apple ii android, you are my customer regardless. consider you my customer. it is a re-visitation of an older case and this question of who is ultimately the customer. that is what the supreme court is looking at area we think it would be devastating to businesses and innovators if the result would be for the court to --ermine >> first alina polyakova a senior policy fellow at the brookings institution. formerjeffrey edmonds

russian director on the national security council talks about russia plus military presence in syria and the balkans. we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. washington journal is next. ♪ host: president trump and vladimir putin have arrived at the presidential palace in helsinki finland welfare sesame in their first -- where they are set to meet in their first summit. doors for 90behind minutes where they are joined for aids and advice is for another two hours of talking this morning. and advisersaides for another two hours of talking this morning. we want to get your thoughts on the gathering. you can start calling in. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001.

independents (202) 748-8002. a special phone line this morning for those outside the united states. that number is (202) 748-8003. you can also catch up with us on social media, on twitter at c-span wj and on facebook. a very good monday morning to you this morning. we are getting your thoughts all morning long on the summit taking place in helsinki finland , encouraging you to join the conversation. we will be showing you live pictures throughout the program. fun lines, democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001.

independents (202) 748-8002. and if you are outside the united states (202) 748-8003. there is the presidential palace in helsinki, finland. here are some of the headlines that americans are waking up to this morning. trump urged to stand up to put in is the headline on the front page of the usa today. lawmakers called russian president devious thought is the headline -- thug is the headline of the new york times. gains for russia as trump attacks allies on the front page of the wall street journal. the president sets low bar for prudent meeting. trump seeks to dampen expectations as critics urge them to push hard on election interference. the wall street journal also with a round up of what could be on the table for the topics of conversation. there is no formal agenda.

they could touch on syria, national security adviser john bolton has said mr. trump to discuss how russia can get iranian forces out of syria. a pressing question is whether to extend the new start treaty. diplomatic efforts to reverse russia's intervention eastern ukraine. election meddling of course. mr. trump has said he would raise the issue of russia's election hacking with mr. trump. esther trump previously said he believed the russian leader was sincere when he said he was not responsible. we want to hear what you think president trump should be talking to president putin about this morning. we will be talking about it all morning on washington journal. as this summit takes place we will show you live pictures. columbus, ohio, the line for

democrats, john, go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span and fellow americans. this is a good day. four years this is what we have to deal with. four years of donald trump. he tweeted out something where he said it sounded like some stalin stuff. the press is the enemy of the state. we arears america that going to have to deal with this man until we get him out. everyone in america, we have to vote to get this man out. our allies and everything, history always repeats itself. we know what russia did. they know what russia did. everybody knows what they are doing. i'm glad he is having this meeting but let's be honest, he is not going to tell it all. donald trump can't tell the truth. tennessee onis in the line for republicans. go ahead as we await the pool

ahead oft is expected that one-on-one meeting with president trump and putin. see national security adviser john bolton in the live shot coming in from the press fopool. caller: good morning. i have never seen the media the terrified as i have with this meeting between gutknecht trump. i have never's -- putin and trump. i never saw this hysteria when obama met with putin or when he had the open mic gaffe. i believe liberals and democrats are afraid of what putin might reveal to trump and that secret meeting. -- they aren have afraid of something else other than just a meeting.

something else is going on here. they are afraid of the .orruption host: stand is in connecticut on the line for democrats. a secret conversation between trump and potent. to be extremely naive to believe that under national security that conversation is not being recorded with our current technology. putin is not that naive. that conversation will not reach the public. for national security. they will listen to it in recordings, our government. >> it is a one-on-one meeting

between president trump and potent. no advisors -- and putin. no advisors or aides expected during that meeting and that it is expected to expand to a working lunch. john bolton expected to be a part of that. i believe sarah huckabee sanders just entering the room. we know secretary of state mike pompeo is on the ground in helsinki this morning. we have seen the russian foreign minister enter the presidential palace when vladimir putin walked in this morning. we will look for other advisors as we hear from joseph in texas on the line for democrats. caller: think c-span. why are they having this meeting in secret with no recordings, no nothing?

as i think about it, i have been following this first -- for quite a while. putinyou anything that want to know exactly what our people have on him with this investigation with mueller. ishat you anything trump going to give them as much information as he can -- i bet you anything that trump is going to give him as much information as he can. thank you very much. host: jim in pennsylvania on the line for democrats. caller: i am watching all of this. i voted for hillary. i am fed up with the democrats. dick durbin, the guy that called our soldiers traders and killers.

-- traitors and killers. unemployment is down to 3%. they are afraid he is going to succeed. i didn't like him in the beginning but he is doing a hell of a job. democrats are weasels and msnbc and cnn are scumbags. host: jim, you mentioned chuck schumer. he tweeted several times yesterday after having a conversation with secretary of state mike pompeo who is on the ground in helsinki. here is what he had to say about that conversation. first i don't believe the meeting should take place because it is going -- if it is going to happen president trump must press vladimir putin hard on the issue of election interference. we would to you the rest after we should -- we will tell you

the rest after we show you the live scene with the official greeting taking place right now.

>> i would like to congratulate you on a great world cup. one of the best ever. your team itself did so well. [indiscernible]

i watched quite a bit, and the united states we call it soccer. i watched of the entire final and the semifinal. they were spectacular games. it was beautifully done so congratulations. most importantly we have a lot of good things to talk about and things to talk about. discussions on everything from trade, to military, to china. we will be talking about china. president xi.end

i think we have great .pportunities together frankly we have not been getting along well in the last couple of years. it is getting close to two years. i think we will end up having a extraordinary relationship. campaigned, getting along with russia is a good thing not a bad thing. i think the world wants to see us get along. we are the two great nuclear powers, we have 90% of the nuclear.

that is a bad thing. i think we can hopefully do something about that. it is not a positive force it is a negative force. the world awaits and i look forward to our personal session which begins now then we will meet the whole team. we have quite a few representatives. hopefully we will come up with answers.

thank you very much. thank you, everybody. host: the world awaits president trump says as he is meeting with russian president vladimir their first former summit. -- formal summit. advisorsand no until 90 minutes from now. to have axpected working lunch for a two-hour working period than we are expecting a joint press conference with them after that. we will be with you all morning long talking about it and asking for your opinion and your thoughts. what you are hoping president

trump will bring up in this summit. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. if you are outside the u.s. it is (202) 748-8003. their first formal summit meeting for the two presidents. as the new york times points out they called each other and met publicly at least twice on the sidelines of international events and the group of 20 summit meeting. they are meeting again at the 19th century presidential palace there in helsinki finland and we are showing you live pictures all morning long as we get your thoughts and comments. has been waiting in north carolina on the line for democrats. we overheard initial statements,

your thoughts on what they had to say. i don't have ar: whole lot to say about that. trump wants to be -- he has been a thug all his life. he is meeting with putin to figure out how he can get putin the 2018 election, that is all it is. get ourto go back and plane and give donald trump a to put donald trump on the plane with putin and get them out of the u.s.. host: that was julie is in tennessee. president trump saying there are great opportunities ahead of this meeting.

u.s. and russia do not get along well and saying he thinks we will have an extraordinary relationship. getting along is a good thing not a bad thing. the one specific topic the president said he would be bringing up is nuclear arsenals of the two countries alluding to the arms-control agreement that has been thought to be a topic the two men would likely discuss. the wall street journal pointing out that there are some questions about whether to extend the new start treaty that took effect in 2011. that attack sets a limit of 1550 strategic warheads and bombs that are deployed between the two countries. the treaty can be extended for up to five years without senate approval. a sound move as no new negotiations make further cuts are underway. keeping the treaty would allow inspectors and other forms of verification to continue. that are topics

expected to be discussed over 3.5 hours with the president and vladimir putin. we saw a national security adviser in some of the live pictures we should you just a few minutes ago. we know secretary mike pompeo is on the ground as well. we will see who else shows up throughout the morning. donald is in tennessee on the line for independents. caller: it has been quite a while since i called in. one thing that comes to my mind is the old chinese adage of keep your friends close and keep your enemies closer. i can't understand why people would not want trump over there talking to putin. the previous caller calls in a thought. why not have -- calls him a thug? about theouhaha hacking of the elections.

i think putin did bust the biggest favor in the world by showing us how woefully in adequate our i.t. security is. when he to step up the game on that. those of the only comments i have. host: what should president trump say to president putin about election hacking? say thank you for showing us what a bunch of screwballs we have on security. i don't think the hacking had anything to do with our election personally. he is in a better position to advise than i am, i'm not the president. president trump is talking to president putin over the weekend. the homeland security secretary

was talking about russian use of social media to divide u.s. voters. said on saturday that there is no evidence that russia is targeting midterm elections with the same scale or scope that it targeted 2016 elections. they said the u.s. intelligence community is looking and seeing persistent russian efforts using social media, sympathetic spokespeople, to sow discord and divisiveness amongst american people. they are not necessarily focused on specific politicians. that reporting from the washington times this morning. speaking to top state election officials about upcoming election systems and their concerns about the security of those. robert is in logan, utah this morning. thank you for letting me call in. after listening to president trump talk for about a year and

a half and seeing the way he treats heroes, canada, everybody. every european country, horrible. -- he is in every charge. people are saying he is a great president. and i hopee to death people wise up and notice we are getting ourselves into a lot of trouble. thank you for letting me call in. we heard from the president a few minutes ago. a few hours ago he was tweeting. here are a few of his thoughts going into that meeting. our relationship with russia has never been worse thanks to years of u.s. stupidity and foolishness. now the rigged witchhunt. obama but can't was going to win the election so and he was informed about russian medal he said it couldn't happen and no

big deal and did nothing about it. when i want it became a big deal and the rigged russia witchhunt was headed by peter strzok. received many calls from nato countries thanking me for helping to bring them together and to get them focused on financial obligations. we had a truly great summit that was inaccurately covered by much of the media. nato is now strong and rich. -- rich." is the live scene of the presidential palace in helsinki, finland. the helsinki palace where it is p.m. local time in helsinki. about seven hours ahead of the eastern time in the united states. president trump arrived around 9:00 p.m. local time yesterday. we saw president clinton touchdown just after 1:00 p.m.

local time in helsinki. it is now 2:23 local time. mike is in ashburn, virginia, go ahead, independent. caller: good morning, c-span. that man is a liar. he will always be a liar. when he goes into the meeting he will be line. what is going to happen when does the same thing the russians did? saying thateople did not happen will be crying alligator tears. this man is a liar and he bankrupted himself six times and he is going to bankrupt this country. at the same rate he did years ago. you mentioned hillary clinton. she tweeted late yesterday ahead of this summit, we saw president

trump congratulate putin on the world cup in russia. hillary saying on twitter, " great world cup, question for president trump as he meets pruden: do you know which team you play for?" talking about his conversation with secretary of state mike pompeo ahead of this meeting. " i'll believe the meeting should take place but if it is going to happen he must press put in hard on the issue of election meddling." the president must demand the 12 russians named in the indictment be sent to the united states to stand trial. president trump should not be agreeing to weaken any sanctions on russia. for him to meet with put in without expressing the outrage of the american people will look

terrible for the u.s. and the security of our election system. that was a series of tweets from the minority leader of the senate. good morning. i think it is a great thing that prudent and president trump our meeting. putin and president trump our meeting. meeting. i personally think this was their plan all along. to have this disruption between trump and putin. i don't believe there is any collusion in the election. . voted for trump . am a little bit older i have seen america. i have seen it at its weakest. now it is really going downhill. we need to have a strong man or woman to say, we are bringing america back where it used to

be. the greatest power in the world. does it have to be radical? yes it does. 100 years or 50 years of it has to be radical in order to get some sort of change. believeen do you america used to be the greatest power in the world and when did that end? >> it is a matter of not anything in particular but it has been going downhill, mainly materialistic lead, being used like trump said. on i thinkagan era from the end of the reagan era on it has been going downhill. the lineny in ohio on for republicans, go ahead. caller: i like with that lady

just said. do people realize what hillary goes over to india and all those countries she is getting paid for speeches? she talks about why she lost. she lost because of the way our voting system is set up. your country is only as strong as your family. there is a problem with our families we need to focus on. far as donald trump goes i think that man is a genius when it comes to business. he is not a politician and i am glad. i don't understand. if you have to do why don't like donald trump they would say, i don't know i just don't like him. that is their answer and that is so stupid. he might have been with whoever that girl was, stormy, but that is your president. , it is nothat he did

his personal thing, it is what he is doing with the country. people aren't as intelligent as him so they don't know what they are doing. host: that was jenny in ohio. president trump and president putin making brief statements ahead of a 90 minute one-on-one with no aides and advisers. several the worse on twitter commenting -- viewers on twitter commenting on the statement by president trump. running that president trump did not mention the election attack with a? great writing that -- why is he being given such latitudes?

steve writes that extraordinary relationship", president trump using those words this morning is that like the relationship we have with north korea and kim is laughing at us. the line for democrats, go ahead. (202) 748-8000. this is the most embarrassing thing i have seen a my life. we have a president that is trashing america. i feel that anybody that is not american and not patriotic to america should leave america. this is coming from a democrat. host: how is the president trashing america? marshall, are you with us? we will go to andy in flint, michigan. caller: we can't just push people around. if you insist on trying to bully

people they will do the opposite of what you want. i want to add something else. it is the human crisis. for theo responsibility flint water. i think that all people in have to vote them out from power. it is our responsibility because of this human crisis. host: andy in flat, michigan. here are some tweets from members of the senate. , michigan. here are some tweets from members of the senate. feinstein, a not vladimir putin accountable for interfering in the election president trump is failing to protect our national security and the integrity of our democracy. a democratic senator from

hawaii, a president who continues to call the russia investigation a witchhunt despite indictments against 32 people including russian nationals, will not confront putin with the truth. president trump continues to put personal interests above protecting our democracy. i hope the president take the opportunity to make it clear actions ton interfere in our election and their behavior must change in hopes to have improved relationships with the u.s.. one of the articles focusing on that topic in today's financial times, the indictments against 12 russian nationals, russian intelligence officials for hacking. groups during the 2016 election will cloud the trump summit with putin. hasstory noting that russia pesticide the indictment against 12 intelligence officers. they accuse president trump's rivals of using the issues to

disrupt the summit. obviously the purpose of this is just well the app is fear before the russian-american summit." describing the allegations as a heap of conspiracy there is. mark is up next -- theories. mark is up next on the republican line from maryland. leadr: i think they should to put in an trump. and trump. he is trading putin more cordially that he treated angela merkel from germany. he was almost standoffish. i don't even know if they shook hands. some of our friends in germany all buddy buddy with the have russia. it is amazing.

i just hope he does something good. to getas able but nonships with china other democratic president wanted people to do that because they would have called him a communist. maybe he could do something good here in spite of himself. john kasich should be president today. if he was running he would have got a nomination. he would have beat anybody. hillary included. that would have been a good thing. host: that is marked in michigan. one reporter who has been following president trump over the course of this trip to europe is jeff mason a reuters and white house correspondent. he joins us on the phone. he was there at the presidential palace. maybe first just described the

scene for us and what we know about the room where president trump and huebner meeting one-on-one. guest: the meeting has started. at least one crystal chandelier and crystal lamps on the side. a red rug in the middle and to shares with a little table. is a meeting between the men and their interpreters. at the end of the meeting both men made brief remarks. president trump speaking a little longer and saying they would discuss a variety of issues but they did not mention election meddling in his opening remarks. host: he did mention the country 's nuclear arsenals. what was her take away from their body language and greeting at the beginning of the summit -- your take away from their body language and greeting at the beginning of the summit? president trump directed

pollutant to speak first. he was deferential to him. putin to speak first. he was deferential to him. after they had given opening remarks it was president trump who initiated a handshake. for the bodyl language at the beginning. host: give us a sense of the other cut of december -- other side of the camera. adviserational security john bolton was in the room and secretary of state mike pompeo was on the ground. who else is going to be in this working lunch that happened after this one-on-one. i don't think sarah huckabee sanders will be in the working lunch. i suspect that the u.s.

ambassador to russia, jon huntsman, will also be there. this first meeting as we have said is scheduled to last an hour and a half which is a pretty long. -- long put to of time. -- period of time. it will rely on what the president say in terms of the historical record. the working lunch will have a and get downtion to policy oriented topics. i am sure they will talk about policy in the first meeting as well. the big question for a lot of president trump's critics, is to what extent he will press president putin on election meddling and it is an issue that president trump has already voiced frustration over. he is tweeting that no one will be satisfied regardless of what he does.

-- host: you mention the schedule. president putin arriving 20 minutes behind schedule. we saw president trump did not arrive at the presidential palace until after president clinton had gotten there. was there a power play going on? in terms of arrival times and who had who waiting ? guest: it is hard to tell what was intentional and what was not. president putin cap president trump waiting. once he was at the palace for -- meeting, president trump left to soto. that may -- left his hotel. that may have been a power play on both sides. whether that was a power signal

or tardiness. talk about the reception of president trump in helsinki. we certainly saw plenty of how he was images of received in great britain when he was over there. has it been similar or different in helsinki? guest: so far it has been different. you are right to mention there were massive demonstrations against president trump in britain. in helsinki we arrived last night. there have been people on the streets but they have been polite and cordial. there have been a few people who made some hand gestures suggesting they are not a fan. driving in the motorcade to a palace. there was a make america great again sign. clearly he has some fans. host: what are you expecting

from this joint press conference. guest: you can never tell what a press conference is going to produce. the fact that they are doing a joint press conference at all is almost news itself. the presidents will be asked about the topics we have been discussing already whether it is control.meddling, arms whatever they say will be newsworthy. host: jeff mason, reuters white house correspondent. andpreciate your time appreciate you joining us from on the ground in helsinki, finland. that is a live shot of the

presidential palace for the first formal summit between president trump and president putin is underway. we are getting your calls and talking about it throughout the washington journal. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. and a special line for those outside of the u.s., please give us a call and your thoughts and perspectives from outside the u.s.. (202) 748-8003. sarah is waiting in new hampshire. the line for independents. good morning and thank you. i believe the primary was corrupted by the dnc. the general election was compromised by russia. we have a compromised president who is a security threat and he and i think putin

has dirt on them. that is why we see our president kowtowing to this menace to the planet. democracy when you have the dnc interfering in the primary and a not secure electoral system. then we have all these threats from all sides. i would like to see your program have more moderates on and less of the extreme right and extreme left. it is the only way we are going to come together. it is like a marriage or you don't always get along and you have to compromise and come to the middle. i am a patriot. i am watching resident trump compromise our country, alienate the whole thing on

the border seems to be a racist attack on indigenous people from south america yet we are buddy buddy with putin. that is ridiculous. he is compromised because putin has dirt on him. lynn is in: -- host: san antonio texas on the line for republicans. i am listening to these people. i seem to run for a misery haberdasher took everyone to tasks during world war ii. i think a new york builder can do pretty good. didar as what the russians it was botched and went on social media. i put them in the same category as i would put people who call with recorded messages from famous folks.

if i was stupid enough to fall for that i would have been a democrat. i am too dumb to vote well anyway. talking about social media influence in the united states as well. one of those viewers who follows us every day writing, why should the u.s. be concerned about russia using social media to influence the u.s. election? isn't that what the russians have always done in other media before the internet? does the first amendment apply to russians if they are trying to sow discord among u.s. voters? if you want to join the conversation it is @cspanwj. lee is on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. there is one thing that trump" and are not going to let the world know, they are going to talk about the world elites.

they'ree the bible said going to conquer these elites. host: jeff from illinois, line for independents. caller: good morning and thank you very much for the opportunity. this is not about the partisan issue in terms of being republican or democrat or independent. this is about the survival of the united states of america. i would hope that what people are saying in terms of trending across this country, it is particularly about this president. these things have never been said before by a president in terms of a president being copper must -- compromised by a foreign government.

congress and the american people wake up. this is a very dangerous time for this country right now. we have never seen this before. there is something that is definitely amiss here. country. wake up as a this is about our survival at this point. thank you very much. independents, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. as far as european allies i believe that he woke them up. the whole world is in an unstable set right now. i believe he is trying his best to settle things up. between russia and the u.s.. we have 90% of the nuclear arms.

tooink things are a little high tension right now. do tok whatever he can reduce the situation and become at least talking with russia i think it is for the good. are so bad democrats in trying to disrupt this. if they were interested in america and its safety they would want to to talk to russia. we have to do something before we blow all of ourselves up. i don't think america understands the seriousness of what is going on in this world. that was one issue president trump said in his brief statement before his one-on-one with president putin, that he would bring up nuclear arsenals alluding to perhaps a new arms control agreement. jeff mason of reuters pointed

did not sayt trump anything abolished and interference, we will be watching for statements after his meeting about whether he talks about that or lot. he talks about expectations of what the president may or may not do. president trump was asked in an interview with cbs news over the weekend about the recent indictments of 12 russian intelligence officials and whether he would ask president putin to extradite those to the united states for prosecution. here is from that interview. >> i will certainly be asking about it. this was during the obama administration. they were doing it during the obama administration. i heard they were trying or people were trying to hack into the rnc, republican national committee, but we had better defenses. i think the dnc should be ashamed of themselves for

allowing themselves to be hacked. they had bad defenses. they were able to be hacked. i heard they were trying to hack republican steve. and this may be wrong but they had much longer defenses. host: that was president trump over the weekend. you all morning long on washington journal talking about it and getting your calls. through that press conference -- thatexpected expanded meeting, the working lunch is going to go for about two hours sometime after 10 a clock eastern we are expecting that joint press conference to take place. john and petersburg, alaska, line for republicans, go ahead. with the hacking stuff, it has been going on, i'm 65 years old and everybody does it.

we have been doing it all our life. russia is my neighbor. like any good neighbor we should be nice to each other. we have to help each other out in this world. money make them some their countries going to have a hard time. trump is a businessman. there is nothing wrong with going over there and cooling the sentiment down and maybe help each other. other than that, everybody should just pray for good things and the next our neighbors whether they may be. do you think americans in alaska have a different opinion of russia on the whole than those of us further south? >> and no. i grew up in oregon.

it seems like life is going faster and faster. maybe it is because of communication. people have a slower life and take things slower. it is getting out of hand a little bit. when you need to step back and these guys are their neighbors. you are supposed to help your neighbor. i am 65. i can go into a hallway and stand against a wall once a week -- will want to see that. it was done pretty good to my parents age. it is my turn to make sure it doesn't happen for my kids. one way is to let donald trump do his job. host: that is john in

petersburg, alaska. a live shot of the presidential palace in helsinki, finland where that one-on-one is taking place. some history on u.s., russian summits in finland from abc news. the most significant u.s. soviet bymit hosted before today that city was back in 1975. during that time president ford met with the soviet leader with talks that produced the helsinki accords when the united states and soviet union got a 35 nations to forge a new cold war under standing. ussr was posted into signing onto a humanitarian rights convention. in 1990 helsinki hosted a u.s. soviet summit between george h. w. bush and mikael gorbachev. they met at a remarkably different time.

the soviet union was collapsing. the cbs story noticed that bush used the meeting to gain gorbachev's report for sanctions fornst iraq's -- support sections against a rock's saddam hussein. it was noticed as a remarkable shift as the united states and ussr came together over an international rice is. back to your desk crisis. -- crisis. back to your calls. i think trumpr: has been compromised by russia for years. while they are in this meeting i believe putin will give donald trump some people to come back to the states to be prosecuted but i don't think it will be the actual 12 people that did the actual meddling. they are so close to the president.

donald trump has been compromised and he is putting the united states in a terrible situation with our allies. and i don't understand why the republican congress go out of their way to protect him unless they have been compromised as well. i do believe russia has something on all of them. dnc did not just hack the come they hacked the rnc and they are holding something over there head. i don't see how any human, humane person who loves the united states can let donald trump sell the united states out. everything donald trump does is for him and his family. for these people to go along with them, some republicans to go along with them, they just do not understand the magnitude of what donald trump is getting us into and when it is all over the only one that is going to come

outstanding is the altra. we need to get him out of office. -- is donald trump. we need to get him out of office. he is working for putin. he is an insider. host: an interesting tweet from the russian ministry of foreign affairs just a few minutes ago referring to president trump's tweet about the united states relationship with russia having never been worse thanks to many years of u.s. foolishness and stupidity and now the rate russia which operate the ministry of foreign raid russiaow the russiant -- rigged witchhunt. the ministry of foreign affairs for russia tweeting, we agree. theriday bob mueller

indictment details kremlin's cyberattack on the u.s.. the president lames past u.s. policy and mueller witchhunt for bad relationships with moscow. an overnight tweet from gary kasparov, the former chess grandmaster. his thoughts on this summit taking place today. all the united states needs from putin is to not give him what he wants and not enable him but to deter him. we will see if president trump wants what the u.s. needs, gifting put in this summit is already a failure. he writes in one of several tweets from overnight. taking your calls this morning. we want to hear your thoughts and comments. the phone line for democrats, republicans, independents, and those outside the united states (202) 748-8003. tony is calling in from indiana. -- calling in from new mexico, an independent. caller: hello?

talk to all to americans this morning. if you want to know what is going on with republicans, democrats, putin, or russia, let's trace it back to citizens united where the supreme court gave permission that corporations are equal to people and money equals speech. it is corruption. it is politicians that are being bought and sold by the almighty and they don't have any american's interest in mind, typical americans. people and ithe goes on from there. the united states supreme court, foredy's son was a banker

one of the russian banks which got a waiver of all the fines by this president. it is all in the money. host: eugene in clinton, maryland. line for democrats, good morning. caller: good morning and god bless america. i am not going to criticize mr. trump, i'm not going to criticize mr. putin. i have a message. i want all the listeners to hear this. from the washington post on april 16. host: what will they find their? -- there? caller: they will find that the need growing national anthem, lift every voice and sing is discussed with beyonce and with your's truly. i will say, google lift every eugenend sing-- dr.

william sr. i am smart enough not to criticize at this point. i am waiting but i would say to all america, look out, america is changing. lift every voice and sing for america. that is what johnson said in his poem and song created by his brother. lift every voice and sing. josh is in leesburg virginia, an independent. caller: good morning. there is an old saying, don't cut off your nose to spite your face. being freaked out about trump as so many people are or loving him as if he could do no wrong, and he sort of detente

list would say the power who wreak thermonuclear war on the world, any sort of conversation. to ratchet that down is a good thing for all people. if you love your children you should -- anyone a good future for them you should embrace the to tampery and try down any of your hatred for trump. , he is not trump without sin but this is a good thing. i do find the indictments of the russian leading up to the summit is sitting a little suspect. americans, please, think about the greater ramifications,

nuclear war is a bad thing. more of your calls on the trunk, put in some of this morning in just a few minutes. summit thistin morning. we are joined by alina polyakova . joining us at this summit is underway. as you have watched this summit unfold so far, what is your initial takeaway? guest: always a pleasure to be here. this is a historic summit for president trump. not so much for president putin. the u.s. sitting president since he has come to power. be aim this is going to replay of things he is not in the past, he is an experienced diplomat. i think he saw that in the initial body language.

president trump seemed anxious. all we have right now is body language. host: are you surprised about what the president brought up as to what he would discuss with president putin, alluding to arms control specifically? guest: i am not surprised. from the russian side arms control nonproliferation has been a major issue they have tried to seek dialogue on with the united states. this would be an easy issue to discuss for the american side as well. the concern and potential danger there is we shouldn't just prioritize this single issue and the otherut all of important problems we have in russia including ukraine in syria. host: if that's the easy issue how do you bring up harder issues? guest: in this initial meeting without a clear agenda provider side it is impossible to tell what should take priority. heart of the the downturn between russia and the

united states. certainly russia aggression against georgia in 2008 with the beginning of it. in 2014 one russia annexed crimea that is what started the u.s. sanctions regime. russia is installing a cease-fire in eastern ukraine. there is still a war raging there. we can't forget the lives we lost on a daily basis. -- host: alina polyakova with us for the next half hour this morning. taking your comments and questions at this next summit is underway. lines for democrats, republicans, and independents. we will put those numbers on the screen for you. as folks are calling in we will report them to washington post. good news america more than we --d them

guest: russia is an economically weak country. in terms of its nuclear arsenal it certainly is. what putin needs right now is some economic relief. the russian economy is in crisis. the russian government has been pushing through these very unpopular reforms and put in's -- putin is known for having high approval ratings and they are starting to slip. he needs sanction relief from the u.s.. he needs to bring some sort of when on syria -- win on syria. there is no end in that conflict we can see. he needs the u.s. president understand russia's position.

host: when you say his approval ratings are slipping at home, by how much? give us a sense of what that is for it -- is? guest: russia is on a democracy. putin is an authoritarian leader. this is a government-funded pollster that is releasing survey results. frompproval rating dropped 86% to about 72. more concerning is a majority of useda's -- 55% of russians to say they have trusted no leadership and that is going to 38%. host: what do you think president trump is asking president putin behind closed doors? guest: my guess is as good as anyone else's. i think that president putin is a very savvy leader.

he understands exactly how to win over president trump and any world leader. my concern is that president trump will not see through the facade. it is a facade. putin is looking out for number one and not for u.s. interests or the russian people interests. i do know what he is going to talk about. know what he is going to talk about. i guess is he's going to have an olive branch and that is going to look like a minimal deal on syria where russia promises to curb iranian influence and iranian forces in syria. this is something u.s. forces have asked for multiple times. russia has been promises like this before to barack obama and has not been able to deliver on them. host: that may yield something the two of them can walk out of the room and declare victory on. guest: that is the thinking.

putin would have a successful summit. the president of the u.s. would have a successful summit and it would be a win-win. frankly it would not be a win for the u.s.. it would be primarily a win for russia if the united states except this deal without too much due diligence. host: does it mean anything that president trump had to travel much further to get to the summit then-president putin? morning, even though his flight was less than an hour he was 20 minutes late -- president trump guest: we certainly saw some power-play happening. putin is known for keeping world leaders waiting. he famously cap angela merkel waiting for four hours at one point. we expected that put in would arrive late. i thought it was interesting that president trump also

seemingly aware of this power game that was happening waited to arrive after him and sent these very long convoys to send the message, let's be clear who is the more powerful guy here, it is clearly me. i don't know if any of these power plays well reflect the outcome of the summit. with usina polyakova for the next 20 or 25 minutes on washington journal. we want to get your questions and comments for her. good morning, c-span. a quick statement than a question. , i think to russia this meeting sense of a lot of .ed flags fit

the question i have is this. vladimir putin was a kernel with kgb.kitchen bee how is the kernel ok to be a premier as the president of russia and housing ok to use money on international scene? i will take my question off-line . guest: a bit of a complex question, but the color brings up an interesting point. this a question about a tiger andr changing its stripes t that is suspicion among likenians with a country russia that patent is not to be trusted and that is correct in this case.

what he has set up in russia today is a kleptocracy. it is a mafia like state that has improved profits handsomely. we don't know how much he is worth, but many suspect it is quite significant because of the putin has been able to steal from people. host: you mentioned being born in russia. guest: my family immigrated in wassoviet area and went i thinking what do i want to do with my life? i did a doctor in sociology and i studied the rise in foreign populism. what i saw was this connection with the russian government and these political movements and that's when i became interested

in how russia seeks to influence other countries around the world and has been working russian politics and foreign policy. book in 2015 on far right political parties and western and eastern europe. the dark side of european immigration is that book. tom is on the line for republicans. go ahead. caller: i just want to say that i'm pleased for happy to see that president trump and president putin our meeting face-to-face and having talks. i think friendship is a good thing for the world for everyone , and matter what your political affiliation this. i'm just very happy about it. i think he and friends is much better than being enemies. i hope that something productive can come from the summit today. leaders frome both russia and the united states for getting together and sitting

down and discussing things. i don't know everything there going to talk about, but the bottom line is i think friendship and alliances is a very good thing for the whole world. host: thanks for the call. guest: just a comment on that. most experts and myself agree that there's nothing wrong with the u.s. president meeting a russian president. all u.s. presidents so far have done so. it's important to have that dialogue to the highest level. what's unique about the specific normally there's a lot of preparatory work at working levels with the state department and other u.s. government agencies working with their counterparts. meet, it'saders already preordained. and theyrship's meet agree to negotiate a deal that their respective departments have agreed to. what is happening here is happening and rivers. -- in reverse. that's what's odd here outside

of having the meeting itself. host: you wrote in "the washington post" that there might be lessons in president's book "the art of the deal" in terms of what might be happening behind closed doors right now. guest: the president sees himself as a dealmaker and talks about this a lot. rule number one of making a good deal, which is also in his book, is you should not give up leverage in the deal. certainly the president has given up a little of that leverage by saying very praise were the things about the russian leader that he doesn't necessarily deserve. host: what did you take from the president's comments in his actions when he met with nato leaders over last week? guest: we expected the president to press nato allies on the 2% spending and how much nato

allies have committed to spend on national defense. nato allies meet that 2% and this has been a great for the president for a long time. president trump is much more aggressive and hard-line. at the end of the day, after the storm, president trump went through brussels for the native nato summit and came out with good policy successes. you look at what was achieved and what the u.s. signed on to, all members agrees to raise the 2%. nato is opening to additional facilities with an eye toward russian aggression and determining russian aggression. i think was actually a very successful summit. pushing is making your pms aware that they cannot necessarily always count on the united states. a lot of people trying to guess what is being talked about behind close doors.

they may ber says are talking about space exploration. can you talk a bit about the status of u.s. and russian space exploration and the international space station? guest: there are a few places where the u.s.-russian relationship is not strained and one of those is scientific cooperation and research. many people think this could be further developed and more funding could be devoted to this. space exploration is something president trump has talked about and something putin has talked about. it's rebuilding basic people to people ties between scientists and researchers. has beenooperation mentioned in terms of research and science is research in the arctic, where russia is increasingly staking a claim. it is open territory. russia and other countries could a relationship in that space, but those are thin

potential interests that the u.s. and russia has. host: why is there more trust in that space? guest: historically even during the cold war, the soviet union, united states, and other western european countries have had good cooperative relationships when it comes to science. and 1980's, this initially was a very good sign that despite politics and policy that we are all still human and we want to learn about ourselves and the world. this is actually a beacon of hope for a lot of american citizen scientists who thought that relationships could get better. the problem i see today is we just don't talk to each other as much as we used to, even during the cold war era. whatis what people shifts people think about the other country. host: line for democrats, good morning. caller: good morning and thank you so much.

i have a very happy that your family was able to make it here in the united states. god bless you could . i just want to share a thought with the american people and you of course. democracy is contagious. once you have a taste of freedom, you never go back. it's always something that you search for and long for. consequentially the introduction of democracy on and from thevel competition, even though i know there's might what you call an act of war, an attack on 50 states is an act of war, and this particular age and in the science age, everyone is crossing the redline. from thence, even c-span congressional hearings, i gathered that the cyber attack

was carried on from here to malaysia and back here again. it was really quite an undertaking. i think that is something that we are going to have to get used to unfortunately. again democracy is contagious. i think that kindness is pervasive. the gift of kindness to an adversary softens the situation always, whether it be north someone whoucing has never been outside of concrete walls and being raised toa warrior and being raised a world contending adversary such as kim jong-un. when he has the taste of freedom, you can see his face was softening. you could see it in his face when he met with president trump. there is a difference, which was wonderful. it was an improvement. with putin, it's the same thing.

i believe putin being the richest man in the world, he who controls the money control things. he must be met with. we must speak with him about these issues. the most important thing is the science. space wars, as president trump indicated, he's really pursuing thelot of cooperation with u.s. and russian intelligence even though we just had this huge attack. it's really important for a to get a grip on what's going on in space because the next war comes from space and every thing else. host: got your point. lots to bring up there. guest: we should remember that russia did have a democratized moment in the 1990's with the perhaps of the soviet union. backe see russia reverting to an authoritarian regime. i like that the call had an optimistic town, but we cannot take democracy for granted.

independent russian journalists and civil society actors who don't agree with the prudent putin regime are being harassed, threatened, attack, many being murdered. this is serious. this is not a democratic country. i would hope that the caller is correct and that over time we can have improved relations. it's one thing to have a good personal relationship between two leaders. it's another to stake the national security interests of an entire country on that personal relationship. certainly u.s. presence in the past have made that mistake with putin including president bush and president obama. host: the caller had said that vladimir putin is the richest person in the world. that's not correct. to be know about an estimation of his wealth? guest: we don't know how wealthy

president clinto putin is. he reports a very modest income and that's it. we don't know the amount of his wealth because of all his shell accounts, anonymous accounts like investor institutions and real estate purchases, listed under his close friends names. the panama papers, this was the big leak that exposed some of the practices among politicians around the world really focused on a close friend of putin, who was a violent or -- violin or cello player that ended up selling over $2 billion in assets. where does a violenin player get that money? that is dramatically anywhere from $40 billion to $200 billion to any more than that.

there's no way to say what's right or what's wrong here. host: waiting in cleveland, ohio on the line for republicans, go ahead. steve, are you with us this morning? caller: yeah, i'm with you. host: go ahead. during world war ii, ranklin delano roosevelt -- host: you've got to turn down your tv. what about franklin do little roosevelt? -- franklin delano roosevelt? caller: during world war ii, franklin delano roosevelt was going to do some kind of land deal with russia. i think you know that, right? truman trashed that. thenhower warned us about expansion of military industrial complex. i'm going to speed up to obama. t putin annex crimea

because he needed a port and took ukraine. in 1998, they got something out of their. what was it? it was over 2000 nuclear weapons. there was no guarantee that ukraine was going to come in to nato. there was never a deal like that. host: can you bring us up to 2018? caller: i'm going to bring you up from 1998. there was no deal for them to come in there. one day they were going to new germany and the next day they were going to new russia. they took the damn weapons from them. what putin did isn't right, but what we have entered into is called fascism.

it's the same thing mussolini did. host: that was stephen ohio. anything you want to pick up? guest: in 1994, the united states and russia were signatories of something called the budapest memorandum. this was an agreement with the ukrainian government at the time that in exchange for ukraine'sng you territorial activities, they would give up their weapons. they did this and complied. in 2014, russia breaks that agreement that assigned when it invades crimea and continues to occupy that region. i just wanted to clarify that was an agreement reached. this is been a pattern for the russian federation. and: speaking of agreements potential agreements, remind us of what happened with efforts by president trump and president asin last year to form

president trump said in a tweet anjuly 2017, and it ha impenetrable cyber security union? whatever happened with that? guest: especially as we have more and more revolutions about russian breaches into various accounts, certainly we just had the indictment last friday against an additional 12 russian intelligence officers. it's described an incredibly detailing and compelling how these officers were working on the part of the russian government military intelligence unit. this was the russian government strategically stealing information from hundreds of not thousands of americans who were involved in the hillary clinton campaign and also on the republican national committee as well. how can you have a cyber agreement with a country that continues to breach your network

and continues to undermine your own security? i think this is something that's going to be far, far away. alina with us for just a few more minutes. we are expecting the one-on-one between president trump and presenident couldn't to break up -- putin to break up. you any live pictures that come from that when that does happen. taking your calls until then. atlanta,is in georgia. caller: real quick question and comment. the comment is during the rise of mussolini and stalin and franco, there were those who sang their praises fervently, logically, and even rationally. it's amazing that there are people so pro strategy and the

process that trump is using. more importantly here's the question. does anyone have a personal profile of who the translators are? i've not heard anything about the two translators sitting in the room this morning with putin and trump. thank you. guest: that's a great question from the caller. president trump and president putin are meeting one-on-one and the only other people present our translators. who are these people? we will have to find out later. host: how is president clinton's putin's english? could he have done it without a translator? guest: i have only heard him sing in english and say a couple words here and there. there's a very famous video of him singing in english a frank sinatra song. they possibly could have had that meeting, but you do not

want any misunderstandings because of language issues so having a translator is the right call. host: john is in maryland on the line for republicans. go ahead. are you with us this morning? we will go to james in newark, new jersey. good morning. line for democrats. caller: how are you doing? host: doing well. caller: thank you for accepting my phone call. it's been a long time. lady is lun young russian. i have a question asker about christian -- ask her about kruschev. i remember krischev very well. what he think about -- what do you think about kruschev? guest: i think the question was about nikita khrushchev, the

former soviet leader. just one clarification -- i am not russian. i'm american. about him, i'm not sure there's much to be said outside that he is a lone basket -- bombastic leader and he misread negotiations with jfk. has not made similar mistakes about his readings of u.s. leaders. he is certainly much more savvy and was trained as an intelligence officer. this is what he was trained to do his entire life. he was known how to influence people and manipulate them and he continues to do that today. host: david, go ahead. caller: good morning. i have a question. that presidentk trump is so afraid of the mueller investigation? anything,innocent of

i would go about my business and not be against the investigation. if i were guilty of something horrible, i would fight it like crazy like he is. guest: i think the special counsel investigation and indictments that we saw recently certainly places a tinge of pressure on the upcoming meeting. we will see what the investigation actually reveals. i think the president the sees the investigation as an affront to his own legitimacy as president. that seems to be the tech that he has used to attack the justice department and the investigation itself. because we do live in a anocracy and we have independent checks and balances system, the investigation will go on and we will see what it reveals in the time. host: before you go, i didn't want to ask you about the list that has now been released a

court h according to the white house pool report on the mac inside of who will be attending this bilateral lunch. jon huntsman, mike pompeo, john , fiona hill,olton if you could tell us about her, and then the interpreter with the name marina gross. thoughts on that group? guest: that sounds exactly like the right kind of team you want to have around you. certainly the ambassador jon huntsman is very good and very clear. former ambassador to china has had to deal with authoritarian leaders in the past. secretary of state mike pompeo has been tough on russia and saying the right things in my view. kelly has been quieter as a public figure. national security adviser bolton has been making his media rounds thatll, making very clear

u.s. recognition of crimea is something the president alluded to at one point. it's not on the table. there will not be a change in u.s. policy. the on a hill, of course, a former colleague of brookins -- fiona hill, of course, it former colleagues of brookings, is the russia expert. she wrote a book about putin. second edition is called "putin operative in the kremlin." he has the right experts around him, especially around fiona hill. he will know exactly how to read putin in this meeting. host: what were the conclusions about putin in the book? guest: you will have to read it. it's a little complex. he's a man that wears many masks and uses them strategically when he meets you and he very much understands which putin someone needs to meet at a certain time. operative as an

the book title suggests that he understands very well how to manipulate and influence people. host: do you expect any tension between president clinton and mis putin and ms. hill or other officials in the room? guest: i would not expect anything in public view, but there is growing reporting that there are two russian policies going on right now. one is the policy that president trump seems to be running and the other is the actual policy that the administration seems to be running. at the actual policy meeting, what is the initiation doing in terms of statements and budgetary decisions and expulsion of diplomats? that is a very hard line and almost hawkish russian policy. national security advisor bolton and pompeo and mattis views as well. you have president trump who says very positive things about putin and russia despite what his administration has been saying basically since he took office. lina polyakova is a

member of the brookings institute. thank you for joining us. expecting, we are that expanded lunch to begin in just a few minutes. that live, we to will be taking your calls and getting your thoughts as the summit continues to be underway. there's a live shot of the presidential palace in helsinki, finland, the 19th-century palace where all the events today are taking place. nina is up next from new jersey on the line for republicans. good morning to you. caller: good morning. i did want to speak with alina, but i guess i missed her. i wanted to let her know that my family is also from eastern ukraine. i was just a child at the time. of course, we were afraid to go

back with the communists. i just want to say i'm very glad that our president is meeting with president putin. very, very important. crimea does belong to the ukrainian people. it's part of the ukraine. kruschev gave it to the ukrainians. i'm not a history major or thating, but i think president trump should be more open with president clinton. putin. it's a good thing. it's a wonderful thing. he's doing a great job. as far as the smaller investigation -- this muller investigation, final think the russians are ever going to give up their people just like we wouldn't give up our people.

that's only common sense. host: with your roots in the ukraine, do you think president forcefullyeaking enough about this topic from what you have heard so far? do you expect him to be tougher behind closed doors on the topic? caller: i do. i expect him to be tougher behind closed doors. i still have family in eastern ukraine. president will make some kind of a deal with him or do some kind of thing to help ukraine because they do need help. host: what does your family safe life is like right now in eastern ukraine? caller: it's very poor. without sending help or care packages are everything, they are very poor. it's a very poor country. is thewould like to say

president sat down with jeff glor from cbs and i'm very glad he did that. i'm glad he did not sit down with o'donnell because she is very biased against the president. that's really what i need to say. i think our president has done a wonderful job with nato. we finally have a man in the white house that isn't afraid to call it like it is. host: that is nina in new jersey this morning on the issue of ukraine. "the wall street journal" pointing out that it is certainly one of the topics likely to come up amid these discussions. they note that diplomatic efforts to reverse russia's intervention in eastern ukraine and and limit the minsk to resolve the conflict there have made little headway. many observers believe president putin is waiting until next year's presidential election and ukraine. nato members may worry that

president trump may yield to some of russia's demands in that area. after this one on one that is likely to wrap up pretty soon here, there will be an expanded working lunch. that is expected to go for about two hours and then a joint press conference is expected after that before the two leaders depart and go therir separate ways. we are here on " washington journal" getting your thoughts. it's across the atlantic seven hours ahead of the united states. harvey is on the line for democrats. caller: good morning, everyone. putin or russia is not america's problem. the rest of the other countries knows that america has a problem with human rights. it's the only war that black america can't win. it's a race war. all these countries are going to

sit back and watch us destroy ourselves. black people had to fight for civil rights. ofive in the state mississippi with the rebel flag and no one has addressed this problem. organizers have gotten rid of this flag, but one state like mississippi can continue to do this. our problem is not russia, china, or anyone else. we have an inner problem and it's a race problem. i hope donald trump is the man to go ahead and stand up and deal with this instead of just continuing to sweep it under a rug. if we don't deal with it, with black people being locked up in massive numbers and mistreated by police and everything else, that is why like him. he is calling it what it is. it's fake news. we are not addressing our problems in america. in order to make america great again, we have to deal with this race problem. i hope donald trump will address this instead of dealing with putin, russia, or some kind of

collusion. there's no collusion. this is real what's going on in america with us black people. host: neville on the line for independents, go ahead. caller: i would like to address the russia situation and what the russians did. what the russians did is almost as bad as what bin laden did to this country. it's an attack on the country and it needs to be addressed. will note president talk about anything else but focalr make this be his point when he speaks with mr. putin. is the people who are not speaking out, i am asking where are the patriots of

this country? those who would fight for this country? aren't they saying anything about this russian hacking? i think also that the republicans are hoping that them inill help this election coming up and that's why they are so silent on this matter. i hope people will step up and speak out. member of the one trump administration certainly raising the alarm about cyber attacks is the director of national intelligence, dan coats, saying the situation is at a critical point and coming out forcefully against russia. he addressed the hudson institute in washington, d.c. friday saying the warning signs are there, the system is blinking. it is why he said i believe we are at a critical point. today the digital infrastructure that serves the country is

literally under attack. he compared the warning signs to those the united states faced ahead of the september 11 terrorist attacks. that is the cnn story on his statements for the hudson institute from late last week. john in trenton, new jersey, go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my phone call. i don't think donald trump should be meeting with putin because of the pending investigation by mr. mueller. i would suggest to viewers to understand this. if he did not have anything to t he make allldn' his income tax returns available for congress to inspect? why would he need to meet with putin one-on-one? there is something going on and there is something wrong in denmark. i'm an independent. i'm sort of going toward the

democrats now because he is not answering our problems. he should be home answering our problems, not answering their problems. thank you for taking my call. host: before you go, what are the top two or three problems he needs to be answering? caller: he needs to be attending this business about the children and mexico. he needs to be attending our financial deals, not with other countries internally. he should be getting more jobs for our companies. he is worried about china. he is worried about russia. he's worried about korea. he should be focusing on our problems. i never saw the nobody take more golf days in my whole life and not address anything. he's not coming out himself.

he's got to put a surrogate in front of him to answer the problems. i don't see this government as by the people, for the people because he is our servant. we are not his servants. host: that is john in trenton, new jersey this morning. one other column to point you to in today's "usa today" involves comments from both mark warner and marco rubio. the democrat from virginia and marco rubio is a republican from four to. florida. they write that the u.s. and its allies will resist russian aggression. that's the headline on their column. they say the kremlin has been conducting information warfare and active attacks against the west. in 2016 we were taken by surprise and in 2018 there are no excuses. we must be ready, they were. teaming up we are

with canada and europe and we are meeting in washington today, the same day that present from helsinki's summit with vitamin couldn't. our goal -- with vladimir putin. thatoal is to demonstrate the community of democratic nations do not intend to xe to any authoritarians view of the world. caller: hello. host: good morning. caller: i just had a question for the lady before from the brookings institute, but i was wondering what the makeup of crimea was. i understood it was 90% russian. they said they invaded, but that was a base for the navy. i guess the troops were already there. i just wanted to ask her that question. host: do you think that crimea should belong to ukraine or russia? caller: it wasn't connected to russia because they built that

bridge, but it was connected to ukraine. ev gave it toh ukraine, but it is 90% russian. host: what do you think the future of crimea should be? caller: i don't understand how they can give something away. it is more connected to ukraine than it is russia, the landmass. they built this bridge recently to connected to russia. from what i understand, it's 90% russian. if that is true, i would like someone to answer. i was going to ask for that question. talking, au were chart my producer was able to find from "business insider" looking at crimea's historical population. the latest numbers that they have in that chart from 2001 -- about 58.3% russian, about 24.3%

ukrainian, the tartar part the elation -- population about 12.1%. you can look at the historical population of crimea's population going back to the late 1800s as we hear from gary in atlanta, georgia on the line for democrats. go ahead. caller: yes, thank you, c-span. thanks for taking my call. i'm having a little difficulty getting excited about this whole thing because i remember when president barack obama was trying to talk to iran. the same people who are calling kumbaya and this b everything is fine and danny were crucified him. they said he was talking to dictators. now when donald trump is talking to people they act like it's a good thing. we should love everybody. what was wrong with president barack obama loving everybody?

i don't understand the hypocrisy in this country. host: did you think it was a good thing for president obama to be talking with iran? caller: yes, but it was a good thing. i thought it was a good deal. look at what president trump got from north korea. he's got nothing. at least he had something. host: do you think it's a good thing for president trump to be talking to vladimir putin today? caller: i'm having trouble with it because of the hypocrisy. i want to say it's a good thing, but it was such a bad thing when obama did it. how can it be such a good thing when trump does it? i don't understand the difference. host: curtis is waiting in florida on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning, john. remembering -- after world war i, we had the signing of the versailles treaty by the major nations who won the war, the actors in the war -- victors in

the war. we put a lot of stringent things on adolf hitler. he was not supposed to create offensive weapons, but he was doing that all alone. then he got republicans and they went around meeting anybody who would not say heil hitler's, which is reminiscent of these young football players who want salute the flag or stand up for the flag. they would actually in germany in 1932 or 1933 put you in jail if you did not say heil hitler. host: do you think nazi comparisons are helpful and having discourse about the topics happening today? total: i would not say nazi comparisons, but i see a lot of the things that are

happening today. for instance, those people who ability on mr. trump's to do all the things that he is supposedly doing. sendn the past, we would a group of representatives out of the state department to go and lay the groundwork for these kinds of talks. and then the two leaders would meet. they would know what they are going to talk about and they would have some kind of heads up on what was discussed between their subordinates. when you think that you are the smartest cat in the room and you know more than you secretary of state and more than a secretary of defense, in other words, you know more than the doctor that's going to operate on the. you. you've got a problem, john. thank you for taking my call.

host: curtis in florida this morning. secretary of state mike pompeo expected to join the president when this meeting expands to include advisors and others. right now, the president is still meeting one-on-one with vladimir putin. it has been over 90 minutes. the expected 90 minutes so far this morning. when that meeting does expand and that is the next step in the process, it will also include jon huntsman, the u.s. ambassador to russia, john kelly, the president's chief of staff, john bolton, the president's national security advisor, fiona hill, another foreign affairs national security adviser, and the president's interpreter as well. her name is marina gross according to the pool report that has come out. after that working lunch, which is expected to be perhaps two hours long, we are expecting both leaders to come out and make statements in a joint press conference.

we are talking about all morning long on "washington journal." phone numbers getting your reaction to what you are seeing as we bring you this all live this morning. democrats -- (202) 748-8000. republicans --(202) 748-8001. -- (202) 748-8002 . we have that line for those outside the united states at (202) 748-8003. bill is in reading, pennsylvania. go ahead. caller: john, how are you? host: i'm doing well, sir. go ahead. caller: i want to tell you something. i'm greek. .emocracy came from the greeks look at what happens to greece right now. it's down the drain. i don't like to talk about the past. i will say and i pray for the love thepeople to

world and stop talking about the past. we want peace in the world. don't worry about what happened yesterday. it doesn't work. it works tomorrow what's going to happen. i love both of them and i pray for them every day to finish the job correctly and everybody should be happy. that is the way we should be talking instead of criticizing each other like a bunch of morons. god bless you. host: you say they should not worry about what happened yesterday with what happened in ukraine and the ongoing conflict in the ukraine between russia and that country still happening. should that be part of the discussion? caller: yes. i think they should discuss that and i think they should finish it and try to make the best of it to cooperate and work together so we can have peace in the world.

that is what i can say to you. god give us brains to use. you don't work with compromise. you work with common sense. i was in business for years. common sense. god. why are we killing each other? lively criticizing the sky? -- why are we criticizing this guy? this guys doing the best he can. host: is it possible to do compromise with syria and the ongoing involvement with united states and russia? caller: i'm going to tell you something. i don't believe the word compromise. i believe common sense. what is the best for both sides? what is the best for the world? what is the best for the people? that is how you work and how you build. when you build, you come up with a better answer for everybody. thank you. host: to brian in boston,

massachusetts on the line for republicans to go ahead. caller: go ahead. i don't agree with trump meeting up with putin, especially alone in a room with no adults. these are two thugs. both are liars, ok. in got elected in a free and fair election. that's bull. two liars in a room alone with no notetakers. trump represents the u.s. people. they are playing right now, 90 minutes on how he can take over this country and become a dictator. talking about nukes are bad? what was the worst thing he did? smallg about building yields of nuclear bombs that we need and we need to refurbish our nukes. we are going to spend billions of dollars refurbishing our nukes and we can go to putin and say let's disarm our nuclear weapons that we just spent billions of dollars on.

i wonder who's keeping an i on the treasury. this guy is enriching himself. he is up the anti-scumbag -- a thug and a scumbag. we are sworn to protect this country from enemies without and within. you are looking at the enemy on the tv screen -- the two of them. host: do you think the meeting between president trump and kim jong-un was worthwhile? caller: hell no. it was a joke. look at what they did. three presidents the guy wanted legitimacy. stand up on stage with the flags next to one another. you've got a guy starting his own people. people running through barb wire to get out of that country. here's this guy up on stage with our president shaking hands. macho trump. he has made a mockery of the presidency. i connect presidential. i just walked this way.

firm handshake, look him in the eye. he can tell. he is like a mind reader. he's america worker. -- he's a miracle worker. host: some news out of north korea and those ongoing discussions since that summit. this from "the washington post" today. u.s. military officials met with north korean counterparts to discuss the repatriation of american soldiers after the korean war. they said the meeting was "productive" although several details about the transfer of the remains have to be worked out. there were some agreements about how the initial transfer of remains would proceed according to a u.s. official who is not authorized to speak about the meeting. secretary oft, state mike pompeo said the talks were "productive and cooperative and resulted in fro firm commitments."

officials would be meeting today to work out next steps including the transfer remains already collected in north korea. more reading if you want to in today's "washington post." bruce in indiana on the line for democrats go ahead. caller: thank you. it's a good thing that president is meeting with him. it's positive to me on terms instead of throwing bodies at each other. he did a decent job in north korea. he's doing the best he can. that's about all i've got to say. l is in ohio on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. i think the guy from massachusetts claimed he was a republican. i see that a lot. they call on the republican lines and say they are

republicans and they are actually democrats. they have been doing it for years. it's no big thing. he is talking about trump ly ing. this is what's wrong with our country right now. about the summit, it's a good thing. you have to be whacked in the head to think that it's not. you cannot get nowhere by not talking to somebody. it's just common sense. look at the comments hillary made the other day. she probably doesn't know. that's how she is. i use that word obsolete. what we have got to do is get some new people on. we have got to stick with what we've got. we have no choice. he is in there now. let's try to help him. let's try to get where we are going. host: who are some of the new people you would like to see in the 2018 election?

caller: the midterms are coming right up. to, they listening need to get rid of nancy pelosi. says, stuffings she like that don't help. we can't move forward when you've got people calling up and just writing on everybody. it doesn't work. you know how it is. you know more about it than i do. i can see the expression on your face. more of your calls in a few minutes. we will keep you up-to-date on where we are, we are waiting for the end of that one-on-one between the president and president putin.

we will have more details on that working lunch that will happen afterwards. that will go about two hours. then we are expecting statements from both donald trump and president putin. we are looking at the live pictures. we are joined by jeffrey edmonds , he served on the national tourity council from 2014 27. he is a global fellow at the wilson center. we are waiting for those live pictures. far,what you have seen so what do you think? guest: there were some issues that are worth talking about, there are things he needs to protect. the concern i would have is his tendency to not really prepare well for these meetings. the russian side will have planned and mapped out every way

the conversation could go. they may take advantage of something he might not know. there are some positive things on the agenda. host: what constitutes a win for them coming of the meeting? guest: president clinton already has a win -- vladimir putin already has a win for having the meeting. he will have a number of things he wants out of this, some statements. he will be looking to set up president trump and be able to help them say he got a victory, when you look at north korea. he is really going to want something from here. it's going to be in some way resolving a problem. days, theecent victories that might be delivered might be in syria when it comes to iranian influence in

syria and israeli security. what might that deal be about? guest: what it would look like would be some kind of deal worthy iranians are not allowed israel. in syria near that is a redline for israel and they are ready to attack. i doubt they have the ability to do that with iran or whether they would comply. that's what the deal would be. host: you don't believe they have the influence over iran in syria? the conflict with israel is more important to iran than russia. much,alue their ties very the iranian concern outweighs that. host: how many troops does russia have in syria at the moment? guest: it's hard to tell. one thing the military does is

calibrate russian presence in syria. willll remove aircraft, he move ships or send troops and bring them back. hashere is a flareup, he declared victory 15 times. when the leader perceives is been solved, he will bring them back. do they coordinate strikes so as not to get in each other's way and have a disaster in the region? guest: i would see they coordinate and work together to decide what to strike. we do make sure that as much as we can our aircraft are not operating to each other and let each other know where we are going to do something. troopremind us what our presence is like in the region

when it comes to finishing up operations against isis and monitor with going on. guest: we have a large standing force in iraq and number in syria that are there to support the coalition operation there. is with usey edmonds for the next half hour. he was a director of russian issues on the national security council. he is at the wilson center. we are taking your calls and questions. .emocrats, (202) 748-8000 .epublicans, (202) 784-8001 and dependent voters, (202) 748-8002. let's do what we just did in the did in the

middle east, eastern ukraine. ask land -- explain what the footprint is with the conflict going on. guest: the russians will calibrate eastern ukraine depending on what going on. for the most part, actual russians are advises to the separatist forces in eastern ukraine. getting beaten by the ukrainian army and it was russian regular troops and artillery that changed the day. see vladimir will putin use the military as a way of calibrating the presence there and making sure ukraine doesn't turn west, defeating the separatists. to have ahe idea stalemate in a certain region? could russia put in forces that could actually win that fight in terms of airplanes and tanks. guest: they have the capability. they have in the past. host: why not just when it? guest: i don't know that they

want to control ukraine. what they want is a solution that prevents ukraine from leaning more to the west. they don't want ukraine in nato. i think they would rather have some kind of institutionalized political settlement that would prevent ukraine from orienting to the west. they are more than happy to take the conflict. host: what support is the u.s. giving to the ukrainian government? guest: we have advised the military and tried to help them. we are canceling and working with it but -- counseling and working with advisers to improve the military long-term. we provided limited antitank weapons. those aren't really going to make a qualitative change on the battlefield. it's more a show support. we need to help modernize the

ukrainian military. host: now is the time to call in. the lines are as usual. we have a special line outside (202)ited states, 748-8003. kenneth is in springfield, missouri. caller: good morning. support ukraine a lot more than they have. material, not necessarily troops on the but the speaker was saying, to improve the ukrainian military to where they can hold

their own against the russians. that's my comment on that. guest: i would agree. the way forward is not just supplying arms, but ensuring the ukrainian military can defend itself. that is going to take time. the need to work on corruption in the military, where money is spent. those are things we need to do going forward. host: is there a way to bring them into nato? guest: not that i'm aware of. it has been mentioned before. vetoedsense, russia has it in a certain sense. there wasn't much talk when i was at the white house for bringing ukraine into nato. ukraine has a right to choose its own strategic direction. that's why we put in sanctions against russia for the accession of crimea.

-- annexation of crimea. host: what was your take away from the nato summit? guest: i think in one sense it's good that nato is increasing spending. that's only one metric and we close it -- focus too much on the 2%. the waypersonally think in which the president encourage them to spend is constructive. i think there are other ways to do that. many presidents have had issue with nato spending. it's good that they decided to increase spending. we need to work at what capabilities they need to counter things. when he to think about the outputs rather than just 2%. you could spend 2% on people who are useless. host: there is no direction given about we need this or could use this. guest: there is a real push to produce more things like tanks

and aircraft, you can spend a lot on military pensions. that's not useful. conversationve the more to one of the capabilities nato needs based on the current threat. when he to focus on how we are getting to that point. host: what do you think the capabilities would be western mark guest: if we are talking about deterring russia, we need to look at regular conventional forces, aircraft, tanks, training. we need to be able to move forces into allied states. we need to work on those things. there has been a lot of talks of hybrid, that's not as much of a threat, the hybrid warfare in

crimea. we need to think about old-fashioned conventional warfare. host: charles, you are on. caller: i thank you for taking my call. somebodyv, i heard mentioned him, he shook his shoe addison said they would bury us. and are using communism jeffrey agrees with that, they want world domination whether it's china or russia. on, i would like to comment they did it out of love for one another and their leaders that it out of love for one another. the problem with communism is when socialism gets in there, then you have people who don't care about anybody but themselves in charge.

a $4 million has home. the democrats started out with slaves, then they got them as slaves under welfare as a constant. it kept them in that situation so they would vote a certain way. host: what do you want to pick up on? guest: i appreciate your intuition on what the russians want. i would push back on the idea of world domination. thatill hear people say vladimir putin is trying to return russia to superpower status. i think he is trying to remind the world that russia has always been one. it's not so much world domination, i think they want a privileged lace in the international order and a recognition of influence.

i think they want a say in what happens in their neighborhood and they want a key role in international affairs. host: president trump had a series of tweets heading into the discussion. he was talking about was on his mind. you were part of the national security council until 2017. what did you know at that point about russian meddling? guest: they wanted to undermine the election and it did seem like they were going to support president trump. wasof the challenges we had to preserve our system and the nature of the electoral process, we didn't want to appear influencing the election.

in retrospect, we took that too far. i'm not sure the responses after the election were significant. the election meddling is something we need to struggle with. we have a long way to go. i think i would've laid out some clear consequences. if you do this, we will do this. you have to be willing to sanction. or take other cyber domain action. i don't know we computed gated that.- communicated if not sure we postured enough publicly. it's a very serious thing. if you do this, we will respond in a serious way. host: where was the concern it appeared like you might be influencing the election? did that come from president obama? guest: it came from the west wing in general, it's a valid

concern. we want to want to be seen as messing with the election. at what point are we doing our due diligence by protecting the process and what are we taking that too far. we don't want to create the perception that we are biasing the election. host: have you been surprised about the extent of the meddling? did you have a sense back then that it was as bad as we have seen now? with the intelligence assessment after the election, we had a better idea. if we are still discovering some things. said i wase surprised at the level of influence or attempted influence they tried to achieve. we need to spend some serious time looking at the different vulnerabilities in the system. host: back to your phone calls. good morning. caller: good morning.

i worked in the nsc under reagan. thatnd i both know russians were our allies in world war ii and we spent six years engaged in a cold war. now we have a different russia. i think we both know from a national security standpoint the average american is subject to manipulation and perhaps wrong facts by the media and by the fact that we tend not to report things to the depth we look for. think the national security agenda ought to be long-term with the russians? term, can youiate comment on the approach that mr. , includinging now

sanctions and other activities that are not receiving public attention? thank you. host: thank you for the question. guest: one thing we made mistakes in the past, the believe that a personality can come into the white house and readdress the russian relationship. we have significant differences in the way we view the world. forward, we need to look at our own vulnerabilities and capabilities. counter especially russia. at the same time, i push back against isolation. we need to engage the russians and have talks and strategic stability talks.

we need to maintain those channels. what that helps us do is understand our adversary. russia sees us as the adversary. veryed to take that seriously going forward. we need to educate the populace as to what the nature of the relationship is and what the dangers are. the approach we are taking now, i agree with a number of the sanctions. i think congressionally based sanctions are inflexible. they may stay on after there would be a change in the relationship. it's hard to draw them back in a congressional setting. the other thing that troubles me is president trump portraying the relationship in very personal terms and they are not an enemy because he gets along with vladimir putin. there is much more to the relationship the map.

we do need to talk and meet and work on certain issues. there is room for a new start treaty. we need to be honest about the relationship going forward. host: linda is in new york. good morning. understand, i don't helping ukraine. we have a president that congratulates russia for invading these places. i just don't understand that. the other point i wanted to make is one man called and said democrats are calling on republican lines. i think people have to use their own judgment. just because you are a republican does it mean you agree with what the president does. that would be stupid. thank you. think a number of the

comments in the favor way that donald trump sees vladimir putin is troubling. at the same time, there is a large part of the washington elected officials that really do understand that russia, we have a very adversarial relationship we need to take seriously. that's why you see measures taken to counter russian aggression. we will continue to see that regardless of what comes out of the summit. host: richard is in kentucky. go ahead. caller: that was a lie, he never congratulated putin. 2016, when obama expelled all of these russians from the embassy, i wonder how many of those people had to do with cyber security. tell them to rice

stand down when they came to her with the meddling that was going on. it's because he knew what he was going to do and he was going to use it against donald trump. we know it's a big farce. i am behind the president all the way. i would like to know the names of the people that obama kicked out before the 2016 election. you can explain some of it. guest: the individuals were kicked out because of their activities that were inconsistent with their diplomatic status. it sent a confusing signal based on the election meddling. not to my knowledge did susan

rice actually ask anybody to stand down. one of the challenges, we didn't understand what the russian intent was. were they going to mess with voter rolls? that again, not knowing what they were going to do let us to want to preserve the system as is. that we didn'ted do more. i don't think there was mallon tent there. host: gary is in indiana. caller: i have two questions. crimea, what is the strategic advantage that is so important to them militarily? when they influence or get involved with our politics to sway an election, what kind of tricks are they using? i keep hearing that they do

this, but nobody says this is the tactic and watch out for it. i will take my question off-line. host: do you want to start on crimea? militarysh ahead forces in crimea. geographically it provides a nice spot in the black sea with long-range anti-ship missiles to reach into the black sea. they worry about u.s. forces in that region. it provides quite a bit for them there. tohink the general tactic is find division in society. the is something that military kernels talk about. they insert themselves into some kind of divisive issue. it doesn't matter what the issue is. it's not necessarily a right

left thing. they try to widen that divide to undermine the institutions they feel are anti-russian. we click on things that we normally like and we don't challenge ourselves enough. that leaves us easy targets for fake news the russians would inject into the media stream that become popular. people were retreating things in that theyformation weren't aware they had gotten from the russians. the intent is to increase the divides in society. host: a reminder of where we are when it comes to the summit. we are waiting for that eating with more visors to begin at the presidential palace in helsinki. it is about 4:30 p.m. local time in helsinki.

meeting begins, the staff will include jon huntsman, mike pompeo, john kelly, john bolton, fiona hill. 's interpreter will be there as well. we are joined by jeffrey edmonds . he is a former russian director for the national security council. through, we just ran your thoughts on that group of people? guest: it's a pretty standard team. ambassador huntsman has done a good job in balancing both the need to engage the russians and the relationship we have had. i think the national security adviser, he might have sim internal conflicts. he tends to be rather hawkish

and i don't know how he feels about this. fiona hill is exceptional. she understands vladimir putin very well and understands the issues as well as anybody. was a former brooking team member. she wrote a book on food and that is one of the standard reads on understanding of. she spent a lot of energy and really understands his background, his motivations, the context in which he became president of russia. interpreter, talk about the role of the interpreter. his the summit comes from a national security background? who does the president bring in? guest: they would certainly have the clearances. in the oval office with obama when he call vladimir

putin, you have your own translator. obama's translator would understand how he said things and what he meant by certain phrases. i assume that is true with donald trump's team. it's kind of a long process. it is pretty redundant. the rest of us aren't sitting around and taking notes. you get together afterward and talk about what was actually said. host: did you ever meet him personally? guest: i did not. host: we are awaiting this event, this working lunch that should again. we are expecting to have some live pictures from that. we will take your calls until that begins. go ahead. caller: good morning.

i wanted to ask about the uranium during the obama administration. host: the uranium sales? guest: i don't have any views on the suppose it uranium sales. i think there is a lot of misinformation about that. host: matt is in new york. good morning. scenariosee the in the meeting. they would get up and shake --ds host: we are going to stop for a moment.

president trump is speaking at the lunch. host: and the camera is being ushered out of the meeting. that was a brief live shot of the sit-down with the teams. they begin what is expected to be a two-hour working lunch. i don't know if you had a chance to spot any of the russian officials? who was he likely be bringing in? guest: i didn't see that. he will bring in his national security advisor, some military generals, he will have a strong team there. they will have taken the opportunity to really map this out. we used to do this forth president obama, a 70 page argument -- document. this is what you might want to say if he goes down this.

into what's key to going on. they will be able to anticipate different things. host: you think they can anticipate president trump since he has a different style? guest: i think he would be a harder target to really understand. that's why they devote so much energy to this. the previous policies were clear and consistent. there was more predictability. host: it's time for a couple of more calls with jeffrey edmonds. we will go to philadelphia. good morning. i just want to say that i love this country. anyone who loves their country the government should be willing to work with us.

we want them to be friends to us. money onuntry spends an election or sends and likeers or military ukraine, what happened this time is they used the internet. now we are letting everybody know that somebody is meddling with our elections. we have been doing that from the beginning of time of when the united states was sending people to britain in order to associate and deal with them. host: get to the question. take us to your question. to jeffrey,uestion

my question about the united states? what is my question? i just wanted to make a comment. upt: we are letting him pick on what he wants to from your comment. -- the russians believe we of meddled in their collections previously. i know that not to be true. this is a view held by the russians. it's going to be hard to take them from that notion. i don't think we have never done that. is neither theg russians nor anyone else should feel they can interfere in our internal politics. host: the last call for jeffrey edmonds. go ahead. caller: i will be brief.

i agree 100% that the russians shouldn't have their hands in anything in this country, i would like this general and to $20ent on obama sending million over to undermine netanyahu in israel. that's extreme hypocrisy. knowledge of no president obama funding any kind of political entity in israel. host: he is a global fellow at the wilson center. if you want to follow his work, thank you so much. underweight,is that lunch that expanded between president trump and vladimir putin and his team. that followed a one-on-one that went on for over two hours this morning. some brief comments were made by

both president trump and vladimir putin before they went into that meeting. we will show you those comments and then come back for more phone calls. [indiscernible]

>> thank you very much. first of all, i would like to congratulate you on a really great world cup, one of the best ever from what everybody tells me, one of the best ever and also your team doing so well. i watched quite a bit in the united states, we call it soccer. i watched the finals and the semi finals and they were really spectacular games. congratulations.

most importantly, we have a lot of good things to talk about. discussions on everything from trade to the military and china. we talked a little bit about china, our mutual friend president xi. we have great opportunities together as two countries. been getting along very well for the last number of years. close to two years, i think we will end up

having an extraordinary relationship. getting along with russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. i really think the world wants to cs get along. we are the two great nuclear powers. nuclear,0% of the that's not a good thing. hopefully, we can do something about that. we will be talking about that among other things.

with that, the world awaits. i look forward to a personal discussion. you have quite a few representatives. we have a lot of questions and we will come up with answers. that personal discussion he referred to took place over the course of about two hours this morning. after that, they both were joined by their teams and went into a working lunch. the president made a very brief statement i have that. he was asked how his one-on-one

went. >> i think it's a good start. very good start for everybody. host: at that point, the cameras were escorted out of the room. that working lunch is now underway. onare getting your thoughts this summit, on what you expect to come from it. what you hope they are talking about. phone lines, democrats (202) 748-8000. publicans (202) 784-8001. and dependent voters (202) 748-8002. thanks for waiting. you are next. caller: good morning. i guess i would like to say that if people are worried about the , the republican party could do the same thing.

everyone is so concerned about the russian meddling. we should be looking internally and for figuring out ways that our democracy won't be thrown away to these people. that's a fact. heple voted for bernie, would have been the president. host: some reporting in the washington times on statements from homeland security. that story noted that the homeland security secretary said there are no signs that russia is targeting the midterm elections with the same scale and scope they targeted the 2016 election.

that story is in the washington times. ellen is in massachusetts. go ahead. caller: good morning. i'm concerned about infrastructure. it seems to me if obama or the current administration wanted to , we could useng sanctions or fortify our infrastructure. grid, notur power just what jeffrey edmonds was speaking about. that seems to be a congressional issue. i know defense is working on this kind of thing, we can't say we will retaliate cyber if they turn off everyone's electricity.

you should have a show on that sometime. host: do you think congress is doing its job on that? caller: no. that was what trump ran on. this is the reason why it needs to be done. that's how he was running on. he wasn't all that opposed to it. i'm not sure congress would do it. whether they have any idea how it could be done. i don't know if m.i.t. or stanford have any idea. somebody should be thinking about that. host: that was ellen in massachusetts. what congress is doing this week as the summit continues today, some focus to pass a variety of additional spending bills. one of them would include funding for the border wall.

thatashington times notes he will be happy with the funding they are including in the next homeland security bill. yoder didssman kevin not state what the numbers would be. the spending bill was the last of the annual funding members to be written by house republicans. it is the most contentious at a time when immigration is a toxic issue for many in washington. he wants to get through the appropriations committee. they will have a five-week summer vacation in august. ron is in the florida. caller: i just wanted to comment. when you watch the two gentlemen are two sidesthey of the same coin.

their only interest is in money. you've got two of the richest men in the world sitting down together. out how toguring make each other richer. that's all they are interested in is money. i think vladimir putin helped get trump elected because he figured he is a greedy man and he can manipulate him. what he did not expect such a wildcard. thank you. host: the sit-down you referred to is now around the table for lunch. here is a picture of the meeting room where that lunch meeting is taking place. this is from the white house pool reporter that was there. they were there for about one minute. pictures they the were able to snap in that room. that meeting is underway.

it will last perhaps two hours. we will have a joint press conference afterwards. we are taking your calls this morning. earl is in georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. it's a blessing to be alive today. i was stationed in the balkans. russian soldiers thought they were better then the united states. when we got ready to leave the balkans, we had to wait on the runway. we couldn't go inside the airport. news.istening to fox they turned that place out. in theutting your trust lord jesus christ rid of god is

telling us -- jesus christ. god is telling us what is going on. ask you about your experience in the balkans? the russians thought they were better than u.s. soldiers? caller: to me, they always thought they were big and bad. they always thought that. host: because of their weaponry? how much interaction did you have with them western mark -- them? caller: they would come to our gates and how they would react to the united states. i was there almost a year. in the balkans. host: how often did you come in contact with them? it was mostly at the checkpoints.

it was a beautiful country. they messook at how with the ocean, they always do this stuff. for us to say they are a good country, look how they mess with the ocean. connecticutou is in on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i will try not to sound too awful. fornt to thank the russians interfering with our election. to stop hillary clinton from becoming president. that woman has got illusions of grandeur.

that man, the whole time he was in the white house was fooling around sexually with monica lewinsky. he is an accused rate this. he has never denied it. his wife never did anything to stop them from doing that. host: do you think russian interference was the reason president trump won the election? caller: yes. because the russians interfered. what would we do with hillary in the white house? she doesn't know what she's doing. emailse did with those to put a server in her living room or wherever she put it. host: can is in virginia. good morning. i have a couple of comments. amazed that the

doj came out with indictments russians2 military with details accounts of how they hacked this. the president still denies it. that is a red flag in itself. the second thing, i'm confused why the republicans are quiet. you have paul ryan who is on his way out. he says absolutely nothing. it's a telling story when you have the republicans who are supposed to the the ones that , obama, -- trump is really bowing down to vladimir putin. it's very disturbing.

made on julys he 27 of 2016 will come back to haunt them. that's when they started to hack. it's coming. the indictments for hacking into democratic groups during the election, the financial times noted that they cloud his summit with vladimir putin. aside the brushed indictments against the intelligence officials. they accused his rivals to disrupt the summit. the russian foreign ministry withed out its agreement

president trump's earlier tweet about the relationship with russia, when he said that our relationship has never been -- u.s.anks to you less foolishness and stupidity and the witchhunt. victoria is in ohio. go ahead. deny that we have done nothing in terms of spying and interfering with their politics is ridiculous. we both come from self-interest. we both want with best for our country. i have a question on the use of language. anyone other than the interpreters.

i wonder if he speaks russian. it's a very complicated language. people on how many the u.s. team, not the interpreters, speak russian. host: why do you think that's important? i think we lost victoria. brian is up next. he is in michigan. go ahead. the thing i can't believe is you have conflicts of interest with robert mueller. shawn henry is working for the fbi is the head of crowd strike. too, he saidting the russians had hacked him. our government has not looked at

that server. we have actually subcontracted cyber security. ,he founding of crowd strike that's the most hard-line liberal lawyer international outfit on earth. represent fusion gps. this is unbelievable. it's unbelievable that we are so dumb. a republican in north carolina. good morning. caller: hello. host: go ahead. caller: good morning, i am an immigrant from ukraine. i believe in russia and in , there is a corrupt and criminal government. ukrainian, culturally we

are russian. language, same religion, same culture. russia tooky that something from ukraine, i don't understand how russia can take something from herself. todoesn't make any sense many people. host: do you think that russia should be able to take more of ukraine? caller: i think ukraine is russia. it's the same people and same country and same history. i don't understand it. people actually think that way. that's why the united states is a country for the people.

they are getting into those wars that enrich themselves. because into the war somehow they profited from that. john is in ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to make two points. , i can hear the immigration problem today. all we have to do is get everybody hello? host: go ahead. fruit, pick our vegetables for a year. if they would stop everybody .oming to pick our stuff, the other thing i would like to point out is we went through a coup. billionaires in 50 states got together, they put

all of this money and took over the government. they bought it. the pull it off. that's a fact of life. that's why mitch mcconnell is running everything. that's why nobody holds his feet to the fire for anything. why do you think that is? why do you think obama couldn't get away with any of this? that's it for me. have a great day. i love america. in the line for independent voters. caller: our governments change. people change. muslim movinghe

around the world, going into our european allies. we have more in common with russia, a christian america has more in common with russia because of our christian values , syriae russian orthodox has the oldest christian government in the world. russia was torn in between. i think russia and the u.s. have more in common now than we do with our allies. our allies aren't christian governments? see the wholeo thing become open and understand that governments change and countries change. ourselves lose control of our country because

of people wanting to change the values of the constitution and our independence. we have an elected president. there was a landslide victories. people voted. country tired of our being run into the ground and having our president vowed to mullahs. can't be bought off by anybody. he loves america. this president is one of the that we've had since jfk will do right by america. that is my comment. host: that was leroy in new york. it is coming up on 10:00 on the east coast. between president

trump and vladimir putin continues today. they are in the expanded bilateral meeting with advisers from both sides sitting and having a working lunch this morning. 9:30got underway around eastern time. it was expected to last about two hours and there is expected to be statements from both president trump and president putin after that meeting and we will bring them to you when that does happen. and its the brief scene came after a to our one-on-one between president trump and president putin. we're taking your calls and continuing with the washington journal. phone lines, democrats, (202)-748-8000. republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents, (202)-748-8002. as can continue to call in

we show you the room for that expected press conference will take place after that lunch meeting. you can see podiums there for both president trump and president putin. the american and russian federation flags of their -- flags they are -- flags there. hopethoughts on what you president trump and president putin say if this press conference when they emerge from this day of meetings. you can join us by phone and .lso online on twitter, a few comments from members of congress. the thoughts of those numbers of congress about the president's meeting with vladimir putin. fdr did not meet with the

japanese after pearl harbor. george h.w. bush to not meet with saddam after iraqi invaded kuwait. tell me, president trump, what does america get out of you meeting with president putin after he attacked us?" , agressman adam schiff member of the house select intelligence committee responding to the president's tweet in which he said the stories you heard about the 12 russians took place during the obama administration, why didn't they do something about it? he asked and adam schiff responding that they are not stories but charges. you asked russians for help on july 27 and they responded. read paragraph 22 of that indictment. obama did something, he called out the russians, something you are incapable of doing. adam schiff was encouraging president trump to cancel this summit meeting. one more tweet from a republican member of congress.

a series of tweets over the weekend heading into the summit. here is the last few from that series saying no matter how much president, he the is a kgb thug who jails and directs a military that bombs women and children and the injured in hospitals in syria. i don't think president trump should be dignifying president putin with this meeting. when reagan met with gorbachev, he did so from a position of strength and with a clear purpose to end the soviet union's threat to the u.s.. president trump should only have one message for putin at this meeting. america.ing with this meeting will take place sometime in the next two hours or so. sandra in new york, line for democrats. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call. president trump is saying that there was no russian meddling but yet president obama should have done something about it. that does not compute. not much has been said but didn't president obama asked mitch mcconnell and i believe paul to issue a joint statement about russian meddling and he was told no and if he did it on his own, that they would take that as him putting his finger on the scale for the election. i will listen off the air. go, do youe you think president obama did enough in terms of what he could do? caller: i don't know. that had he put it out there, it would have been

taken that he was trying to stack the deck hillary clinton. i am torn. we are in trouble in this country. we are in trouble. democrats, republicans, independents, we are people. family, wee love our hurt, we ache. we need to try to make some kind of connection. president obama is no longer the president. we can debate about what he should have done, but he is gone. we need to know what president trump is going to do now. a story from npr from this january on the topic that you brought up. former vice president joe biden said that he and president obama decided not to speak out publicly during the 2016 election after senate majority leader mitch mcconnell refused

to sign a bipartisan statement condemning the kremlin's role. speaking at a council on foreign relations event, he said the obama administration sought united run to dispel concerns that going public with such accusations would be seen as an effort to undermine the the of election. however, the, quote, wanted no part of having a bipartisan commitment saying essentially, russia is doing this, stop. at that point, biden added that he felt the dye had been cast and that this was about the political play. can you imagine if the president called a press conference in october with dan in company and said russians are trying to interfere in our elections and we have to do something about it. with things have gotten better -- would things have gotten better? that story from npr from late this past january. brad in international falls,

minnesota, republican. caller: good morning. i am always interested in this. i have talked many times about this. about thes always deal with obama backing up and not saying anything about the russian meddling. it all basically boils down to that he thought truly that hillary was going to win. he was going to hold this above her. he still wanted to control her. to see thisf sad whole propaganda spin about how obama did not want to do nothing because it would affect the election. host: can you explain how he would have had some sort of leverage over hillary clinton if she was elected? caller: because he had all the emails and the bad thing she was doing.

he knows all about the clinton foundation. they received $150 million from the russians during her tenure as secretary of state. if you think $150 million is going to leave russia without putin's blessing because i will tell you to buy a lottery ticket. it just doesn't happen. it sounds good but here is the real problem. the media is taking the democratic -- the good democratic people of the party down a rabbit hole, and that is what is really happening today. host: how do you think the media has treated this summit that is happening? caller: did they treat the frenchanything like the -- the french prime minister just met with putin. did he talk about that? both you and i know that the

russians hacked into their election systems and their servers. how many people did putin meet with in the last two weeks? well that putin treats every other country, especially a democratic country like france , but a couple other meetings throughout the world that he had. did you hear the media talk about them? host: that is brad in minnesota. this is the first formal summit meeting between president trump and president putin, although not their first actual meeting. they have called each other and have met publicly at least twice at international events. that was the sit-down, the

formal greeting that took place at the beginning of this summit. an over twont into hour meeting. we will find out more about what they had to talk about when they come out for their joint press conference. here is the rumor that press conference will be taking place. you can see members of the media. the lunch that is taking place now, the extended lunch with aides and other advisors was scheduled to go about two hours and it started just after 9:30 eastern time. we will see if they stick to that schedule. they have not stuck to the schedule so far this morning. we will of course see what happens as we take your calls on the washington journal. democrats, (202)-748-8000. republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents, (202)-748-8002. if you are outside the united states, (202)-748-8003.

cheryl, line for independents. caller: good morning. i think meeting with putin is a great thing for president trump to do. they are two great minds. there is a lot of hysteria in america about battling. obama said it was impossible for that to happen. that is what i heard him say. i think hillary interfered more than anybody. spy to writeussian up a. ca. a whole lot of crap we here in the media. i don't think anything is accomplished by rumors and stories. the two men should sit down. i think he is going to handle it just fine. was a goodu think it thing for the obama administration to talk with the iranian regime and that took place? caller: no.

and all of the billions of dollars he gave to them. i don't think he should've been doing any of those things. host: why is it a good thing that president trump talks to someone like vladimir putin but it was a bad thing for president obama to have those kinds of conversations with other world leaders that don't have the best relationship with united states? them ishis talking with things we don't know anything about. these are things he would not discuss with congress. same thing with cuba. he lifted the embargo like it was nothing. nothing had changed in cuba. he did things that he wanted to do and he was not transparent. host: you think there is going

to be transparency from president trump about what occurs behind closed doors for about two hours this morning when the president and vladimir putin met one-on-one with just their interpreters? caller: i do. i think he likes to talk. he talks more than most people. it is the most we have ever heard from a president. reagan had no problem with gorbachev and we had no problem with stalin. we can work with people. we don't need to spread all of this hysteria. the sky is not falling. we will be fine. host: bob is in new jersey. republican. caller: good morning. why is so many people on the left so upset with trump meeting with putin when in reality, the only way that world leaders can solve any problems is having

face-to-face conversations? you just can't hate somebody because they are from a certain country like the democrats are telling us. we can't accept anything putin says. how do we know that? that is my question. host: do you think putin has america's best interest in mind? haser: i don't think putin america's best interests in mind, i think he has russia's best interest. about us having our best interests when we talk with another country and we tell them what we will expect and what we will do. we're not just going to do for them like obama giving the $1.5 billion. what did they do in return? they walked around the streets saying death to america. trump is not going to give putin any money. we are showing you the room in the finished -- in the

h presidential palace where that press conference a going to take place for we will hear from president trump and president putin. some background on some of the more famous gatherings between the united states and russia that have taken place in finland and helsinki. the most significant was the u.s.-soviet summit in 1975. during that time, president gerald ford met with lenin brezhnev with talks that reduce the helsinki accords. they gathered 35 nations to forging new cold war understanding. signing was pushed into on human rights conventions. posted a990, helsinki

summit between george h.w. bush and mikael gorbachev. the soviet union was collapsing. russia and the united states were embracing one another as the cold war ended. president ronald reagan has also meant -- had also used helsinki as a stopping off point before a major summit in moscow with gorbachev. an official told l.a. times then they picked finland because it is a place for you can go and do no heavy lifting. perhaps some heavy lifting being done today in this summit meeting between president trump and president putin for over two hours and now extended lunch taking place in the media filling in were that press conference is going to be taking place today. taking your calls. louisiana, line for democrats. caller: first of all, i would like to apologize or having to call in on this democrat line.

i hate to be put in that category. you mentioned the room where we have the american flags. the first thing i noticed is we don't have the yellow frill around the flag. apparently we are not in maritime. this is back on the land, not on the sea. we are not under admiralty law in this meeting we are having is apparently trump and the military coup has taken our country back. we were under the control of the crown. when trump met with the crane -- with the queen, she stumbled and acted like she was going to fall because she had to get out of the way of the man who was replacing her. she was removed from the crown was she surrendered to america. they will be returning everything back to the american people through they stole --

which they stole through united -- es incorporated turning us into entities. host: mickey in connecticut, line for republicans. i heard some great comments. i am definitely for trump. i was a 40 year registered democrat and i changed to republican. i worked the polls. my question in my concern has been how can the russians pack the polls in the voting. i worked the polls of the democrat. i work as a republican. there is some hard-working people and we make sure we do everything we possibly can to

make sure that that voting is fair. we don't talk political believes. we do our job -- beliefs. we do our jobs. everybody is a regular person, taking everybody's vote. the only people we have a wholem with are the ones don't want to show their license and think they can get away with that. -- eric catch those people, but -- ever catch these people, but my question, the investigation which is funny because all the people that worked with obama went over to help hillary and her campaign. i think they are tied together as far as the election for

hillary. i hear hillary blames the russians for screwing up her campaign. my question is what did she do campaign that did not even make the dnc? she afforded that on her own. the russians did not do that. host: are you planning to work the polls and 2018? caller: i have not been asked. it is a you are not sure or not and there are complications. i was not able to serve. i had an injury and the people that hired me said he did not show up and we had problems trying to replace him and everything but i was good at what i did. , went to as a director assistant moderator. host: who hired you for that?

is that something through the secretary of state's office? town sothat is in each you will work with the registrar .n the town host: how much screening do you have to do. you want to be a moderator or a registrar, you .ave to take a few courses you do have to know your information. i think they do a great job here. how is it possible that that even happens? host: does that include training on poll security?

anything to be aware of in this and some ofronics the concerns that we have seen, about -- have seen come up about polling? caller: you can't really do anything except use the machines. if the machine jams, you have to take -- you have to call technical people to come and fix the problem. last time it was a matter of opening the machine up and the ballots get stuck. end, there are only the people that go through the line, they get the ballot, they put the ballot in. if it doesn't run, we take a manila envelope, we cover the ballot and we try to help them push it in. we don't look at the ballot or anything.

explain totrying to people how to vote, you can't point to a particular candidate. possible be as fair as , including don't bring cell phones in. a lot of the laws are trying to say that is not fair. also don't bring political -- in oron in or wear a political t-shirt. i don't think you should influence any voters when they are in the polls. you can do it outside when you are campaigning. does that may sense -- does that make sense? host: thank you for walking us through it. dorothy is in portland, oregon. line for democrats. caller: thank you for taking my call. connecticut, for you to let him go on and i know

you are trying to be fair and you want to hear all sides of the issue, but it is so obvious he doesn't know anything about the grade of just sitting there and watching people vote. he has no experience, no great expertise. that maybe atking maybe at some point you should have cut him off way back. he was so biased. caller: host: tell us -- host: tell us about your experience. what do you do? caller: i am retired, i am a senior. it is funny because i am sitting who listening to seniors are white and it is like we live in two different worlds. it would seem to me the difference is privilege and access to the system. how are you going to criticize a system that is built and designed around you? as far as trump being in russia.

hearing, he is really representing my people in this country who have bought into a lot of propaganda that is destabilizing the country and they don't have enough touch with reality to be able to distinguish the difference. problem withinat .merica today people, goodny people, but they don't have the human experience and exposure of of keeping because themselves congregated with their privilege and power. experience inthe portland, oregon? caller: they are not giving us an accurate view of the coverage.

the man who was on previously, i just don't understand why it is so hard for someone to come up and say, speak the truth that trump is lying. he is in cohorts with russia and putin. florida, lying for independents -- line for independents. caller: i just have a comment. when everyone is talking about this two-hour meeting between trump and putin and what is going on behind the scenes. i just think he needs a device from putin as how to finish up making america a totalitarian government like russia. he needs his advice. you might have to have somewhere to go and live when he finally end up in jail over here -- finally ends up in jail over here. host: several editorials and

columns in today's newspapers about this meeting. americans are waking up to some of it happening overnight. this from the financial times. trump's regime with putin has allies on edge. the u.s. president should not attempt a grand bargain in helsinki. we will see what was or was not agreed to when they have this press conference coming up at the presidential palace. the editorial board writing that the day that two men come together for a face-to-face that president trump suggested may be the easiest, for which is the most important u.s. russia summit in years. if the u.s. president treats mr. putin like an old friend after scorning long-time allies, he could do great damage to international security. one more column to point you to on the wall street journal. piece, hisst on this recent book is the less you know, the better you sleep.

he says trump should not make a deal on syria or the ukraine or keep silent on russia's crimes against the west. there are no opportunities for good deals with russian aggressive -- russian aggression. president trump has a chance to make that clear. you're watching live pictures from the scene where that press conference is going to take place and we will find out what kind of deal if any was made over the past three hours of meetings between president trump and president putin. taking your calls as we do it. north carolina, republican. go ahead. caller: i have a couple things to say. before,callers who call i agree with them. for the people that say trump had a landslide, no he did not. a lot of the voter registrations were purged that were democrat and independent in pennsylvania. i have family members that were because thevote

registrations were purged and they had to go to williamsburg and get papers to vote and it took forever to acquire the papers because a lot of them did not go to vote until after hours and then that office closed at 7:00. in wisconsin, people were told at the last minute that they had to have two ids which a lot of people did not have an they got turned away. that he got and say voted in by a landslide, that is not even true. right now, with everything going have -- hillary clinton is not even in office.

even as they tried to investigate her on several occasions for years and nothing came about. obama, that money for a ran was a rainy and -- for iran was iranian money. he stopped them from getting nuclear missiles and things like that. the thing a visit -- the thing of it is is everyone keeps talking about obama and hillary. they aren't in office, trump is and he has taken us backwards. host: speaking of hillary clinton, she tweeted about this summit ahead of it, last night at the end of the world cup that took place in russia. hillary clinton saying great world cup, question for president trump as he meets putin, do you know which team you play for? morning,weet from this just after 10:00 from the former

cia director during the obama administration, john brennan. he tweeted, why did trump meet one-on-one with putin? what might he be hiding? use whatevern trump could be hiding to advantage russia and hurt america? trump's cabinet lack of credibility renders areas whatever explanation he gives. john brennan referring to the individuals who joined president trump in this working lunch that is taking place. fiona hill, another national security adviser for the president and also the president's interpreter, that is the official list of who was on the president's side of the

table in terms of the russian side of the table, we know the foreign minister of russia is in helsinki for this event. we are continuing to show you live pictures of the media and other officials getting ready for that press conference that is expected to take place after that lunch ends. until then, your calls. bill is in pennsylvania, lying for -- line for democrats. caller: thank you for c-span. it is truly the voice of the people of america. is a goodke to say it thing that these two leaders meet. i think it is a really bad thing if they meet one-on-one, which i just heard they are. the reason is that with mr. trump, i won't use the l word, but he says what he wants to say.

he says what his supporters want to hear. he acts as if there is no rest of the country except the people who voted for him. goes, he this summit will probably come out and he will say whatever he wants to say. he will say it was a great meeting, we have a great relationship. i doubt if he will hold hands with putin, but you never know. seriously, we just don't know what we can believe that comes out of this meeting. the worst thing of all is whatever we do not hear from the president. for all we know, they could discuss russian loans, crimea, anything. host: would you have been more comfortable had there not been a two-hour one-on-one between the

president and vladimir putin? if there had been it buys her throughout this meeting? -- had been advisors throughout this meeting? caller: absolutely, there would be historical record of what was said. if it is one-on-one, i would not believe either of them. line to glen, new york, republicans. caller: my name is greg. host: greg, go ahead. caller: i think that the president -- some things could be addressed at the summit with vladimir putin today. he could assure us that putin did not meddle in our election. [indiscernible]

i think the president needs to recognize that there are more important allies then putin. putin is not an ally. allies are nato and the united kingdom, germany, france. i understand what the president is saying when he wants to stand thatr america by demanding they pair there -- they pay their fair share, but more russia did not have our interests. threaten european security -- stability, they threaten world security. problems in the ukraine, in georgia, the baltic states. the president needs to understand who our allies are and who is not our ally.

of course you should have meetings with other countries, but i believe russia is not our ally. the other nations are our allies and the president needs to address that properly. host: you talk about our nato allies. are you concerned that many of those nato allies are not living up to their commitments when it comes to defense spending under their nato agreements and what are your thoughts on the president trying to encourage those nations to live up to that defense spending? [indiscernible] caller: we understand that all of those nations are making progress. a zero argument is not necessarily the best -- zero zum argument -- zero sum argument is

not necessarily the best. [indiscernible] host: why are you a republican? caller: i am a republican because i support lower taxes. i support a free market economy. i support strong borders and strong security. i support security. support the democratic agenda. i don't think that benefits people. i think local government is the best form of government. matt is in texas, a democrat. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. summit, foron this

me there are actually two summits, one involving the president and putin. the other involving his diplomatic team and the russian team, but i challenge any of the people who are supporting the , can you have somebody who is the ultimate dealmaker and somebody who says i have done all of these great deals and i know how to get things , a couple days before in scotland saying i don't have an agenda? he makes no sense. he has his own personal agenda for the first meeting which was either personal or business related and a totally different .genda

for the first meeting, it was personal. his first wife is from czechoslovakia, melania is from -- it could just be business related. that is what i think was going on in the first meeting. this second meeting, anybody's guess. there is a reason why he only wanted interpreters for the first meeting. host: pennsylvania, republican. caller: good morning. listen to the democrats calling in and it seems like they have all of these conspiracy theorists -- theories about trump and i am tired of hearing it. no matter what he does, the democrats will never be happy. just like the last caller, he has two reasons to go to this summit, it is ridiculous. he has a summit with the russian

president. what he is doing with north korea. i think the guy is trying. i don't think the democrats give him a chance at all to let him do his job. host: in terms of conspiracy theories and the other side never being happy with what the president would do, did you think it was like that when president obama was in office? caller: me personally, no. office, i was in not happy with him, but i respected him as the president. he ran the country the way he thought, but i am not a democrat, i voted for trump and i was happy and i think they should do the same thing and give trump the same respect

whether he was in office for four years or eight years and let him do the things he needs to do to make things better. he is making our country stronger and making the economy better. i think they should let him do what he does. maryland, linein for democrats. are you with us? independents. for are you there? we will try one more. line for maryland, democrats as we show our viewers the room where the press conference will be taking place this morning with president trump and president putin. robert go ahead. caller: good morning. i would like to quote -- i would like to quote a

paragraph. called the a house united states and my neighbor lived in a house called russia and it was owned by putin and my neighbor came into my house and broke in, ransacked, destroyed my house, i would take matters in my own hands and call the police. i would not be trying to meet this guy and be friendly. please stop drinking the kool-aid. that is my comment. host: susan in california, line for democrats. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just wanted to say something about this whole thing with trump going to russia. i think it is bizarre that in all the way from the 50's to reagan and beyond, republicans called russia a communist country. people were put in prison for being communist and i don't understand how the republicans

have forgotten all of this. people went to prison because they were communist. -- republicans are trying to be buddies with russia. i wish they would make up their minds. if they are going to go and make friends with putin and we should be making friends with iran and cuba. we did not give money to iran. it was their money, like another caller said. we gave it back and that was only to make sure iran punished -- finished -- followed the sanctions we had set up. obama also did something against russia. and nobody sanctions cares about that. he tried to get russia to stop interfering.

as we await that press conference to begin between president putin and president lunch isat working apparently still going on at this point. russia today, the russian news --tion with a story about focusing on that working lunch saying they get a sneak peek into the preparations. their story about it noting that the two world leaders allocated 30 minutes after their face-to-face meeting, which overran, meaning that a meal that has taken weeks to plan has to be delivered to the second story. the risk take a look at the hectic atmosphere as helsinki's best chefs, putting on a lavish reception for the politicians in the media as they scrambled to put together a

menu. we will look for further tweets about what the world leaders eight at that working lunch. line for new york, democrats. all the views and things we are hearing. i respect other people's views and opinions but when those views and opinions have an agenda behind them, it is not governed by the truth and , based upon the facts. disturbing. it seems to me that division is still well -- alive and well in the in that it states. it is obvious just listening to the different views. it is too easy to blame. it is far easier to not trust thise and let me just say because i do know a little bit about the russians, having studied that language.

this information aspect by the russians -- i encourage people to look up the history of it back to the 1920's. it is alive and well in this country and that is very harmful and it is working. listen to the people. make up your own mind based upon facts and not opinions. you tell would somebody to recognize this ?nformation -- disinformation disinformation is information that is spread that is knowingly false and a lie. i would tell them to use the old cliche, common sense and critical thinking. do the research yourself. get off of fox news.

but sounds horrible to say, everybody is watching fox and i listen to them, too, to make comparisons of what is real. a lot of fox news viewers call in and say the same thing that you are saying about cnn or msnbc. what would you say to those folks? caller: i would say you are wrong. if you look at the historical record of what you are talking about. the things they said about obama and cuba, those meetings were all wrong but trump meeting with putin is all good. that is coming from a sense of ignorance. it is not paste -- it is not based upon facts. through -- that is a

threat now. host: go ahead and finish your thought. caller: thanks. host: clarence is in south carolina -- is in charlotte, north carolina, line for democrats. caller: i want to say to that last caller. follows and man who believes in fox news. that i'llt to say understand democrats. i think they have lost their mind. if you've got friends, you know what your friends will do. your enemies are the ones you don't know. if russia is our enemy, we should want to talk to them and learn their plans. we should learn what they are up to. they have nuclear weapons. they can destroy us as quick as we can destroy them. to all of my black brothers and sisters, get a mind.

the democrats have been brainwashing the black people for 40 years. they still have black folks with that slave mentality. host: you called in on our line for democrats. yourself aider democrat? caller: i got out of the democratic party to get on the republican party. i saw what democrats did to black folks. they kept promising what they were going to do for us and they never did nothing for black folks except keep them in 5 -- in poverty. 97% of black folks vote for democrats because they always promise to never do nothing for them. -- promised but never do nothing for them. host: line for democrats, (202)-748-8000.

republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents, (202)-748-8002. today, we do have that line held open for anyone outside the u.s. who is viewing this summit. we would love to get your perspective from outside the u.s. borders. that number is (202)-748-8003. individuals who are joining president trump at that working lunch that has been taking place since the one-on-one ended, including the ambassador to russia, secretary of state, chief of staff, national security adviser. has not been in the spotlight is defense secretary james mattis. a story on the washington post focus -- focuses on the defense secretary who was in norway over the weekend. as though mattis

is inhabiting a distant world. through his undermining of the parties from minister and courting of proven, mattis has been nearly invisible. on the rare occasion yes folk and the pentagon chief did not refer to his boss. matus traveled with trump -- mattis traveled with trump to the nato summit in brussels but remained offstage when secretary of state mike pompeo and national security adviser joined john bolton -- national security adviser john bolton joined trump during the president dickey and prompted his conference. when he did surface, he said -- in the capital of croatia. if you want to read more on that story and the travel the past couple of days of the defense secretary in today's washington post. juliet in tennessee, line for independents. caller: good morning. i am calling to say to those

, they who are outraged are confused or whatever. all the have to do is pick up the word of god. it is nothing but the truth. if they pick that up and understand -- and study it, they will not have to be confused about nobody because the truth is there. according to what i have been calling and saying before that trump's friend determination is to eliminate america as we know it. i have been listening carefully to what he has been saying, and i said -- he said he is going to be the last president of the united states. when that is completed, is going to be the first dictator. host: we are about a minute away from that expected press conference between president trump and president putin.

that is followed nearly two hours of one-on-one and over an hour of a working lunch with aides and advisers. expected to begin within the next 60 seconds. we will take you there when that press conference starts. in the meantime, keith in indiana, line republicans. caller: i believe there was russian meddling going on for the elections. what i really believe is that it was not so much as the elections and said it was an attempt to tear down our democracy and that is what is happening. nobody wants to get behind the president. they don't want to give him a chance. everything i say that he is trying to do good for our country and anybody would just get together and get behind him, our country will go forward. putin's trick is working because everybody is arguing against everybody and nobody wants to go forward.

i believe mr. trump is a good person and he will eventually win over the american people. it would be a shame that we have to go to war to bring american people back. give him a chance. let's get along. host: anna in texas. go ahead. in 2005my nephew died in iraq. -- i have a niece in afghanistan. afghanistan just decimated russia and they still have some of those weapons over there. for people to say that trump is doing the right thing. i don't know where they are coming from. it is ludicrous. president obama drove this place back to where it is now. points.was at 6400

i wrote it down. trump has only done four. everything president obama has tried to do, it is the hate. i don't believe in taking down statues because those statues did not do any gerrymandering. it reminds me as a 70-year-old woman to get out and vote. for people and that man who is howing about democrats and he worked for the postal service. my brother did, too for 35 years. they gave him an opportunity. i am sick and tired of people coming in saying obama didn't do this. obama did everything he could possibly do and mitch mcconnell and all of them with the waterloo. i am just angry about america and the divide and we lit putin do it to us and trump is a traitor. thank you. host: we are still waiting to hear from president putin and

president trump. we have been given the two-minute warning that we are still waiting for the leaders to emerge at the presidential palace in helsinki, finland. we would go to north carolina, lying for democrat -- line for democrats. caller: i am calling concerning the visit to russia. i have a few things to say. i think it is as plain as the hair on santa's face. trump needs to talk with putin privately. i don't know who was assigned to interpret this. did putin assigned both interpreters? i don't have a clue. notes were not taken. they will not receive feedback. it will just be a small amount of information the public sees. in my opinion, things have

become very hot and heavy in the trump administration. indictments. many of them are in jail or about to go, sooner or later. he needs to sit down and talk with putin. he can't trust the emails. he is not going to trust the phone. snail mail is completely out. we need to sit and talk about this together. what are we going to do? line forinois, independents. caller: good morning. i think that what is going on here is putin has won this round. and this isr years his hour of glory. there is no american agenda. hase is no agenda but putin

an agenda and now he knows this is the time to cash the check to consolidate his victory. at the end of this meeting, we will know what putin has got for intofforts that he put messing with our elections and putting trump into office. i just hope that meeting with trump as an elected president of -- and thathe final congress or the senate or people or whoever it is have a chance meeting.in this final

now about eight minutes into a two-minute warning before the two presidents are expected to emerge and tell us what they discussed at this summit meeting. they spoke for two hours by themselves and spent a little over an hour for that working lunch. taking your calls until the dose copresidents emerge -- until the two presidents emerge. caller: i think i have an understanding why putin -- my understanding is he lost five uncles in world war ii. i know i lost two uncles so i can see what he is trying to defend his country. about what the world look like in 1990, u.s. forces were all the way back to germany. right now, they are on the border of poland, all the way down to the black sea.

it is a completely different world he is looking at. from, hee he is coming is going to be tough and -- i think trump is doing the best he can. i believe he can probably do something with russia to take the nukes out of north korea. any help we could get with that would he wonderful. thank you very much. host: line for democrats come eleanor. caller: i am a marine veteran, and i listened all the republicans talk about putin being elected by the citizens of russia. that is not true. he is a dictator. they do not really have a vote. and the other problem is our

president seems i'd like dictators and thumbs his nose at our allies, and that we cannot have. we have had 70 good years with our our lives would now we have a president that does not respect our allies, our intelligence agencies, but he respects and excepts the word of a dictator. edward in springfield, massachusetts, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. they give for having me. i just wanted to congratulate trump for taking this summit meeting, and if i could quote mr. trump, russia, if you are listening, i'm pretty sure if you do poll the united states, we would take donald trump back in a box. host: i apologize for that call. oregon,go to salem, line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning.

i would encourage more people to listen to c-span, and i also have a question. i want to know how many russians have immigrated to the u.s. in the last 10 years and how many illegal russians are living in the u.s. thank you. host: why are you concerned? what do you think the answers to those questions are, many, if you? caller: many, many illegal russians living in the u.s., and just because we are a country of immigrants, and i understand they are supportive from different countries. host: we will go to dave in texas. line for independents as we wait for this joint press conference to begin. we were given that two-minute warning 10 minutes ago, so we are waiting to see an hearing from you until then. go ahead, david. caller: yes, i enjoyed your show

this morning, and all i say is i hope something great comes out of this meeting between president trump and putin. i really do not think so, but i hope that it does. i know that president trump is always, come back as say how great he he was, because that is the way he is, and that is my comment. the editing of to say is one man mentions -- the other thing i want to say is russian soldiers are really arrogant. 1964, was in korea in 1965, and i hate to say this because i am an american soldier, 76 euros hispanic second time in generation immigrant from mexico, and unfortunately, as young as we were, we did not treat our korean soldiers with respect and dignity. we treated them really bad, so i how the russians

are mightier than our american soldiers. we were mightier than our korean soldiers, and we do not treat them right. i understand that. host: finish your thought. itler: the third thing is breaks my heart to say this, but i wish mr. obama had not -- because i think it has divided our country. it really has. it has caused more of a division, and maybe time will tell, but it breaks my heart because that poor man won and the republicans would not work with him, and i think divided more of our country. host: you said you hope something great comes out of this summit. what would be something great that could come out of the next few minutes when the presidents approach the podium there and make whatever announcement they make? caller: that maybe just possibly, just like obama went to cuba, that mr. trump is going

to russia or talking to that gentleman from russia, the president, that they will may be -- it will help break down barriers. i think the russian people think we are terrible. we think the russian people are terrible. we are not terrible. they are not terrible. it is maybe the government not doing what should be done, and i believe that with all my heart, and i pray that somehow, somewhere the good lord willing, things will get better for the russian people, for the world, and for us. texas,randon in austin, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. so i had a theory that no one has discussed yet, so basically i am scared that putin will offer snowden in exchange for the 12 indicted hackers. host: let me cut in.

some kind of disturbance or protester in the hall where the press conference -- we will take our viewers they are now. -- there now. host: whoever that was, holding some sign. you see that person taken out of the hallway in the presidential

palace in helsinki, finland. expecting toe are hear from putin and trump in their press conference that was expected to begin about 12 or 13 minutes ago. we are still waiting for them to enter the room. brandon, did not mean to jump in on you earlier. go ahead and finish your thought. caller: yeah, the idea, what if fers snowden for the 12 hackers that were indicted? what are your thoughts on that? my own thoughts are the only that i have heard. host: what with the offer be, brandon, dissent both the 12 indicted and edward snowden to the united states? caller: i mean, no. the 12 indicted people that were were closeo the dnc with proven -=- putin.

obviously, putin would have a hear about them. i imagine the scenario what if putin offers snowden for the 12 hackers, just like a settlement offer. host: you think putin wants to keep edward snowden in russia? caller: i mean, edward snowden biggestbly putin's bargaining chip on the united states. i figure he wants to do something with that. that is why he agreed to grant asylum to snowden in the first place. this would probably be his prime opportunity to capitalize on that. m in berkeley, springs, west virginia, line for republicans. caller: thank you for taking my call. a couple things. what bad thing can come out of this?

it is good he is going over to these countries and talking to russia, talking to these other countries. he is trying to get closer and trying to have a dialogue with these countries. a other concern is putin is member of freemasons, a high-rating primus in -- host: i will cut you off as the officials who are joining the president at that lunch entering the room. room,olton entering the mike pompeo, john kelly, all of the room now, filing into the front row of seats. huckabee-sanders just came through the door. it looks like this press conference is about to get underway. the russian officials also filing into their seats. it is the presidential palace in helsinki, finland, where this is taking place, so we are expecting the leaders of the two

nations to enter at any moment come and we will hereafter them after their two-hour one-on-one and an hour after their joint lunch where they had the doors opening there. we are expecting to see the presidents in just a minute or two bang. we will get to jonathan who has been waiting in ohio, a republican. go ahead. caller: thank you for season. quickly, i want to compare this time in our history to the past 3, 4 years, the past 3, 4 years, we had -- host: we are going to end. we take you to the presidential palace in helsinki, finland. thank you so much.