Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Katy Tur 20180716

My first question for you, sir, is who do you believe . My second question is, would you now, with the whole world watching, tell president putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you warn him to never do it again . Let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the fbi never took the server. Why havent they taken the server . Why was the fbi told to leave the office of the Democratic National committee . I have been wondering that. I have been asking that for months and months and i have been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server . I want to know, where is the server . And what is the server saying . With that being said, all i can do is ask the question, my people came to me, dan coats came to me and some others, they said they think its russia. I have irpatient i have patient. He said its not russia. I will say this. I really do want to see the server, but i have confidence in both parties. I really believe that this will probably go on for a while, but i dont think it can go on without finding out what happened to the server. What happened to the servers of the pakistani gentleman that worked on the dnc . Where are those servers . They are missing. Where are they . What happened to Hillary Clintons emails . 33,000 emails gone. Just gone. I think in russia they wouldnt be gone so easily. I think its a disgrace that we cant get Hillary Clintons 33,000 emails. So i have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today, and what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think thats an incredible offer. Thank you. So the big question, obviously, were asking today is, what will republicans do . Not what will they say. Not what will they tweet. What will republicans do . Joining me from helsinki, eli stokel, and phil rucker, Washington Post White House Bureau chief. From washington, msnbc capitol hill correspondent Garrett Haake and jake sherman, a Senior Writer for politico. Garrett, what are republicans at least saying right now . They are responding with strong words and disappointment. As im standing here i have to read what landed in my inbox a statement from john mccain. Its the strongest i have heard from any republican yet. He says, quote, todays press conference in helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an american president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trumps naivete, ego tourism, false equivalence and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate, but it is clear that the summit in helsinki was a tragic mistake. That from senator john mccain. The chairman of the Armed Services committee and traditionally one of the president s loudest critics on foreign affairs. Other republicans here have been a little bit more muted in their response, but by and large, if we have heard from a republican so far today, particularly here on the senate side, it has been disappointment. Here is my conversation with bob corker, the chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, a few minutes ago. Take a listen. When he had the opportunity to defend our intelligence agencies, who work for him, i was very disappointed and saddened with the eye equivaleq lenzy he gave between them and what putin was saying. Putin only understands strength. I did not think this was a good moment for our country. They definitely interfered in our elections. Thats not debatable. Again, i just dont know what it is about the president that continues to deny that that occurred. Reporter katy, other republicans have answered sort of the question that corker left open here. I just talked to senator Susan Collins who talked about this idea that the president just not quite being able to differentiate between what russia has done to the u. S. Versus what its done completely unable to make that differentiation. You hear that a little bit in some of these statements we are starting to see creep out from more republican leaders. We heard that in trey gowdys statement. He cant separate his own personal ego, own personal interests from the safety and well being of the American People, of our elections. Jake, thats what republicans are saying. What are republicans doing . There is a legislation right now to protect Robert Mueller. Is anybody talking about bringing that back up . Anything happening on the hill whatsoever . The answer you get from a lot of republicans is, what would you like us to do . This is not me saying this. This is what republican lawmakers are saying. There is nothing we can do. He is the president. He has the ability to conduct foreign policy, at least first blush they dont believe this is treasonous. This is not impeachable in any way. So there is just a clear divide here on what elected republicans in congress believe russias role in the geopolitical system is and what the president believes it is. And, i mean, its stunning because if you rewind a couple years, you had people like john boehner and harry reid and dan coats who is now trumps director of National Intelligence banned from moscow. Thats how low the relations have gotten between the u. S. And russia, and now you have this. And i think as people start filing into the capitol tonight they are going to have to answer. One more thought. Trump is so popular among the Republican Base that it could hurt to get against him, and thats the reality, right . The most the biggest political hurdle that most members of congress have is a primary. If you are seen as antitrump in a primary, you could be in political danger or at least thats what a lot of republican lawmakers think. So you are not going to see a lot of action. You are not going to see any sort of impeachment or anything like that. That kind of stuff is not going to happen. People will talk and that will be the end of it. News flash. You swore an oath to the constitution, not your party. Phil rucker, you were on the campaign trail. Eli, you were on the campaign trail as well. We heard the niceties from donald trump about Vladimir Putin while he was campaigning for office. I guess it shouldnt come as a surprise that he is being as nice as he is, but to stand next to the president of russia, the dictator essentially, of russia and to instead attack the democrats and attack our intelligence committees and doubt their assessment, doubt the work of the fbi, undermine Robert Mueller, the special counsel who just returned, by the way, 12 indictments for russian Intelligence Officers for hacking into the dnc and hacking into Hillary Clintons or trying to hack into Hillary Clintons server, just last friday they came out with this. To have him stand there and do all that and refuse to and i think we lost eli, sadly and to refuse to push back on the man who could have been in charge of it, that was shocking, to say the least, phil. Yeah. It was shocking, katy. For a president who talked so much about strength, who wants to project his own strength, who acts willing to stand up to anybody, he really was shrinking next to Vladimir Putin. He played right into putins hand. He decried the u. S. Intelligence conclusions. He cast doubt about it. He agreed with putin in a number of things. As putin was speaking during that press conference, i was looking at trump and he was nodding a lot. He was smiling. He was showing visible agreement with putin. It was really an extraordinary moment. Does the administration feel good about what happened today . Well, thats a big question. I was looking. I was sitting one row behind the american delegation, mike pompeo, john bolton, john kelly, all of trumps aides. I was trying to see if they would betray any concern as trump was speaking, as trump was doubting u. S. Intelligence conclusions, and they did not. They were pretty stonefaced. But i think the reporting over the next, you know, 48 hours or so is going to reveal exactly what sort of dissension there might be within this administration. Its a real moment for these folks who are working for trump. Many of them believe very strongly to the bone that russia is an adversary of the United States, that putin is a kgb agent who has been trained in psychological manipulation, who has had his way, tried to have his way with four president s, and now apparently convinced this president to not believe his own intelligence agencies. I want to play one thing since the president brought up Hillary Clinton. Lets play this moment from the 2016 debate when Hillary Clinton predicted how donald trump would behave towards Vladimir Putin. Listen. Look, from everything i see has no respect for this person. Well, thats because hed rather have a puppet as president. No puppet. No puppet. Its pretty clear youre the puppet. Its pretty clear you wont admit the russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the United States of america, that you encouraged espionage against our people, that you are willing to spout the putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up nato, do whatever he wants to do, and that you continue to get help from him because he has a very clear favorite in this race. Well, eli, he is just coming off a really contentious meeting with nato. He called nato a foe in an interview with cbs, and today Vladimir Putin asked directly who he wanted to win, and he said he wanted donald trump to win in that election. Thats right. This entire week of President Trump abroad has made Hillary Clinton seem more prescient what she saiden the debate stage. Putin was asked a brazen question about whether or not the russians have compromised on donald trump, and he gave a cheshire cat grin and said, no, we dont have anything of course. It was hard to read between the lines. President putin said you cant really believe anything. It was none of those surreal moments in the press conference. But, you know, whether or not they have something on donald trump or not, the important thing is that the president today behaved like someone who is a puppet to Vladimir Putin, who they might have something on. He behaved like he might be compromised because its inexplicable to most people who have watched American Foreign policy for deck identifiades to president acting this way, cowing to russia, denying his own intelligence agencies, findings on the election. Really just stunning, the words that im hearing back from people. A lot of times they are not words you can put in print. I think, you know, yes, its his ego, but donald trump is a very stubborn person as you know from the campaign. This is a guy who when aides say you have to be tough on putin, there is an investigation going on, the more people tell him to do something, the more he resists. From what im hearing, that was part of what we saw today. Eli stokele, phil rucker, gentlemen, thank you very much. Meanwhile, a former Deputy Assistant of state, cofounder of founder strategies, and Jeffrey Edmonds is a former director for russia at the National Security council and a former acting senior director for russia during the president ial transition. He is currently a Research Scientist with cna. Rick, i do want to start with you. I want to read what john brennan, former director of the cia, said in a tweet earlier today. Donald Trumps Press Conference performance in helsinki rises to and exceeds the threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors. It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were the comeents republican patriots, where are you . Rick, what do you say to that . Gosh, its amazing its gone that far. This reminds this is like september 30th, 1938, when chamberlain signed the munich agreement with adolf hitler. Hitler portioned part of czechoslovakia. Here you have Vladimir Putin on july 16, 2018, who annexed crimea. That now is complete. And this is the capitulation of trump. It is the appeasement to Vladimir Putin. This is the day that Vladimir Putin and donald trump stood on a stage and the president of the United States agreed and sided with our enemy over the United States, over the u. S. Intelligence assessment of that that Vladimir Putin interfered in the election, which he clearly did. And it is astonishing, heartbreaking, and it rentspress a pivotal turn in our history. From john mccain, no prior president has debased himself more abjectly before tie rants. Rick, where are the republicans . Are we going to just see tweets and hear rumblings and shrugging of shoulders of what can we do . Probably. We have seen some weitz from marco rubio and others. Some are varying degrees of being strong. The speaker weighed in. This is a moment for a time for choosing. You cannot have a United States president sit on a stage and agree with our enemies. Remember, this is all in context. This is after he denigrated theresa may and Rupert Murdochs son, after he accused angela merkel, who lived under a communist regime as a young girl of being disloyal to germany and siding being under the influence of russia. It is just remarkably called when he was asked about our foes, he talked about the eu first before mentioning kim jongun and Vladimir Putin. Its hard to calculate whether this is sheer ignorance, ego, whether there is Something Else going on here, but it is inexplicable. Dan coats had an interview last week talking about what we may be missing. Excuse me. The president or the Intelligence Community or this Administration May be missing with all of this focus. Here is what dni coats said. Here is his warning on russia. These actions are persistent, theyre pervasive, and they are meant to undermine americas democracy on a daily basis. The warning signs are there. The system is blinking and it is why i believe we are at a critical point. The meddling actions, the interference actions, the hacking actions are persistent. If the president refused to say it standing next to Vladimir Putin, he said he believed Vladimir Putin, why would russia have anything to do with this . Jeffrey, whats your take . Having listened to the director of the National Intelligence say just that last week. I think its pretty shocking. What really troubles me is that President Trump consistently reduces the entirety of u. S. National security interests down to his own personal issues. I am not sure he is reading his briefings. Its clear why the russians did this. They always believed we med eld in their elections. You cant let that drive a pragmatic and serious security concerns. He brought up Hillary Clinton today. He talked about the emails again. 30,000 emails. Said thing he said on july 27th. We know that intelligence officials, their ears perked certainly from that indictment. We also know that the mueller indictment, that is the day that russian Intelligence Officers start the looking into Hillary Clintons personal server and emails for the very first time. Yeah. I mean, he is like some sort of cave man that is stuck in the fall of 2016 and he cant let it go. Its some kind of tick between Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and the server, the right loves the server. He is asking where the server is. I can tell you where the server is. The dnc server is on display at the dnc next to the watergate file cabinet because it is equivalent of the last president ial scandal we have. But, look, you know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. While i do think donald trump is insane, its the rest of us that get into this hyper ventilating every time he does something. The bottom line is his motivations no longer matter. Only his actions do. Frankly, our actions and the actions, whether you look at the republicans in congress who listen to what we just talked about, whether marco rubio sent a tough enough tweet. I can tell you tomorrow Mitch Mcconnell will be jamming Brett Kavanaugh into a seat that he stole. And frankly, the democrats have to step it up, too. We debate among ourselves whether or not we can even whisper the word impeachment before the house flips, hopefully. These are not helpful things to debate whether or not Sarah Sanders should be denied a cheese plate as a form of protest. Everyone has got to accept what is happening now. Everyone has got to do everything in their power because he is challenging the system in a way it was not designed to. That is including the courts. That is including the media. And i know its very difficult and Everyone Wants to stay within a civil and reasonable boundary, but thats gone. And he john brennan, i could have sent the tweet john brennan sent. Thats how hyperbolic it is. But when john brennan says it, its time. Is there any way to read this meeting generously towards the president . I dont think so. I think the moral equivalence with Vladimir Putin and the notion that we are in some way responsible for russian actions to undermine our institutions i think is absurd. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Next up, the help that putin offered donald trump and Robert Mueller to investigate the hack on our election. Ive been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. Theres a lot of innovation that goes into making americas 1 shave. Precision machinery and highquality materials from around the world. Nobody else even comes close. Now starting at 7. 99. Gillette. The best a man can get. Again refused to argue outright that russia interfered in the 2016 election. Even when those on team trump do acknowledge election meddling, they often repeat the same talking point. Russians didnt change the votes. Now as far as we know that is true, but that does not mean that team trump didnt capitalize on and benefit from russian meddling. According to the indictment of 12 russian intel officers last week, the conspirators posing as guccifer 2. 0 were in contact with senior members of the campaign. Quote, thank you for writing back. Do you find anything interesting in the docs i posted . That person was trump confidant roger stone. In 2016 stone appeared to have advanced notice of the wikileaks notices of John Podestas emails before they came out on october 7, 2016. John podesta was Clintons Campaign chairman. Roger stone doesnt deny the text exchange, but does deny any advance knowledge of the emails. June 9, 2016, donald trump jr. , Paul Manafort met with a kremlin connected lawyer after donald trump jr. Was told that the russian government had dirt on Hillary Clinton. If it is what you say, i love it, don jr. Wrote back. July 2016 donald trump senior asked russia to find clintons, quote, 30,000 emails that are missing. That night, according to the mueller indictment, russian intelligence tried to gain access to clintons personal emails and server for the very first time. And while Robert Mueller is trying to figure out what donald trump himself knew about the emails and when he knew it, we know this. Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podestas emails were released hours after the access Hollywood Tape broke. Batches of hacked emails came out every day until election day when they abruptly stopped. Donald trump used those emails to keep his campaign alive. He waved them around. He said he loved them. In the last month of the race alone, he said wikileaks 140 times. Now, today he is not only embracing Vladimir Putins denial of what our own Intelligence Community has already concluded. He is offering Robert Mueller, the man who is investigating him, russias investigators to try and figure out what is going on. I will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today, and what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. With me now chief investigative correspondent for yahoo news and the coauthor of russian roulette. And david chris. I do want to start with you, michael. Vladimir putin also claimed that he never knew that donald trump was in moscow in 2013. Your book goes over that pretty clearly. It does seep seem that Vladimir Putin didnt know that donald trump was there. Why would he try to obfuscate that now . Well, look, this does go to the credibility of Vladimir Putin, the very man who is denying that the russians hacked the dnc and had an influence campaign in the election. But i was really struck when putin said that because as david corn and i reported in russian roulette, trump was hoping putin would be there. He invited him. At the last minute dimitri pescov calls trump to apologize that putin cant make it, but says that putin is going to send a highlevel emissary to the event. He tells him, putin also invites trump to the upcoming sochi olympics. He has a gift for him. A gift that is later delivered to trump tower. So the idea and by the way, after i tweeted this with an excerpt from our book laying all this out, rob goldstone, publicist who set up that trump tower meeting, retweeted it and said, i know this is true because i was there. Goldstone was there for the peskov trump phone call. So, i mean, you know, it is pretty headscratching that the russian president would say this. We have all been focussing on the credibility of some of trumps comments, but i think this goes directly to the credibility of Vladimir Putins comments. Michael, one more to you. It is very clear that regardless of what the president knew when he was a candidate, and again i dont know this. Robert mueller is getting to the bottom of this. He did use all of those wikileaks emails to his advantage at the end of the election, the last month of the election especially, on the day the access Hollywood Tape came out, the same day that John Podestas emails started to drop. He used them to his advantage . Absolutely. And they were done strategically, which is a really significant point. You know, when wikileaks first dumped the 20,000 dnc emails that had been hacked by Russian Military intelligence, they did it all at once, which is usually the way wikileaks does things. They are selfstyling themselves as a transparency outfit. They put it oall out there. With those Podesta Emails in the closing weeks of the campaign, they dribbled them out to keep the story going. They put a few out each day so that, you know, all the press would eat them up and keep talking about them. So that shows there was a bit of Strategic Planning here for which only had one purpose. To help trump and to hurt Hillary Clinton. And we say listen, we say meddling. We say interfered as a euphemism. Lets be clear. It was an attack on our elections. Robert mueller has passed down multiple indictments now targeting individuals in russia actually named in russian Intelligence Officers in the gru, in the government, and now the president seems to embrace Vladimir Putins offer of allowing russian investigators to help Robert Mueller figure out whats going on . Whats going on with that, david . Well, its an offer that you almost cant take seriously except in the crazy context of todays ideas. Im sure Vladimir Putin would love to insert russian Intelligence Officers on to bob muellers timo vertly or covertly, if he could get away with it. But thats not an offer that Robert Mueller or anyone else should take seriously in this context. What do you make of the president s standing next to Vladimir Putin as he talked about bill browder and talked about david extraditing not extraditing, but prosecuting bill browder and talking about george soros and maybe illegal contributions that went to Hillary Clintons campaign . What do you mcof the president of what do you make of the president of the United States, allowing him to make these allegations and allowing them to go unchecked . It is a genuinely Stunning Development to see the president of the United States taking the word and essentially taking the side of Vladimir Putin over that of his own intelligence committee, the u. S. Department of justice and the house and Senate Intelligence committees. I dont know why he is doing it. Perhaps he has an affinity for foreign strong men like Vladimir Putin or perhaps he is embarrassed that putin helped him win the election or maybe something even more nefarious. Whats clear now is that President Trump is going to continue in this vain, defining deviancy down and pushing the limits of our laws until the American People tell him its time to stop. Gentlemen, thank you. And when the president met Vladimir Putin today, it was a chance, a chance to call out russia for crossing the line again and again. For meddling excuse me, attacking our election. For annexing crimea. For supporting a syrian dictator who has slaughtered his own people. I could go on. Ill just let the president speak for himself and let you hear what he did not say. Do you hold russia at all accountable for anything in particular . If so, what would you consider them, that they are responsible for . Yes, i do. I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think weve all been foolish. We should have had this dialogue a long time ago. A long time, frankly, before i got to office. I think were all to blame. Unbelievable. Richard stengel is a former undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs during the obama administration. Also an msnbc political analyst and a former manager editor of time magazine. P. J. Crowley is a former assistant secretary of state and author of red line, American Foreign policy. Rick, the president couldnt name a single thing. He was asked directly about russias attack, and he turned it around. Are folks going overboard right now and waving their arms and ringing all the bells . Sounding all the alarms . Its very strange, katy. If you saw it in a movie, in the manchurian candidate, you would think it wasnt very feasible. Kind of trump, the what aboutism and not only could he not criticize russia, our antagonist for half a century, when he was offered criticism about what the russians were doing, he said, well, what about Hillary Clintons server . What about the 30,000 emails . I mean, kind of extraordinary, this false flag, false equivalence misdirection. Those are things that basically Vladimir Putin is the master of. The fact that the two of them were standing there side by side, you know, misleading the world public and the American Public was a sad sight for our republic. I wonder what our allies, those in nato who just came off that contentious meeting or what theresa may, the Prime Minister of the u. K. Is now thinking, especially after donald trump trashed her to a hometown newspaper while he was there meeting with her. In fact, i wonder what they would say to what donald trump said to cbs just over the weekend. Listen to this. I think we have a lot of foes. I think the injury pin union is the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Russia is a foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly. They are a foe. That doesnt mean theyre bad. It doesnt mean anything. It means that they are competitors. P. J. , the eu is a foe and russia is a competitor. To call russia is a competitor is odd considering they are 30th on the list of u. S. Trading partners. They are not up high at all. What do you make or what do you think the eu or what do you think the eu is thinking right now or what do you think our allies are thinking right now having watched not only that sound bite right there, but that press conference we all just watched together . I think it is the contrast, katy, between his rhetoric towards nato and rhetoric towards the eu on the one hand, and then a combination of Vladimir Putin on the other. Certainly, you know, the United States has done things that rurk didnt like. Fair enough. You know, but lets go back to the very significant decline in u. S. russia relations goes back to the russian incursion into georgia in 2008. The russian incursion into ukraine in 2012. And what was that about . It was about the fact that ukraine preferred to join the euaze eu. Thats when Vladimir Putin inserted himself into ukraine because he didnt want to see that drift. So, you know, for donald trump to accuse the eu of being a foe, you know, on the eve of his summit meeting with Vladimir Putin, you know, singing from the kremlin song book. I would love to see the video of Vladimir Putin departing helsinki when he got out of his brand new limousine. He had to be doing backflips to his airplane because donald trump is doing his work for him. Richard engle has been on the ground in moscow all day saying this is what Vladimir Putin and the russian people wanted. We have a new statement from the director of National Intelligence from dan coats. We have talked about him a couple of times saying the red lights are blinking in terms of an attack from russia. Here is what he is saying in response presumably to the president this morning. The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and factbased assessments possible for the president and policy makers. We have been clear in our assessment of russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our National Security. Rick . Wow, thats a strong statement. I mean, thats a strong statement against what donald trump did. I mean, look, the constitution says what is the president supposed to do . Take care that the laws are faithfully executed. He stood up next to a russian dictator and sided not with our justice department, not with our intelligence agency, but tens of thousands of men and women who are giving him factbased evidence and sided with the russian dictator. Its demoralizing. I think dni coatss statement there is the kind of thing we are looking for from republicans who would stand up to the president and say, look, these are the values we represent American Values and we need to speak back, and dni coats did that. Dni coats is a member of Donald Trumps own administration. Rick, p. J. , thank you very much. Aside from perhaps everything, what did Vladimir Putin get out of this summit . Thats next. Billions of mouths. Billions of problems. Morning breath . Garlic breath . Stinky breath . Theres a therabreath for you. Therabreath fresh breath oral rinse instantly fights all types of bad breath and works for 24 hours. So you can. Breathe easy. Theres therabreath at walmart. 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If your bones arent getting stronger isnt it time for a new direction . Why wait . Ask your doctor about prolia. If your name is Vladimir Putin you are having a good week. Less than 24 hours ago he was center stage at the World Cup Final hostedly russia. Today Vladimir Putin was on stage left in helsinki alongside the president of the United States who had nothing but warm words for the time that they spent together. I have just concluded a meeting with president putin. A wide range of Critical Issues for both of our countries. We had direct open, deeply productive dialogue. It went very well. So what does this all mean for Vladimir Putins standing at home and his ambitions abroad . Luke harding is a Foreign Correspondent for the guardian and the author of a very expensive poison, the assassination of alexander and putins war with the west. Molly mccue a former advisor to the president of georgia. Okay. Talking about russia, luke, what is Vladimir Putin walking away with today . Well, he is walking away with everything. He has i mean, its basically a dream of kgb generals which has become real in the last few days. He has huge divisions in the western alliance between the United States and europe. He has nato in crisis, and he has a president who really today put on an extraordinary show of civility towards Vladimir Putin. It was almost hard to tell which one of them was the russian president. I mean, not just denying any kind of election interference, but the tone and manner. The thing for me is why did trump behave like this . Well, you might say its because he cant admit that the russians helped him across the line in 2016 because this delegitimizes him in some way. I think im speaking to you from london where christopher steele, the british spy lives and was based. I think his thesis that the russians have compromising material on donald trump is still there, its still in play, and i would say we saw that in action very much today. Mark warner said a similar thing i think earlier today as well. One other question to you, luke. This is what the president said publicly about their meeting in front of reporters. What could he have said privately that would have made Vladimir Putin potentially more happy or potentially angry . Well, i mean, the whole manner of things that trump could have said, he could have called putin out. He could have threatened further sanctions. He could have said there will be expulsions. He could have demanded these 12 Russian Military Intelligence Officers heads on a plate. He didnt do that. We got back from putin publicly i would say a subtle trolling. When putin said there couldnt be compromising information on trump because back in 2013 he didnt know who donald trump was. Now, thats not true. Its nondenial, denial. We had a line from the u. S. President saying, if there was anything, it would have come out by now. I think thats wishful thinking. It feels like putin is the puppet master and he is making donald trump dance around in front of the world to his russian tune. He annexed crimea already. What could he be doing on the heels of this . I think is the concern right now, that when putin feels successful, when he comes off of these sort of great successes, especially when he feels his image has been rehabilitated after the sochi olympics, he invades crimea. He tends to view these things in sequence. The question is, whats on the list now . And i think the problem is, in everything that russia has done invading georgia in 2008, annexing crimea in 2014, cyberattacks against estonia say tax against the United States, many things in between, they have felt very little pushback and paid very little cost for that. As long as that continues, there is no incentive whether President Trump believers president putin is his friend which is a complete fallacy sore not, there is no incentive for russia to stop the kind of behavior we have seen. I think we can expect something unpleasant to happen before the end of august. The question is what will that be. You wrote about estonia. Its clear nato still needs to learn more quickly from our partners with a deeper history of fighting russian aggression and all its various forms. Foremost of those partners is he is stoestonia. They have an interesting perspective on the russian threat. An occupied nation next to russia. But its very clear eyed in its intelligence assessment, in the assessment the kind of russian behavior we have seen in 2007. Estonia was the victim of one of the first big russian cyberattacks in sort of this new phase of russian warfare. Since then they have been really leading the way both on mapping and understanding how russia is attacking western countries and in proposing ways we can respond, including sort of better Cyber Capabilities to push back and how they view their own National Defense planning which isk look at a resistancebased model to resist russian warfare tactics not just about the military but educating and training the civilian population to understand what is being targeted at them and what they can do about it. Luke and molly, guys, thank you very much. Thank you. Next up, the journalist who was replofd from tmoved from the todays News Conference even began. Ive been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. Theres a lot of innovation that goes into making americas 1 shave. Precision machinery and highquality materials from around the world. Nobody else even comes close. Now starting at 7. 99. Gillette. The best a man can get. Senate minority leader chuck shum ser speaking. Lets listen. Americans have never seen a president of the United States support an adversary the way President Trump has supported president putin. For the president of the United States to side with president putin against american law enforcement, American Defense officials, american intelligence agencies is thoughtless, its dangerous, its weak. The president is putting himself over our country. Starting with the president s trip to nato, ending with his shameful performance at todays press conference, President Trump has strengthened our add ver seas while weakening our defenses and those of our allies. A single ominous question now hangs over the white house. What could possibly cause President Trump to put the interests of russia over those of the United States . Millions of americans will continue to wonder, the only possible explanation for this dangerous behavior is the possibility that president putin holds damaging information over President Trump. Like any patriotic american, i was absolutely appalled by the press conference that capped off the president s trip to europe this morning. I didnt think it could get worse, athan hiS Performance at the nato summit, but it sure did. In the week alone, the president attacked our closest allies in nato, calling the European Union a foe, meddled in the Domestic Affairs of an ally by undermining the Prime Minister of the united kingdom, and that was all before he held a summit and downright shameful press conference with the man who directed the interference in our 2016 elections and according to all reports continues to try and do so today. At every step along the way, the president is kneecapping our allies and offering a helping hand to our adversaries. When it comes to the interference in our 2016 elections, the president has managed to point his finger at just about everybody except the culprit. Its inexplicable. Or maybe its not. President trump has blamed secretary clinton. Hes blamed the dnc. Hes blamed the fbi. He said that, quote, both countries are responsible for the state of relations between the United States and russia. The one person he hasnt blamed is the person he stood shoulder to shoulder with this morning, Vladimir Putin. On friday, Rod Rosenstein and bob mueller handed President Trump the evidence that president putin had requested. The 29page indictment is a document of unparalleled work and is exactly what the president needed to stand up to mr. Putin. He should have marched in, put the indictment on the table, and demanded justice. Rather than taking the opportunity to confront putin, rather than taking the opportunity to demand that putin hand over the named russian intelligence agents indicted last week, the president sided about Vladimir Putins denial over the unanimous, unanimous conclusion of the United States Intelligence Community. He took the word of the kgb over the men and women of the cia. Rather than placing blame for what happened in 2016 on russia where it belongs, the president had the gall to blame both countries for the troubled relationship. The president put whats best for him over whats best for the security and wellbeing of the United States. The question now looms, what, if anything, will congress do in response to this awful trip . Where are our republican colleagues . Where are the republicans who roared approval when reagan told gorbachev to tear down the wall . Where are the republicans who demanded a strong response when putin annexed crimea. Where are the republicans who know in their heart the president is giving away the store to Vladimir Putin . Now is the time for our republican colleagues to join us bipartisan and stand up. If we wait much longer, our global alliances will fracture, the institutions that america created in the wake of world war ii will crumble, our allies will consider abandoning us, possibly for china and others, and putins russia will emerge stronger for it. Thats what he wants and thats what President Trump inexplicably is helping him do. Our republican colleagues can take steps right now to push back against this slippery slope the president has put us on. Speaker ryan today said nice things, but talk is not enough. We need action, bipartisan strong action, and we need our republican colleagues to stand up for the good of this country. I am asking our republican colleagues to do four things. First, they can start by refusing to water down and instead decide to ratchet up sanctions against russia. In the house there is right now an effort to ratchet these sanctions down. Given what mr. Putin said today, given the indictments, given what mr. Trump said today, that cannot happen. Sanctions should be ratcheted up. And as you know, the House Republicans have been pushing a provision in the defense bill that would create a loophole in sanctions targeted at putins defense and intelligence sector. They should drop that immediately. Second, our republican colleagues should demand, as we are, that the president s National Security team that accompanied him to the Putin Meeting immediately come and testify before congress. What kind of briefings did they give him beforehand . What did he say to them afterwards . We need them to come before congress and the American People immediately, because there are so many troubling questions out there. And if you think the press conference was bad, imagine what happened inside when the president and mr. Putin were alone. We need answers. We need them down. Third, our republican colleagues need to end once and for all their attacks on the department of justice, the fbi, and special counsel mueller. The special counsel needs to finish his work. The president needs to sit for an interview with the special counsel, now more than ever. Enough delay, enough interference. Its time to sit down for an interview. And fourth, our republican colleagues must demand loudly and clearly that the president insist that the 12 russians named in the indictment last night be sent to the United States immediately to stand trial. I am asking leader mcconnell and speaker ryan, both friends, to make sure these four things are done. In fact, for the sake of our country, i am pleading with them to join us in making sure that these four things are done. Senator mccain spoke out strongly. Hes always been the conscience of the Republican Party when it comes to actually taking action on issues like these. A few of our republican colleagues have spoken out and talked the talk, but its time for the Republican Party to walk the walk given the direness of this situation. The president is doing grave harm to the standing of these United States while cowtowing to the number one enemy we probably have on the globe, Vladimir Putin. Hell continue to do so if he isnt checked, and the best people to check him are not democrats, but his fellow republicans. What the president has done is an insult to all americans, democrats, republicans, independents. We all have to stand up together and push back. Im ready for your questions. You alluded to the interview, that the only explanation for the president s behavior Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer there with some powerful words saying the president S Performance today in helsinki is an insult to all americans, also saying the president is putting himself over the country. Chuck schumer very openly asking the question why, saying its inexplicable, but maybe it is not. Caliper perry is live with us i helsinki as well. Cal, what have you got . Reporter i know were running out of time for this hour but it seems like theres one of two possibilities here. Either President Trump is under the thumb of the russian president and the russian president does have something against this american president , as Chuck Schumer is laying out there, or this is a president who is simply inkpengt and comp not up for doing this job. This was a historic day in so many ways. Unfortunately, the history that was made here was one continuing of an american president whos breaking down the institutions of democracy across europe and in the United States. And i think Chuck Schumer has it. I think there are things here that we dont know as journalists, certainly, well figure them out. Just last week we were watching House Republicans grill peter strzok, an fbi agent, who sent damaging Text Messages, antitrump Text Messages to another woman at the fbi, grilling him for basically show for the president , according to congressman ryan costello. Thats what he told kasie hunt on her show on sunday, that this was all a show for the president to help the president undermine the mueller investigation. Cal perry, im going to say thank you to you but im going to leave our viewers with this one last thing before i give it over to ali velshi. The director of National Intelligence, dan coats, has pushed back very forcefully against the president today in what he said this morning in helsinki. I know we covered it a moment ago but let me read it one more time because i think it is important. The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and factbased assessments possible for the president and policy makers. We have been clear in our assessments of russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our National Security. That is a republican member of Donald Trumps administration. Who donald trump picked to be the director of National Intelligence. This isnt the deep state. This isnt a democratic conspiracy. Thats actually a republican and Donald Trumps pick. Not a member of the media, not a democrat, not somebody who was there before him, his own dni. Thats the weird part, that donald trump has decided to ignore everybody who has information about russian interference into the american election. The question is wh