he end that had years ago. and i actually talked about russian adoption with him which is interesting. that was a part of the conversation that don had in his meeting. well, the news of trump s meeting with putin has now deepened divisions between he the president and his national security team of one said, diplomats and intelligence officials were dumbfounded by the president s approach. mcmasters warned that putin is not to be trusted and advised the president against holding an official bilateral meeting with putin. howard fineman, global editor and director. senator, what do you make of this strange behavior by the president, going over there and spending an hour? chatting away and apparently talking about sanctions. i don t know how you talk about the adoption issue without talking about the sanctions
joining us. you just heard president trump and his description of this second meeting that happened at this dinner that actually followed cocktails and an opera performance of the g20, what did you make of this? the mere fact of the meeting is not a scandal. people are saying that he talked to president putin. the substance of the conversation is more important and it seems like president trump can draw the connection between the adoption issue, which in the magnitsky act which is a law that was past several years ago that put sanctions on russian officials accused of human rights violations and putin was very angry about this and in response, he banned americans from adopting russian children. heather: surely knows the connection at this point. i m not sure. it seems as though president trump and don, jr., they make it sound like this very innocuous subject. who wouldn t want to have
it was interesting because that was a part of a conversation that don had in a meeting and most other people call up and say, by the way, we have information on your opponent. i was just with a lot of people, they say who are you taking a meeting with? um, i just don t know really where to start right there. i think all the people that were in the meeting, mike schmidt, should be asked whether they told donald trump they would have taken meeting with russian intelligence officers and with two russian interpreters in the room. that s remarkable, which is going to lead and should lead to a flurry of follow-up questions to see whether donald trump was telling the truth or not there but also adoption issue. this meeting with vladimir putin, this meeting that he said was 15 minutes, others suggested
what this adoption issue is. the adoption is the red herring. what happened is the united states passed sanctions not against russia as a country, as an economy, but against a specific series of russian oligarchs and officials around putin who were accused of human rights abuses and corruption. those guys who are really the russian power elite, they want to be able to send their money a abro abroad, they want to be able to send their daughters and sons to boarding schools in england and their mistress for shopping excursions in italy. the magnitsky act freezes all that. it doesn t allow those funds to be moved. they don t care about the russian economy. they cared about their economy. and, so, what we now understand is the russian quid pro quo was they went to the trump campaign and said we ll give you dirt on
that before. evelyn so, matt, what could that mean? what is also unusual you have all these attorneys advocating on behalf of their client when those clients interests differ from somebody else. as you saw just a minute ago with trump s attorney distinguishing the father from the son. that i don t know what donald trump jr. is talking about. but i know donald trump himself was not in that meeting. they re not on the same page. the fallout from this is the policy implications. when it comes to the relationship with russia. we re seeing new developments this morning. but the russian government is now cranking up the heat and talking about these diplomatic compounds saying the u.s. has to return those compounds. no conditions, unconditional. the end. case closed. this is the play. this is why they wanted the meeting with donald trump jr. the adoption issue is actually really russia s retaliation for our sanctions. there are like three different buckets of sanctions, okay. so, t