the idea that this has taken a long time is absurd. it s not true. but beyond that, it is a lot of mystery. the irony that the president of the united states only offers something congratulatory to united states intelligence services when vladimir putin basically tells him to. vladimir putin, thanks the united states for giving them information that helps stop a terror attack in st. petersburg, i wonder if they would return the favor. i wonder if that s how it worked during the boston bombing intelligence. but when he says thank you, he says, yeah, our intelligence services are awesome. that s what it took? just as a reminder, last week, said the fbi was in tatters. again wi again, i think it s important. he says and does so many things that are directly contradictory to one another, it s important to note these things. this is a guy who has sought to, and on a number of occasions, undermined our intelligence officials. he continues to not accept the conclusion that russia
also, bold accusation. president trump s lawyer now claiming special counsel bob mueller unlawfully obtained thousands of e-mails in the russia investigation. and hitting the campaign trail. the president plans to aggressively campaign in next year s midterms, but do all republicans really want him by their side? those are the big questions. we begin with vladimir putin s phone call to president trump, the second call in just four days. there are reports that putin called president trump to thank him for a cia tip that helped thwart a terror attack in st. petersburg. we have an incredible team of reporters for us to break all of this down with, of course, the latest developments. nbc s geoff bennett is at the white house. i ll start with you. what more can you tell us about this phone call between putin and trump? reporter: good afternoon. we know that vladimir putin initiated this phone call and he s making it public. we know he called president trump, who s spending the weekend
weapons out. jenna: we want to draw the news out together. i m not making a connection between the terror attack and russia, but it is something that vladamir putin is having to handle. alleged terror attack in st. petersburg. there s initial reports that the suspect is from kurdistan. we have one leader under pressure in his own country. syria with increased attention. and you have this new trump administration being tested on foreign policy across the board. what would be your advice to president trump, how to handle all these situations? how do you take them one by one or handle them together? you start from the american national interest, the american national security interest, our foreign policy interest, our economic interest at home and globally. look, russia is a major country. this is the one country on earth that has the ability in under an hour to destroy life as we know it in the united states. so in terms of dealing with the russians this is not a priority we can kick
legislation and get it through. neil: you think the markets would be okay with corporate taxes and individual rates down the road? i think so. it s a mainstream america that would put pressure on anybody in washington d.c. that would hold back individual rates. as far as the markets concerned, earnings are the mother s milk of a higher market. if you can cut the rates if we were at a 15% tax rate, that would add 13% to southbound earnings. 20% means 10%. huge numbers meaning higher stock market for people heir 401 k.s, pension funds and everything else. good seeing you. charles payne, you can catch him in two hours from now. a terror attack in st. petersburg, russia. that s right, russia. i don t think terrorists have much fancy or concern as to where they hit or who they hit or what party they hit. just that they hit. when will it finally sink in?
con condolences, going to state television and vowing to bring those responsible to justice. matthew chance in moscow. matthew, thank you. so far there s been no claim of responsibility for the attack. so who might have been responsible? who might have been behind it? joining us from new york cnn terrorism analyst and former cia operative. paul, who are the most likely suspects? i think work it is assumption is that was an act of jihadi terrorism. those groups have been responsible for the vast majority on russian soil in the last decade. there could also be a syria link here. a global jihadi link. because global have made it clear that russia is now their number one target worldwide.