and his staff would have him holed up in the private dining room off the oval office, ranting and raving about the latest incremental development in the mueller investigation, tweeting about it, watching television. it became the white whale of the trump presidency. [lester] in just a few moments, president trump and president putin of russia will hold a joint news conference following their bilateral meetings. [hallie] the president talked a little bit about what he wanted to discuss with vladimir putin prior to their meeting, specifically, for example, nuclear. he talked about defense, other issues, but here's the most important thing, lester. it's what he did not mention, and that is russian election interference. that is going to be, likely, the first question that these leaders get asked here in this room. trump never wanted to admit that the russians had interfered because it cast that cloud over the legitimacy of his win in the election. of course, he wanted everyone to think he won big. and whenever the issue of russian interference came up, he wanted to push away. [jonathan] would you now, with the whole world watching, denounce what happened in 2016