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two tales of one meeting.

that's the headline from today's face-to-face between the presidents of the united states and russia. the u.s. president came with baggage as far as russia is concerned. the russian president brought his own agenda. for a couple hours this morning, the g-20 summit became the g-2. two countries in the spotlight followed by two competing accounts of what transpired. more from jeff zeleny. >> reporter: the land shake tha world has been waiting for. donald trump and vladimir putin side by side for the first time in hamburg. >> we've had some very, very good talks. we're going to have a talk now. obviously, that'll continue. >> reporter: secretary of state rex tillerson, the only other u.s. official inside the meeting, later told reporters that president trump opened the session by raising the elephant in the room. russian interference in the 2016 election. >> the president pressed president putin on more than one occasion regarding russian involvement. president putin denied such

involvement. as i think he has in the past. >> reporter: while putin denied involvement, tillerson said the two leaders agreed to work together to avoid future cyber attacks and not allow the election interference dominate their relationship. >> the two leaders agreed this is a substantial hindrance, and the ability of us to move the russian/u.s. relationship forward. >> reporter: tonight, one question above all remains unanswered, whether agreeing to move on diminishes the seriousness of russia's role. tillerson confirmed that putin demanded proof over russian involvement. trump offered no proof and moved on. he said the two presidents spent the majority of their time on syria. forging a preliminary cease-fire in the southwestern part of that war-torn country. but the russian account of the meeting was different. sergey lavrov said mr. trump had heard and accepted statements by russian authorities denying involvement in the election hacking. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> reporter: the highly

anticipate ean ti anticipated meeting lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes, longer than the planned 40 minutes. melania trump was sent in to break up the meeting to keep the president on schedule but the meeting lasted another hour. tonight, she was sitting next to putin at a dinner. a white house official says they do not make the seating chart. interesting that melania trump played a pivotal role, at least a visual one, by trying to interrupt the meeting for time and later seated by mr. putin. you never know if it is by design or happenstance or diplomacy. in any case, this is the beginning of the trump/putin relationship. so many questions remain about their next meeting and how they'll go forward. john? >> jeff zeleny, thanks so much. the meeting took place in hambu hamburg, but it is no stretch to say that putin had an advantage.

does that mean expectations were different in moscow than washington? let's check in with matthew chance at the russian capital. what has been the reaction in moscow to the meeting today? >> reporter: well, it's been quite astonishing. russian officials have been reacti ining really positively this meeting. the first face-to-face meeting between president trump of the united states and president putin of russia. one senior lawmaker said the results of these talks on the sidelines of the g-20 summit, quote, this is a quote from him, they surpassed expectations and were psychological break through. i can tell you, the expectations were pretty low, to be fair. i mean, the russians had been somewhat disillusioned with the notion of president trump being able to deliver the kind of radical change in the relationship that he'd promised during his campaign and in the early days and weeks of his presidency. i say the expectations were very

low that this was going to be anything other than a meeting to exchange pleasantries. in the event, 2 hours and a quarter, it was more than that. they tackled and addressed key issues in this fractioned u.s./russia relationship. >> there was speculation about how the two men would get along. you've followed vladimir putin for years. i watched on youtube an interview you did with him years ago. to you, how did it seem they got along? >> reporter: well, no surprise, they got along really well. i think for a couple of reasons. first of all, in the instance of donald trump, he's already obviously predisposed toward liking president putin. i mean, he made a big thing out of this during his campaign. he's been criticized for it extensively in the united states, as you know. and, yeah, guess what, when they met, they got on. he kind of liked him. but i think it is also fair to say that vladimir putin has a

strong track record, should we say, in charming american presidents. who can forget in 2001, when george w. bush looks into his eyes and caught a glimpse of his soul, got a sense of his soul, i think he said. president obama when he first met putin, as well, was equally kind of bulled over. so putin does this. he is really good at getting american presidents, at least initially, to like him and to see a future in the relationship. then, you know, maybe it won't go as well as hoped in the years ahead. >> with what happens after that has been the problem. matthew chance for us in moscow, thank you so much. perfective from a panel of two diplomatic and national security heavyweights. former ambassador to russia thomas bickering and nicholas burns and david senger, cnn and political national security analyst. you have met president putin. you know the stakes involved with this meeting. does it sound to you like

president trump effectively delivered the message on russian election meddling? >> from what sergey lavrov had to say afterward, probably no. the idea that somehow either what he said or what he implied or his body language was twisted to be a kind of that's okay, guys, we need to put the past behind us, let's move on to the future, certainly is good news in moscow but really quite bad news for him here and for, i think, a large number of republicans who, in any way or another, are, if i could put it crudely, are very unhappy, very irate at what the russians have done to us. >> ambassador, as he is referring to, there are two versions of what went on inside that room. the u.s. version and the russian version. the russians saying that vladimir putin, you know, said that the russians did not interfere in the 2016 election and president trump accepted

that. a senior trump administration official denies that. it is not unusual to have two versions of the same meeting, is it? >> not with these two countries and not with the stakes involved. i very much agree with ambassador pickering. it is important that president trump raise the issue. he deserves credit for that. but everything depends on the strength and conviction with which he raised that issue. if, in fact, putin is denying that he launched a cyber attack on the american elections, then we should not accept that denial. president trump should accept the word of our intelligence community. general clapper was on television today, reaffirming the intelligence community was 100% united that russia was the culprit. there is no recourse now but for the united states senate and house to vote tough sanctions against russia for its hack. president trump ought to get behind that because he shouldn't want putin to believe that russia can get away with this. >> david, based on what

ambassador burns said, how does what president trump has said over the last dais, weys, weeks months, how does it color the meeting today? yesterday, he was saying nobody knows for sure whether the russians hacked the election. how does it color his apparent pressure on vladimir putin today over russian election meddling? how do you think vladimir putin takes it? >> john, i'm here in hamburg. when i heard the president speak yesterday, i thought to myself, that really isn't the opening that i would think he would want to give to president putin for today's meeting. even if president trump does not believe the evidence is convincing on the election hack, you want to go into the meeting with mr. putin, i would think, making the case that the intelligence community was completely unified on this and that russia needed to know it had to pay a price in the past and would have to pay a bigger price in the future. >> so ambassador pickering,

every administration wants to reset relations with russia, have a good relationship with russia, only to end up disappointed at the end. what does vladimir putin want? does he want a better relationship with the united states? >> i think that, in part, he wants to show the russian people that he's the master of this relationship and that he is pretty much in control and wants to achieve what he wants to achieve with it. whether at the same time, obviously, neither president putin nor president trump wants an all out conflict. they should be very cautious about getting themselves into that kind of a predicament. my sense is that they understand it and look forward to try to do something that can avoid it. but this is with lavrov's statement, clearly an effort on the part of putin, once again, to demonstrate to the russian people in public that he's the

k cock of the walk and running things and making stuff happen. this goes back to uncertainties he's had in russia, beginning in 2010 when he came back as president and had demonstrations in the street and a very poor election. what you're seeing over these years since 2010/2011refurbishi polishing and boosting his popularity rating. that should not be missed. >> ambassador burns, one of the biggest headlines out of the meeting is an agreement for a cease-fire in syria. how big of an achievement is this for the trump administration? >> remains to be seen. i think president trump and secretary tillerson were right to engage the russians on this. we don't have identical interests. the russians are aligned with the syrian government, with iran and hezbollah. we don't want to be aligned with that group. but we do have an interest in seeing the war, if it is possible, brought to a halt at some point in the future. there are 12 million of the 22.4

million syrians now homeless inside or outside the country. there is a humanitarian obligation we have. if it is possible to work with the russians on that basis, we should do so. but we have to be careful here. we don't want to be involved in establishing shia dominance throughout the country. this is a minor achievement, i think, a cease-fire in the southwest part of the country, but secretary tillerson is right to have the conversation. >> david, before this meeting, you noted that the announcement that there was no set agenda from the administration sent a shiver through washington. now that we're after the meeting, david, first of all, do you think it was true that there was no set agenda? was that just spin to lower expectations and, in retrospect, now that we're after this two plus hour meeting here, would you consider it a success? >> at the time h.r. mcmaster, the national security adviser, said there was no set agenda, there probably wasn't one.

clearly, they had issues they had to go pace through and mr. tillerson described those today. you know, even if president trump went into this with no set agenda, it seemed pretty clear that president putin was going in with one. he wanted respect. and he wants an end to those sanctions that nick was referring to before. president trump could not lift those sanctions. in fact, there have been, by a vote of 97-2, new sanctions voted on by the senate. so his hands were tied there. i think that it was clear that you were not going to see mr. putin suddenly turn around and say, well, that was us after all in the election. which would be necessary if you're going to begin to resolve the question of what happened last year and why. >> right. ambassadors pickering, burns, and david, ambassador one day, i'm sure, thank you for being with us.

>> thank you, john. more on what vladimir putin was looking to get out of the meetd i meeting, how he operates and uses his experience at the kgb to get what he wants. and inside the battle for a key isis stronghold in syria. (burke) at farmers, we've seen almost everything so we know how to cover almost anything. even a swing set standoff.

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during the cold war, there were kremlinologists.

for a while, soviet leaders were as gray on the inside as they were on the outside. not so with vladimir putin. you can almost see the wheels turning. he is a master manipulator and someone, for better or worse, with a clear idea of what he wants for himself and for his country, which makes the question of what he got out of the meeting today both deeply relevant and very interesting. joining us now to , putinologis. author of "how russia fell in and out of love with vladimir putin. "jo you know how the meetings with go and sometimes how putin puts on power plays, making people wait a long time before meeting with him. that didn't seem to happen today, did it? >> you got a sense a little this was a vladimir putin who thought he was pushing on an open door as opposed to running into opposition, the way he felt sometimes during the obama administration. you saw him laughing during the pool spray and smiling.

then tillerson in describing the meeting emphasized the warmth between the two men and the chemistry. that might have been a tact i wouldn't have taken, given the suspicion people have between trump and putin, but that's how they characterized it. it is a different tone from recent years. >> rex tillerson did they there was chemistry. did you see chemistry, based on what you've seen in the readouts? was there chemistry there? >> i think it is very important to acknowledge that putin has several modes in dealing with world leaders. one mode is intimidation. we've seen him use it with initial meetings with david cameron cameron. one mode is the lecture, screaming about russia's humiliation in the 1990s. but the mode we saw deployed today is the same mode that he tends to kick off relationships with u.s. presidents, which is seduction. one of the things that is interesting is that trump actually, from what we heard,

appears a little less seduced than george w. bush was after his first meeting with vladimir putin, when bush famously said, or perhaps infamously said, he'd seen inside his soul. putin used bush's christian faith to try and seduce him by telling tales of a golden cross he kept around his neck, or claimed to. >> one of the things i heard suggested by people close to the white house is that maybe by president trump bringing up the russian meddling so quickly in the meeting today and so what the white house considered, clearly, it is up for debate, but i think they said he said it clearly, it might throw putin off balance. you think that might be the case? >> it is very hard to know exactly what happened because of the way they structured the meetings, by having so few people present. but an interpretation which i'm certainly leaning towards is that this was intended for p

purposes to be ed that something had been said on this issue. >> these meetings and the readouts of the meetings, a big part of the discussion is how there is the u.s. version and the russian version, and the divergence on a key point, whether or not president trump accepted president putin's denial that the russians meddled in the election. that is the statement from sergey lavrov. you've had experience with this man. do you think he was intentionally trying to muddy the waters and put the u.s. in an interesting position? >> part of the reason you keep the meetings small is to control the information flow that coming out of them. everybody can be on the same page and avoid leaks. they've come out with a situation that's the opposite. there is a russian version of events and an american version of events. i have been, and my previous bosses, have been victims of russian misinterpretations and misinformation about things that happened behind closed doors. far be it from me to trust the account provided by sergey

lavrov. what i will say is the foreign minister of russia's account of the meeting is much more consistent with what president trump has said in the run-up to the meeting, including the day before, when he turned a closed case against the russians to a who done it again in the press conference. take into account the fact that as we speak, the administration is working to reduce the strength of sanctions that congress is contemplating against the russians, you start to wonder whether lavrov's account is more accurate. >> again, you are not inclined, in general, to believe the russians -- >> absolutely not. >> -- over an official u.s. position. number two, with your state department experience, how important do you think it is for the u.s. to get out there soon, publicly, on camera, and say, you know, what sergey lavrov is saying is false, if it is false? >> hugely important. they have denied lavrov's account but done it on background and unnamed fashion. even tillerson's readout of the meeting, which was smart that he did, he did it off camera.

that is much less effective than putting your face behind the words. >> it is before lavrov said what he said. he didn't get to address that, even in an audio version, which is part of the problem we have now after 9:00 p.m. eastern time. thanks so much for winnibeing w us. top of the hour, "the most powerful man in the world," a look at the rise and reign of slvladimir putin and his relationship with trump. next, the president's tweet today that led to a twitter rebuttal from hillary clinton's campaign chair. look at us. it's so nice to get out of the city. it's so... quiet. is it, too quiet? it's awful. yeah. feel at home, pretty much wherever you are. t-mobile is america's best unlimited network.

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before president trump met with vladimir putin today, he sounded off on twitter about the 2016 election. he wrote, everyone here is talking about why john podesta refused to give the dnc server to the fbi and the cia. disgraceful. podesta, who served as hillary clinton's chairman called the president a, quote, whack job. he added, get a grip, man. the russians committed a crime when they stole my e-mails to help you get elected president. maybe you might try to find a way to mention that to president putin. podesta added, by the way, i had nothing to do with the dnc.

the democratic national committee servers were hacked separately. he ended with this, dude, get your head in the game. you're representing the u.s. at the g-20. podesta, as we look again at the presidential tweet, went further in a "washington post" op-ed, calling into question the president's claim that everyone is talking about this. he also pointed out the cia would never get involved since it is barred from a intelligence gathering. here to talk about this, molly and jason. i w want to talk about the meetings, the strategy and everything that transpired in the past week. but just on the face of it, the claim that everyone here is talking about the podesta e-mails, that can't possibly be true. i can't imagine it came up in the president's meeting with the leaders of south korea and japan and mexico. >> i'm not sure who everybody exactly refers to. i'm obviously not traveling with the president. >> maybe the guy in the mirror when he was shaving.

>> look, i think the president has a point here. if podesta really wanted to push the dnc to do this, he could have. look, i think podesta knows this is an issue, and that's why he is pulling over so many times on this cross country drive to utah. at this rate, a covered wagon will make it to utah before he does to give every interview he can. look, i think there is -- it is questionable, why the dnc servers haven't been made available to -- >> the president wasn't talking about the dnc servers but john podesta. i could make the case that podesta shouldn't have pulled over on his way to vacation as much as i could say the president shouldn't have been tweeting about this hours before meeting with vladimir putin, which was a pretty important meeting. >> yeah, that's right. but this is what he does. i think it's pretty silly to think that anybody over there is really wondering about the dnc, you know, server. i mean, it is just ridiculous. the fact of the matter is, he

keeps making this claim about the dnc not coordinating. it is not even a true claim. the dnc said multiple times, by the time they were contacted by the department of homeland security, it'd already been rectified. this isn't everyone -- this is one of these things that donald trump made up and people keep repeating. separate from that, as john podesta pointed out, he didn't work at the dnc. >> robbie, you're more than a casual observer and had more than a casual relationship with this. want to get your reaction before we move on to the deep substance that did, in fact, happen in hamburg today. >> look, this is unfortunate. it is growing day by day. i think the president at this point protests too much. not just because, you know, he continues to deny that anything happened, yet he keeps bringing it up. but again, you know, with everything that's looming over this meeting, the trade deals he talks about so much, but more importantly, the threat from north korea, why in the world is he wasting his precious

bandwidth as a president, even drafting these tweets? i don't understand. i don't want to even begin to try to understand the psychological motivations for doing this. but i think the american people should ask for a refund today. i don't know why he was spending so much full-titime on this iss >> he donates his money largely to charity. you'd be taking the money away from the department of the interi interior, which is a different issue. but molly, again, on the substance, and part of it is interesting because he was choosing to tweet about this in between, which was a deliberate, strategic few days for the white house, and one they probably be claim success for. he gave a speech in warsaw that was well received in some corners. when he spoke in large terms about the u.s. and the western relationship -- great job numbers out. the white house is pleased about people coming across the border. fewer coming across the border, as well. so the white house, you'd think, would be pointing to these things as successes. not to mention, a meeting they

were happy about, at least before sergey lavrov started talking about it, with vladimir putin. >> they are. i think if there is any meaning to what i think seems to be a silly tweet, it is as a window into the president's mind. because even when his administration has managed to coordinate a trip quite well and drive a message and have accomplishments they can point to, we considerentally what the president's obsessions are. it feels this has been in his drafts folder since september of 2016. he just happened to hit send right now. he continues to be fixated on this. obviously, the subject of russian hacking is on his mind because it is what everyone is talking about when they talk about his meeting with the russians. when he thinks of hacking, his mind immediately goes to these reflexive, defensive maneuvers, how can i blame it on someone else? >> the bigger picture of this week, jason, is, according to

people close to the white house, that there is a bigger picture here. they've achieved something strategic with these meetings that are still going on now. again, you're close to the white house. what do you think it is they're going to point to this week as having been a success? >> i think at the surface level, we need to recognize the leadership that president trump is showing on the world stage. i think there is a three dimensional chess game going on that many folks might not realize. obviously, we've seen the president reach out to allies. we saw the speech in poland. the will of the west to survive. we saw him meeting with the leaders of japan and south korea. both pacific rim allies. we saw the president sit down with the president of russia today and stand up on the issue of election meddling. then also come to an agreement on the syrian cease-fire. i think that impressed a lot of people. but there was another audience that i don't think folks have been talking about that i believe is -- was part of the intention today. that's president xi of china. when you look at who probably, if anyone in the world, was

probably most maybe caught off guard or whose attention was grabbed most by this extended meeting between president trump and president putin, it was president xi. and the reason why that is so important is china has been a little stand offish so far with regard to north korea. we haven't gotten the cooperation we need. look, this north korea problem is a real, existential threat to our country. if they keep pushing ahead with weapons and icbms, they could put something in downtown seattle before we know it. for the president to go and put this pressure on the president of china today, because we see that his relationship, president xi's relationship with president putin isn't the only one going on here, there's also president trump interacting with president putin. so i think there is a very smart, long game that is going on here. so i recognize that there is a lot more going on than just the direct meetings we've seen. >> do you see signs of that from what you look at here? again, someone you work closely with, the former secretary of state, hillary clinton, she's had experience on the international stage.

she tried to do something, you know, not completely unlike this with russia with the reset. that didn't seem to work out. >> look, putin has been a real challenge for most of our modern presidents. since he's been in office. i don't think there's any surprise there. i just disagree with jason. i think he did the best job he could there of trying to weave together all the different facts into a strategy. i think the fact of the matter is the president doesn't have a strategy. he keeps contradicting himself day by day. i think he absolutely stepped all over his speech yesterday with, you know, his quotes about russia. i think he did that once again today by getting into a fight with john podesta, which was utterly meaningless and bizarre. so i don't think the president is being very strategic. and i don't think that his meeting with putin sent any special signal to president xi. because he's always been praising vladimir putin. i'm actually very worried. i think he should have been rallying the entire world the last few days around this north

korea crisis. we haven't heard a word from him about it and not seeing progress. >> if i can get quick takes, after the president returns tomorrow, does he return in a stronger position than when he left, molly? >> i think it is about the same. the problem at this point is that even when he does give a speech that's widely praised, when he does leave for a while, and this was the case with the last trip, it was seen as going well, breathing room at home, and he reverted right back into the same crises, the same old patterns, same old things. i think he's also reaching a point of diminishing returns with the grand speeches, where the world leaders who are his audience know that what is being written for him and what he is reciting doesn't coincide with what he thinks. >> i think that's right. i think that he, you know -- whatever gains he makes, he quickly will revert back to type and do the kind of podesta type things or whatever it is, and he'll take everybody down another rabbit hole of

inconsequential things, rather than focusing on what is important. >> meeting with president xi tomorrow. thank you all for being with us. up next, exclusive report, cnn on the front lines in raqqah and syria, as coalition forces drive isis fighters out block by block. under the threat of a sniper. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job.

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more on president trump and president putin's face-to-face meeting at the g-20 summit after their long talk came word of something no one expected. a partial cease-fire agreement. a so-called de-escalation zone in parts of southwest syria starting sunday. tonight, the fight against isis in northern syria continues. a major milestone. coalition forces made it into the heart of raqqah. cnn's nick paton walsh on the front lines. >> reporter: we are now inside the old city walls of raqqah, the capital of isis's self-declared caliphate and the territory they'll make their final stand in syria and the middle east. the war, a key milestone for the coalition forces and the syrians and arabs who control 200 meters inside the old city. 200 meters there are isis's

positions. the forces here don't move much in the daylight because of the risk of isis snipers. less so in these streets. it is night where the majority of the movement forward is, in fact, made. we've seen u.s. forces here not far from these positions, angst not to be filmed or noticed, fra frankly. it is them calling in the air strikes that is allowing the forces to move forward, frankly, so quickly. i've been surprised how little of the city isis apparently are in right now, an area possibly one and a half to three miles in terms of size. increasingly small in the terrain they hold. as we saw in mosul and iraq, civilians apparently held in their midst, unable to flee because of the isis snipers. a real impediment for these syrian, kurdish and arab fighters. still, the progress marking potentially the last time that isis can say they hold a city in syria. >> nick paton walsh joins me

now. how close are the forces you're with from pushing isis out entirely? >> reporter: the key thing is they've made swift progress. we thought three or four kilometers on the outskirts of raqqah we were in the the last three weeks or so. that is lighter terrain, sparser buildings. when they hit the old city, we saw them make 400 meters progress in the last few days since a coalition air strike breached the city wall, allowing them to move quickly. now they're hitting urban areas. a mile and a half from east to west. remember, there were two sides of the syrian, kurdish and arab forces coming in different directions of the area. they could meet in the middle. it could be swift if isis do collapse potentially. may happen one day. it could be lengthy. they're in denser streets where there could be more civilians. >> the breaking news tonight is the cease-fire in southwest syria brokered by the u.s. and russia. what kind of impact do you think

that'll have? >> reporter: it is interesting. we've seen cease-fires come and go dozens of times, frankly, during the syrian civil war. the southwest of the country, well, it's not the biggest hot spot, frankly, in this war. there's way more troublesome stuff happening in the north. there have been clashes between syrian regime loyal militia and syrian rebels backed by the u.s. we actually have u.s. trainers in their midst. there's been a need to calm that situation down. that potentially is in russia's interest, as well, and the interest of a u.s. ally, jordan, to the south of that area. yes, this is certainly welcome tactically. is it going to transform things overnight? no. the take away though is the first meeting that trump and putin have, they talk syria and come up with some kind of deal out of this. so this well choreographed but also suggesting the old era of the obama administration on a completely different page of moscow supporting to a less degree the syrian rebels against the syrian regime. the trump administration get to sit with the syrian regime's key

ally, moscow, and come up with some kind of deal in their first conversation. this potentially calms things down, but it also potentially heralds a change of policy in washington. >> thank you so much for your reporting. stay safe. that was nick paton walsh reporting from syria. at home, the health care debate in washington heating up with lawmakers returning monday. the latest in a possible compromise when we return. with fructis sleek & shine. hair is super sleek, for up to 3 days. no parabens. garnier fructis sleek & shine. super fruit. super hair. garnier. [ rock music playing ] have fun with your replaced windows. run away! [ grunts ] leave him! leave him! [ music continues ] brick and mortar, what?! [ music continues ] [ tires screech ] [ laughs ] [ doorbell rings ] when you bundle home and auto insurance with progressive,

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>> premiums are going up and copayments are going up and deductibles are going up. we have to solve the current crisis. i think repealing and delaying, replacements does not work. >> tonight i am told on this

congress to repeal, replace obamacare. [ applause ] >> cnn has learned the white house was caught off guard by mcconnell's comments come within less than a week. he tweeted if republican senators are unable to pass what they are working on now. they should immediately repeal and replace at a later date. that has gained no tractions everyone as the republican bill continues to spin its wheel. some senators in their home district for the 4th of july faced tough questions from constituents. >> i am still manila unless the bill is dramatically changed. >> limited as it may be, it is swirling around mcconnell's idea. >> senator mcconnell is correct that we need to make sure that the individual market is a stronger market than it is today. i believe what mcconnell says is the right path to take.

such a deal would be catastrophic for the republican party. republicans offering their own solutions how to end the impasse and unite the party and turning the turmoil into trial. >> we need to get the job done. we got to do it right. we got to do something that fixes the problem. washington republicans twist themselves into knotts over the healthcare reform riddle made for a wonderful congressional recess for democrats. it was less than independence day and more christmas in july. >> thank you very much. up next, we rewind to th the nineties and the decade of "friends" and "sopranos" and the

best of to have shows, we'll reveal it in just a moment. ♪ [vo] progress is seizing the moment. your summer moment awaits you now that the summer of audi sales event is here. audi will cover your first month's lease payment on select models during the summer of audi sales event.

we, the people, are tired of being surprised with extra monthly fees. we want hd. and every box and dvr. all included. because we don't like surprises. yeah. like changing up the celebrity at the end to someone more handsome. and talented. really. and british. switch from cable to directv. get 4 rooms with hd, dvr, and every box included for $25 a month. this sunday night on cnn, "the nineties." we are looking at how shows are aired in that decade.

>> everybody is watching them. there is still the communal sense from the early decade of tv, it is being applied to show that we have reached higher and further and they were great. >> because there were so many channels and so much story telling going on, you started to get more varieties of stories being told. >> get the cat scan and call the neuro surgery residence. >> i spotted all three. all right, joining us now is cnn's analyst, the author of "the war of late night" when television is going crazy. we are watching this clip of how the nineties was breaking ground television. the tonignineties was clearly something. >> i think it was the last time when there was really group watching. people watched television and

talked about it the next day because they did not watch episodes all at once, they could not record them. it was a time where cable was a big factor and was raising the level of performance. artistry was going up. you can make a case, john. that there is at least five or six of the best shows of all times. >> name them. >> "sop puritaranos," "simpsons "friends," "fraziers," and "sex in the ci and the city." >> when the "sopranos" came on everything changed. really significant television.

>> every night, my zprenfriendsi watched the "x-files." >> we are talking magic johnson, why did everyone try it? >> johnny carson was the guy and he was on, no one challenged him. he left in 1992 and it opened up the can for everybody else to jump in. you know letterman had this enormous battle which i wrote a book about. that made everybody paid close attention to late night and other competitors say now we can get in the game for a cable channel or get in the game for fox or abc and other networks tried to do it. >> ten seconds or less, what's the difference of the nineties than today? >> it is a little bit more traditional then. >> bill carter, thank you very much for being with us. the nineties start sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern and pacific. the special report, the most powerful man in the world followed the russia connection inside the attack on democracy. that's at 11:00. i am john berman, thanks so much

for joining us for 360. stick around. the following ace cnnis a cnn'sl report. >> winston churchill, famously in russia. it is a mystery. prime minister churchill meets vladimir putin. >> he's very much of a leader. he's been a leader far more than our president has been a leader. >> he does not have a soul. >> vladimir putin is a thug and a murder and a killer. >> he's the richest man in the world. hundreds of millions of dollars corrupted. >> what does he want from donald trump? >> putin is going to