decades of diplomatic work include stints as the under secretary of state and u.s. ambassador to nato in the george w. bush administration. pleasure to have you on this important day. first to the question of election meddling. you testified before congress a couple weeks ago and said it would be a dereliction of duty for this president not to look vladimir putin in the eye and call him out. to say, i know what you cdid an must not do it again and consequences if you do it again. listen to what came up. this was the president s answer. i think it was russia, but i think it was probably other people and/or countries, and i see nothing wrong with that statement. nobody really knows. nobody really knows for sure. the west is also confronted by powers that seek to test our will, undermine our confidence and challenge our interests to meet new forms of aggression including propaganda, financial crimes and cyber warfare.
and we ll start with south korea right now. nato members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations. again, trump, like any president is in the eye of the beholder. a trump supporter you think, damn straight. the guy says what he thinks. says what s on his mind and doesn t hide things he hears about. if you liked obama nuance you probably don t like some of that. the trump that sold the change message in the 2016 election. right? he s not in office. we ll see what results he gets. i love that the in d.c., last time i visited, exhibit about wiretapping a, a portrait of angela merkel. admit, a good joke. a good line. she didn t like it, but you could see her face, priceless there, and over the past couple months, interesting handshakes. look at those.
so from the hints at the press conference and then the hints in the speech, what do you expect? will the president do as you think he must? or will he punt or muddle this? john, i think what you saw this morning was the tail of two president trumps. you saw the scripted speech, where i think the president was right to accuse russia of destabilizing activities. right. i assume meant ukraine. and saw the unscripted president trump in the press conference. putin might think this is the real trump. went very easy and soft on this certainty of our intelligence community that russia launched a major cyber attack on the 2016 elections. and so i do think it s very important for president trump. i hope he can meet this expectation tomorrow that a lot of people have, that he raise the issue of russian meddling in the elections directly with president putin. that he say it s object action and communicates privately there will be penalties for the russians. sanctions, if this continues in
you see small talk and pleasantries. two leaders with profound disagreements at the core of the meeting the at hamburg, germany. pleasant handshake. talk about body language when angela merkel was at the would us. we expect to get into that room and see more of that meeting in a few moments. as we do, reminder of many disagreements between them. remember, this is the president s second trip to europe. at the nato summit in may. lectured european allies. they didn t like that. be clear. the europeans also take pleasure in poking president trump, including chancellor merkel who in her speech publicly at nato with the president of the united states standing a few feet away, said this also are united in the trust that it is not isolation and walls that make us successful but open societies that share the same
immigration. may have been aimed at merkel here. we ve seen his policy, some shifts in his policy on china this week, and, yes. as we watch merkel here, i mean, a lot of talk about trump s meeting with putin and this may be actually the most important one and xi. compared to a lot of leaders we ve seen trump meet with, she doesn t pull punches and not afraid to sit or stand side-by-side in a news conference and make clear she doesn t agree with his world view and the statements she s made in germany ahead of her own elections coming up about the united states not being a reliable partner, it s a catchy sound bite, but when you really think about that, when you think about the fact the strongest country in europe does not see the united states as a strong partner, we re talking about a complete shift in the global dynamic when that happens and seen her reach out to china, importantly, to fill some of this void. a great point. getting through this, overly