Happening and why. We do want to begin with the explosive news about President Trump and russia. It involves donald trump junior. Breaking in the last 30 minutes, the New York Times reporting that donald trump junior met with a russian laier after being promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton. This directly contradicts what don junior told msnbc news that this meeting happened in 2016. He was asked to attend by an acquaintance and was not told the name of the person i would be meeting, and russian adoption policies. If the times report is accurate it would be the first evidence of someone very close to trump, his own son, meeting with the russians to try to damage Hillary Clinton. Also according to the times reporting that don junior brought in Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner all working on the campaign. Paul manafort working as the Campaign Manager at the time. Don junior requested they attend this meeting. All of this coming after President Trump spoke out about that meeting with Vladimir Putin in an Early Morning tweet storm, but the president refused to make clear whether he believed putins hacking denials saying hes given his opinion on that matter, the problem is he gave three different opinions this week, all in the same press conference about it. Take a look. I think it was russia. I think it was probably other people and or countries. Nobody really knows. Nobody really knows for sure. White house chief of staff Reince Priebus went directly on the record saying the president doesnt believe putin. The president absolutely did not believe the denial of president putin. What the president did is he immediately came into the meeting, talked about russian meddling in the u. S. Election, went after that issue at least two separate times. So the president provided more details of his meeting and they were full of contradictions. So if you saw them for yourselves, well go over it step by step. In one tweet this morning before the sunday shows, trump says he pressed putin strongly on russian meddling. Now in the next, he announced hopes of implementing a, quote, impenetrable cybersecurity of russia, and the u. S. Intelligence agency said had hacked our election. Marco rubio compared it to forming a chemical weapons unit with syrias assad and Lindsay Graham also not a fan of the idea. Its not the dumbest idea ive ever heard, but its pretty close. He gave a pretty good speech in poland, President Trump did, and he had what i think is a disastrous meeting with president putin. We also learned that sanctions were not even discussed in the meeting with putin. The president saying it was time to move forward. No further punishment for attacking u. S. Elections. The treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin defended the president on it. Are sanctions off the table now . Im not going to well, what i will say is first of all, we have sanctions that are already on the table and we expect to enforce those sanctions. Joining me now to discuss all of this, david corn, the nations joan walsh, fred kaplan and former Clinton National deputy security adviser nantzy sodderberg. Lets dive with the big breaking news that just happened in the last 30 minutes with the New York Times following up on its earlier reporting about all of this don junior meeting with an attorney at the trump tower in june 2015, and this was two weeks after his father had clinched the nomination for the Republican Party. Don junior does admit that this happened and also the fact that Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort came to this meeting. Now, the article goes on to say that the woman stated that she had information that individuals this is from donald junior, this the meeting was also attended by his Campaign Chairman saying that information that individuals connected to russia were funding the Democratic National committee in supporting ms. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no statements and no information was offered and it quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information. David, let me start with you on this. Earlier, don junior had said that this was about an issue of russian adoptions being halted for american families. Also, this was not listed on any information provided earlier by manafort or kushner. Trump junior doesnt have security clearance and doesnt need to provide any type of information with contacts. So does this put things in a clearer context of why manafort and kushner would have attended . Well, actually it makes things pretty unclear at this time when he was first asked about this when the New York Times broke the story on saturday night. Donald trump junior said it was about russian adoption. He didnt mention it had anything to do with negative information from russia about hillary. Big question, why did he not say that . That explains why anyone was scratching their head and why would Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner in the middle of the campaign when it was a big issue at this point in time that donald trump seemed to have a bromance, a mysterious bromance with putin would come in and sit in on this meeting. Now we know why. They were looking for the Silver Bullet from russia, and at the same time we still dont know who the acquaintance was that set up this meeting. That is key. If the trump people want us to believe anything, they need to tell us more about this meeting and who set it up and why. Good point. That has not come to light just yet about who don junior said this acquaintance was and not providing the name and that makes it more odd why don junior would want to take a meeting with someone he doesnt even know at trump tower after his father clinched the nomination for the Republican Party. Take a look at this because Reince Priebus appeared on the sunday shows on fox news and had this to say about what this was all about. I dont know much about it other than what ive communicated with various members there on the screen. It was a very short meeting. It was a meeting apparently about russian adoption and after about 20 minutes the meeting ended and that was the end of it and as far as nondisclosure, look, Jared Kushner put in his disclosure prematurely. Hes since amended it. All of that is disclosed and it was a nothing meeting. So don junior now admitting that this meeting was over Hillary Clinton. Again, the woman stated she had information that individuals connected to russia were funding the dnc and supporting miss clinton and her statements were vague and ambiguous and made no sense. Joan, i know youve written an article just prior to the president s trip with hamburg and the meeting with putin, but is this starting to crystallize in terms of what the public can absorb about what collusion would mean and the interest of collusion . I dont know if its starting to crystallize. This story just broke and i dont think any of us have really had time to completely analyze it, but i will just say right now, donald trump junior is changing his story by the hour, and that is never a good thing for someone in the middle where the stakes keep getting higher about this meeting. You have the times has five sources, apparently, who told him this was the purpose of the meeting and only a few hours ago he said it was about russian adoption which we all know it was a top priority for donald trump junior. Hes always tweeting out pictures of babies who need homes. All of the explanations are preposterous, and you now have a little bit, it seems to me, of a circular firing squad going on where kushner and manafort disclosed this somehow, donald trump junior did not get out ahead of it. Hes now catching up and theyre all catching up and Reince Priebus is talking out of his you know what. I dont want to talk out of my you know what and its very early to draw conclusion, but this is not good. No. As we know with what happened with donald trump and Vladimir Putin meeting for the first time allegedly in hamburg, germany, but the issue of what Robert Mueller is looking into and the potential for collusion is this only going to is this basically almost something that might have leaked . We havent talked about leaks coming from the special prosecutor. Is this the type of information, a nugget that could have leaked from what theyve been able to learn . Well, it does add a new stand to it. Everybody was complaining in the past couple of days that heres the entire u. S. Intelligence committee telling donald trump we have very high confidence that the russians were ones that hacked into hillarys email. Hes can him did you do in r this . And no, no, i didnt. Okay. Thats good enough for me. If the story in the times was true, we know that he didnt. Why are they going to the russians to get information unless they know that the russians have been getting the information. So hes sort of misleading everybody including his own Intelligence Community. Ambassador, we know that podesta, who was the Campaign Manager for Hillary Clinton was hacked in the spring of 2016. So timeline we get this meeting now on the books after the primary season is over and donald trump is the republican contender for the white house. We know also that the dnc was hacked. All of this information coming out negatively against the democratic candidate in Hillary Clinton, but donald trump doesnt want to seem to adhere to his own intelligence agencies, demeaning them this morning and also demeaning them overseas on foreign soils and how much of a diplomatic controversy, from your experience as the ambassador to the u. N. Is he providing . Normally it would be your adversaries and im not sure whats happening. We know what happened here, the russians used the same play pook and what most of you have seen over and over again. All of our intelligence agencies and whats bizarre about all of these stories is why were the russians meeting with the chairman of the republican nominee for president two weeks after that . Why were they meeting throughout . This is not one shoe to drop, but we now know that they have repeatedly met with senior russian officials throughout the last couple of years and including when donald trump had achieved the nomination, that is why you have house investigation, a Senate Investigation and the Robert Mueller investigation. We will find out exactly who knew what and when. Donald trump and his family can obfuscate as much as they want, but the truth will emerge and what it will show is that there were meetings with the russians and what we dont yet know is were they colluding with them . If so, who was colluding with them and what did the president know and when did he know it . The ageold question of these types of investigation. Its always in the cover up that messes these guys up, as well. The faster they can get their story straight and out, the better, but in the next year some of these investigations will conclude and well know exactly what happened. What shows in the world stage is a president that is not standing up and confronting v lead mir put oin his actions and not just the russian meddling and the u rain and syria. We have to be tough with the russians. Theyre not our friend and i did not see that coming out of this meeting. He says he did confront him asking him did he do it in connection to meddling in the election. The denials came from President Trump seems will top move on and even suggesting in tweets that he wants to work with russia on a cybersecurity unit. Which would be great. Want you to stick around. Ambassador, ill give you the first word as soon as we come back after this quick break. Stay with us. vo gentlemen, beggin skinny strips or beggin black label . Theres two . what a delicious dilemma beggin strips premium edition. Twwwoooooo . . with real meat as ingredient one. Everything to your liking . Mmm mmmmm. Beggin strips premium. Becaussssseeee beggin delicious pasta marinara. But birds eye made it from zucchini. Mmm bird mashed potatoes and rice. But made from cauliflower. Looks like i need a fork oh, no. giggling bird new birds eye veggie made. So veggie good. Bird new birds eye veggie made. New charmin ultra soft its softer than ever. New charmin ultra soft is twice as absorbent so you can use less. And its softer than ever. So its harder to resist. Okay, this is getting a little weird. We all go, why not enjoy the go with charmin . All right. Welcome back, everybody. We have a lot to go over and still with me and mother jones david corn, columnist fred kaplan and former Clinton DeputyNational Security adviser nancy sodderberg. Nancy, i lift a cliff hanger with the folks watching at home about the cybersecurity unit that was teased by donald trump on twitter today working with Vladimir Putin. Do you think thats a good idea or is that saying, fox, welcome to the henhouse . Its absolutely a good idea. The more we can work with the russians, but as Ronald Reagan said. Trust, but verify . In this case, i wouldnt trust, and i would verify. We dont know what happened in that meeting. There were no takers, no real readout and two very different stories that came out and we need to work with the russians on the challenges of cyber terrorism and the financing of syria, north korea, every big challenge that we have out there we have to work with the russians and know where they are. They have to be with us and getting in the door and talking to them is crucial and maybe we can make progress on these issues. I dont believe the promise that alleged lead came out that neither side will interfere in an election in the future. I think the russians will do this again and again and again, and we need to catch them. Its a good thing, well see what it produces. You had written prior to the g20 in an article about trump meeting putin and the two countries are want at war with each other and nor are we entirely at peace, and we have few forms for discussing them openly or in depth. Is that good or bad . Should trump try to reopen more normal diplomacy, and he often asked with a shrug, what would be wrong with that . So what would be wrong with that . You know, even during the darkest days of the cold war, he signed more than a dozen arms control agreements and there were verification procedures and there were other things going on. We do have a common interest against certain kinds of terrorism for nuclear nonproliferation. Im a little leary, though, of this business of a joint cyber cooperative arrangement on that because lets share our source codes, lets share our passwords . I mean, given what theyve done, i dont think thats the best way to go about it. Also while theyre trying to get voter Data Information from all states and the caveat, david, that we havent had a president under investigation by a special prosecutor for potential collusion with russia. To me, the thing is you cant have a real cooperation until you agree what happened and what the problem is. The problem is that russia attacked american democracy, and when donald trump gets out there and says i pressed him on it, imagine fdr pressing the japanese after pearl harbor. What does that mean . He hasnt used the word warn. He hasnt said there will be consequences. Hes the one who said we should move on and all of the other tough talk thats coming out after the g20 is from people that are not in the room who are trying to cover for trump, excuse me, because he hasnt been Strong Enough on this front. So if you look at trump and you look at the readout that Rex Tillerson who was in the room gave yesterday, the only conclusion you can come away with is trump did not challenge, did not confront putin on this, and did not take him to the wood shed when putin said i didnt do anything. Until you clear this up, any cooperation is something they think people should be very suspicious of on the cyber front. I dont want to be a hawk, and i agree with fred and there are a lot of areas that we still have to try to find some Common Ground with with russia. Ambassador, one thing that was telegraphed prior to the g20 by tillerson, secretary of state, was the ceasefire talks for syria. That was a topic that happened to come up behind closed doors with Vladimir Putin. An hour ago the president tweeted syrian ceasefire, many lives could be saveded. Good, exclamation point. Your reaction to where we stand right and this proclamation from the ceasefire and it seems to be working. Its too early. Its been barely 24 hours, but the ceasefire is not going to work until we get a recognizable sensible policy on syria and have agreement between iran, the u. S. And the major players, russia on what were going to do right now. Right now were on opposite sides of the war and it will not solve the underlying problem and what do we do about assad and isis and what is some kind of of a transition and ive yet to see a policy from obama or trump on that issue. I think the question that comes out of the meetings that we saw with donald trump around the g20 and also since hes taken office is is he capable of sitting down and negotiating head to head with the World Leaders on some of these tough negotiations . Ive seen it time and time again, it takes a leader to be the dea