say what we need to expect from trump. i think that looking back at how putin has behaved on the world stage and what s important for putin in terms of projecting his strength and why that s such a priority for him, putin needs to be seen and this is played out in his relations with past leaders as a world leader who in this case, unlike trump, has just simply a lot more experience on the world stage and in being a world leader. and by virtue of the fact that trump has basically made all of these contradictory statements, this just plays into putin s hands. general, the president thinks that he and president putin can probably, i guess, come to some agreement or make some progress on syria specifically, so let s talk about that. back in march, the president said he wanted a plan to
withdraw immediately. then he walked that back. we know that last month in his meetings with kim abdullah of jordan that he discussed the potential withdraw deal. give us your best-case/worst-case plausible outcome as it relates to syria from this meeting. i don t think you re going to see anything from a best-case perspective, victor. you know, the president has talked with mr. putin about these things before or has made comment about them, in terms of asking russia to withdraw, russia has promised to do so, not only from syria, but they ve signed the minska accord in ukraine. it is not part of mr. putin s strategic vision to do any of these things. and you know, putin doesn t control iran. the president is going to ask for some help in getting iran out of syria. that s not going to happen. and if we just look at the history, as you just pointed out, ticking off the marks, all of these things russia has
promised before and they have basically reneged on every single one of their promises multiple times. they have a strategic objective in syria. they have a strategic objective in ukraine. and they will continue to push toward that strategic objective. and do you think there s some ground that can be gained from the u.s. perspective, ana, as is relates to syria on monday? well, that s going to be tricky, given that i think putin understands that whatever the u.s. is going to be offering russia it s going to do anyway, in terms of syria. russia, indeed, does not have it can t get iran out of syria. it can make statements, it can make promises, it can make agreements that it really isn t going to commit to. but again, in terms of the optics of the meeting, for putin, this is going to be enough. it s going to be enough to come
joining me now is bill richardson, former u.s. ambassador to the united nations. governor, welcome to you, always good to see you. is there any reason donald trump could say he believes putin, and should the statement from the cia director give the president pause? well, it should give him pause because this is his own cabinet member, the head of the cia, disputing the president s assertion. what is also disturbing is the president claiming that former director clapper and brennan and comey are partisan hacks. i mean these are professionals. this is our intelligence community saying there was meddling, and the president is off saying something differently. perhaps in his mind in a real estate deal, he may get something in return from putin, maybe some progress on syria by giving him a pass on the russian election involvement, which nobody believes is the case. this may be his thinking, but i
relationships between leaders. you know, we ve got president putin and trump. we got a lot of differents. but it s important that the relationship improve. it s in very bad shape. russian can help us on north korea. they have some leverage through trade and other relationships. also on syria. maybe we can make some progress on syria now that isis seems there s been progress there. but i think in the region with a whole area, vietnam, other countries we re nemeeting with, there s a fear about chinese domination. i think we have to send a message that the united states is going to play in asia, that it s a very important region for us, that we re not going to withdraw, that we re going to have a clear message, and that we re going to be partners with the players in asia like vietnam, like some of the other meetings we re having. but yes, this putin meeting, hopefully it happens. the relationship can t get any worse. all right, former governor,