susan glasser, what do you think? all, americans, they like to root for peace and those pictures, no matter what you think of donald trump, are significant pictures that, you know, should give people hope. this is a 70--year-old conflict. who is against that? on the one hand. on the other hand, you know, i think you have in the form of donald trump and kim jong-un two leaders who are desperate for victory. and so probably both sides are asking, well, at what cost? when those two leaders finally do meet in person, remember, you know, trump made this decision to have his own summit with north korea, impromptu, clearly against the advice of at least some of his advisors. it's a risky move. and the north koreans have been asking for it for years. what we haven't really had answered yet is what did we get in return for making that concession to the north koreans. so, we'll wait and see, but obviously i think maximum pressure and the feeling that they weren't going to get anything in any other way is part of what has brough

here to talk more about all of this, susan glasser, form erly of politico. we are happy to say newest staff writer for the new yorker, where she'll be writing home regularly in the letter from washington. and toluse olorunnipa, who covered the president's visit to mount vernon tonight for the white house press pool. susan, i'd like to begin with you. set the stakes for us between trump and macron. >> for the french, it's enormously high stakes. one european diplomat said to me they're terrified of the visit here. remember, donald trump is extremely unpopular in france, as he is across much of western europe. our traditional allies obviously feel they have not had the closest relationship with trump. to the extent they have had a close relationship, it's mostly been through the person of emmanuel macron. and, you know, so he now needs to prove that he can deliver something. now, of course, trump does not like to be the guy who is seen as giving concessions. and as we know, trump has been out to get the iran deal ever since the campaign. he's now installed a h

one of them is you, susan glasser.ut the oligarchs, what you think is the impact in moscow right now? >> i think you made your point in your interview with michael mcfall, in some ways they have been expecting the u.s. to respond with these kinds of sanctions since the 2016 elections. so these guys have been able to figure out how to protect their money. i'm struck, still even after this tough measure that both parties have been asking for a very long time, even after the trump administration decides to take that move today, is any of us really sure that donald trump personally supports it? i haven't noticed him tweeting about it today, i haven't noticed him coming out and making public statements. what i do notice is it came on the very last day, h.r. mcmaster, who was dumped by trump and his last public speech on tuesday was how the united states has failed to respond toughly enough to russia. that message from his own former boss was clear. >> the president did talk about it, i don't know if it was today or yesterda

michael scherer of the "washington post," geoff bennett of nbc news ad susan glasser of politico. >> this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand the challenges of today and research the technologies of tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> on a cruise with american cruise lines, you can experience historic destinations along the mississippi river. the columbia river and across the united states. americanruise lines' fleet of small ships explore american landmarks, local cultures and calm waterways. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of "washington week." >> additional funding is provided by -- >>me enterta studios. wman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own food products to chity and nourishing the common good. koo and patricia yuen for the yu foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the excellence and either said in journalism foundation. the corporation for public b broadcasting a contributions to your pbs station from viewers

principally in washington, in terms of just covering daily political stuff, your wife susan glasser, is a magnificant journalist herself, was the editor of politico. is now back to being a columnist and podcaster, she also writes for vanity fair. she's a veteran journalist as you are. it's got to be nice to see how there are all these additional places to go get information because in the end if you believe in the public service function of journalism to inform the public, the public is pretty well informed right now. - the public has the option of being well informed if they want to be. - if they choose to be. - there's plenty of places now to go and get information. what worries me, and i think probably you, is that there are also ways of going to our own corners. only going places - confirmation bias. - exactly, they tell us, affirmation not information, right? they tell us how we're right about things. and that's where, obviously, there's some worry. - and the credibility of brands is important in a moment like that because people are all so often promoting facts that are not rea

journalist susan glasser, who's been writing about putin for nearly two decades, tells us it started classic product of the soviet union. his grandfather was a cook for lenin and later for stalin himself. >> german troops pushed the russians back. >> his parents managed but just barely to survive world war ii. after the war in 1952 vladimir putin's mother gave birth to him in her early 40s. vladimir putin, kind of a tough angry kid, and he lived in a communal apartment. they didn't have basically any privacy. they had one room to themselves. he eventually took up martial arts and channeled some of that anger. he watched on tv. in particular there was a series called "the sword and the shield" that really glorified the role of the predecessors of the kgb. and that's the kind of spy that vladimir putin grew up wanting to be. and actually, it was in his german class that he finally, you know, sort of buckled down and that seemed to help him focus his energy and he eventually then went on to law school and tried to figure out what would it take to get me in to the kgb. he ended up as a l

susan glasser soon to be a staff writer for "the new yorker." susan, let me begin with you.the assessment about this being the worst relations between the russians and the u.s. since the cold war? >> new cold war, you've never heard the term more in the last 25 years. i think it's a period of the highest tensions that there have been arguably even before gorbachev. we had better relationships and were talking more frequently in the late 1980s than today. president putin was just re-elected to another six-year term. remember president trump was not supposed to congratulate him, but did. the question is what is he going to do with this new mandate. he's got this conflict with great britain and the united states over this poisoning over a former russian spy. i think we can be in for a period of doigs additional escalation. >> liz, we saw him publish that icbm test this week that came in the wake of the diagram he showed targeting south florida maybe even mar-a-lago. it appears we could be in a new arms race with russia as well. >> as susan said we don't have an interest in esca