The man investigating both Vladimir Putin and donald trump, that man is Robert Mueller. And hes back on the world stage, choosing his words carefully. Only making veiled references to his successor, but how long can that last as he gears up to hit the campaign trail . President trump will address yesterdays Vladimir Putin meeting. It will be the first time we hear from the president after the tidal wave of criticism to his standing next to putin instead of standing up to him. As both men say, they do not think russia interfered in our election. Imagine that. Called a betrayal and a disgrace by members of his own party, the chorus is only growing louder today. With putins attitude of putting back the old soviet union, i can only come to the conclusion that a lot of things he said yesterday about not being involved in our elections, hes a liar. Feels like the dam is breaking. I was real glad to see people on both sides of the aisle condemning what happened strongly. I remain astonished that the president would choose to believe the assertions of president putin over the anonymous conclusions of his own u. S. Intelligence and the bipartisan conclusions of the intelligence committee. Despite the tough talk, theres been no plan, no call to action on how to respond to the president. Nbcs Peter Alexander is at the white house and msnbcs Garrett Haake is on capitol hill. Peter, the meeting with republicans, correct me if im wrong, is now supposed to be about taxes. I imagine at the top hes going to respond to reporters at the very least. Or maybe talk with something on his own about that meeting yesterday. Thats exactly right. Sarah sanders tells us the president will begin that meeting. Its supposed to focus on taxes. Now hes going to speaking at the start specifically about the helsinki summit he just returned from. Its the first time really well be able to press him for more i guess separate from his conversation with sean hannity immediately after his comments yesterday. Heres part of what the president said as he appeared to be in effect in denial about all the frustration, the blame being directed, his attention from lawmakers by both sides of the aisle. This morning, he tweeted, while i had a great meeting with nato, raising vast amounts of money, had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way. The fake news is going crazy. As you know, these are what we call pool sprays. Where a representative from the media goes in for these events. Today is my turn so ill be entering that room, the roosevelt room, in about an hour from now. The white house has set out talking points to its allies up on capitol hill today. Perhaps moeft notist noticeablyf those surrogates arent relying on those talking points. One of them was particularly striking. It says President Trump approaches talks with russia grounded in realism. I thank is exactly the opposite of the way many people view this right now, feel like his view of russia has not been realistic, giving the russian leader the benefit of the doubt over his own intelligence agencies. Ashley parker has a whole article today about the behind the scenes, what donald trump was supposed to do and the prep that he had and what he actually did. From your conversations with those inside the white house, what is your assessment . Is that meeting that he had and that press conference that he had, was that the plan all along, or did it catch his own administration by surprise . It definitely wasnt the plan all along and did catch every member of his team that ive spoken to so far by surprise. I think you can best describe them as embarrassed, certainly disappointeds an o s disappointed, as one sort of described to me. The bottom line is, despite the urging by his advisers to be tougher in public as he stood beside the russian leader putin. The president obviously again called an audible. Perhaps it shouldnt be a surprise because this is a point that he has made repeatedly where he obviously cant separate this idea of collusion with interference. While theres no determination so far whether or not members of his team, in fact, colluded with russia, Robert Mueller will have the final say on that, there is no despite that russia did interfere in the u. S. Elections as evidenced most recently by those 12 indictments provided by Rod Rosenstein just last friday. The chorus among republicans is getting louder for the president to correct himself, for him to clarify what exactly he meant or for him to at least for the first time separate the investigation into russia from his own personal feelings about whether or not this investigation would delegitimize his own election. Of the republicans that are going to this meeting, and there are seven of them as of noon, tell me if we need to update these numbers. So far, only three of them have criticized either the president or hiS Performance or stood by, stood by the Intelligence Community. Those three are congressman eric pulsen, congressman bishop. Thats right, those lawmakers are going to be in a tough spot. They would love to be associated with President Trump and his tax cuts. They would love to make this meeting as it was originally scheduled to be all about the economy. But they are just the latest republican lawmakers caught in the vice that this president so often puts them in. Where he on the world stage or with his twitter account, puts forward platforms or puts forward policies that have essentially nothing to do with traditionally republican talking points or platforms. Peter mentioned those talking points that the white house distributed today. Ive not heard any republican lawmakers using those talks points. I stead what weve heard so far is republican, including those in leadership, pushing back much more strongly in tone and also a little bit in substance, including paul ryan who, this morning, sounded to me a lot more like the guy who was mitt romneys running mate in 2012 then the speaker whos gone out of his way to avoid picking fights with them. Here is paul ryan. Not only did russiaed me until our elections, theyre doing it around the world. They did it to france. Theyre doing it to the baltics. Russia is trying to undermine democracy itself open the mueller issue. Ive been clear from day one, he should be allowed to finish his investigation and carry out his work. Nothings changed. So, the followup question, all these republican lawmakers has been and will continue to be what are you willing to do about it . Heres a little bit of what im hearing on that front. I think what you may see here is republicans in congress are interested in the idea of putting forward more sanctions against russia. They know they cant go after a president of their own party in any meaningful way. If they can flex their muscles and say we continue to believe russias a bat actor and we want to do something about it. I heard from senator jeff flake talking about the idea, nothing particularly wind binding, but an opportunity to go on the record in support of the Intelligence Community. I think thats what youll see is this idea of working around the president , rather than trying to do something that confronts him directly, which puts them in a box too, so close to an election. Its interesting, i was talking to senator flake yesterday on meet the press daily and i was if he was willing to maybe hold up the confirmation of judges over this as he did for tariffs and he said no, it wasnt time for that yet, but couldnt answer on when that yet would become more of a pressing need to do something. One other question to you, garrett, bob corker said the dam is breaking. What did he mean by that . Well, corker has long before a foil of the president on issues in which conservatives and the Republican Party led by President Trump no longer align. Corkers someone who has been against tariffs. Hes been a free trader. He has pushed back when the president has strayed away from what have long been sort of dogmatic points on republican Foreign Policy. And he has been a lonely voice in that regard a lot of the times. Was buoyed this morning by hearing so many of his colleagues, including those who typically defend the president , start to speak out a little bit. As to the question of the dam breaking, whether this substantively changes how a Republicanled Congress deals with this president is something that has to be proven out over time. How many times have we had conversations about something incredible that the president has said over the last year and a half that hasnt really, beyond a few days in the news cycle, changed the status quo . I think a lot of folks, like myself are waiting to see whether this is another one of those moments or actually something different. No doubt. Peter alexander and Garrett Haake, thank you. Our guest is with the weekly standa standard. Anna palmer is a washington correspondent for politico. Guy, welcome, anna, in politicos playbook this morning, you talk about what republicans are saying behind the scenes. A lot of them really disappointed. Thats a measured way of putting it with the president S Performance yesterday. But then shrugging their shoulders and saying what should we do about it. Yes, think what we really saw is frustration behind the scenes, staffers, lawmakers, trying to figure out what to do. I think a lot of them are throwing their hands up in the air, saying, oh this is President Trump once again going off script, not in republican orthodoxy. They dont feel like they have a lot of tools in their tool box to actually, you know, affect change or push him on these issues. You saw what garrett was saying, maybe doing some nonbinding resolutions or a little slap on the hand. There isnt any movement within Congress Among Republicans to actually take some big movement or some big action that could put the president in a bind. Carly, is that true . Is there anything they can do . Well, a lot of things they can actually do. In fact, the Weekly Standard editors had a piece out today saying that congress can censor the president. Theres only one president whos ever been censured, andrew jackson, but he certainly deserves it. Short of that obvious lly a resolution in defense of the Intelligence Community would be an option. Legislation that would trigger harsher sanctions. And legislation that would protect the mueller investigation. They could do all of those things. But, you know, weve seen this again and again and again. How republicans have made this bargain with this president. Paul ryan was very, very i think he was very forceful but, remember, hes also been, you know, the guy who has enabled the house of representatives, the hearing that we saw, the circus that we saw last week, enabled House Republicans aggressively to obstruct and demean and undermine the mueller investigation. So they do have to choose and just simply wringing hands i dont think is sufficient to the occasion. Take it with a grain of salt obviously because this comes from one of president obamas former senior advisers and when i say gain of salt i mean the republicans do this when the democrat is offering up a solution, but this is dan pfeiffer who tweeted this morning that republicans could pass legislation to protect the mueller investigation, subpoena trumps tax and Business Records to see what leverage russia may have on him. That would certainly be interesting to see his taxes. Pass a tougher sanctions law that doesnt let donald trump wriggle out of them, hold hearings on what has or has not been done to protect america from russia. Subpoena the interpreter to find out what trump actually said to putin in private. Or pass a joint resolution saying russia interfered in the elections to help donald trump. Small chance of any of those things happening, anna, im sure. But amy cklobacuher was talking about trying with the interpreter, if that was anything within the realms of her power. What that tweet illustrates is what the democratic talking points are. What we try to put in playbook is what is going to happen and i dont think anything is going to happen. The on thing right now that seals to be tangible that republicans are starting to think about, and i think Speaker Paul Ryan looked at this a little bit in his press Conference Today is the concept of more sanctions, but as far as passing a bill to protect the mueller investigation, i just dont think is in the realm of possibility right now when you look at a republican controlled congress. Charlie, lets look at what cia director john brennan you yesterday called this a treasonous act said this morning. Take a listen. I think the outcry needs to be strong. It needs to endure. So those republicans on the hill need to do more than just speak out and criticize. They need to act. They need to put pressure on mr. Trump and they need to send a clear signal that this is intolerable and theyre going to act upon it. The t word, treason, is now being used more than anyone has ever heard it used before regarding a sitting president. What do you make of that . Whats your take . I think we have to be careful on the houuse of language. There is no question, this was a betrayal. It was a betrayal of american values. It was a betrayal of american government. It was a betrayal of what you would expect the president of the United States to do. I agree its unlikely Congressional Republicans are really going to hold him accountable. But there is an element to this that is significant. Katie, you have pointed out that the one thing that donald trump fears and hates the most is to look weak. And yesterday, he looked weak. Remember when conservatives used to describe people who looked weak on Foreign Policy as surrender monkeys . Thats what donald trump looked like yesterday. He looked like a surrender monkey. He looked weak. He looks survile. And that cuts against his brand. Remember, hes supposed to be the guy on the white horse. The guy whos going to solve all the problems. And he looked like he looked like Vladimir Putins caddie yesterday. So my question is, given all that, he looks like a surrender monkey and he looks weak and hes betraying, thats the word you used, betraying american intelligence, betraying the Intelligence Community, betraying the doj after this indictment, and that sort of indictment usually does go through, a very detailed indictment with a paper trail. If all of these things are happening, what does that make republicans who are just standing by and allowing him to do that . Whos worse in that scenario . Well, it makes them look like they have looked, you know, for last year and a half. But the problem is, the price tag of their Faustian Bargain keeps going up. I think theyll watch what the poll numbers suggest. And, again, you know, if your appeal is youre the manlyist man, right, and you fight, and you put america first, and you never apologize, and then you go on this groveling tour he went on, does that cut against your strength . Thats why what the president says in the next hour will be very, very interesting, because this is a guy that does whatever you say about him. He does not want to be portrayed order seen as weak. People have called him that in regard to Vladimir Putin for years now and he hasnt changed. About poll numbers, what does that say about us . Betrayal of the country comes down to . Does it poll well . Interesting question. Charlie sykes, thank you, anna palmer, thank you. On thursday, my colleague Andrea Mitchell will be interviewing the director of national intelligence. Dan coats who just rebuked President Trump for his comments on russias interference in our 2016 election, that comment he made, by the way, did not go through the white house for approval. Andrea and mr. Coats will talk one on one at the aspen security forum. Watch the interview live on nbcnews. Com and at 3 35 eastern, again, that is on thursday, and make sure to watch msnbc throughout the day for excerpts and analysis. Were going to keep watching the white house where the president is expected to speak in the next hour and talk about the offer Vladimir Putin made to Robert Mueller that seemed to be enticing to President Trump. Plus, president obama is back in the spotlight this morning, talking about family separation at the border. For a mother with the child in her arms, we can recognize that could be somebody in our family. That could be my child. That is not the only thing he said. Were going to look at his other comments about the current president. Those comments did not mention donald trump by name but they were some of his strongest comments yet about whats going on in america. Stay tuned. I tried cold turkey, i tried the patch. They didnt work for me. 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