the white house. one of the main focuses of their talks was the future of syria and supporting the u.n.-led geneva process to peacefully resolve the syrian civil war. president trump spoke about the call moments ago. we had a great call with president putin. we are talking about peace in syria. very important. we are talking about north korea. we had a call that lasted almost an hour and a half. we just put out a release on the call. but we re talking very strongly about bringing peace to syria. we are talking very strongly about north korea and ukraine. i want to break this down with my old friend bobby gouache, the former editor in chief with the hindu stan times. one of the smartest guys i know on these things. let s put aside that some people believe that trump is too colonel conciliatory with vladimir putin. vladimir putin met with assad in
campaign and pro trump super pacs. he was seen in the trump transition s new york offices in december and also happens to be the brother of the trump administration s education secretary betsy devos. one of our own sources confirmed the woeftd version of the meeting while a second cast doubt that that s what the meeting was about a. senior administration official called the suggestion of a trump/putin back channel ridiculous. white house press secretary sean spicer told us late this even, quote, we are not aware of any meetings and eric prince had no role in the transition. we also learned late tonight that president trump spoke with vladimir putin in the wake of today s deadly subway explosion in st. petersburg. let s bring in our panel to kick off the night and the week. bobby gouache is here, former worl editor for time magazine, now editor in chief of hind you stan times. ashley parker who has a pair of human hands affixing a microphone and earpiece to her