i had given myself a time limit to be honest before i even went in. based on all the things that you are outlining there, i knew that this was going to be very difficult. i did hope that with other officials there and people mindful of what had just happened on the national security front, this massive russian effort to subvert the elections, we would be able to focus our minds beyond all the domestic political noise. of course i discovered that wasn't as feasible as i had hoped even though there were many others pretty like—minded and trying to push back against this but just exactly as you say, trump himself didn't want to recognise the facts. part of it was his own fears about having to acknowledge that there had perhaps been some questions about the outcome of the election. think about it, if putin had actually said to him in any of these meetings, yes donald,