let's talk about it with jim sciutto and david gergen.en, any and every meeting between the leaders of the united states and russia always fraught with tension, always huge expectations, but here i think they're even higher. you can't overstate how closely people will watch this meeting, what is said and not said. as you sit here tonight, what do you think will happen at this meeting? >> well, i'm not -- i'm not really sure what's going to happen at this meeting. it depends if they go off script or not. if they stick to the script, then i think you're going to have the president only press lightly on the question of meddling with many people in the united states think he ought to push very hard. i think he may make a couple of concessions, minor concessions to the russians, which again will not be greeted well here. the big question is, is he going to get serious cooperation on syria, isis and fighting isis. it's not at all clear putin wants to give in on that. putin has made big gains in the middle east. there's also the question of nort

it could be really significant but we need to be cautious. >> i hear your cautious, david gergen, andtening too very carefully. to add, though, to what we're talking about with the cease-fire, secretary tillerson also made news, essentially saying assad will have to go. let me quote him. he said, "assad will leave power eventually. how he leaves is yet to be determined. there will be a transition away from the assad family." again, laura, having worked in the obama administration, dealing with syria, transition away from the assad family. what's your reaction to hearing that? >> first of all, i think it's important that secretary tillerson made that statement. there have been some mixed signals from the administration, particularly early on about what their position was vis-a-vis assad. i think it's important for him to reiterate that viewpoint. that's a very important strategic understanding of where the administration wants to go. but of course it's the how that's really critical here. it's not entirely clear to me if that is something that was discussed -- the nature of the discuss

david gergen cnn's special and senior political analyst and former presidential adviser to presidents nixon, ford, reagan and clinton joins us. you have some unique perspective. you came into the clinton white house right around this time when his poll numbers were not so rosy either. they had risen a bit from the 37% they were at up to 45%, but they were not great. you helped turn the ship around. what are the lessons from that that could help the trump white house now? >> well two lessons. good questions. first, typically a president gets big things done in the first year of his presidency. and indeed before the august recess. those are the critical months to get big things done. for many republicans it's been a time of disappointment, sharp disappointment. because they haven't gotten anything significant done through the legislative process fulfilling the promises. time is running out in this first year to get the big things done. that said, can a president turn his administration around? can donald trump turn his administration around? it is possible, yes. absolutely. that's what

. >> david gergen, you've worked in multiple administrations on both sides.o you think this sort of cajoling and presidential muscle will work? >> at this hour, this 11th hour, just a few minutes before midnight, it's going to be very hard. i think dana is absolutely right. he is flexing his muscles. had he done this six months ago, eight months ago and begun selling the package, i think he would be in much better condition now. this was like a standard white house kind of event, but late. and as i say, i think if he had built up to this, i think he would be much more effective. he has two problems now. public opinion has now gelled around the idea that obamacare is now prefserable to the republican bill. polls are showing that. gloria pointed that out earlier. it's hard to turn that around. i think one thing we did learn from the speech is they're going to go for repeal and replace, not just for repeal and delay, and that's going to be the central thrust of the effort. >> right, that's the crazy piece of it we didn't know. repeal and replace now, later repea

i want to bring in david gergen, and lynn sweet, former cia operative, bob baer, and michael zeldin. he is a cnn intelligence and security analyst and former cia operative. michael zeldin is with us, too, former federal prosecutor, so i want to start with you, michael zeldin and ask you the question about the significance as you see it with this latest development? >> potentially, this has a lot of significance. potentially it's a red herring and turns out to be nothing. on the significance, positive side of it, you have jared kushner meeting with russians who have information, presumably data about hillary rodham clinton, and jared kushner's role is data analytics. he is in charge of their data operation who used targeted date at to push out information positive about their candidate and negative about their opponent. we also know that a few weeks after this, july 22, i believe, wikileaks drops its first dump of data from the dnc. you have this coalescing of events that could be causal or coincidenceal of a meeting with a person who has data, and wikileaks all occurring within a few

i want to bring in david gergen who worked with four u.s. "spider" marks and laura rosenberg. you heard the president say pretty severe things, those were his words. how do you interpret that? >> well, i interpret that as he wants to put a warning out there but he's not quite sure what to do yet. basically, the united states for some reasons is facing the same three options as -- and none of them appealing. as put so well, their options are buy them out, squeeze them out or burn them out. and we tried buying them out with the clinton administration. we got an agreement. i was involved with that. and it worked for a number of years but eventually fell apart. we've tried sanctions, squeezing them. since then, that hasn't worked very well. the president, inevitably, is also thinking about severe military reprisals and that's a very scary proposition and i thought secretary mattis of the defense department was reassuring saying that this recent test by the north koreans does not bring us any closer to war. >> it was fascinating, general marks, w

matt lewis, kirsten power, general psaki, david gergen.s not the first time that the president has sowed doubt about the u.s. meddling in the election. he happened to do it overseas and you don't go to warsaw and cast shadow over your intelligence agency. what do you make of that? >> that's true. you also don't attack a former president or attack the american media, which he did so he's doing a lot of things that are unprecedented and in his speech, which he got a lot of praise for, he did condemn russia for their destabilizing efforts in other countries. maybe people read into that, he could be talking about what happened here and then, of course, you have to take the full picture which is he's back to his other story which is who knows. >> matt lewis, you loved the speech in warsaw today but did that statement, "nobody knows for sure," which he delivered an hour before, did he undermine what was otherwise a very positive message? >> yes. he gets mad at the media for being critical of him and this is a case at the press conference and an

we'll see. >> david gergen, how does that set the stage for the meeting tomorrow?l, i think that it opens up for the russians the possible psychoanalyzing donald trump and how they might work with him or work against him in the putin meeting with him tomorrow. and namely, what we know, john is a number of countries have been analyzing his tweets to try to figure out, if you go in and i graingratiate yourself with donald trump at the beginning, if you play to his narcissism, say he was one of the great leaders of our time, you might get a concession out of him. he thinks he has a friendship that is budding there. so people are -- i think of all the people we know, the russians will spend the most time trying to figure that out before going in. i just want to add one thing, john. the real news out of the united states on the russia front was pamela brown's reporting about the growing number of soviet or russian spies coming into the country and posing as businessmen. there are at least 150 or so right now, according to the cnn reporting. it does raise a question. do

about where this was all going. >> david axelrod, david gergen.sode, ax files with john lewis tonight at 10:00. up next, donald trump treated to pomp and circumstance in paris this morning. why that might just be the most effective strategy for wing over this particular president. take a look at the president's trip. plus this moment, very, very lengthy handshake. we'll be right back. i'm everything. i'm from all nations. i would look at forms now and wonder what do i mark? because i'm everything. and i marked other. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com. where are mom and dad? 'saved money on motorcycle insurance with geico! goin' up the country. love mom and dad' i'm takin' a nap. dude, you just woke up! ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. the unpredictability of a flaree may weigh on your mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go, and how to work around your uc. that's how i

i'm joined by david gergen. political analyst and former advisors to presidents reagan and nixon. this was by my count around 13 minutes. these were comments at length and these were strident, i think you can say. >> the only thing i can think listening is where has this guy been in where has he been? this guy meaning the person who is the occupant of the white house, who ran on and won in large part repealing and replacing obamacare, who hasn't been this guy, using the bully pulpit, in the way that the bully pulpit is supposed to be used by the president of the united states. why the subject is good for their constituents and americans and a little bit of arm twigs i twisting and some thinly veiled political threat. i think the tact that he took was, we all promisesed to do this, and if you vote even against proceeding to this bill, you're going to go back on your promise. that's certainly the message that you're hearing in the halls of congress. but the other message is where is the leadership, the leadership

>> i completely agree with david gergen.seen a g20 meeting where the united states seems so small. i mean, there you are in germany, one of our closest allies and donald trump has an 8% approval rating in that country. we were the leader of the paris climate accord. it was really american fortitude that got that done and donald trump willy nilly pulled out of it disappointing all of our european allies and putin has stepped into the void saying well, i'm all for the paris climate accord. it makes the united states look small. we're shrinking all over the world since donald trump has become president. he's not even wanted in london or paris, you know, countries and cities, places that typically an american president gets a rousing ovation. >> the president will be sitting down with chinese president xi jinping in a little less than two hours from now and we know that the president has tweeted several times during his administration that he tried to get china to have some influence over north korea, but it didn't work. the u.s

do they need a david gergen typ type? >> chris: oh, gosh, yes.a: we had all of that breaking news put moments away from sean hannity's exclusive interview with sean spicer, i believe. what they meant to say. and reince priebus. stay right there! chop that thing down. the clarity you seek... lies within the creditwise app from capital one. creditwise helps you protect your credit. and it's completely free for everyone. it's free for everyone? do hawks use the stars to navigate? i don't know. aw, i thought you did. i don't know either. either way it's free for everyone. cool. what's in your wallet? listen up, heart disease.) you too, unnecessary er visits. and hey, unmanaged depression, don't get too comfortable. we're talking to you, cost inefficiencies and data without insights. and fragmented care- stop getting in the way of patient recovery and pay attention. every single one of you is on our list. for those who won't rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. optum. how well gets done. what should i watch? show me sports. it's so fluf

>> juan: i would say that the key for me is that this is no david gergen. this is not bringing in someone who knows washington, knows how the system works. professional with communications, and what really strikes me is that anthony scaramucci was offered the white house job back in january, and did not deliver on it. he got pushed off, and eventually export, import. now back because he beat up cnn. that is a great triumph. >> dana: the whole cnn thing happen, i remember saying, look how gracious he was about it. he said, hey, this is not right. when they apologize, he was like cool. so i don't think that he was -- he was not like punching them. >> chris: and moreover, this is for us. who is a public spokesman for the white house? >> dana: the president.: do they need a david gergen type? >> chris: oh, gosh, yes. badly. >> dana: we had all of that breaking news put moments away from sean hannity's exclusive interview with sean spicer, i believe. what they meant to say. and reince priebus. and reince priebus. stay you won't see these folks at the post office

david gergen, i want to start with you here. these divergent views of what happened in the meeting, the russians saying that president trump accepts russia's versions of the hacking in the election, how big a deal is this that we have these different views tonight? >> it's serious, because it goes to the credibility of each side. obviously, what's needed now is for president trump -- [ overlapping speakers ] i'm sorry, what's obviously needed now is for president trump to talk to the american people, to talk to the world and make what rex tillerson would call a robust statement, making it definitive and clear that he believes the russians hacked in this election. they tried to help him get elected and he's taking it seriously, and he needs a full statement. that would make the american account of this, the tillerson account of what happened in this meeting much more credible. and one would like to think that is credible. but if he dodges, if he continues to duck and waffle, then the lavrov, the russian interpretation of what hap

david gergen, kim cuccinelli, maggie haberman, matt lewis and kirsten powers. his notion of repeal without replacement, is this realistic are or republicans seen to be trying to do all they can do before letting this go? >> it's more an act of symbolism. they don't have the votes. of the four senators who opposed this replace and repeal and delay, three of them are women. they stood up firmly on this. i just want to say, earlier in the program, the white house was instructing us on the duties of a president especially overseas. it's really time this white house faced up to the duties of the president here at home. and that is to be president of all the people. not just your base. that is to put the interests of the country first and not your own politics. and that is to stand up like a man and admit when you've come short and go back and try again. from my perspective on this health care issue, when the president says he's going to let obamacare fail, what that means is he's going to let a lot of americans suffer from increased premiums in the months ahead if th

david gergen, meetings this close going back decades, this was not normal. the president by the way, tweeted about this minutes ago. quote, fake news story of secret dinner with putin is sick. all g20 leaders and spouses were invited by the chancellor of germany. press knew, scla make mark. cnn justice court pamela brown has all the late details, joins us now. that's not the story, pamela. >> reporter: right, it seems the president may have a misunderstanding of what is now being reported. today so what the press has just recently learned is that president trump and his russian counterpart vladimir putin spoke for a second time on july 7th and a previously undisclosed discussion at the end of that dinner during the g20 summit. so we knew the actual dinner was going on, but apparently this is a conversation after the dinner and a senior white house official told cnn that this discussion was nearly an hour and only included president trump, putin and a russian translator. so, president trump was alone. now, the white house is confirming this meeting today only

david gergen/former presidential adviser"we've never seen a president put forward a major legislative piece in his early days and have it greeted with such derision and such fear."the defection of g-o-p senators, jerry moran of kansas and mike lee of utah, slammed the brakes on one of president trump's top goals."we must repeal job-killing obamacare, we have to do that."but that isn't going to happen, at least not for a while. mcconnell says the senate will soon vote on a bill that will delay the repeal of the affordable care act....for a two-year transition.for years the republican party railed against the a-c-a.... and donald trump made it one of his main campaign pledges.so what happened?bakari sellers/attorney "donald trump, with all due respect, in all his ability to speak to the common man, does not have any idea about health care policy. that is apparent." margaret hoover/gop strategist "instead of attacking msnbc anchors and all of these dalliances we've had on twitter, he should have been driving his agenda and trying to force senators to feel that they had to go along with t

. >> a, you bring in david gergen. that is what presidents tried in the past.g popular in a bipartisan way for infrastructure and you do something on it's face that should be easier and gate win. >> the president's position, there is almost no political incentive at the moment. you're right both parties have talked about infrastructure and they have talked about working on it together, but we have seen precious little advancing on that front. as you know the house republicans have put out their budget plan, and they have started to work on the process of tax reform. according to the rules they can do tax reform with just 50 votes in the senate. >> also, you have hanging over all of these policy considerations, are the deep issues about the reliability of the administration in light of the russian investigation. it is a latest developments for donald trump jr. >> yes, it is clearly in the way of everything else they would rather be talking about. it is no doubt having some impact with independents that we see leaving the president's support. as the wall street j

david gergen, you really believe that? one of the most incompetent coverups? >> absolutely.o this particular meeting. they've been trying to hide what happened at this particular meeting. they've attempted to cover it up but they've done it with enormous incompetence. if there was nothing there, why not say here's where we met, here's who was in the room, we didn't find anything but instead they come out with a statement which is completely acts like they're completely innocent and the next statement says, no, we did want to find out dirt on hillary so we met with these people. now we learn there was a soviet counterintelligence spy in the meeting and they never disclosed this. >> i should point out he denies this. >> he denies being a counterintelligent spy but do we believe that? i don't think it's possible to believe what they said about the outcome of the meeting. how that we know that it all ended with nothing? all i'm saying is in this particular instance, it was a clear attempt at a coverup, it was incompetently done and the president and his team are paying a price f

joining us is retired rear admiral john kirby, david gergen, who has been there in the room during countless crises, and david, i want to start with you. i count three major issues facing the president. the north korean missile test, his meeting with vladamir putin, and the array of allies that are wary about the u.s. role in the world going forward. any one of these issues would be all-encompassing at a g20 summit. now president trump has to deal with all three. how important is the way he navigates the next few days? >> these are probably the most international meetings that he's going to have the first couple of years in office, because everyone is still taking a measure of donald trump as a world leader and whether he's going the retreat from the stage, as he's given indications that he would in terms of international collaboration, and whether he's going to be able to persuade others who are not in his corner to take tougher actions against north korea. he's going to have tough conversations with the chinese, because he's very disappointed. he's going to have very tough meetings with pu

donald trump and vladimir putin had a second meeting, we're learning about now, and david gergen witnessedh meetings. donald trump jr. said, fake news story of secret dinner with putin is sick. all g20 leaders and spouses were invited to the

. >> david gergen just a little bit ago tweeted the best chiefs of staff j and you named you and jim baker, were not only good organizers but masters at politics. do you need to have a master at politics? it goes beyond organization? >> well, obviously, having a good sense of politics in dealing particularly with capitol hill because as chief of staff in many ways, you have to speak on behalf of the president. people will call you to ask you on issues and taking steps on behalf of the president. so you do have to have that side of you. john kelly did work with the congress when he was my military aide. he's familiar with the congress. i think that kind of political experience is something that john is going to have to develop as part of his role as chiefs of staff. >> back in 2016 as a candidate donald trump said priebus that he knows better than to lecture me,ed aing, quote, we're not dealing with a five star army general. does a chief of staff have to be able to at the very least steer him? clearly this president is kind of running his own -- he's steering the ship rightly or wrong

. >> gloria, david gergen was tweeting that the best chiefs of staff were not only good organizers butics. do you think he'll be successful in this job as a non-politician? >> you know, look, the president's a non-politician. so you have a bit of a different dynamic here. i think it depends, as david was saying, axelrod was saying earlier, how much authority the president gives him and whether he listens to him. i mean, the president is a 71-year-old man who gets up in the morning and tweets multiple times every day, and sometimes changes the news flow as a result. generals don't like surprises. nobody does, to a degree. but the question is whether he's going to have any impact on the all pull sa impulsiveness of the president. i have no way to know the answer to that, and also how he's going to deal with the other power centers in the white house. whether he deal with mcmaster differently? will he deal with jared differently? jared kushner differently? and how will he deal with steve bannon? because i think steve bannon is there, and will remain. and so i think he's got to navigate th

donald trump and vladimir putin had a second meeting, we're learning about now, and david gergen witnessed such meetings. donald trump jr. said, fake news story of secret dinner with putin is sick. all g20 leaders and spouses were invited to the chancellor of germany. press knew. >> trump seems to have a misunderstanding of what is now being reported today, so what the press recently learned is that president trump and his russian counterpart vladimir putin spoke for a second time on july 7 in a previously undisclosed discussion at the end of that dinner during the g20 summit. we knew the actual dinner was going on, but apparently this is a conversation after the dinner, and a senior white house official told cnn this discussion was nearly an hour and only included president trump, putin and a russian translator. so president trump was alone. now, the white house is confirming this meeting today only after being pressed by reporters, and it said in the statement that this conversation took place in full view of other world leaders and their spouses at this dinner hosted by german chancello

david gergen, a former republican advisor at the white house, now a cnn contributor, cnn analyst. he was brought in. i remember at the time to bring some adult supervision into that staff. >> yeah. >> it's not necessarily the first time we've seen a shake up among senior staff at the white house. >> absolutely. for a chief of staff, this is short. the average chief of staff i think is about 18 months to two years is the average chief of staff's tenure. so, this is short. look, i think kelly is stepping into a very, very complicated situation. i think what's important to know is what kind much agreement did he get from trump, what kind of agreement did he get about what moves he can make. he's stepping into a place that is factualized among a family faction that has direct access to the president, a new communications director who is feeling very empowered these days and has now pushed out his main rival. a set of people left over from the reince priebus era. >> i want to alert our viewers right now, reince priebus is about to call us. we are about to get the first live interview w

david gergen/former presidential adviser"we've never seen a president put forward a major legislative piece in his early days and have it greeted with such derision and such fear."the defection of g-o-p senators, jerry moran of kansas and mike lee of utah, slammed the brakes on one of president trump's top goals."we must repeal job-killing obamacare, we have to do that."but that isn't going to happen, at least not for a while. mcconnell says the senate will soon vote on a bill that will delay the repeal of the affordable care act....for a two-year transition.for years the republican party railed against the a-c-a.... and donald trump made it one of his main campaign pledges.so what happened?bakari sellers/attorney "donald trump, with all due respect, in all his ability to speak to the common man, does not have any idea about health care policy. that is apparent." margaret hoover/gop strategist "instead of attacking msnbc anchors and all of these dalliances we've had on twitter, he should have been driving his agenda and trying to force senators to feel that they had to go along with t