Meeting. That night at the end of the dinner for the assembled World Leaders and their spouses. Now, people told us who broke this story that it lasted for about an hour. That directly contradicts indications weve been getting from the white house. So far the white house has offered no record of what was said in that conversation. Putins translator was the only translator used. The u. S. Translator didnt speak russian. And i will tell you that, you know, many of the leaders that were in that room, including, you know, americas most important allies were quite surprised. They found it unusual and noteworthy. The body hang wanl, the chemistry, the enact that it went on for so long and the fact that of course it reflected a much warmer relationship between trump and putin than he has with any of the other leaders in the room. The white house said any insinuation that it tried to hide a second meeting with putin is false, malicious and absurd. Earlier today President Trump tweeted, fake news story of secret dinner with putin is sick. All g20 leaders and spouses were invited by the chancellor of germany. Press new. The fake news is becoming more and more dishonest. Even a dinner arpgd for the top 20 leaders in germany is made to look sin ter. For more i want to bring in abcs. So, kristen, i would say that as push back goes from this white house, this has been pretty strong. They completely paint a different picture of what we heard from an bremer and what we have confirmed here at nbc news about what happened that night at the g20. Tell us about it. The push back has been vig rouse. Theres no doubt about that. So let me tell you what the white house is saying and then we can do some analysis afterwards. The white house essentially saying that look at the end of the dinner the president did speak with russias president Vladimir Putin for a period of time. They cast this as merely some discussion that happens at the end of this type of diplomatic social engagement, if you will. They say he was talking to other leaders as well. But here is what makes this very different. The fact that you have people in the room who say that the meeting lasted an hour. As you pointed out, chris, the white house pushing back against that timeline. They say it was much shorter. But i think what has raised alarm bells also for Foreign Policy experts is the fact that you only had a russian interpreter. Now, that happened because every leader was allowed to bring one translator. So President Trump had a japanese translator because he was sitting next to the prrm of japan. Still the concern is were there discussions underway that he wasnt necessarily aware of. What was Vladimir Putin saying to him, for example . Were there any discussions about lifting sanctions, restoring those diplomatic compounds . We havent gotten a read out. And just putting this into a broader context, as you well know, weve been covering the russia investigation, the probe into russias meddling in the 2016 race almost on a daily basis and so for there to be any level of interaction between President Trump and ppd putin on the sidelines of this diplomatic summit and for the white house not to read that out, to give the American People a sense of what was discussed, i think that is what is creating so much concern. The administration again saying that any notion that they tried to hide this is simple rl ridiculous. President trump obviously pushing back very strongly as well in those tweets. And i anticipate were going to hear Sarah Huckabee sanders really echo those send wants in that briefing thats underway right now, chris. Let me let you go and listen to what you can at that. Were going to come back to you in just a few minutes. Im guessing that this will be one of the first questions that gets asked of Sarah Huckabee sanders. But in the meantime, let me bring in ambassador chris hill. He is an nbc and former ambassador to iraq, south korea, poland and macedonia. Karen, let me start with you. You wrote up the piece on this meeting. Reports were calling this a secret dinner. In fact, thats not the case. I didnt hear anybody in the media say that this was a secret dinner. What are the facts here . Well, this was a dinner at the end of the days meetings, at the end of the twoday summit. Actually, in the middle of the twoday summit, sorry. And it was leaders and spouses only. They were allowed to bring one interpreter, and people were seated next to spouses or leaders and generally brought an interpreter who knew the language of the person they were sitting next to. President trump, for example, was sitting next to the wife of the japanese prime minister. People i think the white house is entirely correct. People, as they do at any sort of private dinner like that, circulate around, talk to each other in between courses. There was no media there. The pool media was standing outside, watched people come and watched people leave. I think that, you know, the Walking Around and chatting with each other is one thing. Going over, sitting down and having an extended conversation is something else. And i think and how do we what do we know, container karen, about how this was viewed by others, maybe allies of ours, maybe its an Angela Merkel or we just saw Justin Trudeau of canada . I mean, were they watching this as it was going on . Do we know . Yeah. Every was in the room. They could watch. They could see who was talking to whom. This went on for a long time. And the concern is not that they spoke, that they had an exchange. The concern was it went on for a long time and no one else heard it. Certainly the president can talk to whoever he wants, but this is a meeting with a country that is generally considered an adversary where we have lots of issues outstanding, and there needs to be someone who can write a memo, write a report, tell policymakers, tell president ial aides what was said. And when youre relying only on the president s memory to say, oh, this is what we talked about, then i think you put policymakers in a difficult position. Because they dont know what was said by the president or what was said by the president of russia. Karen did he young, thank you for that. Let me bring in ambassador chris hill. He is a diplomacy expert and former ambassador to iraq, poland and macedonia. Let me pick up on what karen just said. And she said it put policy plarks in a difficult position if we dont have our own translation of exactly what was said. Were depending here on the russian interpreter. Does it put both policymakers and diplomats, for that matter, in a difficult position or is this being overstated . Well, i think it sure does. But, you know, i dont know whats weirder, the actual meeting where he gets up and goes over and sits with putin for apparently an hour or the white house reaction. First of all, i would think the white house would want to characterize the dinner, say what happened at the dinner and say, oh, by the way, he had an opportunity to talk to president putin. And they should have said about what . About something. He could have said, you know, that he just wanted to make a point about the earlier discussion they had had that day, the twohour discussion. Instead there seems to be this extreme defensiveness. They didnt want to acknowledge the timing, et cetera. And its pretty clear that the whole ten or of the relationship with putin is rather odd. I mean, why didnt they, for example, in the meeting, the formal meeting during the day have staff, have note takers and then you can kick the stach and note takers out and have a little at the time aat the time. Thats not unusual. Its kind of secretive. And then to go over and have this little at the time aat the time, just two people with the russian p translator makes you sort of wonder what is going on here. So i think its a combination of the president just not having a clue how to behave and also a staff that just doesnt seem to know how to protect their boss or, frankly, how to do their job. So you get the impression of a whole organization that is completely dysfunctional. People cant seem to talk to one another. Everyone is afraid about being yelled at, et cetera. It seems like, frankly speaking, it seems like an internal mess going on right now. Well yet you want them to protect their boss, but you also want to protect what is official u. S. Policy, and there are people who are raising questions about whether or not we have any sense of what was said. I want to play a clip for you, ambassador, of another former u. S. Ambassador to russian, michael mcfall, who was talking about this meeting earlier today. You want him to have his talking points. You want him to know that if putin says this, you say this. And anything a president urts in a meeting like that becomes policy. So those are the things you dont like to have happen without staff. And im thinking about, for example, jon huntsman who has just been nominated to be ambassador. Does he take on this job not knowing what these conversations are about, what our policy is, what was said in these very important oneon one interactions. Its pretty clear that if you dont have the president s ear, if you dont have that extreme personal relationship with our president , youre kind of out of the loop. And so i think jon huntsman has his work cut out for him to be someone that people in moscow will want to listen to because theyll want to first be convinced that this is someone who has the ear of the president. And it appears that very few people do have that kind of comfortable relationship with the president. Some people seem to have it for a while and then they Say Something wrong and off to the doghouse they go. So its really sort of unclear how this president wants to operate. But certainly with respect to, you know, having his talking points in front of him, this is not a president who really wants to listen to anyone else tell him how to conduct a meeting. Hes full of this kind of self ra shurdness and he just doesnt want to share with people how he does stuff. You know, it is not unusual to have at the time aat the times. This happens, but pushl the senior official involved would go right back to his staff and say by the way, i had a followup meeting with putin and he told me this and i told him that. So you would have some sort of notion of what to say to people about this followup meeting which is true was in the presence of some 19 or 18 other leaders. So it is really quite mist fieg how this president is trying to run things. And to argue lieu that, well, he comes out of a real estate world, thats not how you do it. Im sorry, six months is a lifetime in the white house and he should start to get some sense of how to behave. Ambassador christopher hill. Always good to talk to you. Thank you for coming in. Thank you. And we have breaking news out of washington where the Supreme Court ruled today that under his travel ban, President Trump cannot block grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives of u. S. Citizens from coming into the country. But the court did temporarily block the part of the Hawaii District Court order which would have extended that exemption from families to cover refugees that are formally working with a Resettlement Agency in the u. S. So the justices will hear the overall challenge to the travel ban later this year. And up next, the pressure is on. For seven years you promised the American People that you would repeal obamacare. People are hurting. Inaction is not an option. And frankly, i dont think we should leave town unless we have a Health Insurance plan. Were heading to capitol hill where lawmakers are scrambling to fulfill that longtime promise of the republican party. I place the blame on republicans, to be honest, because what have they been doing for seven, eight years, when obamacare became a law that kept saying then that they were going to repeal obamacare. And then, okay, so now the republicans in office and they act like they havent put a plan together. For your heart. Your joints. 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. Finding the best hotel price is now a safe bet. Because tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites so you save up to 30 on the hotel you want. Lock it in. Tripadvisor. When this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night. So he got home safe. Yeah, my dad says our insurance doesnt have that. What . . With Liberty Mutuals 24hour roadside assistance, get a jump, tow, and more any time of day. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Tthats why at comcast,t to be connected 24 7. Liberty stands with you™. Were always working to make our services more reliable. With technology that can update itself. And advanced Fiber Network infrastructure. New, more Reliable Equipment for your home. And a new culture built around customer service. It all adds up to our most Reliable Network ever. One that keeps you connected to what matters most. We cannot keep the commitment we made to the American People to repeal and replace obamacare unless we can own the bill. So next week well be voting to get on the bill. We have to stay here. We shouldnt leave town, and we should hammer this out and get it done. And not just the repeal. Hey, it was sort of early on along with a few of the other folks at the table, the repeal was fine. I was with it. But we ought to get more than i think the people of this country need more than a repeal. They need a repeal and a replace. And we were very, very close. And with that yet another about face about the president on health care. He met with republican lawmakers for lunch today at the white house and after calling for both straight repeal and for letting obamacare collapse to force democrats to the table, now you just heard him. He says repeal and replace would be best. And he suggested it could all get done over lunch. Im joined now by garrett headache who has been catching up with senators who were at that lunch and were also just hearing, garrett, out of the White House Briefing there will be a meeting tonight by senators who are still having challenges about getting to yes for them to work out their differences. This is all very confusing. I mean, not only are we, you know, seeing a moving target with the president. Mitch mcconnell seemed to offer several different, at least a couple of different alternatives when he spoke maybe an hour ago. Now they think that in a meeting tonight theyre going to get everybody on the same page. Help us understand whats going on where you are. Reporter first, the sense i get is that everyone involved in this, Mitch Mcconnell from the president on down are trying to shorten the timeline and squeeze these senators so that they can get a yes or a no answer on this once and for all. Mitch mcconnell says there will be at least a vote. They will bring a bill to the floor. If there is any way to do it, come early next week. And now we hear this meeting tonight at the white house for waiving senators to the gree that they are interested in participating. This could be seen as the fullcourt press from the white house that some on capitol hill have been calling for for a long time. But the question, in my mind, is that whether or not the white house and mark short or whoever is going to be holding this briefing or this meeting with senators can offer the waiving senators anything that they havent already been offered before. Mitch mcconnell and Senate Leadership have been on this issue for weeks if not months now, and the question is can they swing dean heller, lisa murkowski, susan collins, some of those moderate no votes who have been very hard no votes. And we just talked to lisa mur cow i ski as she was boarding a subway in the basement. Im a little swaet from running up here. Too much information. Okay. Nothing has changed in her mind yet. Dean heller outside said he is still undecided. So there was no magic poegs served at this lunch that has convinced these senators to change their minds. But it is clear that they are on this timeline now to put up or shut up, to get a vote. Sort of no more discussion on this. Were going to find out where everybody are stands on this once and for all. Were sheg on the other side protestors outside of marco rubios office which shows how much pressure theyre on from home. But i guess its going to be curious for me to see how many people are going to go to this meeting tonight . What do they consider to be somebody waiving . Because when you listened to the president yesterday he said i think actually we did pretty good, suggesting that they had only lost four senators, as if there had been a vote. There was no vote. Some of the counts ive heard from people on the hill is that it could be double, even triple that number of people who are waiving. Do we have a good count of how many people . We arent sure exactly how theyre going to vote . Yeah. And thats really the challenge here because we dont even know what were talking billion them voting on. To bring a bill to the floor either to repeal and replace simultaneously or to repeal and replace separately. Susan collins, shes got big big issues with the med skad portion of this. Shes also said she wont vote for a repeal without the replacement. Theres your one no. Rand paul might vote to put this on the floor if he thinks that full repeal is still on the table. Leaves shelly more cop at that and murkowski whether they would let this thing go to the floor. Look, senators dont like the uncertainty of this process any more than anybody else does. Its an open amendment process the way this is structured here, so once this bill gets to the floor, any 50 senators or 51 can decide what happens next. And thats a big gamble. Garrett headache on capitol hill. Thank you very much. And we appreciate your trucking it up there from down b