competitor. over the weekend, trump discussed his goals and his expectations for this meeting. take a listen. >> what's your goal from the putin meeting? >> i'll let you know let you kn meeting. nothing bad is going to come out of it and maybe some good will come out, but i go in with low expectations. i'm not going in with high expectations. i don't really -- i can't tell you what is going to happen. i don't expect anything. i frankly don't expect -- i go in with very low expectations. i think that getting along with russia is a good thing, but it is possible we won't. i think we're greatly hampered by this whole witch-hunt that's going on in the united states, the russian witch-hunt. >> and this summit coming three days after special counsel bob mueller indicted 12 russian intelligence officers for their role in the hacking of the dnc and clinton campaign in 2016. we will get to that in moment. >> in a series of tweet last

night president trump says he is, quote, looking forward to meeting with president putin. unfortunately, he writes, no matter how i do at the summit, if i was given the city of moscow for the sins committed by russia, over years i would return to criticism it wasn't good enough. i should have gotten st. petersburg in addition. much of our news media is, indeed, the enemy of the people and all the democracy ns know h is obstruct but at some point it will heal. president trump sent his congratulations to president putin for putting on a great world cup tournament. one of the best ever. he said he will discuss russian interference with president putin today although without any note taker scheduled to be at the meeting. that will be impossible to verify. >> andrea mitch et.

the president saying he had low expectations for the meeting, not necessarily hoping for many deliverables coming out of this, but what can we expect for this 90-minute meeting that's to take place between the two leaders? >> that is precisely the problem. there is no agenda. there are no goals. there were no national security meetings going into this of the deputies or the principles to talk about what was desired from this summit. it is not a summit that the u.s. needed, wanted, other than the president of the united states wanting it. the fact is that it is all in vladimir putin's wheelhouse. it is next door to him in finland. he is an expert at this, a former spy master. the president spent his weekend after the disruptions in nato and certainly in the uk golfing in scotland and not meeting with top foreign policy advisers. so he goes into the meeting at a serious disadvantage, given vladimir putin's expertise. the president said he's been preparing for this all of his

life, but now the -- hanging over it all is, of course, the mueller investigation. these tweets which have been liked by the foreign ministry, by lavrov's foreign ministry in the kremlin shows how much this is playing into russian propaganda. jeremy bash as an expert formerly at the cia and the pentagon and now our top national security expert, this could not be set up better for vladimir putin. it is including the fact that the president tweeted that the press is the enemy of the people, paraphrasing an old joe stalin meme against the free press. >> that's right, andrea. and, look, this summit, if that's in fact what it is, it may just be a meeting, it may be a kind of get-to-know-you discussion. whatever it is, it kind of caps a remarkable week in american foreign policy because we are seeing donald trump reshape american foreign policy in fundamental ways, probably in

the most fundamental way since world war ii. what do i mean by that? first of all, in embracing an autocrat, a dictator, and talking, as you referenced, andrea, the press being the enemy of the people, donald trump is, in fact, making a very loud statement about american values and, i think, in fact undermining american values. more fundamentally he is undermine ping our historical alliances. he is not just weakening nato, the united states plays the largest role in nato and nato serves to benefit foreign policy around the world, so in weakening nato he is weakening the united states' hand. i'm shocked we're going into the summit with the president as a weathervane. >> and particularly of course repeatedly calling the mueller investigation a witch-hunt as he goes into this meeting with vladimir putin. david, there are a lot of risks

here and they range around the world, but america is certainly going into this one-on-one meeting with putin in a weakened state. >> absolutely. joining us from moscow is rich end engel. i want to you ask about geopolitical meteorology. we have heard about vladimir putin using it as an opportunity to come in from the cold. how chilly have things before for the russian president for the last few years since the inkurgs in ukraine, the me in russia not doing well. describe as you see it the opportunity for the russian president. >> well, it is feeling very warm and sunny here. i think you are -- russia feels very much out of the cold. just last night in this city they hosted the world cup. the world cup isn't very big in the united states, but it is enormously popular around the world. so russia was the center of global media attention. the games went off perfectly and

there were no incidents, no fights, everybody was happy. it got lots of attention. this is a big deal for russia, maybe even more important than the sochi olympic games. then you have this meeting with president trump, a meeting, as andrea was saying, with no particular agenda. it is kind of a get-to-know-you session to warm up relations after president trump has moved through europe like a bull dozer, attacking nato, questioning the very core values of nato, insuperintendentilting allies, insulting the eu and the indictment goes on and the meeting goes ahead. i think you are saying does russia feel like it is out of the cold? yes, it feels very much like it has come out of the cold. >> richard, as you mentioned, no particular agenda from the american side of things, from fru president trump, but we know the

mindset vladimir putin has being a former kgb officer and the meetings that he has had in the past with the united states. what are you hearing is his mindset walking into this meeting? what are his expectations? >> reporter: well, we heard from the -- from vladimir putin's spokesman this morning, and he gave some indications of what russia might want to get out of this meeting, and they were very specific. they talked about syria. they mentioned there might be an issue that russia doesn't want to feel pressured about the iranian press ens in syria. so i think you could have russia making very specific asks about the american presence in syria, although it doesn't get a lot of attention the u.s. has several thousand forces, troops in syria. they are a pretty small footprint but they are quite effective as helping in the

fight against isis, helping to back our kurdish allies. russia does not want them there. turkey doesn't want them there. i think you could have him make very specific asks about that. you could see him ask -- make him asks about nato war exercises. russia will be coming into this with a specific agenda and we'll see if president trump has a specific agenda as well. >> richard engel, stay with us. i know andrea mitchell wants to get in on the conversation. andrea, you look at the meetings that have taken place over the last week, benjamin netanyahu visiting with putin, there's the phone call that president trump had with prime minister netanyahu as well, all signs indicating that the middle east will be front and center at this meeting. >> reporter: seeing up anti-iranian pressure from the u.s. and the president hoping to enlist, as netanyahu hopes,

enlist moscow in that, russia and iran have been alive propping up assad in syria. my question to richard engel who spent so much time in syria and knows the opposition group, what would be the impact if the president somehow agrees to some kind of withdrawal of the american ground presence such as it is in syria, abandoning our allies, the kurdish allies on the ground and ceding to russia and assad in the future some kind of control over that as long as iran is pushed back? >> reporter: so syria right now is and has been for many years in a state of flux. one could say it is a free fall. but the assad government is making gains. the assad government, which is backed by both iran and russia, is retaking control of territory. there is a massive offensive going on right now south of

damascus and they are consolidating their gains. in the mix, in the middle of all of this is a relatively small u.s. presence. it is led by special forces, by special operations forces. they are in the north but not just in the north but primarily in the north, and they are there working with our kurdish allies. they have been fighting against isis and they have largely been successful. they have pushed isis back into a very small area, and military commanders i have spoken to including on the ground in syria say if u.s. troops were to leave quickly several things could happen. one, there is a danger that the -- that isis could come back. we saw the same kind of thing happen -- and president trump has been very, very critical of this, this model in iraq, where you had u.s. troops fighting against extremists and then they left precipitously and the

extremists just came back. that's one danger. the other danger is our allies, this kurdish force who have been fighting alongside of us, would get wiped out or certainly pushed aside by assad's forces, by turkey and other local forces operating in syria. >> reporter: well, it certainly would be one of those risks in going into this one-on-one meeting because that's the kind of complexity that his national security advisers may well understand, but that's certainly not in the wheelhouse of donald trump, although he has been wanting to withdraw from syria and has certainly been wanting to increase pressure on iran. chris dickey has been watching all of this and is more expert than any of us in the middle east. chris, vladimir putin has -- in defense of donald trump, was president obama and the obama white house that let putin take control in the air over syria, and once he was there really

ceded a great deal of control and leverage to the kremlin. >> look, nobody, no american president, not obama, not trump, wanted to get deeply involved in syria. putin took the opportunity to consolidate his position with al assad and the him taker bases he has on the mediterranean to build air bases and to develop a presence on the ground, in the middle east that really russia has not had before, and he wants to keep that. does he like assad? i think probably not particularly, but the obama administration made the mistake and hilary clinton made the mistake several times of saying that assad was going to go, he had to go and he didn't go. so it left assad in power and basically the obama administration in an embarrassing and painful position. the problem now is that finally, eventually obama built up necessary alliances on the ground in syria with the kurds and also with forces in the

south of syria near the jordanian border. those forces have been completely abandoned. that's why the last real stronghold of the democratic forces just fell. you know, as we bee tray those allies on the ground in syria, we will have the question once again why would you want to be an ally of the united states of america, whether in nato, on the ground in syria or anywhere else, because americans cannot be trusted. >> reporter: and that, of course, is the underlying theme here in europe with the president having gone from quebec to singapore and then after really not standing firm on some major issues, the military exercises with south korea, going to nato, being so disagreeable, undercutting the allies and now going into this critical meeting, yasmin, with vladimir putin. the table is set very, very badly for american influence around the world. >> yeah, it certainly is. still ahead, everybody,

president trump's meeting with putin coming days after 12 new indictments by bob mueller's team. >> how it may play into the meeting that will take place here in about 90 minutes time in helsinki, finland. lee will be right back.

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welcome back. joining us now from washington is the editor in chief, nicholas johnson. nicholas, we are closing in on this summit, scheduled to get started in about 90 minutes. the two presidents will go to the presidential palace in helsinki, into the gothic room for the one-on-one meeting. we will have little insight into what they discuss behind the closed doors with no one there except for interpreters. there is a news conference to follow. what will you be watching for at that? >> reporter: the real question is how much election meddling will come up. this is the investigation that overshadows this, particularly with the indictments that came out on friday. this is something that president

trump has dismissed as fake news, as part of a witch-hunt. will the president hammer vladimir putin on election interference? you think back to 2016 when barack obama met with vladimir putin and told him to knock it off. will president trump take the same strong tactic is what i'm watching for. >> what do you think is the incentive to bring up election meddling? as you know, on friday president trump said on friday sitting alongside theresa may, i'll ask the question, it is not like vladimir putin is going to admit to anything. we heard john bolton say, look, it is not like putin can extradite the 12 individuals to the united states, so there's no point asking him to do it either. so is it more about the optics and acknowledging the fact that putin was at the hand of election involvement, election meddling in 2016, he was responsible for it? >> i think a big part of it is telling a foreign power to stop

interfering in the election. there is a consensus that putin and his government was involved in this, and it is up to the president of the united states to take the stand and defend american interests. in our reporting on this kind of situation, that president trump doesn't like to talk about election meddling because he feels it calls into question his victory. he dismisses talk about that in the administration because it changes the way people view whether or not he justifiably won. there's no evidence that shows the meddling tipped it one way or the other, but president trump doesn't like to enter into any uncertainty about his presidential victory. >> yeah, but he will enter into a meeting with president putin with a lot of uncertainty to say the least. thanks for joining us. >> reporter: as always. >> we have about an hour before president trump meets vladimir putin. we are following the latest from helsinki coming up. ♪ ♪

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spotting threats faster and protecting his data with the most securely encrypted main frame in the world. it's a smart way to eat lunch in peace. sweet, oblivious peace. >> welcome back, everybody. of course, today's summit follows the indictment of 12 russian intel officers brought by special counsel bob mueller. they're accused of lanching a sustained attack on democratic groups and the clinton campaign with the goal of interfering in the u.s. election. they are saying the russians hacked systems and stole documents and released them under the persona of guccifer 2.0. the documents say that it coordinated the wikileaks release with guccifer 2.0 in an

attempt to disrupt the party's convention. the indictment alleges in august and september of 2016 russians posing at guccifer 2.0 were in contact with an unknown person who communicated with trump officials. roger stone says he believes the unknown person to be him, although he is denying any collusion. >> i want to get perspective from jeremy bash with us from washington, d.c. the truly extraordinary thing is that president trump knew about this, knew about the substance of the indictment before he embarked on the trip to europe, yet we heard him talking about it as a question he would raise, as he said, because the media wants him to, with president trump. now we see this in an entirely different light, in light of the information from rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, that the president knew what was coming on friday. i want to get your perspective on that and how you think the president should approach what

he knows? >> reporter: 11 highly detail counts about not just meddling but a cyberattack launched by the russian military organization, bob mueller lays out in detail. if you look at the fact, a couple of things jump off the paper. first, on july 27th when then-candidate trump gave his famous statement, if you're listening, russia, hack into hilary clinton's server, in fact it is shown that for the first time the russian gru officers responsible for the cyberattack operation tried to send a fisching e-mail attack into hilary clinton's domain. the other thing i those was significant is that they used and set up this d.c. leaks way to use social media to dump the hack e-mails. they did it one day before showing up at trump tower and offering and stating they had dirt on hillary clinton they intended to release.

i think in some ways it shows some important connections between the trump many camp, the trump campaign and the russian federation. >> jeremy, we heard hallie jackson saying with all of this, trump is very much blaming america first with regards to the witch-hunt that he calls it and the mueller investigation. it also seems as if the trump administration is not necessarily enthusiastic about bringing up these indictments, bringing up the extradition of these 12 individuals to the united states or bringing up even the fact that vladimir putin and these russians interfered in the 2016 election. what do you think is the reason they should? >> reporter: well, look, yasmin, if this were a normal presidency, a president with a classic kind of traditional foreign policy approach being tough on our adversaries and protecting american interest, an american president would walk into the room and basically serve the indictment on the russian president and say, please, turn over these 12 officials of your government who

attacked our country. of course, that's not going to hop because the attack was done and designed to benefit donald trump's selection and there's an open question about whether or not trump knew about, welcomed or assisted the attack. so the approach you would expect out of an american foreign policy administration or a meeting like this is completely inverted. i think the president will down play this issue. he probably will not raise it. if erashe raises it he will onl raise it so that during the press conference he can say he raised it. >> you would think the president would walk in and serve the indictments for president putin, in a way it would vindicate him because it would show he was facing vladimir putin face-to-face and confronting him with what he was responsible for and very much involved in. jeremy bash, you're sticking with us. still ahead, everybody, much more on what to expect as president trump gears up for his meeting with vladimir putin.

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♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside david gura in for ayman. it is the bottom of the hour. as you see, president trump in finland where later today he will sit down for his first official meeting with russia's vladimir putin. the summit is in helsinki, and coming on the heels of his controversial uk visit and the highly-contentious nato summit to say the least where among

other things the president asserted the russian leader was neither a friend or enemy but a competitor. over the weekend trump discussed his goals and expectations for this meeting. >> what's your goal from the putin meeting? >> i'll let you know after the meeting. nothing bad's going to come out of it and maybe some good will come out, but i go in with low expectations. i'm not going in with high expectations. i don't really -- i can't tell you what's going to happen. >> i don't expect anything. i, frankly, don't expect. i go in with very low expectations. i think that getting along with russia is a good thing, but it is possible we won't. i think we're greatly hampered by this whole witch-hunt that's going on in the united states, the russian witch-hunt. >> setting the bar quite low there. trump told pierce morgan he doesn't know if putin is, quote, a ruthless dictator although he assumes he is, although adding, i could name others. he says he will get along very

well with putin and pierce morgan will join "morning joe" coming up later this morning. don't miss that. >> bring back the panel coanchoring from helsinki, we have andrea mitchell. also "the daily beast's" news editor and foreign correspondent chris dickey and in washington, d.c., we have national security analyst jeremy bash. let me talk to you about the diplomacy and discipline involved in it. we will be watching this press conference today. following this meeting that we will have little insight into. we will be looking at body language and what the president has to say. this is a guy prone to use super latives, to go off script. this is where he will need to be cautious with what he says. you listen to what the ambassador to russia, jon huntsman said over the weekend, this is the president's meeting. it looks like his advisers have

ceded this to president trump. >> they have. there are few virtues in donald trump's tool kit, but dim low matting niceness is not among them. this is not a detailed president, not a president with a lot of experience in foreign policy. only this morning the german foreign minister is telling the german press that europe can no longer entirely rely on the united states which is stunning because the president had called in one of the interviews this weekend the european union a foe. here he is cozying up to vladimir putin, awarding him this high -- high stakes summit with all of the pomp and circumstance of it and calling the european union one of america's largest markets and closest allies, a foe. so with that kind of rhetoric that is so -- so damaging to american foreign policy and the world stage, jeremy bash, you have been talking about how he is reordering 70 years of

american institutions, multi-lateral institutions, the world trade organization, the eu, the g7 now as well, in all of these summit hes hae be is t important of all, a face-to-face with vladimir putin, a one-on-one. >> we have had four summits and in each of those if you zoom back the lens and brought out what the month has brought us, it is an embrace of dig take torual regimes, auto krats, people donald trump likes to stand next to because perhaps it burn issues his tough-guy image, hey, i'm talking to tough guys in the world. but more lastingly in the american policy making is the tearing apart of traditional alliances, the trading alliances

of the g7 and the political alliance of nato which is meant to deter russian aggressions. you go from the nato summit directly to a meeting with vladimir putin in which there will be a warm bromance, i think it speaks volumes that the deterrent aspect of nato has been fundamentally undermined. >> and, chris dickey, tomorrow will be the fourth anniversary of the terrible shootdown of mh-17, which was done by russian-backed forces in ukraine. >> sure. or done by russian forces. a lot of people believe, the dutch have been investigating and believe it because so many dutch citizens were killed on that malaysian flight. that's one of the things you look at putin and the russians, and there's such a long list of, let's call it what it is, crimes exited by the putin regime. to see the president of the united states embrace the regime is appalling.

i was listening to some of the earlier commentary and thinking a lot of trump supporters are enjoying this. they voted for him because they wanted him to disrupt things. so he goes to the g7, to nato, to all of the different meetings and it is as if he was going into a poker game where everybody thought they knew the rules and he says, we're going to play 52 pickup. i'm going to throw everything up in the air. oh, i have an ice. that's the way he approaches things. it may work well with his base, it may work very well for his own ego, but it is an absolute disaster for american relations with countries all over the world. >> thanks to chris dickey, we will remain here as well. just a note, vladimir putin's plane is late on arrival. these summits are very carefully scheduled as you know. the president was criticized for keeping the queen of england waiting for 12 minutes while she waited outside for him to arrive for tea. now it looks likely vladimir putin is going to keep president trump waiting according to the

official schedule. >> there was a fascinating moat in a piece by the former u.s. ambassador to russia who says putin is often late. he thought it would be a bad sign if vladimir putin were to show up on time. >> so it is a good thing he's late. >> perhaps, perhaps. >> chris, sticking with what you were talking about with regards to trump's base here, you can't help but think with everything that has transpired over the last week or so, from the tweets president trump has sent out, from what he did at nato, what he said at nato with regards to the interview with "the sun" talking about theresa may, and of course the interview with nbc news and jeff glor saying that the eu was a foe, that russia was a foe in certain respect. but you can't help but think that the audience president trump has had over the last week or so, really throughout his entire presidency let's be honest, is not only his base but also in the lead-up to the meeting specifically president

vladimir putin. >> i think that's right. a lot of people have said if he's not in fact a russian agent he couldn't act more like a russian agent than he is doing. he is destroying the entire infrastructure of trust among american allies. this is what we hear from the german foreign minister but it is a generalized problem. it is not about on paper, it is no about paying dues to nato which is a bogus argument, it is about trust, confidence. that's what alliances are built on. he has set out systematically to destroy those. what possible gain does the united states get from such a policy? i can't tell you, but i can tell you it is great for russia. >> well, as many of you know, we are awaiting the arrival of both president vladimir putin and president trump who will be heading to that meeting, hopefully in the next 30 minutes or so, but as we all know things certainly run late in these meetings. still ahead, everybody, much more on president trump's summit with russian president vladimir putin. >> the warning that the nation's top intelligence officer is

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fisher investments. clearly better money management. welcome back, everybody. ahead of today's trump/putin summit, national skurlt adviser john bolt oon says the presiden was not blindsided by the indictment. >> he was prepared to have it come before the meeting with putin. i would say in fact it strengthens his hand. it shows that the justice system, the department of justice are aware of these russian efforts at election meddling. i think the president can put this on the table and say, this is a serious matter, we need to talk about it. >> however, bolton said that trump is unlikely to ask the russian president to ex tra dielt the indicted russians. >> you know, i think it is pretty silly for the president to demand something that he can't get legally. and this is a very serious matter. you know, the russians take the position, you can like it or not like it, that their constitution

forbids them to extradite russian citizens. so i think for the president to demand something that isn't going to happen puts the president in a weak position. i think the president has made it very clear he intends to approach this discussion from a position of strength. >> well, the nation's top intelligence officer is sounding the alarm on the growing rate of cyber threats and cyberattacks against the united states. the director of national intelligence dan coates calling the current level of technology threats similar to pre-9/11 concerns. his comments come on the heels of special counsellor mueller's indictment of 12 russian agent goes for interfering in the 2016 elections. here is dan coates sharing that warning on friday. >> these actions are persistent, they're pervasive and they are meant to undermine america's democracy on a daily basis. the warning signs are there. the system is blinking, and it is why i believe we are at a critical point.

>> well, still ahead, president trump speaking out ahead of his meeting with president vladimir putin. >> what he is saying ahead of his high profile meeting with the russian leader. ♪ until her laptop crashed this morning. her salon was booked for weeks, having it problems? ask a business advisor how to get on demand tech support for as little as $15 a month. right now, buy one hp ink and get a second at 30% off at office depot officemax you shouldn't be rushed into booking a hotel. with expedia's add-on advantage,

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welcome back. president trump tweeting about what he calls the rigged witch-hunt ahead of his meeting with president putin today. just this morning he tweeted, quote, president obama thought that crooked hillary was going to win the election. so when he was informed by the fbi about russian meddling, he

said it couldn't happen, it was no big deal and did nothing about it. when i won it became a big deal and the rigged witch-hunt headed by strzok. he went on, our relationship with russia has never been worse thanks to many years of u.s. stupidity. >> coming up on "morning joe", president trump is set to sit down with vladimir putin in half an hour. richard engel has coverage from moscow. >> also joining the conversation, former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael fall and senator rich and blumenthal of connecticut. piers morgan on the heels of his interview of his interview with president trump. s (man 1) my guess would be, about... (man 2) i'd say about two hundred. (man 1) yeah...

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airport we can pick up the 25 russians that tried to interfere with the fundamentals of our democracy. if you really claim you had nothing to do with it, then you should be as shocked as we were that your military was being used to impact our our elections. tell us where you're going to extradite those folks because an american grand jury indicted them for undermining our democracy. >> russia has long been engaged in trying to undermine the confidence in our democracy. their game has now risen to the point where they actually had an impact. obviously we wouldn't be talking about this if they didn't have an impact. and so we better wake up because this is a warning shot before our next elections and we better be ready. >> i think really we mistake our response if we think it's about accountability from the russians. they're another country. they're going to spy on us. they do spy on us. they're going to interfere in our elections. we're going to do the same.

>> it sounds as though the united states has done the equivalent of what the russians did in the 2016 election and might sound to some viewers that your offering that statement as an excuse for what the russians did. >> no. what i would say is it's not morally equivalent but in their mind sit. it's important to know in your adversary's mind how they perceive things. >> some voices on capitol hill reacting to indictments on russian top operatives ahead of president trump's meeting with vladimir putin. >> we have a panel here co-anchoring from helsinki, host of andrea mitchell reports andrea mitchell, former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfall. and in washington, d.c. department of defense, nbc news national security news analyst, jeremy bash.

andrea, give us your sense of what the president has brought over the last seven days, culminating with that interview in which he talked about the biggest foe of the u.s. being the european union, he listed russia, he listed china but the first name to roll off his tong the european union. how much have things changed from a foreign policy perspective here over the last seven days. >> very dramatically. you could take it back even earlier to the g7 meeting in quebec and singapore summit. to focus on europe for now, the head of eu responded and the german foreign minister today telling the press in germany that he can no longer entirely rely on the united states. think of it. and now we have these tweets from the president running up to today's meeting with vladimir putin saying that the relations with russia are the worst they've been in years but blaming it on the united states, not blaming it on the russian or

russian-backed forces. shoot down of an a-17 four years ago. invasion of ukraine, annexation of crimea. only three days ago this detailed indictment of the russian hacking an aggressive attack alleged against the united states and its elections. mike mcfaul is the premier expert on all things russia. professor at stanford. mike, can you imagine another american president going into a meeting, a summit, he's calling it a summit. >> he's calling it a summit. but it is a summit with a capital s on twitter by our president, and he's saying it's americas fault that relations are so bad. how do you square this? >> let's first be clear, he's

wrong about that. the list he said, those are things that russia did. we didn't invade in countries or prop up any dictators in syria. russia did that. number two, he announces the eu as a foe on the eve of a meeting with vladimir putin. he looks very weak. he'll look weak in the eyes of putin. all of those things are concession nar things. this meeting should be tough instead it's a bit of a love fest. >> joe scarborough takes over for "morning joe." joe, your take away from the tweets, from his behavior at nato that you've been tracking, conversations over the weekend in these interviews and the extraordinary dereliction. he is blaming america for this relationship and giving vladimir putin it. >> well, it is really stunning and goes back to the question

that we've been asking all along that many, many have been wondering what exactly does vladimir putin have on donald trump. listen, let's talk about the friday indictments. they proved that vladimir putin is a liar. he's been denying that russia was involved. donald trump said maybe it was china. maybe it was a 400 pound fat guy in new jersey. the u.s. indictments released on friday contain meticulous detail and it's damming forensic evidence and it shows what the russians did. it shows when the russians did it. it even showed what key strokes they used while doing it and identified what buildings they were in while they were doing it. it does prove that putin is a liar, russian spies did try to interfere with russian democracy. not the chinese, not a 400 pound guy in his basement in new

jersey. as you know, the head of america's intel community is saying that putin tried to sub merit american democracy again and dan coates is saying the warning signs are blinking like they did before september 11th. now, i think andrea and mr. ambassador, the most concerning thing to me all weekend was the fact that donald trump was briefed on this information by rod rosenstein. even after giving this briefing, he called all that forensic evidence, which is every bit as damming as somebody's dna on a gun, he called it a witch hunt and then he did it again this weekend. >> yeah, it is extraordinary because in not accepting at least this allegation takes it to another level and not being willing to do more than just bring it up with vladimir putin and accept putin's routine

denials. this is really a moment, an inspection point in american diplomacy and in this mueller investigation, joe as you're pointing out, mike mcfaul. there's no way that american intelligence -- >> would have declassified all this stuff. >> and declassified all this in such detail if they did not believe it was important to say so on the world stage and to tell the russians we know what you did. vladimir putin, we know that you were in charge. and we know how you did it and we're on to your game. >> no, i agree. joe, what you said about vladimir putin. let's call it like it is. he is a liar about this. he's lied many times. what they put out on friday. remember, i worked in the government for five years at the national security council in moscow, this level of detail is really hard to get declassified. we used to have these arguments

all the time for declassifying things for national intelligence community. this suggests it's serious and they wanted to send a message. b, let's applaud our intelligence community. think about the level of detail that they have. and i think it's just the tip of the iceberg of what they know. >> i think so, too. and there is that debate. we're going to continue having it. i was actually listening on friday to law fair's emergency podcast had brilliant insight and talked about actually the debate that had to be going on at ft. meade on whether they released the meticulous detail to show their hands, we know exactly after it happened what the russians did and how they did it. and some in the intel community had to come to the conclusion that because we have the present that we do have, because we have

somebody who has been covering for vladimir putin, they had no choice but to get the information out because it might be the only way that the russians and the world would find out just how much detail, how much forensic evidence the united states of america has on the russians and what they did not only in 2016 but as the director of our intelligence community says what they're planning to do in 2018 and beyond. so, now i guess would be as good as any time as any to welcome you to "morning joe." with us, we have nsnbc contributor mike barnacle. president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass. former aide to the george w. bush white house and state departments elise jordan. former fbi special agent clint watts and associate editor for the washington post david