columnist, editorial board member, and columnist and manhattan institute senior fellow. mary, i recall clearly last week you said the summit with putin was a bad idea. has the week made you change your mind about that? no, it hasn t at all. i think it is safe to say this was not a highlight of the trump presidency. now, as to what congress can do, they are a little limited of course because the executive branch is the one that sets foreign policy, but we have seen congress impose some pretty significant sanctions on russia, most notably after the invasion of ukraine and they could do so again. paul: but how much damage here? before we get a little more on congress, how much damage here do you think this has done after the full week? he reversed himself and second invitation to putin. how much damage has he done to his presidency? i m not a chicken little paul i don t think the world is going to end because of one disastrous press conference. however, trump did take a hit.
unfortunately. now paul: he stepped back from it. because of that backlash from congress, he stepped back. that s a good thing. that also shows that checks and balances in the american system work. but the very idea that the white house spokesperson sarah huckabee sanders didn t immediately shut that down, that putin request, when she was asked about it this week, to me shows a fundamental lack of communication within the administration and a lack of understanding of putin s method and his tactics. it also shows an inability of trump to distinguish two things here, which is russian meddling and collusion. he needs to say over and over again yes, we know russia meddled. they better not do it again. my administration had nothing to do with it. paul: they are separate issues. they are separate issues. he continues to conflate them and his political opponents have no problem with that. why does he keep doing that? i think that s all he s thinking is collusion and he s not disti
huge effort into working the issues, prepping the president, preparing him for the four-hour summit, either the bilateral with staff or the one-on-one, but why didn t they prepare for the press conference? paul: the most obvious question that he would get at that press conference. yes. it is an appendage to the summit but it is the only place where the whole world is watching you. i m not an executive position like that, but i have had a few press conferences in my life because things bad happen around my commands, and i rehearsed it, and i would say to the guys okay tell me what the outcomes are, all right, and tell me what the tone of this is going to be. those are the two things i was stuck on, what were the outcomes of that press conference and what should the tone of the president be. both of those were wrong. paul: how much tension is there between, say, jim mattis and his view of his russia and dod people on one hand and also the intelligence services, dan coats, the director
story. did anyone catch this comment monday in helsinki when trump was talking election interference. spent a great deal of time talking about it and president putin may very well want to address it and very strongly because he feels very strongly about it and he has an interesting idea. an interesting idea. so now we know what that interesting idea is. in their private meeting putin tosses out the suggestion which is this, he said that russia will allow robert mueller s team to come into his country, question a dozen russians charged with interfering in the election, but in return putin wants to interrogate americans. moments ago the white house now says it is opposed to this proposal but not after major backlash because again, sarah
democrats and republicans, president trump this week walked back his comments on russian election meddling, claiming he misspoke monday during a news conference with vladimir putin when he said he couldn t see any reason why moscow would have interfered in the 2016 campaign. those comments causing a firestorm and putting the president at odds with the u.s. intelligence community and members of his own party in congress. this as secretary of state mike pompeo gets set to head to the hill next week where he s sure to face a grilling from lawmakers over just what was discussed at the helsinki summit. as the white house prepares for a potential second sit-down in washington this fall. retired four star general is a fox news senior strategic analyst. general, good to have you here. good to be here, paul. paul: after this week of back and forth, where do you think the president s relationship with russia and putin stands? i think it s in an early