two days after his meeting with vladamir putin, president trump announced his plans to work with russia on cyber security. the president tweeted putin and i discussed forming a cyber security unit so that election hacking and many other negative things will be guarded. the president faced a swift backlash from members of both parties. it s not the dumbest idea i ve ever heard, but it s close. we might as well mail our ballot boxes to moscow. i am sure that vladamir putin could be of enormous assistance this that effort, since he s doing the hacking. others took to twitter. ben sasse wrote, this should not happen and will not happen. why the president of the united states will tweet it is bizarre. republican senator marco rubio tweeted, partnering with putin on a cyber security unit is akin to partnering with assad on a chemical weapons unit. after the criticism about 13 hours later, president trump walked back the idea with a tweet, the fact that we discussed a cyber security
the president faced a swift backlash from members of both parties. it s not the dumbest idea i ve ever heard, but it s close. we might as well mail our ballot boxes to moscow. i am sure that vladamir putin could be of enormous assistance this that effort, since he s doing the hacking. others took to twitter. ben sase wrote, this should not happen and will not happen. why the president of the united states will tweet it is bizarre. republican senator marco rubio tweeted, partnering with putin on a cyber security unit is akin to partnering with assad on a chemical weapons unit. after the criticism about 13 hours later, president trump walked back the idea with a tweet, the fact that we discussed a cyber security unit doesn t mean i think it can happen. it can t. but a cease-fire can and did. i want to bring back my panel now with one new face.
russia, he backtracked on it. writing on twitter, the fact that president putin and i discussed a cyber security unit doesn t mean i think it can happen. it can t. but a ceasefire can. and did. in today s white house briefing which again took place in the dark today without cameras and with only audio allowed, deputy press secretary sarah huckabee sanders addressed this issue. this was a part of a discussion in that meeting. and, look, we recognize that russia is a cyber threat. but we also recognize the need to have conversations with our adversaries. i m not sure there were specific details discussed. i think it was simply just a discussion on cyber security threats and potential options, not necessarily a formal kind of structure in place. with us tonight white house reporter for associated press jonathan le mere is back with us.
questions asked about why the cia and fbi asked the dnc for their server and were rejected. still don t have it. fake news said 17 intel agencies when actually 4. had to apologize. why did obama do nothing when he had info before election? that led to the secretary of the treasury out on the sunday show shows. this is an important step forward. we want to make sure we coordinate with russia, we are focused on cybersecurity. we make sure they never interfere in any democratic elections were conducted cybersecurity. this is about capabilities to make sure we fight cyber together which is significant. bret: democrats pounced, some republicans pounced. the president tweeted: the fact that president putin and i discussed a cyber security
i discussed a cyber security unit doesn t mean i think it can happen. it can t, but a cease fire can and did. trump s reversal came after backlash from some top senate republicans. i am sure that vladimir putin could be of enormous assistance in that effort since he s doing the hacking. it s not the dumbest idea i ve heard, but it s close. tillerson and trump are ready to forgiver and forget when it comes to cyber attacks on the american election of 2016. nobody is saying mr. president, the russians changed the outcome. you won fair and square, but they did try to attack our election system. they were successful in many ways, and the more you do this, the more people are suspicious about you and russia. the panel is back with me now. mark, first to you. why did the president change his mind? that s an unfair question to ask. for us to actually get inside president trump s mind and try to figure out what he s doing