as it were, connecting with the german chancellor, angela merkel, having conversations, smiling. seeming to put aside any differences that occur during the day, but earlier the president with a frontal attack on her, hammering germany for its pipeline deal with putin to pump natural gas from russia directly to germany. the president denouncing the deal as bad for nato. listen to what he said here. >> we are supposed to protect you against russia, but they are paying billions of dollars to russia. germany is totally controlled by russia. you look at it, germany is a captive of russia, because they got rid of their coal plants, they got rid of their nuclear. they are getting so much of the oil and gas from russia. >> later on in the afternoon the president sat down with the german chancellor angela merkel for a bilateral meeting, one that the president described as cordial, saying that they have a great relationship -- the united states has a great relationship with both merkel