did trump agree with your position that there was no interference in the u.s. election? translator: well, he let me repeat he answered all the questions and i think that he noted it and he agreed with it. but i think it s better to ask him exactly what you asked rather than me. all right. let s bring in cnn senior international correspondent matthew chans in moscow. so, what else did putin say about meddling, about his relationship with president trump, that meeting while at the g-20? well, up like president trump he gave a press conference today in which he opened the floor to questions from journalists, russian journalist, i think, about how the meeting went with trump and with the other world
signed up in support of president trump s agenda. it s not a mistake with regard to his base. let me tell you why it s a mistake for the world and part of this country. there are a lot of uncertainty as to whether president putin paid a price for the handshake. after all, the russian government, the russian federation, intervene in our democracy last year. ordinarily, you do not resume normal relations with a country that does that without them having paid a price, without them apologizing, without them in some way signaling that your sovereignty was violated. that appears not to have no consequence. but how what do you mean that possibly putin paid a price by no, no, no. he didn t i didn t say he did not pay a price. that s why the president needed to speak with us about why about the real nature of this meeting and allowing the
have is secretary of state rex tillerson yesterday who was in that meeting with putin as well, here s what he had to say about it. the president pressed president putin on more than one occasion regarding russian involvement. president putin denied such involvement as i think he has in the past. the two leaders agreed, though, that this is a substantial hindrance in the ability of us to move the russian/u.s. relationship forward and agreed to exchange further work regarding commitments of noninterference. in the affairs of the united states and our democratic process as well as those of other countries. reporter: so basically the response from tillerson is this is an intractable issue. we are not going to get anywhere if we keep talking about election meddling. not a surprise given president trump s comments on the campaign
trail and since coming to office about wanting a closer relationship with russia. now, if you re wondering how our allies are viewing this meeting, german chancellor angela merkel was saying she was actually delighted to see president trump and president putin meeting face-to-face for the first type at the g-20. she said that is how relationships move forward, is by having these conversations next to each other, with one another, rather than just talking about each other. back to you. sara murray thanks so much in hamburg. let s talk more about all of this with cnn presidential historian tim neftali and cnn investigative reporter for international affairs michael weiss. gentlemen, good to see you. tim, customarily the president of the united states would adre the cameras, say this is my assessment of how things went. didn t happen from this president this go-around. big mistake? oh, yes, it s a big mistake. but it s a mistake in terms of our relations with the world, a mistake with
said. the president of the united states i think the duty bound to gave press statement at the end of a g-20 in which he should have corrected the record if, indeed, the record needs correcting. foreign minister lavrov came out yesterday and said donald trump accepted our narrative of what happened. putin assured him we had nothing to do with many e nlg the election and trump said great, let s move on. if that s the case, that shows the president of the united states contradicting the assessment made by the officer of the director of national intelligence which found the cia, fbi, and nsa all in agreement that russia indeed interfered in the election. came out again today and let me repeat, he answered all of the questions i think that he noted it and he agreed with it but think it is better to ask him what you have asked rather than me. there s a sort of irony wrapped in a tragedy here. the irony is that one of the best books written about vladimir putin going back to his days a