if he thought i was going to win, he would have done plenty about it. good to see both of you. matthew, everything we keep talking about is so unusual about this presidency. talking about a former president in those kinds of terms on foreign soil. what message is this sending that he s plami inblaming a for president? if, in fact, as richard suggested earlier trump chooses not to take the highest level, most direct and probably most extended interaction he ll have with the russian leadership as the chance to break with the mess and say there s going be a credible deterrent intervention. if the president doesn t do that then he misses an opportunity,
president trump also said that president obama did nothing when it came to punishing russia for hacking the election. let me play what president obama said back in december. in early september when i saw president putin in china, i felt that the most effective way to ensure that didn t happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out and there was going to be some serious consequences if he didn t. he also kicked out 35 russian intelligence agents from the u.s. he imposed sanctions. does vladmir putin take this all in? with all the skills he has and use it to his advantage knowing how donald trump feels about this and thinks about it? there s no question that putin comes to the table with a ton of assets as was said earlier. he s been doing this not only for 40 years of his career, she
putin, richard engel takes a look at the psychology putin uses against those he goes up against from the people who try to take him on. reporter: for president trump, putin may be a way to thumb his nose at critics to show he is not scared of the multiple investigations into his inner circle s ties to the kremlin. but for russians who have tried to stand up to putin, trump is being played and has been from the start. he s definitely playing into his hands. gary is a putin critic and iconic russian chess grand master. he says no strategist but understands power. by definition, i believe i have to defend the integrity of my game. i would rather say he is a poker player. he is a gambler. a gambler who keys in on his point s weaknesses. putin has gone out of his way to
there. he s got fiona hill who is his national security council expert on russia. he s got h.r. mcmaster. other people he could bring in at the last minute. it will be interesting to see if part of his strategy to make putin just unaware of what kind of tactics he s going to take. so much of what happens in these meetings we don t hear about until later although this white house has been a bit like a sieve. unless there s a last minute change you re only going to have a handful of people. i don t see rex tillerson doing a big leak about what happened inside that room. what s the key point that s going to come out of it. will it be about hacking or something else? we have seen a lot of leeking after these meetings but we have seen as far as official statements and official read outs of what happens, we have seen a lot more from the russian side or the chinese side than from the white house itself.
flatter president trump. trump psychologically would be the ideal counter part with his massive ego, with his rejection of the rules. while trump wears his emotions on his twitter feed. putin, the former kgb colonel, has the ultimate poker face. american presidents have thought they could read him before. i was able to get a sense of his soul. i found him to be very smart. but failed. former ambassador to russia has been in the room during high stakes meetings with president putin. putin loves intelligence data. he does his homework to know full brief of the people he deals with including most certainly president trump. richard engel joins me now from hamburg, germany. was there any sense that there was a weakness on the side of trump? is there something that