next, regarding your relationship. how would you describe it today? what about the dinner tonight? is it going to be a dinner between friends? >> translator: well, regarding climate -- well, we have a number of disagreements, which are in particular due to the commitments taken by president trump vis-a-vis his -- during the presidential campaign. so did i. on the way of the importance, but we therefore talked about our disagreement, and we actually discussed the matter even before president trump reached a decision. next, it should not have an impact on the discussions we're having on all other topics. no, absolutely not. this is the reason why we share the same views and some major common goals on many other topics or all other topics which

we've been discussing today and we shall move forward together. next, of course, president trump will tell you about it, but he's made a number of commitments and we're going to be working together, and my willingness to continue to work with the united states and president trump on this very major topic. i understand it's important to save jobs. that being said, we shall leave the united states of america work on what is its road map and continue to talk about it. so today there's nothing new and precedented. otherwise we have have told you about it, but i believe there is a joint willingness to continue to talk about this, and try and find the best possible agreement. as far as i'm concerned, i'm very much, i remain extremely attached to the framework of the paris accord which has been a major international breakthrough and it is within that framework that i'm working on our

priorities including for the european union. lastly, as you know, i never very much want to comment who we are and -- what we are doing personally, but i can tell you that this evening at the eiffel tower, it will be a dinner between friends, because we are the representatives of two countries which have been allies forever, and because we've been able to build a strong relation, which is dear to me, because it matters a great deal for both our countries. it will, therefore, give me great pleasure to have dinner together with you tonight. >> i think that i can reiterate. we have a -- a very good relationship. a good friendship, and we look forward to dinner tonight at the eiffel tower. that will be something special. and, yeah. i mean, something could happen with respect to the paris accord. we'll see what happens.

but we will talk about that over the coming period of time. and if it happens, that will be wonderful, and if it doesn't, that will be okay, too. but we'll see what happens, but we did discuss many things today, including the seefire in syria. and we discussed the ukraine. we discussed a lot of different topics. we briefly hit on the paris accord. and we'll see what happens. okay? yes, ma'am? go ahead. >> mr. president, your fbi nominee said if someone in a campaign got an e-mail about russia like the one that your son don junior received they should alert the fbi, rather than accept that meeting. is he wrong? also, were you misled by your team in not knowing about this meeting? and, mr. president, thank you very much. you have heard president trump say that it may have been

russia. it may have been others who interfered with the u.s. election. is president trump taking a hard enough line on russia? as you see it? merci. >> well, start off by saying first of all -- i believe that we will have a great fbi director. i think he's doing really well, and we're very proud of that choice. i think i've done a great service to the country by choosing him. he will make us all proud and i think some day we'll see that, and hopefully some day soon. so we're very proud of him. as far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man. he took a meeting with a russian lawyer. not a government lawyer, but a russian lawyer. it was a short meeting. it was a meeting that went very, very quickly. very fast. two other people were in the room. they, i guess one of them left almost immediately and the other

one was not really focused on the meeting. i do think this. i think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. it's called opposition research, or even research into your opponent. i've had many people i have only been in politics for two years, but i've had many people call up, oh, gee, we have information on this factor or this person, or frankly, hillary. that's very standard in politics. politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it's very standard, where they have information and you take the information. in the case of don, he listened. i guess they talked about, as i see it, they talked about adoption and some things. adoption wasn't even a part of the campaign. but nothing happened from the meeting. zero happened from the meeting, and honestly, i think the press made a very big deal over something that really a lot of people would do. now, the lawyer that went to the meeting, i see that she was in the halls of congress also.

somebody said that her visa or her passport to come into the country was approved by attorney general lynch. now, maybe that's wrong. i just heard that a little while ago, but i was a little surprised to hear that. so she was there because of lynch. so, again, i have a son who's a great young man. he's a fine person. he took a meeting with a lawyer from russia. it lasted for a very short period and nothing came of the meeting. and i think it's a meeting that most people in politics probably would have taken. mr. president? >> translator: yes. to answer your question -- not to interfere in the domestic life. >> what a good answer that is. >> translator: and i do believe that both of us have direct relationship with russia.

president trump had more than two hours meeting with president putin during the g-20 and myself i had two very long meetings with president putin. the very first one in versailles and this relationship is very important. we have discrepancies with russia, but especially in the middle east it's necessary to work together, share information and disagreements and try to build solutions. so that's my relationship with russia, and we don't have obviously the same relationship as the one with the u.s., but that's a long-standing relationship with russia as well and i think it's important that both of us have direct discussion and contact with president putin. >> one of the great things that came out of that meeting, by the way, even though it's not part of that meeting was the fact we got a cease-fire that now has

lasted for, i guess, mr. president, almost five days. and while five days doesn't sound like a long period of time, in terms of a cease-fire in syria, that's a very long period of time. and that was a result of having communication with a country. so during that five-day period, a lot of lives have been saved. a lot of people were not killed. no shots have been fired. in a very, very dangerous part of the world and this is one of the most dangerous parts of sear ysear -- syria itself. by having dialogue we were able to have a cease-fire. it's going to go on for a while and frankly we're working on a second cease-fire in a very rough part of syria, and if we get that and a few more, all of a sudden you're going to have no bullets being fired in syria. and that would be a wonderful thing. mr. president? you have a question? >> translator: the question,

from bfm, a question to president macron. you went to llausanne and critid the president's poems witho 's naming him. france left its walls open. walls to protect its people. do you condemn the muslim ban and the building of a wall between the united states and mexico? regarding syria, as it was just mentioned by president trump. is france now ready to talk directly with bashar al assad in what was mentioned? >> you've mentioned a friend. we told you that paris is no longer paris. you were implying at the time that paris was not safe anymore. you also said that france and germany are infected by terrorism and, "it's their fault, because he let people

enter the territory." those are very strong words. would you repeat them today? and do you still believe that france is not able to fight terrorism on its own territory? thank you. >> you better let me answer that one first. that's a beauty. he's the one that asked the question. that wasn't even one of my picks. you know what? it's going to be just fine, because you have a great president. you have somebody that's going to run this country right. and i would be willing to bet, because i think this is one of great cities, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and you have a great leader now. you have a great president. you have a tough president. he's not going to be easy on people that are breaking the laws, and people that show this tremendous violence. so i really have a feeling that you're going to have a very, very peaceful and beautiful paris. and i'm coming back. you better do a good job, please. otherwise, you're going to make

me look very bad. >> translator: and you're always welcome. >> thank you. >> translator: regarding the first question. like i said, i believe that discussions that we've had today is the proper answer to terrorism. the right answer is cooperation between our services -- and -- never-ending fight against terrorists no matter where they are. this is what i was referring to. this is what we're working on actively together, so it needs respect. there is no difference. and no gap between the french and the american positions. when i have something to say, i say it clearly, and i do say who i'm aiming at, and when i -- refer to those who have been my opponents in the french political battle, i also mention the names. so let us not mix up everything,

and regarding the fight against terrorism, i think that the right approach is to have strengthened cooperation in the field of intelligence. it is also to be working together on all the cooperation where we are and i think the discussions we've reached will enable us to do more. next your question regarding bashar al assad which is an important one. let me put it simply -- indeed with, we now have a new approach of syria, because we want some results, and we want to be closely working together with our partners including the united states of america. we have one main goal, which is to eradicate terrorism. no matter who they are. we want to build an inclusive and sustainable political solution against that background i do not require assad's departure. this is no longer a prerequisite

for france to work on that, because i can only tell you that for seven years we did not have an embassy in demas and still we have a decision. and next a common red line with president trump. he intervened before i was elected, and i said it to president putin after my election, no use whatsoever of chemical weapons. any use will lead to reaction, an attack, a reaction regardings storage places, and next we also want humanitarian corridors. also we want to build sustainable political stability for syria. this is our road map. in order to stick to it we need diplomatic initiative beyond our military actions. this is what we've been agreed upon.

agreeing upon, because we want to take an initiative with the members of the security council and the members of countries involved in the process. of course, there will be representatives of assad that will enable us to put in place a road map for after the war, but there will also be representatives of these here in position and people with different backgrounds, and we will talk to all of them against that background. one last question. for an american journalist. >> thank you. tv of -- [ speaking in foreign language ]. >> translator: for both presidents. mr. macron, you had your first meeting with the chinese president during the g-20 summit. what will france do?

how will france cooperate with all of these areas with china? and what do you think personally about mr. xi jinping? >> during this g-20 summit? and what -- how do you want continue to work with trainer and what do you personally think about mr. xi jinping? >> he's a friend of mine. i have great respect for him. we've gotten to know each other very well. a great leader. he's a very talented man. i think he's a very good man. he loves china. i can tell you. he loves china. he wants to do what's right for chin china. we've asked him for some assistance with north korea. probably we do could a little more but we'll find out. we're now working on some trade deals. he's haven't very nice, as you

know, he's let beef go back in, certain financing, credit card financing and various other things go back in, at my request, which is a great thing for our farmers. so a lot of good things are happening, but we're going to be working on some very major tr e components. but president xi is a very good guy, i like being with him a lot and he's a very special person. okay? thank you. >> translator: first, to president, i got to meet him in the margin of the g-20 summit in hamburg. earlier, early next year i will be traveling to china. we've agreed to it. so i cannot say that he's a friend of mine or that i know him very well, because i very much want to say things as they are, but we had initial contacts extremely fruitful and positive. i have a lot of respect for president xi and i would like to say over the past few month he

did express a vision for multilateralism and wanted to commitment himself on a number of topics. i think that many of us remember, his words in davos and they are very strongly expressed, his vision of chine in. a number of joint commitments including on climate. he's very committed to that and told me he wanted to do more in the field. i can only be happy about it, and like president trump said, also the trade issues and regarding the number of activities. they are issues, differences but a joint willingness to sort them out and as members of -- permanent members of the security council we want to work together on all of the topics we've been discussing today and china, is a key partner in order to build peace all around the world and i share what president trump just said.

china is to play a very specific role regarding the rising tension, the growing tension in, with north korea. it's important that china can play neutral in the region. in summary i'm thinking today he's one of the great leaders of our world. implementing a major and ambitious reform of china, society and the economy in china and, therefore, my willingness, and respect as well is to have strategic dialogue. the purpose of which is to continue to talk about the industry of civil nuclear industry, economic matters and talk about any difficulties we may have together. >> translator: very well. allow me to thank you ladies and gentlemen, and once again, thank president trump for his visit, and i will be seeing him in a few moments in a friendly atmosphere. >> thank you very much. great honor. thank you. >> thank you.

>> thank you. all right. president trump and french president emmanuel macron at the elysees palace in paris, france. they talked about quite a bit. including the climate change accor accords, the paris accords, and their disagreement over that. they talked about syria and the fight against isis. they talked about ukraine. president trump, of course, was asked about the latest controversy in the russia probe. this one involving his oldest son donald trump jr. we bring back our panel. dana bash, gloria borger. senior political reporter nia-malika henderson and mike rogers. so much to dissect, but one thing i do want to note and i'll start with you, former chairman of the house intelligence committee rogers, president trump just now acting as if it's not a big deal to meet with an

adversarial country, russia, and what was billed as government officials, or a government lawyer from that country to get opposition research as a campaign opponent. that is not normal n. that is not the norm in campaigns in this country, and i understand his desire to protect his son, certainly, but just for anybody watching, that is not how opposition research is done in this country. >> i would hope not. number one. that should have been about a 15-second answer. showed support for his son and moved on to more important issues. that long and rambling answer is exactly the way donald trump gets himself in trouble. when you have a country that has an adversarial intelligence service targeting the united states of america, and they do here. they do abroad. they target our allies. they are one of the most aggressive intelligence services in the world. to say that, when the government of that country says they have information about someone who was, by the way, a former senior

government official. >> secretary of state. >> secretary of state. the first call is not even your counsel. it's to the fbi, saying, i don't -- i'm not sure what to do with this but i don't want to take the meeting, and we should never set the standard of anything short of that. i think he made a mistake. we shouldn't go in and try to figure out intent. that's what the investigators will do. but this is not something that is normal. it is not something that should be normal and it is not something that the campaign should adopt in the future, he didn't answer the question. the question was -- what do you say to your fbi director nominee? >> christopher ray. >> who said just yesterday what you just said. it is not okay and the first call should be to the fbi. and so he didn't answer the question, because he clearly was undermined by his, his fbi director nominee. and i think that we were talking about this as we were watching. and it's important that you said this to the viewers everywhere.

that -- >> sorry to interrupt. it looking at live pictures of presidents trump and macron, as president trump, i guess, is leaving the elysees palace. go ahead, dana. sorry. >> this is a very classic trump tactic. if you say things over and over again, you -- you believe that people will believe you, and the thing he has now said twice is that, is that he absolutely thinks that this is okay, and anybody would have taken the meeting. again, it is not correct. >> that's not correct. cnn white house correspondent sara murray joins me from paris. sara, tell us about who got to ask the president questions there, because there were, it's not necessarily who he normally calls on? >> reporter: that's right. i mean, president trump has made a habit on calling of news media sympathetic to this cause. the first question he called on another american television reporter from there and she asked a question.

the second question was a little surprise. he called on a chinese reporter, not on a, an american reporter in the sort of normal traveling press pool in order to ask a question about china. they seem to be taking a different tactic in how they deal with the media. obviously, that's no longer a surprise from this administration. the other thing we've seen, sometimes they let people know ahead of time if they were getting questioned. that was one clear bp the french were aware they would ask questions of president macron and unclear this chinese journalist knew he would be getting a question. certainly a surprise and a different format than we've seen in the two and two conferences. >> when you say a chinese journalist, do you know the outlet? >> reporter: well, we did not hear what the outlet was. they appear to be from a chinese television outlet. that's what we can see in the

row over but did not catch the call letters and we'll try to figure that out now. >> thank you so much. sara murray. >> i want to add on to what dana and mike were saying, because i also agree with you that the president went on too long about this, because in this response he also made the point that this russian lawyer, as he said, was not a government lawyer. >> although -- >> although in the e-mail it makes it very clear that, in fact, she was. >> uh-huh. >> and he also, you know -- i mean, he also deflected and said that this lawyer had walked the halls of congress and, of course, her visa was approved by none other than former attorney general loretta lynch, therefore putting her visa approval smack in the, back in the democratic side. and so -- >> we should say that's based on reporting in the hill that said that the justice department in the obama administration approved the visa --

>> we don't know how long that lasted for. >> just read the story. says nothing about loretta lynch specifically doing it. >> by way of saying if she was a russian agent, why would the democrats have approved her visa? >> ate of russi >> a lot of russian agents are here. >> to your point, mike, do you -- >> listen, you know, the russian intelligence services are very clever. what you want to do, if you were actually trying to figure out if there's something you can gain access to a campaign -- by the way, a notion they weren't trying to get access to someone in the clinton campaign, we ought to make sure we all understand. they would try to penetrate any, a senate run. they're going to be engaged in this activity. they're going to try to send someone. i found it interesting that they would say it was from the government, and a lot of times they call it a dangle in the intelligence business. i'll dangle out enough information so that if you take the meeting, i know i'm going to get a second meeting or third meeting, if you've taken that

first step. so that's, my guess, investigators are going to follow on, on what happened next? not that he took the meeting. he was fairly a neophyte in both national politics and certainly in the intelligence business. so what happened next? >> right. >> that's going to be a very key question to answer in the investigation. but, again, that's why when a foreign government says that they have information for you, that isn't related to some business arrangement you already have, then it's time to pick up the phone and call somebody who knows what they're doing. >> chairman rogers, let me ask you a few questions for people at home. mike rogers, former house intelligence committee and also former fbi official. so i understand that, the cutout idea. the idea if the russians are going to reach out to the trump campaign they're going to do it through this agalarov and his son. the successor organization, kgb stage craft and i understand the dangle, you just talked about.

but would it be normal to do one of these meetings and actually not provide anything? some that both the lawyer and natalia veselnitskaya said? >> depends. people in the meeting they didn't anticipate to be in the meeting may have thrown them off, but the most important part of that meeting would have been, if this were a russian operation if they weren't going to go directly into that meeting and try to do something there is to say, hey, we need a follow-up meeting on that information. who do we talk to? that's what i meant, the investigators will look at what happened next. did they say, we want to meet with other people that may have been in the meeting? that isn't even reported yet? we don't know. that's what you'd look for. or that follow-up e-mail, follow-up phone call, follow-up contact saying, that information can be delivered and by the way we want you to meet x, y or z. >> don junior made the point that never occurred. >> it may have never happened. may have made an assessment when

they went in. intelligence services look at it, hmm, maybe not the right way to do it, but we took a shot at it. again, as much information in that e-mail tells me they were looking for something subsequent to that. by the way, didn't have to be witting, either. it doesn't mean anyone who walked into that meeting was witting to work with the russian intelligence. i don't believe that at all. the russians prefer you're an unwitting access point and that happens a lot. >> easier to manipulate. >> much easier. always distance between them and the intelligence service and the information that they get gives them other leads in a way that doesn't compromise that individual and allows them to do their work. to me, when i looked at it, you look at e-mail chain, exactly how they did it. how they got this person that close, the cutouts used to get him there. boy, somebody was thinking through an operation. doesn't mean it was success or walking into a meeting thinking they were, would go with the russians. that's really important.

>> interesting in the idea of unwitting. this was, sally yates, justice department attorney, the holdover from the obama administration, who was concerned about mike flynn then the national security adviser concerned about him being compromisable. >> right, right. >> because of information that the russians knew that president trump and vice president pence did not know about the contents of his conversations with a russian ambassador to the u.s. -- >> right. her warning to the white house. that michael flynn could be susceptible to blackmail, susceptible to coercion. in this instance, the russians, particularly -- at least this lawyer, this russian government lawyer, knew that these conversations had happened, and also knew that the public's stance of his white house, the public stance of donald trump trump jr. was very different. in that sense, you imagine that, that could be an interpretation of that. that donald trump jr. could sbrn susceptible to blackmail and

sally yates warned of the white house about michael flynn. i want to talk about donald trump again in terms of how he is reframing this whole donald trump jr. thing. he's calling him a wonderful young man. he's not really that young. i think he's 39. the same age as macron is. and he's also, i think, changing donald trump jr.'s story. right? i mean, donald trump jr. said that he regretted this meeting nap hindsight is 20/20. essentially -- >> he would do it differently. >> and donald trump here is essentially, as you said before, normalizing this and saying that -- >> framing it the way he would do it. >> and also said that the woman was not a, not affiliated with the government. >> right. just a russian lawyer. he said. >> not how it was billed in the e-mail. >> yeah. >> can i take a step back and note that one of the things that i talked to people inside the white house that they were sort of taking it a sigh of relief about, was that a day after this whole thing broke he was getting on a plane and going to paris. that they could try to change

the narrative. narrative isn't really changed when he's, you know, still in paris. getting a question about this. and as you said, going on and on and on and giving a lot more fuel to the fire instead of doing a quick thing. there was a remarkable moment in that these two men, both very new on the stage, have a lot to work on, whether it's terrorism or economic issues or russia or china, you name it. they're looking to -- it looks like they're actually forming a relationship. >> yeah. >> and -- >> to be fair, we have to go to a different contributor. to be fair, if there was any big news about ukraine or isis or trade or any actual substance, we'd be talking about that right now, that's my point. >> it's a photo op really at this point. we'll come back in a saekd. jo second. professor of law at the university of texas school of law. thanks for joining us. your impressions? >> sure. yeah. i think you guys are hitting the

nail on the head here. the real interesting thing about that whole ex-containing was that president trump seemed to go out of his way to lay down a narrative why going forward this story shouldn't take on the legs it's already taken on and didn't answer the question put to him about whether he disagrees with his own nominee the fbi director, whose name he apparently didn't remember. so, you know, i think this is all exactly right. coming out of this press conference, if the president's goal was to change the narrative, or squelch some of the conversation about his son's meeting with a russian lawyer, i think he failed. >> hmm. very interesting. we're going to take a quick break, i'm told. coming up, the president defending his son's meeting with what had been billed a russian government attorney. turns out she was not, but president trump saying lots of people would have held that meeting and the scandal is overblown. i'm not sure if that's act krit. reaction from a member of the house intelligent committee next. stay with us.

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ready to of your back pain? new icyhot lidocaine patch. desensitizes aggravated nerves with the max strength lidocaine available. new icyhot lidocaine patch. welcome back. president donald trump standing in paris just moments ago saying that his son donald trump jr. did nothing wrong, defending his son's decision to take a meeting with a woman who had been billed

as a russian government lawyer possessing incriminating evidence on hillary clinton. going even further, the president did, alleging that most people in this country would have done the exact same thing. let's take a listen. >> my son is a wonderful young man. he took a meeting with a russian lawyer. not a government lawyer, but a russian lawyer. it was a short meeting. it was a meeting that went very, very quickly. very fast. two other people were in the room. they, i guess one of them left almost immediately and the other one was not really focused on the meeting. i do think this. i think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. it's called opposition research, or even research into your opponent. i've had many people -- i have only been in politics for two years, but i've had many people call up, oh, gee, we have information on this factor or this person, or, frankly,

hillary. that's very standard in politics. politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it's very standard where they have information and you take the information. in the case of don, he listened. i guess they talked about, as i see it, they talked about adoption and some things. adoption wasn't even a part of the campaign. but nothing happened from the meeting. zero happened from the meeting, and honestly, i think the press made a very big deal over something that really a lot of people would do. now, the lawyer that went to the meeting, i see that she was in the halls of congress also. somebody said that her visa or her passport to come into the country was approved by attorney general lynch. maybe that's wrong. i just heard that a lot while ago but was a little surprised to hear that. she was here because of lynch. so, again, i have a son who's a great, young man. he's a fine person. he took a meeting with a lawyer

from russia. it lasted for a very short period and nothing came of the meeting. and i think it's a meeting that most people in politics probably would have taken. >> that was president trump moments ago in france. democratic congresswoman jackie spear of california joins me, serves on the house intelligence committee currently investigating russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and any possible collusion. congresswoman, what do you make of the president's answer there? >> well, his answer is woefully inadequate. even some of this fiercest supporters and defenders on that other tv station aren't defending him any longer. first of all, we've got to remember that it was his son who said there was no meeting. in fact, many people in the white house, eight times, denied there ever was a meeting. and then when it was going to become clear that the meeting is going to be divulged, that the e-mail train is going to be divulged, then, of course, there was a willingness to come

forward. there is no candidate running for public office in this country that is going to take a meeting with a foreign national to provide dirt on their opponent. it is -- it would be a violation of the federal elections commission. it would be a, an item of value that is given to the campaign by a foreign national which is against the law. so you know, this mea culpa, i'm new to politics doesn't work. ignorance is not a defense under the law. >> i'm not sure. legal analysts have said they're not sewer the s.e.c. would ever enforce something. let's move on. policy issues talked about the briefing, although obviously the biggest news was the president speaking so, so much at length about his song, but there was a comment about climate change.

it's a big issue where president macron and president trump disagr disagree, and president trump obviously famously depending on your point of view withdrew from the paris climate change agreement. take a listen to president trump being asked if there was any way that he and president macron could come together on that issue? >> yeah, i mean, something could happen with respect to the paris accord. we'll see what happens. but we will talk about that over the coming period of time. and if it happens that will be wonderful, and if it doesn't, that will be okay, too. but we'll see what happens. >> your response? >> well, i'm delighted that there is an openness to reinstating our position on the paris accord. i mean, it really speaks to his inability to understand these issues and speak in sound bites. the corporations in america are

embracing the paris accord. we have states that are embracing the paris accord. so it is -- we look like we are an outlier and all of a sudden we're being referred to as the g-19 plus 1. we can't afford it as a world power to become sidelined. >> cnn also is reporting, back to the russia probe, the senate judiciary committee will ask donald trump jr. to testify. obviously you're not a member of the senate judiciary committee but what would you want to be asked of the president's son? >> i would want to know about this telephone conversation that may have taken place between the first e-mail and the second e-mail, in which he had a conversation with the pop star from russia. i would like to know whether or not they had any other contacts through third parties with russian connections. you know, the other concerning element, which may be the most explosive, is this new information that jared kushner

had a database that may have been shared with russian operatives to go in certain districts around the country, provide fake news to try and turn the tide in terms of the polling. so there is so much more that we have to investigate, but certainly i believe that donald trump jr. will be asked. i'm certainly going to ask he come before the house intelligence committee as well. >> jared kushner and the trump campaign and brad pascual, who ran the data operation, very proud of their data operation and there was a story in "mcclatchy" saying the house and senate committees are looking into whether there was any data that was shared in any way with anyone that could have gotten to any outside operative. are you saying that the house intelligence committee has found that information and that the information was shared? >> no. i'm actually saying that i've

read the same article that you have and the extent to which its true would be very explosive. >> right. but nothing has been proven yet? >> nothing yet, no. >> let me ask you also about the discussions that president trump and president macron had when it came to what should happen next in syria and in iraq, given what is being billed as an eventuality that isis will be as defeated at at least as much as isis can be defeated. as much as you can defeat an idea. what do you think should happen? what is the goal in syria after isis is defeated, should that happen? >> well, you know, isis is one terrorist group. there will be -- it's like a hybrid. they'll be another head that will pop up. we have to are very vigilant in the middle east. a think that certainly the russians, vladimir putin is not going to want to see the syrian leader in a position where he's going to be removed. there's got to be some

accommodation. maybe dividing up syria differently. it was somewhat random when it was done originally. so we could see a division of areas that would give essential peace and maybe less warfare that's been going on so far. >> do you think the kurds should be given their own territory? >> i would be open to that, to tell you the truth. >> all right. congresswoman jackie speier, thank you so much. really appreciate it. we're going to take a very quick break. when we come back we're going to talk more about president trump and president macron, what they talked about what they did not talk about. stay with us. eans again? that's cool. feeling good in slim fit? that's cool. looking fabulous in my little black dress? that's cool. getting the body you want without surgery, needles, or downtime? that's coolsculpting. coolsculpting is the only fda-cleared non-invasive treatment that targets and freezes away stubborn fat cells. visit coolsculpting.com today and register for a chance to

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welcome back. we're continuing with our coverage of president trump's trip to france. my panel is back with me. gloria and mike rogers. just joining us is margaret, as well as our political commentator, who was a senior adviser of the donald trump presidential campaign. steve also chairs the global institute at long island university. and chairman rogers, i want to go with you for a second because there was a discussion of terrorism in this briefing. obviously france and the united states share ago lot of counterterrorism efforts. take a listen. >> we also face grave threats from terrorist organizations that wage war on innocent lives. tomorrow will mark one year since a joyous bastille day celebration in nice turned into a massacre. we all remember that, how horrible that was. we mourn the 86 lives that were

stolen, and we pray for their loved ones. we also renew our resolve to stand united against these enemies of humanity. >> what can be done more than the way france and the united states are already cooperating? because my impression is that it's pretty close cooperation. >> it is. it can get better. they talked about -- i didn't see it in this clip, but this is really important. what we saw with all the pressure with isis and al qaeda and other offshoot groups, they were moving operations into northern africa to try to set up a place for what's next and so the french have been very aggressive in places like mali, chad, and other places of which we can help them but because of our strained resources, we need countries like france to do it so i think this is a very important conversation for them to have and it's good for a united front on where they're going to and where they, meaning the terrorist groups, isis and others, are going to end up.

because they will move. we saw that with al qaeda. we're seeing it with isis. including, by the way, places in iraq, places in afghanistan, and of course africa is ripe for them, and so this conversation, i can't tell you, it makes me feel better that they're having that conversation, and it was interesting to me that they brought general mcmaster, who's their national security adviser, wouldn't normally come on a trip like this but it tells me that they are having senior, high-level conversations about better cooperation, and it's not better as it was bad getting better. it means can it be more robust, is there more that we can do, and i think by seeing that, in the combination with the president's comments, i'm going to, you know, wager a good amount of money that what comes next is a more robust plan of french operations against isis and al qaeda as well as their help through intelligence and other means in syria. >> there was another issue that was brought up, interestingly, president trump called on a reporter with, i think, a hong kong based chinese television

station. was asked about chinese president xi. kind of an interesting day to ask that question, given the fact that a chinese dissident who had won the nobel peace prize, liu xiobao died in custody. he was in the hospital, but it is caused a lot of human rights organizations and senators to issue blistering comments about president xi of china, but this is what president trump had to say. >> well, he's a friend of mine. i have great respect for him. we've gotten to know each other very well. a great leader. he's a very talented man. i think he's a very good man. he loves china. i can tell you. he loves china. he wants to do what's right for china. we've asked him for some assistance with respect to north korea. probably he could do a little bit more, but we'll find out.

we're now working on some trade deals. he's been very nice. he's let, as you know, beef go back in, certain financing go back in, credit card financing and various other things go back in at my request, which is a great thing for our farmers, so a lot of good things are happening but we're going to be working on some very major trade components, but president xi is a terrific guy. i like being with him a lot. and he's a very special person. >> let me bring in david urban, who worked on the trump campaign and also steve israel, former democratic congressman. david, lot of republican senators today criticizing president xi. was this a missed opportunity for president trump to say something about human rights, given the death of the nobel peace prize laureate and chinese dissident who died in custody today. >> jake, so, i don't know if it was a missed opportunity. i do know that the -- that the

president trump and his staff have been working on what the next steps are with north korea. i'm not quite sure of why the question was asked or how the question was posed or what the ultimate objective was there, but i don't know, you don't know, and the members of the hill don't know what's going on behind the scenes with north korea, with the chinese. we're about to come out with, i think, some pretty strong sanctions against the chinese on steel and other things and this may have been an effort to kind of settle some rough seas that are coming ahead. >> let me raeead mccain stateme. this death represents an egregious of the human rights that he fought for. this is only the latest example of communist china's assault on human rights, democracy, and freedom. that's from republican senator john mccain. congressman israel, to be fair, to play devil's advocate here as david just represented, there's a lot going on behind the scenes

that might be more important than making a statement about human rights. do you buy that argument? >> no, you know what? i get it. i understand it. you know, look, a few weeks ago, there was a moment with president macron when vladimir putin stood next to the president and president macron took him on, on human rights violations in russia. there could have been that moment where president trump today took on president xi on human rights and he didn't do it. but i think, quite honestly, that's more importantly for us to focus on the overall issues here. you just saw a press conference with two polar opposites who have one common political need. president trump's political need wasn't to talk about human rights in china, quite honestly. it was to demonstrate that he could engage a world leader and have a successful trip that demonstrates converging interests, as mike rogers talked abo about, my former colleague, on counterterrorism, on isis, isil, syria, et cetera, and president

macron's interest was to continue to assert himself on the world stage. this is a fascinating guy, jake. this is a guy who loves a vacuum. he saw a vacuum in france's domestic politics and filled it. he sees a vacuum now on the world stage. president trump can't go to london. tensions with germany. he is becoming an interhellocat. i spoke a french official who said we want to do this meeting because we want to establish the roots between our two countries and tell president trump france and europe needs a multilateral united states and i think president macron achieved that objective. >> all right, margaret, let me bring you in because i do want to ask you what you think about president trump talking about something could happen with respect to the paris accord. we'll see what happens. do you really think that something might happen? >> i think when talking about climate change is the safety valve against talking about the other stuff, it tells you a lot about what's on the president's mind. but the french president's response was even more interesting. he said, those are the

president's campaign considerations. i'm going to keep working, step by step, basically with the rest of the world, to move this along. that's what stood out to me. >> but do you think -- so you do or do not think anything's actually going to change, necessarily. >> if it does or doesn't, what macron is saying is it's irrelevant. if president trump feels like the business community is coming over, he may see steps that i haven't seen him take yet but what the french leader is saying is, it doesn't matter. >> that's it for me. the news continues right after this quick break. this quick break. stay with us. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

hello, this is cnn special live coverage of the president's trip to paris as donald trump's son, donald junior, may be about to testify publicly about his meeting with the russian lawyer. president trump standing alongside french president emmanuel macron, getting grilled right out of the gate on the fire storm surrounding his son's meeting. >> my son is a wonderful young