy bash, to andreas point on that, how do you think these two things interact, what you learned in the Mueller Investigation . Obviously the president knew that this was going to happen going into it. Hes Going Forward anyway. First on the summit, were going to see unfold here in the next ten hours, this is the most
significant shift in the American Foreign policy in the post world war ii era. I dont think we should under play that. First on the economic front, kasie, we are reordering our trade relationships around the world, preferring more unilateral, in some cases bilateral cases. Ending the regime. More politically, undermining the nato alliance, undermining our historical alliances including with the u. K. And really embracing russia. This is a fundamental shift. So then West Virginia e of course, the indictments that show definitively russian government officials comprehensively not just meddled in the election, but actually launched a very sophisticated cyberattack against the United States. And yes, it did occur during the Obama Administration. The Trump Campaign happened during the Obama Administration. But it is very clear, and i think you see this from the president s own words leading up to the summit, he doesnt take this seriously. He doesnt accept the intelligence and he will not in any way confront putin about t. When you learned this forgive me for putting you on
the spot. Should the Obama Administration done more . They want it had to go public. They stepped back because Mitch Mcconnell wouldnt go along. The president Thought Hillary is going to win, this isnt going to matter. Lets not get involved lest she win and we be accused in the election. The United States should have done a lot more. There is tonight this from the New York Times saying, quote, the same Russian MilitaryIntelligence Service now accused of disrupting the 2016 president ial election in america may also be responsible for the Nerve Agent Attack in britain against a former russian spy an audacious poisoning that led to a geopolitical confrontation this spring between moscow and the west. Quote, british investigators believe the march 4 attack on the former spy, Sergey Skripalal and his daughter yulia was most probably carried out by current or former agents of the service known as the g. R. U. Who were sent to his home in southern england, according to one
british official, one a american official and one former american official familiar with the inquiry, all speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence. Nbc news has not verified the times reporting as this is all coming to us. Betsy woodruff, pretty remarkable considering the president is leaving the u. K. , having been there. This is a very physical manifestation of a, frankly, sweeping intelligence power that is systematically trying to undermine democracies across the globe. Thats right. And the important context for this is none of this stuff happens without Vladimir Putin knowing about it. Putin is critically close with the Intelligence Services, hes deeply involved with all these matters. It is unthinkable there would have been an operation like the one alleged to have happened against the skripals without putin knowing about it. Unlikely the 2016 Election Meddling happened without putin knowing about it. What has the trump
administration tried to put putin on the spot . I dont think anyone is waiting with baited breath to see that happen. It puts it more to the forefront and more urjts. What is the view from london look like . This is a story you guys have been covering pretty closely. Is there surprise . And what is kind of the orientation and the feeling are you exhausted having experienced a little of what we here in the u. S. Experience every day having the president visit the u. K. . Well, it was a remarksable visit. Donald trump is politically toxic in the u. K. He has an 11 Approval Rating. That was the Bombshell Sun interview where he effectively tried to push theresa mays government off the cliff where she is already close to the edge. I think there was astonishment, bewhich wi bewhich wi b bewilderment. Trump trashed nato, trashed the e. U. And trashed britain. Those are all three thingsVladimir Putin very much wants to happen. For the last two decades hes been looking to drive a wedge into the core of the west, and donald trump has done this for him. Something the soviet union couldnt accomplish, something putin couldnt accomplish. Now trump is accomplishing it for him heading into helsinki. The British Government is looking at this with trepidation and waiting to see what will come out of it and not too optimistic. On the eve of the president s meeting with Vladimir Putin, members of the Trump Administration and the president himself have sought to downplay expectations. It is a summit, ive heard it called a summit. It is a meeting. The russians have agreed it would be unstructured. We are not looking for concrete deliverables here. No state dinner, no joint statement. No deliverables that are going to be prepackaged. You dont know whats going to come out of this meeting. I dont expect anything. Im going in with very low expectations. I think that getting along with russia is a good thing. But its possible we wont. You heard ambassador jon huntsman therein sifting tomorrows meeting is not a, quote, summit but that didnt stop the president from sending out the tweets hours later no matter how well he does at the summit, the media wont give him any credit. Andrea mitchell, what are your expectations inside this frame for this meeting . Well, i think that they will come out and try to make some announcements perhaps on arms control. But we are all inevitably going to be focused on the indictments, on how he addresses it. Its a joint news conference. There will be two questions on either side. He can try to call on friendlier reporters. Im really struck by the fact that going into this he again used the phrase on twitter, the press are enemies of the people. That is a stalinist phrase. And it goes against everything that the State Department under both republicans and democrats have done for decades to project americas belief in a free press, americas belief in the
first amendment as american secretaries of state and president s go to moscow or beijing or now erdogans turkey. To any of these totalitarian regimes, they go in, hold press conferences, the new secretary of the state pompeo did, Rex Tillerson did not as a regular matter. Emphasizing the importance of a free press. For him to use that phrase right out of Josef Stalins book on the eve of a summit with Vladimir Putin is so deeply offensive to american values. Its quite remarkable. And, mike, to andreas point, this is going to be something of of a stunning display. Usually there has been this rule that you dont criticize the american president when he goes abroad, but also american president s have a history of defending their own free press. You i know have covered carefully the russia investigation and have read through these indictments. What did you see in there that you think we should be paying attention to tomorrow . Kasie, im going to send you
back to your 2012 romney rambler days because there was a moment that republicans are fond of bringing up in 2012 when of course obama on the hot mic was heard talking with president medvedev at the time, ill have more flexibility after the election. Romney pounced on that. This isness a moment for the american president to be holding his punches with the russian president. I think what were seeing is exactly that. Its remarkable hes dispassionately speaking about the summit. There is not much hes expecting down playing his expectations. You know who is ready . He may have been basquing in the spotlight. Thats Vladimir Putin. And this indictment from the mueller team on friday really carefully lays out their capabilities. And there is the need for the american president to respond to that forcefully to say this is unacceptable. What we heard from the President Today Doesnt Sound like hes ready to deliver that message. It does seem like a remarkable signal. The detail, jeremy bash, that was in the indictment, it seems to almost as though they
intended to tell Vladimir Putin, hey, look, this is how much we know about what youve been doing. It showed the depth of intelligence collection about russian cyberattacks against the United States. But, look, the administration here is describing that as the seinfeld summit, the summit about nothing. And i think the reason i like that. The reason it is happening is because they have no idea. Jon huntsman, the ambassador, john bolton the advisor, have no idea why we are having this summit. Trump hasnt told them. Its a secret one on one meeting. This is not a summit with deliverables. There may be vague statements, i take andreas points. It will be totally a more fuss, unenforceable. All we no is trump is going to walk out, declare victory, some important objective has been achieved, but we will never know. In fact, the administration itself has no idea what it wants to get out of this. Betsy woodruff, is that essentially all this is, another media show . Weve seen the reports in the wake of singapore, for example, that President Trump said, oh, hey, looking there were more cameras here than at the oscars,
for example. Is that all there thats here . I h