get internet on our gig-speed network and add voice and tv for $34.90 more per month. call or go on line today. welcome to "inside politics". i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. the president says his summit with vladimir putin was a huge success. russia says important agreements were made. one giants problem. no one at the state department or the pentagon can explain what the kremlin is talking about. plus 18 months on the job and the president finally says he holds putin responsible for the 2016 election attacks. but he won't call putin a liar and there's new bipartisan outrage as the president entertains a kremlin request to interview americans who are putin critics. democrats say it's not just the

president turning a blind eye to russian meddling, a house spending bill vote later today does not extend funding to help states with election security. >> we have sworn an oath to defend our constitution and our -- >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> -- against all enemies foreign and domestic. >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> you have the opportunity to do that today. >> the russia debate across the capital but we begin with the president who now says he wants another, a second meeting, a second summit with vladimir putin. his morning tweets mention agreements reached and a second meeting. the pentagon says it's awaiting guidance from the white house. state department offers no specifics. the russians say arms control and syria are among the areas where the two presidents had

some common ground but, again, nothing direct from the administration. all we have is the president's tweets. if you're confused about russia policy you have plenty of company. even in the trump cabinet. this just minutes ago from the homeland security secretary, she's in aspen. >> i don't think there's any question in the intel community or dhs that russians attempted to infiltrate and interfere with your system. >> is russia still targeting the united states? >> i think it would be foolish to think they are not. >> so, if you listen there, secretary kirstjen nielsen says the threat is very real and current and so does the fbi director. >> i can tell you what my view is. the intelligence community's assessment has not changed. my view has not changed, which is that russia attempted to

interfere with the last election and that it continues to engage and influence operations to this day. >> to this day. their boss even in the middle of his helsinki clean up mission uses words like "if" and "maybe" even though the director of national intelligence told him there's zero doubt. >> is putin lying to you? >> i don't want to get into whether he's lying. i do have confidence in our intelligence agencies as currently constituted. i think that dan coates is excellent. i think that gina is excellents. >> coats says the threat is ongoing. >> he's an expert. he's been doing a very good job. i have tremendous faith in dan coats and if he says that i would accept that. i will tell you, those it better not be. >> if he says that i would accept that. he has said that. we go live to the white house.

katelyn, you have sort of whose on first, whose in charge question when you listen to the very different tone, very different specificity, very different directness. the president says if dan coats tells me that, the fbi director dan coats, secretary of homeland security says yes it's happening, it's real, we need to do something about it. >> a very different tone, indeed. we're seeing as the days go by the disconnect getting larger and larger between the president and his own administration. you heard from the president's hand-picked fbi director chris wray, they have his view but there's no doubt russia meddled in the election. you hear from the dhs chief she says she believes russia meddled in the election. she wouldn't agree they interfered to help president trump and hurt hillary clinton, but she did say yes russia will continue to target the u.s.. there's no doubt in her mind that they are going to continue to do that. the president would not say that

yesterday when he was asked during that meeting in the cabinet room, do you believe that russia is still targeting the united states. he said no twice to that reporter's question, john, but then the white house came out two hours later and said no, he was saying no to no more questions even though he continued to answer more questions during that session there in the cabinet room. what's clear here is the president's officials are unwavering in their belief that, yes, russia did meddle in the election. the president is now saying that yes he accepts the intelligence community's assessment that they meddled in the election but his statements have been inconsistent at best and though he's now talking tough on vladimir putin in that cbs interview, declined to do as much when he was standing right next to him there in helsinki on the world stage for everyone to see. john, in the president's mind he doesn't see what all the fuss is all about. >> we try clear up the difference in tone if not in

substance. here with me rachel with politico, jeff zeleny, and the "daily beast". let's go back to the one yesterday. inside the cabinet room, when the president was asked this question, first let's just play it and we watch these events all the time. the president is asked the question is russia still targeting the united states? >> is russia still targeting the u.s., mr. president? >> thank you very much. no. >> let's go. we're finished here. >> now, the white house says he was saying no more questions. he said no. then after that he went on to answer another question. if he was done talking he could have stopped. >> the white house said he was saying no to more questions about three hours later after an alert went out on every major newspaper. we were broadcasting it. every other network was broadcasting it. the white house came up with the answer no he was not doing it

during the briefing. if this was the first time you may give the president the benefit of the doubt. i've been in those rooms many times and he locked eyes with vega and said no. so that to me, i've seen -- i've had him do that to me several times. there were aides shouting in there as they often do because they want to get the reporters out. they don't want the president to step in it or answer any questions at all. but it was, you know, you could see sarah huckabee sanders when she was trying to clean this up, it was a tortured explanation. it just was. >> our reporter was the print reporter, the "daily beast" was and he saw the exchange. yes there was crosstalk when it was very clear the president was answering vegas' question. it's almost, you could see it took them what 36 thundershowers clean up contractiongate and now this. both of those explanations

really don't make a whole lot of sense. >> you have a white house staff and a white house cabinet, presidential cabinet constantly cleaning up what the president of the united states says or flat out disagreeing with what the president of the united states says. look we'll have this russia policy despite what the president says. let's continue this with the cbs interview in which the president for the first time in 18 months, he's been on the job for 18 months. here it is for first time. yes, russia meddled and, yes, i hold russia's president responsible. >> you say you agree with u.s. intelligence that russia meddled in the election in 2016. >> i've said that before, jeff. i've said that numerous times before. and i would say that that is true. >> you haven't condemned putin specifically. do you hold him personally responsible? >> well, i would, because he's in charge of the country. just like i consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country. so, certainly as the leader of a country you would have to hold

him responsible. yes. i let him know we can have this. we're not going to have it. and that's the way it's going to be. >> he hasn't said it numerous times before. he has said, maybe, maybe it was china, maybe somebody else, maybe all of the above. why wouldn't he have said that. the issue is, thank you, after 18 months of saying what everybody who has looked at the intelligence says is clear without a doubt not just about russia but putin, but if you look at the president's statements for 18 months and the president's statements standing as far away as i am from you with putin he wouldn't say it then when it mattered. >> that's why republicans on the hill don't believe him. there's a feeling just from talking to republicans in the senate and the house that this was a cleanup effort and he's trying to walk it back but they don't believe it. they believe it was half hearted and waiting for him to walk back the walk back which we've seen him do.

that's why republicans are seeing themselves in a different lane from the white house right now when it comes to russia. they sort of believe that they are going to have to do something to sends a signal to moscow and putin, that they better not meddle in the 2018 election even though a lot think russia will try to do this and that's why we might, perhaps, see congress pass some sort of preemptive sanctions that if they do meddle congress will act even if the president doesn't. >> what does it tell bus the president? we're watching for 18 months. i want you to listen to james clapper, director of national intelligence from the obama administration, there during the transition, confirming a very detailed "new york times" story today that yes not only was the president briefed but shown the physical evidence, texts, emails, other intercepted communications, other spy context from good source that this went up through the russia military all the way up to the kremlin, all the way up to vladimir putin, they interfered. they attacked american democracy. james clapper said even then

when shown all the evidence the president didn't want to believe it. >> but i do think there was skepticism from the get go, from that day to this day that indicated that anything that attacked the legitimacy or questioned the legitimacy of president trump's election he couldn't get his head around. >> took us 18 months for him to say putin was involved. even there putin was involved because he is the leader of russia in a statement i'm leader of america. it's not really any kind of claim of real spotlight by putin. the intelligence is much different and much more specific. actually putin was highly involved, knew about it, condoned it, promoted it. trump is really not, you know, not making the argument the rest of us see. at this point the question is not just what is our russia policy, what is the u.s. government's russia policy that

christopher wray and dan coats' or donald trump's. i don't know which one it is. >> can you imagine if every day you have to stan up i know my boss said this but i'm going to do that. he's the president of the united states. and he has his own national security team saying yeah that's his opinion but we do this. it's striking. every time they try to clean up a mess it seems they create a new one. this is sarah huckabee sanders in the briefing room. the president called this interesting or used positive term idea from vladimir putin. maybe he'll give us access to people robert mueller wants to interview if we give kremlin access to interview americans including a former ambassador to moscow who are known putin critics. it's reprehensible. the state department was quick to laugh it off. sarah huckabee sanders says we're thinking about it. >> does president trump support that idea? is he opened to that? >> the president will meet with

his team and we'll let you know when we have an announcement on that. there was some conversation about it but there wasn't a commitment made on behalf of the united states and the president will work with his team and we'll let you know if there's an announcement on that front. >> bipartisan outrage on capitol hill to this idea. the state department literally laughed it off. said it's absurd. at a briefing just a few moments before the white house briefing called it absurd. >> i'm not sure in that moment that sarah huckabee sanders actually knew what the question was. so we asked her later after the briefing, you know, is that what you meant to say and did not hear back? so her answer stands. >> because she's been out there on the limb before and the president shoved it off. >> there's a sense in the white house they don't have a full grasp of historic things. the president in his cbs interview, he said i would accept that. he's yet to say as president of the united states, yes, russia

is still meddling in the election and, you know, making a declarative point of that. he's never been able to accept victory and move on and be strong on russia. you talk to his friends and supporters they say that's where his main hurdle is on all of this. >> that's the polite veerrsion. consider the moment moment from one of the president's own appointee, the fbi director how he gets through the day. >> it's common for me to meet somebody and have them introduce themselves and then say i want you to know we're all praying for you. i say thank you. my third reaction, i haven't seen tv in the last two hours,

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welcome back. fascinating week for the trump administration. you might call it playing constant catchup and cleanup for a president who can't stay on the same page, sometimes even himself. let's review a week in presidential clarifications. dan coats came to me and some others they said they think it's russia, i have president putin, he just said it's not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be. i said the word "would" instead of "wouldn't." the sentence should be i don't

see any reason why it would. i accept that russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place. for other people also. >> you say you agree with u.s. intelligence that russia meddled in the election in 2016. >> i let him know we can't have this. we're not going to have it. and that's the way it's going to be. >> but he denies it. if you believe u.s. intelligence agencies is putin lying to you? >> i don't want to get into whether or not he's lying. i can only say i do have confidence in our intelligence agencies as currently constituted. >> as currently constituted at the end of that presidential pendulum, call it what you willful, i trust dan coats. he didn't trust dan coats when he was standing next to putin. christopher wray is the trump appointee to replace james comey at the fbi. the president can, if you want

and if you're a trump voter, maybe i under this, question jim clapper and john brennan, the obama guys. again we're hitting the 18 month mark of the trump presidency. his team has been in place for 14, 15rks in some cases 16 of those months. >> as of monday. >> they were there monday. and, again, he's said this yesterday he was as sotough as he's been in the cbs interview. we go back and look at his tweets and speeches he's been soft. >> he has. the reality here is that he walked into the meeting unprepared. no question. there's now a big debate inside the west wing with john bolton. he's a relatively new figure. he's a hard-liner on russia in every respect. so he and others tried to brief fortunate and tried to get him in the right direction. it's clear the president doesn't want to go in that direction. this constant cleanup, it's just -- you know, we should keep

in mind the majority of republicans, polls say they support and believe the president on that. we don't know the electoral consequences of this. we do know this is having a global consequence. i was having with him on helsinki. we're not even talking about the march up to that, what happened with angela merkel, what happened with theresa may. we've seen a major, major shift in u.s. policy, the america first policy, et cetera, and this is just the cherry on top of all of that. in context of that, never mind u.s. politics, think about it in global politics and u.s.' standing in the world. so much has happened in the last ten days. it's remarkable. where do we stand? our allies do not know. >> the allies don't believe him or trust him. a lot of republicans aren't sure what to make of him. here's the interesting part of this too. again, there's a way these things normally play out.

sometimes both sides, the two sides may have somewhat different opinions on what happened in the room but both sides give their details of what they say happened in the room. does the president's own team knows what happened in the room one-on-one with vladimir putin. listen to putin. he says we made progress, we made deals. >> translator: i think we've begun moving towards positive changes. it's important that a full fledge meeting follows to talk directly and it was successful and led to the useful agreement. >> the russians say it's nuclear arms control. russians say it's syria. united states government says we'll get back to you. we don't know. >> this is an incredibly important question. the president is not a king. we have a cabinet that advices him on foreign policy. we have a congress. we don't have two hour meetings with agreements we don't know anything about. the interpret eer typifying is

odd. we need some sense -- he's reading out things -- i don't believe he confronted putin the way he said in that interview. i want to know what was discussed in that meeting. >> this isn't the first time he's done this. let's not forget for months we were relying on foreign government read outs of conversations between the president and foreign leaders because either they were calling the president's cell phone, or the white house wasn't putting them out. so, putting, you know, the country at the mercy of foreign reports, that in and of itself -- the whole debate over the translator this another white house manufactured problem. if john bolton was in that room, if secretary pompeo had been in that room we wouldn't be having that conversation. secretary pompeo will be on the hill next week. good luck. a heck of a hearing. >> as we go to break i'll read

this from susan collins from maine. you mean there's a walk back of the walk back of the walk back of the walk back. this is dizzying. nothing you can disagree with there. when we come back one republican senator who has been a friend of trump, ask him today, he's not so sure. is as easy as dates, deals, done! simply enter your destination and dates... and see all the hotels for your stay! tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to show you the lowest prices... so you can get the best deal on the right hotel for you. dates, deals, done! tripadvisor. visit tripadvisor.com

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question might be this. will the real lindsey graham please sands up. the south carolina senator a textbook case of a tortured republican trying to navigate the trump takeover of the gop. you don't have to go back too far to find graham calling candidates trump a clown. not a real republican. nowhere ready to be president. even after trump won graham was an early critic or at least a voice of caution raising questions about trump foreign policy and insisting the president back off and let robert mueller do his job. then the south carolina senator's words turned positive. a big evolution. tested again in the past 72 hours or so. he criticized the president's summer performance. then thanked him for being more critical of vladimir putin post-helsinki helsin post-helsinki. then said never mind the white house staff had assured him it was all a misunderstanding.

this morning, senator graham back in the disappointed column. >> i think when it comes to russia it's been a bad week and i think it's imperative that he understand that he's misjudging putin. i don't think he was prepared as well as he should have been. i don't mind him dealing with russia. i just want to deal with russia from a position of strength. this was a missed opportunity. we reinforced narrative that's bad for us as a nation. it came across weak. >> hill republicans have, obviously, figured out since trump was inaugurated that a carrot works better with the president than a stick. when you attack the president he attacks back. he hunkers down and won't listen to anything you say. you might as well try to make friends with him and become influential that way. that's use see graham sort of trying to figure out how to do this to push back on the president but also to get the president to listen to him and

then reward him with applause when he changes his tune. another thing, this pollock we just saw this morning, 68% of republicans said trump's russia press conference was a success, they approved of it while 21% of republicans did not approve, so republicans are looking at these numbers and even though they are concerned about the president, the president's position on russia they are not going to attack him personally, they will do it in a way where they don't alienate the president. >> lindsey graham used to hang out with john mccain. they weren't afraid to speak their mind. let's do a then and now with lind jay graham and donald trump. >> i don't believe donald trump is a reliable conservative republican. good luck with paul ryan trying to find a conservative agenda with this guy. i don't think he has the judgment to be commander-in-chief. >> donald trump convinced analytic and china he's serious

about bringing about change. if this happens, donald trump deserves the nobel peace prize. >> he argucskiesed george h. w. bush of lying to the people about the iraq war. the president believes the russians stolen males from the dnc. you know how to make america great again? tell donald trump to go to hell. the trump movement is real. i'm trying to work with him to harmonize the party. he'll be our nominee. i'm confident of that. i'll support him. >> try to pick on senator graham but he's a particularly -- because he the likes media and out there all the time, he's a particularly there you go example of trying to navigate this. >> pretty good case study. you have to wonder what does this all get these republicans in the end. not necessarily going to save lindsey from a primary fight. in the short term if you're on

the ballot this year you know you have to be with the president and his base. president trump is the leader of the republican party something we never thought we would see. he's controlling it. his base believes what he said. that's why the cbs pollock 68% republicans believe because the president told them that it was a good p.m. once these things seep through more we'll see if this is a different moment. >> here's one piece of evidence that the republicans are nervous about the moment. at 1:45 this afternoon, the senate will vote on a resolution related to putin's proposal that trump should allow him to interview mike mcfaul, bill browder. putin critics who are on american soil, the president doesn't have the legal authority. the fact the senate will vote on a resolution that essentially says go away, no way to vladimir putin, tells you the leadership will allow it.

the democrats have been clamoring for it. they want to get on the record saying we don't want any part of this. >> the real test in real-time is the mid-term elections to be honest. right now trump is sort of operating in a world without consequences. there hasn't been any instant karma to what he says and does. now, should republicans lose the house, should the republicans lose the senate, will he blame someone else? sure he will. internally there will be more soul searching than say a resolution, something that's nonbinding. >> again what is trump policy, tax cuts, bret kavanaugh. president trump has moved towards them. he is a more official republican on most issues minus russia and trade. >> but trade is a big deal. in some states that's going to negate the tax cuts because of the jobs that are lost. >> that's why the tension is

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topping our political radar today the latest installment of will he or won't he. president trump's attorney rudy giuliani saying the president might come around to the idea he should resist sitting down for a wide ranging interview with special counsel robert mueller. the president said he would like

to sit down with mueller but his lawyers long pushed back against that plan. the legal team has been in discussions for months about the scope of a potential interview. house democrats rolling out a new three word slogan. quote, for the people. to help convince voters democrats are fighting for them as they cast president trump and republicans catering to special interests. daily call among those pointing out for the people is the slogan for a leading personal injury law firm and for a well-known texas car dealership. president trump in that cbs interview sounding confident about his chances of winning re-election in 2020, especially the president says if former vice president joe biden emerges as the democratic nominee. >> who do you think your democratic opponent will be. joe biden says -- >> i dream about biden. joe biden ran three times. never got more than 1% and president obama took him out of

the garbage heap and everybody was shocked that de. i would love to have it be biden. i think i would like to have any one of those people that we're talking about, you know, there's probably the group of seven or eight right now. i really would like to run against any one of them. >> no response yet from the information vice president. by the way 838 days. >> one thing -- >> you're counting them. >> the president is thinking about it. president trump did not answer, say no, no i have work to do. so he's already deeply under way. one of the reasons he has all these campaign rallies. he hears all this, sort of re-election chatter. he cannot wait for that. >> though, i remember when we thought biden was a gaffe machine. i don't know if his off the cuff comments would have the same impact as they did in the past. the other thing about joe biden is he really does talk to a lot of the same people that trump

does. the democrats that didn't love hillary clinton. they were defending joe biden. i'm not saying it's going to happen, but i don't know if it would be a complete -- >> he only ran twice. but did lose both times. >> thank you for that very important -- the right number, same results. all right. praise for the president or run from him. how female republican candidates are running in the trump era. (vo) this is not a video game. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪

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republican side. listen to this from the retiring florida congresswoman. the base is with donald trump and he can do no wrong she told politico. he'll be hanging on you like an albatross around your neck. ugh! it is a well knot for female candidates. let's look at the numbers. first a recent fox news pollock, overall the president, the public split 51% disapprove, 46% approve of the president's job performance. what we've seen consistently is this gender gap. men approve, women by a bigger margin disapprove of the president's job performance. then you come to the question of what about the 2018 mid-terms. who do you vote for. 48% for democrats. 40%, you see the split. again you see the big gender gap. men evenly divided. who should control congress, women lopsided in favor of the democrats.

so what if you're a republican woman running in a competitive area. you heard from the florida congresswoman. a republican from alabama harshly critical of donald trump after the "access hollywood" tape. that you feel that the president supported her in a republican runoff. >> this disgusting behavior, this boasting and grabbing women's private parts was enough for me. i can't justify a vote for a man that promotes and boasts about sexually assaulting women. >> president trump's endorsement was helpful and i appreciate the vice president willing toe engaging this race. we have a shared conservative agenda that we're working together to get these policies across the finish line.

>> rachel you write about this in politico. about how difficult it is for many republican women but some who don't really want to talk about it as a gender issue. by the way, happy >> three things, i would say. first reason it's difficult for female republicans, one is trump. as you talked about, if you come out and you blast him, like martha did in that clip, she had to do a total 180 because she was about to lose her seat. there were a lot of republicans in her district who were going to punish her for calling out the president for the "access hollywood" video. but if you're not strong enough on the president when it comes to women's issues, you repel those independent female voters, which is a key block they need to keep the house. the second thing, i heard a lot of women talk about that the movement was becoming too political and what they had done for women was sort of discounted, they felt, because

they were republican women with a more conservative mind. the last thing has nothing to do with trump. there's a small sliver, and i will say small, some men in the republican party who would rather vote for a male democrat than a female republican. and i talked to some republican women who were concerned about that. christy nome is running to be governor in south dakota. she said she's having a real struggle with this, with men in her district who were okay to elect her to congress but not okay with her being the governor. so that's a challenge. >> that's interesting. you also quote diane black, who's trying to leave the house to run for governor as well. she says, i've never run as a female candidate. i think for me, i've always felt it was best to run as a good candidate, to let me credentials speak instead of anything about my gender. great, that's the way voters should look at it to begin with. she's running statewide though. that's a different calculation. >> that's a much -- that actually is a much more -- i feel like the traditional

republican woman answer. the gender politics, the identity politics. i've had similar conversations with marsha blackburn over and over again who's running for senate. so that i feel like is much more old school than we're seeing the trend to sort of embrace the gender and say i do view certain things as a woman. that's a much newer strain, i feel like, of republican female candidates. >> one thing we don't know, this is in the era of #metoo. this is the first real election after all this. how will that affect it? i'm not sure we know the answer. >> i was going to say, marsha blackburn goes by congressman, not congresswoman. >> interesting. >> this issue is pre-trump in some ways. about a third of the members of congress who are democrats are female. about one-tenth on the gop side. this is not just a trump issue. this has been a problem for republican women way before.

republicaning don republicans don't really believe in identity politics. so i think there's a huge gap because of the way the republicans view identity politics, as jackie was getting at. >> let's see if there's a dent, shall we say, in that ceiling in 2018. very important point. up next, the republican national committee huddling in austin today. one big decision on their plate, where should the 2020 renominating convention be? right back. let's begin.

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welcome back. two big, big numbers this week from the republican national committee. do they matter in this midterm election season? the first, $13.9 million. that's how much the rnc raised just in june. the next number, $213 million, the total rnc haul so far this cycle. it's the fastest the republican group has hit the there are$200 milestone during the election season. the rnc is meeting today in austin, texas, in part to decide where to hold the 2020 nominating convention. cnn's rebecca berg is live in austin now. do they have a final decision? what's the buzz there? >> reporter: well, almost, john. they will have a final, final decision tomorrow, but all signs point to republicans picking charlotte as the site of their 2020 national convention. there aren't many examples of president trump following in

president obama's footsteps, john, but this is one of them. republicans will have their national convention in 2020, in the same city that hosted president obama in 2012 ahead of his re-election fight. that was part of charlotte's pitch to republicans. they did it before in 2012. they said we can do it again for republicans. now, that means that charlotte edged out las vegas, which was the runner-up in this process. las vegas was pitching itself as something new, something fresh, something on brand with president trump and his flashy, unconventional persona. ultimately, republicans went with the safer choice, though, deciding that charlotte would be up to the logistical challenge of hosting a national convention. but of course republicans first have to get through 2018. you mentioned those bonkers fundraising numbers for republicans. historic fundraising for them, surpassing 200 million for the first time at this point in the election cycle.

they say that reflects the enthusiasm among republican voters and activists. of course, democrats still edging out republicans consistently in the generic ballot. >> big challenge, rebecca, to use that money well in a year when they know the wind is in their face. that's it for "inside politics" today. we're following president trump's call for a second meeting with president vladimir putin. really? wolf brings you that. he starts coverage right now. >> hello, i'm wolf blitzer. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us. up first, president trump says he's looking forward to his next meeting with vladimir putin and declares his summit with the russian leader a great success. three days after his widely criticized news conference with putin, there's still a lot of confusion. in a cbs news interview, the president did finally say that he holds putin responsible for the attack on the