and now rex tillerson has gone back to his ranch in texas and tried to stay out of things. at the time he gave a press conference after that meeting that he sat in on with the president and president putin, but really was very -- i mean, the details he provided in that press conference were scant. >> very broad. he talked about syria, i believe, and then wasn't there some reference that there might have been some discussion about james comey but that did not -- but the president called him a nutjob but that did not come from rex tillerson, right? >> no, not at the time. >> not at the time, right. charlie, given bob mueller is investigating possible collusion with russia, what's the likelihood the special counsel would subpoena the interpreter to try to get some sort of a detailed readout? >> that's an interesting thought. people have talked about, including on the air the last hour i was watching, maybe the democratic house could subpoena that interpreter or i guess they can subpoena rex tillerson, too, for the same meetings since there was no american interpreter in the ot

was in, rex tillerson refused to answer those questions.illerson was in the meeting where "the washington post" said that that happened. rex tillerson could have easily told "the washington post", "i did not see the president take the interpreter's notes." but he didn't say that. didn't help the president in any way. he refused to answer that question. "the washington post" reports on one of the encounters that the president had with putin that no other u.s. officials witnessed including a one-on-one encounter that the presidents had with vladimir putin for an hour at a g20 banquet and the president did not allow an american interpreter to join that discussion, which was a discussion between donald trump and vladimir putin with vladimir putin's translator. what will we ever know about what donald trump said to vladimir putin and what vladimir putin said to donald trump? it could be that the american interpreters who have been present in those discussions are the only people who can tell us, and right now the only people who might be able to

while tillerson was on the toilet. and last, but certainly not least, former epa administrator scott pruitt. after months of increasingly bad headlines and questions over how he still had a job, trump wrote, i have accepted the resignation of scott pruitt as the administrator of the environmental protection agency. within the agency, scott has done an outstanding job. let's narrow it down. we're back with our panel. sam, what's the word, on the throne or it's all done -- >> why bother talking about it? it's undebatable. not just because "the daily beast" reported it. you were fired while on the can is the most inglorious, dehumanizing -- >> are you sitting down? >> this man was running exxon/mobil two years ago, and then to end in this fashion. >> it's not like they had footage of it. so that would have been -- >> we have a mental image that will never go away. >> john kelly should get honorable mention because he got his, the guy who did the firing there, they had this nice agreement that he be on a friday, that he'd

secretary of state rex tillerson and trump's interpreter now following that meeting tillerson told reporters that a wide variety of topics had been discussed and that trump had pressed putin a whether russia had interfered with the presidential elections and that putin had denied it but tillerson did not answer reporters' questions of how the president responded whether or not he accepted that denial as truth while the interpreter told phelim and other members of the ministration of the time that trump did respond saying quote i believe you to putin but since then that interpreters lips have been sealed and this reporting in the washington post sheds light on why that may be the case because they are they are citing former and current u.s. officials saying that trump in structed the interpreter to not share details of the meeting even with other senior members of the administration and took possession that the president took possession of the interpreter's notes of this meeting of this revelation it would be an extraordinary break from the practices of past u.s. presidents who have sought to

i would suspect there were and we could hear from tillerson. i think this is a concerning story to have a president have several high-level meetings with so little documentation and so little advisory input from top people. presidents usually have people in the room and they usually have notes about what happened and this is an unusual relationship. thip the i think we might hear from tillerson and every attempt to learn what what happened in the room. >> i want to read from "the washington post." the former u.s. official said that president trump's behavior is at odds known practices of previous presidents who relied on aides to take comprehensive notes then shared with other officials and departments. is there a precedent for what we are seeing, this allegation that the president is trying to keep this information from these face-to-face meetings away from his administration? >> not that i know of in the modern presidency. even when reagan and gorbachev met to end the cold war in summits, a lot of documentation and people like secretary schul

putin. >> as i said in the story, i quote rex tillerson. i exchanged e-mails with rex tillerson. he confirmed that he was president with trump for his meeting with putin in 2017. but then rex tillerson came out and gave a press conference in which he talked about the fact that he described trump as having pressing the issue of the election interference during that meeting. pressing putin on that subject. that is at odds with the one detail that other white house officials were able to get out of that interpreter after. that interpreter, the one thing he was willing to share was that yes, putin denied having interfered in the election, and that trump's reply was i believe you. >> let's look back at recent history. i want to look at these together. there are moments in both of them that are the same. gregg talking about some of the meetings that took place. there was that oval office meeting in which lavrov was there with the then russian ambassador to the u.s. getting a tour by the president, and the president allows that it was a great relief not to have james comey around anymor

you nailed it. [ light laughter ] then trump called his former secretary of state rex tillerson "dumb" and "lazy as hell" after tillerson, in a rare interview, offered some brutal criticism of his former boss. >> how would you describe donald trump? >> he acts on his instincts and in some respects that looks like impulsiveness. but it's not his intent to act on impulse. i think he really is trying to act on his instincts. it was challenging for me coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented exxon-mobil corporation to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn't -- doesn't like to read. [ laughter ] >> seth: that's the former secretary of state talking about the president of the united states like he's mowgli. [ laughter ] "i mean, he doesn't mean to howl and walk on all fours. he was raised by wolves." [ laughter ] although in fairness to trump, the reason he doesn't like to read is that he is bad at it, even if he will never admit it. >> through their lives -- and though their lives. beating expectations in the house for the midtown -- and midterm year. they sac

james mattis, john kelly, rex tillerson, all the rest of you in the self regarding committee to save america, come on tell us now or we don't have to conclude that your real problem is with president trump policies. policies which aim to overturn a half-century of your elitist ideological orthodoxy in which the american people explicitly voted for in an election. it is the establishment effort that truly undermine democratic norms and represent a threat to our constitutional republic and rule of law. in a moment we discussed all of that with lisa and our special guest, telling what you think. fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely. but allstate helps you. with drivewise. feedback that helps you drive safer. and that can lower your cost now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? ♪here you come again lookin' ♪a body has a right to ♪and shakin' me up so applebee's all you can eat is back. now with shrimp. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. (coughing) need a change of scenery? kayak searches hundreds of travel sites and filters by cabin class, wi-fi a

james mattis, john kelly, rex tillerson, all the rest of you in the self regarding committee to savemerica, come on tell us now or we don't have to conclude that your real problem is with president trump policies. policies which aim to overturn a half-century of your elitist ideological orthodoxy in which the american people explicitly voted for in an election. it is the establishment effort that truly undermine democratic norms and represent a threat to our constitutional republic and rule of law. in a moment we discussed all of that with lisa and our special guest, telling what you think. [deep breath] i receive travel rewards. i visualize travel rewards. going new places! going out for a bite! going anytime. rewarded! learn more at the explorer card dot com. carissa: i came out nobody was embracing you.e. the kids were cruel. it was very difficult to be gay. not completing high school is more of a social thing than it was an academic thing. and even though all these years have passed, i still had that longing to have my diploma. i have a mentor, maria, and she convinced me to cont

i'm sure rex tillerson would be happy to open up about that now.he most concerning one was in helsinki where there is no cabinet officials. it seems that not many were briefed at the fact. the most benign explanation is this function in the national security establishment for donald trump doesn't trust the people who work for him. but it would be good to know exactly what went on at that meeting. >> especially since i lasted two hours. >> it's very strange. what was said at that meeting? why do more people in his national security team not know about that? that is something congress is going to be interested in trying to find out, specially now that democrats control the house. one of those things where it's another odd thing on top of other odd meeting that occurred over the last two or three years at the trump campaign in the trump administration with russia. something certainly not definitive and were not going to know the details of whether there is one there until we see what robert mueller issues with this report. arthel: meanwhile commencing

ourselves,ed to ask secretary of state rex tillerson, before he was hereed, tells us himself at the podiumot only announcing sanctions which are coercive and not based on international law. he actually had the nerve to announce a number of measures against venezuela. a flagrant violation of the united nations charter, the sacred document of multilateralism. that ait possible president that threatened the use of force -- it was not marco rubio or mike pence at donald trump that threatened the use of against force directly the republic of venezuela. how was it that he was not challenged or questioned by the entities of multilateralism? , you sat in the place of the accused because it's government has fully complied with its constitution and upheld and respected international law. how is that possible? 1911 in mexico and invasion. 1912, u.s. marines invade nicaragua. my neighbor. occupied that country until 1933. 1914, mexico. 1915, haiti. 1960, the dominican republic. 1918, panama. 1924, honduras. 1925, panama. 1926, nicaragua. 1930, dominican republic. 1933, nicaragua. 1941, panama. america

secretary of state rex tillerson and trump's personal interpreter now tillerson following this meeting told reporters that a wide variety of topics were discussed and that among them trump had pressed who wouldn't whether russia had meddled in the u.s. elections which putin denied than target or told other senior administration officials that trump responded with the words i believe you but since then the lips of that interpreter have been sealed and we may know the reason why now what into this reporting in the washington post with which cites former and current u.s. officials they say that trump instructed the interpreter not to reveal details of this meeting not even to four other not even to other administration officials and the reporting says that trump took possession of the notes of the interpreter and the result is that not only is there no detailed record of what was discussed between these two leaders in the public arena there may not even exist records in classified records either all of this would which would handicap us foreign policy experts which may have weighed in and

also, we need to ask ourselves -- secretary of state -- secretary rex tillerson before he was dismissed and then president trump himself here in the general assembly in the first day of the high segment at the podium to have sack red podium of multilateralism, -- not only allowed sanctions which are not based on international law, but he actually -- he had a number o announce after measures against venezuela, in flagrant violation of the united nations charter, the sacred document of multilateralists. how is it possible that a president that threatened the boltonforce -- it wasn't who did it. it wasn't mike pence, it was donald trump to threatened the use of force directly against the -- republic of venezuela. how is it he wasn't even challenged or questioned by the entities of multilateral snitch instead that you sit in the place of the accused, the republic of venezuela because its government has fully complied with its constitution and upheld and respected international law. how is that possible? we could speak for a among time. 1911 in mexico invasion. 1912, u.s. marines invade nica

secretary of state rex tillerson and trump's personal interpreter now tillerson following this meeting told reporters that a wide variety of topics were discussed and that among them trump had pressed who wouldn't whether russia had meddled in the u.s. elections which putin denied than target or told other senior administration officials that trump responded with the words i believe you but since then the lips of that interpreter have been sealed and we may know the reason why now what into this reporting in the washington post with which cites former and current u.s. officials they say that trump instructed the interpreter not to reveal details of this meeting not even to four other not even to other administration officials and the reporting says that trump took possession of the notes of the interpreter and the result is that not only is there no detailed record of what was discussed between these two leaders in the public arena there may not even exist records in classified records either all of this would which would handicap us foreign policy experts which may have weighed in and

sector rex tillerson before he was dismissed and then president trump selves himself here in this in the general assembly in the first day of the segment at the podium of the sacred podium a multi literalism. not only and now and sanctions which are coercive unilateral measures which are not based on international law but he actually. he had the nerve. to. announce a number of measures against venezuela in flagrant violation of the united nations charter sacred document of multilateralism. how is it possible that. a president that threatened the use of force when he wasn't mike boettcher did it was mike pence it was marco rubio it was donald trump. who threaten the use of military force directly against a rebel of our inner public of his will how is that he wasn't even challenge your question by the. entities of multilateralism and instead that you said in the place of the accused in the republic of venezuela because its government has fully complied with its constitution and up held and respected international law i was a possible i moved speak for a long time nine hundred eleven in

later that afternoon in germany, trump met for 2 1/2 hours with putin, tillerson and lavrov. this would be the meeting where trump reportedly seized his interpreter's notes. the same evening, trump, again, spoke with putin during a g20 dinner. putin's interpreter was the only other person present. we actually learned about that meeting about a week later. the very next day, july 8th, 2017, as trump was flying back from hamburg, he dictated the misleading statement, the cover story, his son, don junior, would later release about the trump tower meeting. that statement said the meeting, as you recall, was primarily about adoptions of russian children. nearly two weeks later, july 19th of 2017, president sat down for an interview with "the new york times" and he was asked about that second meeting with putin back on july 7th. >> was not a long conversation, but it was, you know, could be 15 minutes. just talked about things. actually, it was very interesting, we talked about adoption. >> you did? >> russian adoption. yeah. i always found that interesting because, you know, he en

secretary of state rex tillerson and trump's personal interpreter now tillerson following this meeting told reporters that a wide variety of topics were discussed and that among them trump had pressed who wouldn't whether russia had meddled in the u.s. elections which putin denied than target or told other senior administration officials that trump responded with the words i believe you but since then the lips of that interpreter have been sealed and we may know the reason why now ford into this reporting in the washington post with which cites former and current u.s. officials they say that trump instructed the interpreter not to reveal details of this meeting not even to four other not even to other administration officials and the reporting says that trump took possession of the notes of the interpreter and the result is that not only is there no detailed record of what was discussed between these two leaders in the public arena there may not even exist records in classified records either all of this would which would handicap u.s. foreign policy experts which may have weighed in a

secretary of state rex tillerson and trump's personal interpreter now tillerson following this meeting told reporters that a wide variety of topics were discussed and that among them trump had pressed who wouldn't whether russia had meddled in the u.s. elections which putin denied than target or told other senior administration officials that trump responded with the words i believe you but since then the lips of that interpreter have been sealed and we may know the reason why now what into this reporting in the washington post with which cites former and current u.s. officials they say that trump instructed the interpreter not to reveal details of this meeting not even to four other not even to other administration officials and the reporting says that trump took possession of the notes of the interpreter and the result is that not only is there no detailed record of what was discussed between these two leaders in the public arena there may not even exist records in classified records either all of this would which would handicap u.s. foreign policy experts which may have weighed in a

my question is did he also say it to rex tillerson?obust briefing about who occurred because he was asked to stay quiet by the president? we don't flow the answer to that question. the new york time reaches out to the white house about the trump tower meeting. there is a meeting between trump, putin, in the evening a private con vversation. on july 8th president trump dictates about the trump tower meeting on air force one. on july 11th e-mails show donald trump jr. believed it would include clinton dirt. it centers around the meeting that we keep coming back to as a central part of it. it is the june 2016 meeting in trump tower. the thing that's mentioned there, remember, with that statement that donald trump jr. dictates the statement to donald trump jr. why did he feel the need to a, be so involved that he had to put words in his son's mouth and b, not tell the truth. they did not, when asked about it they insisted he may have seen it. maybe a word here or there. that's not the case. it was his statement through his son. so there is

♪ and nine months later -- ♪ ♪ rex tillerson didn't have the mental capacity needed he was dumb as ab. thank you, leon. thank you very much. leon bridges, everybody! our presidential salute continues when we return! >> announcer: "jimmy kimmel live," intermission accomplished, a halftime tribute to trump, brought to you by clean-burning coal. coal, the fuel of tomorrow, keeps america's great businesses humming. don't be a chump, buy a lump. coal, energy to burn. (clicking, beep) i'm dying. oh, we're dying. if you can hear us, honey, your father and i are dying. i'm dying. i'm dying. i'm dying! does anyone have a charger? yeah, just... down here. (grunting) sorry, i'm dying. i'm dying. ( ♪ ) we all make excuses for the things we don't want to do. but when it comes to colon cancer screening... i'm not doin' that. i eat plenty of kale. ahem, as i was saying... ...with cologuard, you don't need an excuse... all that prep? no thanks. that drink tastes horrible! but...there's no prep with cologuard... i can't take the time off work. who has two days? and i feel fine - no symptoms! everybod

>> can you subpoenaing rex tillerson?need to do, we need protect the mueller investigation, we need to know what was said, when we said we would lierk to have the interpreter come in, we'll be off to the races, this is a moment when the president should say when i'm hiding what happened that doesn't look good. >> should your priority in the intell committee right now this year be less about what the president did as a candidate in 2016 or more about what he discussed in 2017 and 2018. should that be your soul focus as the intelligence committee this year. >> we're overseeing the emergency committee, it is a very big job. we're also charged with looking at the russian negligence e intelligence out there. that is fair and we're going to wait, we need to see what mule ere comes out with. i'm guessing that he is focused on indictments and not necessarily here is how they manipulate facebook, or if they're trying to get into parties, i expect that we will follow up on that. >> a busy day for you on the hill, thank you very muc

tillerson left the state department.eople that democrats and republicans, alike, were counting on to hold up the law, norms that help us preserve the world and support our long-term national security interest which much of the president's national security focus on plans and policies do not. i agree with everything people have said. i think the helsinki summit stands out as a low point of this presidency and the nation's history. what i saw in '18 was a new, unleashed president. those grown ups are gone, he is digging in and he, whether it's helsinki or abrupt withdrawal from syria, mattis' departure, no matter what it is, he doesn't feel he needs to turn to people for advice or council or take a pause on impulsive decisions. he is now going to slowdown the withdrawal from syria but he's really pleased with his own direction and his gut, as he talks about. that is going to have a lot of effect in 2019. >> he doesn't let up on the chaos or the negativity. just a couple minutes ago, he tweeted again. here it is, quote, the

rex tillerson was involved in one of them.ever, there's also this, though the interpret refused to discuss the meeting he said putin denied involvement in the election and responded, i believe you, trump. that was the only one. trump also had other meetings at global meetings outside the presence of aides. he spoke at lengths with putin at a banquet at the same 2017 global conference in hamburg where only putin's interpret was present. again, ken, how could you or the american people ever know the facts if there were only two people in the room and two of them were on russia's side? >> you inquire of the people who were there. just accepting your narrative, that that's true, you go about it in a very orderly way and say, okay, what do you know about this? let me -- hold on. let me finish, alisyn, let me finish. eventually, you're saying, do you need to subpoena the president of the united states? that's a very weighty issue, either bob mueller or whomever, it may be a political issue for the house or for the senate. it's a con

well this is really been the situation not just for mike but it was the situation for rex tillerson as well and we saw that as well with nikki haley while she was the u.s. ambassador at the united nations they would come forward with policy objectives they would try to work on issues and then the president would simply change his mind effectively undercutting the people he had appointed to deal with foreign policy like palm pale most famously was supposed to go to north korea late in twenty eighteen to try to help lay the groundwork for a potential second summit between kim jong un and donald trump but then the president decided at the last second that he didn't want that trip to happen that he wanted to handle the matter with north korea in a very different fashion and he did so in a very public way so whether or not this is the way to run foreign policy certainly the reaction from many observers here in washington is that it's humiliating when you can't be trusted to do the work that the president has asked you to do. even after i mean rose jordan reporting from washington let's go t

secretary of state rex tillerson and trump's personal interpreter now tillerson following this meeting told reporters that a wide variety of topics were discussed and that among them trump had pressed whether russia had meddled in the u.s. elections which putin denied than target or told other senior administration officials that trump responded with the words i believe you but since then the lips of that interpreter have been sealed and we may know the reason why now what into this reporting in the washington post with which cites former and current u.s. officials they say that trump instructed the interpreter not to reveal details of this meeting not even to four other not even to other administration officials and the reporting says that trump took possession of the notes of the interpreter and the result is that not only is there no detailed record of what was discussed between these two leaders in the public arena there may not even exist records in classified records either all of this would which would handicap u.s. foreign policy experts which may have weighed in and influence

now, we know that secretary of state at the time, rex tillerson, was there at the meeting, as was russia'soreign minister. but when a state department official and white house official requested more of a readout of that meeting than rex tillerson actually gave, well, they learned the president had confiscated the interpreter's notes and also forbade that interpreter from disclosing reports of the meeting. that's all what we saw this weekend. hours later the president meets again with president putin for a second undisclosed meeting that lasted for nearly an hour. at that meeting no american officials were present, and the white house didn't confirm the encounter until more than ten days later after it was independently reported. so then fast-forward to one day later, july 8. back on air force one, en route to washington, and we've now learned that the president called a "new york times" reporter, who is also a cnn analyst, and argued that russians were falsely accused of election interference. the president said that putin denied it three times, and the president even said that putin told

tillerson under oath? >> i would love to hear from the formersic former secretary of state. but any time you meet with someone particularly who has been traditionally viewed as an adversary, even if you want to meet one on one, you want to give your team a full read out of what happened. there's lots of dew out of that meeting of that nature. and it's more than bizarre, if the reporting is accurate, that president took the interpreter's notes won't share them with anyone and i haven't heard what actually transpired between putin and trump in helsinki and i don't know anyone of the administration that's represented they know what transpired. >> thank you for your time tonight. >>> we heard from the man president trump wants to over see the mueller investigation. i'll talk to the senator who questioned william barr of what she makes of the nominee. it's absolute confidence in 30,000 precision parts. or it isn't. it's inspected by mercedes-benz factory-trained technicians. or it isn't. it's backed by an unlimited mileage warranty, or it isn't. for those who never settle, it's e

. >> there was one other witness, we it's rex tillerson. >> hold on a second because there was a few different meetings. rex tillerson was in one of them and then there was a dinner conversation that was private. >> and for that the president didn't even have his interpreter, i believe it was only the russian interpreter. so we're not likely to hear from him. so the phone call, most of it was off the record. but some of it he immediately said when he landed back in public. so it was in his mind. what it basically was, was that vladimir putin had made the argument that the russians are so good at hacking that had they done it, they never would have been caught. and he said, i found that a pretty convincing argument. i said to him, well, you know, if you go back and look at what the intelligence reports told you, they all told you that vladimir putin not only was aware of it, he ordered if the do you believe your own u.s. intelligence reports or putin? and he said, how could i believe people like john brennan and comey and so forth? he took it immediately to the personal, that they're

it is pretty clear what happened, the same thing that happened with rex tillerson when he got sidewayspresident. you will call rex tillerson was talking about talks with the north koreans and the president said nonsense about talks. and look where we are now with north korea. after saying that he knows more than the generals, the president is now in the position of having the generals and his national security team walk in and say if we move as quickly as you say we should move, number one, we're going to get some of our allies killed in syria and number two, we're going to give an opportunity to iran which is something that obviously the president doesn't want to do. he had to listen to people who knew more, that is about it. >> and so the united states will pull out of syria only with these assurances turkey will not attack kurdish allies. john bolton told journalists that on sunday. so do we just take turkey's word for it? >> i don't think that that will work. let me make this simple. let say we get those assurances. and last reports have the national security adviser john bolton go

rex tillerson certainly has not been shy as of late in his criticism of president trump. so far he has not said that anything was amiss during that july 2017 meeting in hamburg with vladimir putin. shep? >> shepard: john, give us an update on what the president said about the shut down. >> doesn't look like it's any closer ending today than last week. the president addressing the farm bureau in new orleans a few minutes ago. he said that he is not about to back down. listen here. >> when it comes to keeping the american people safe, i will never ever back down. i didn't need this fight. this is a rough fight. we're dealing against people that think that if they can stop me from building the wall again, we've done a lot of work, but they think that's a good thing for 2020. because they're not going to win. >> the president spent the weekend talking with republican lawmakers trying to make sure none of them go squishy on this. the president believes the longer this goes on, democrats will eventually cave from the pressure. a new abc post poll shows that opposition to the bo

rex tillerson puts out a bland statement calling the discussion robust and lengthy.ama takes place behind-the-scenes when president trump confiscates the interpreter's notes. this is never done and for good reason. trump deliberately ensured no american record insists of the first meeting between himself and a hostile foreign power who meddled in our election on his behalf. looking back it seems the president had a lot on his mind. the "new york times" called for comment that day on a then secret, then infamous meeting between don jr. and the russians during the campaign. trump and putin attended dinner. world leaders break bread, make idle chit-chat and that's it. but president trump is captured on camera doing whatever this is at putin. the media is shuffled out and under the guise of saying hi to melania who is next to putin trump walks to their side of the table and they have another hour-long discussion. the only party is putin's interpreter. trump doesn't tell his own staff about the meeting. shocked world leaders let it leak. shortly after the "new york times"

subpoena the president's interpreters, records, possibly even the former secretary of state rex tillerson. what's the latest? >> reporter: yeah, i just actually spoke with the house foreign affairs committee chairman eliot engel who told me no decisions have been made about a subpoena. they're still trying to get their committees in order but they're trying to figure out the best way to get information about the trump/putin meetings. he wants to have hearings about the trump/putin relationship and raising serious questions about why those records of those meetings are not available and the president has apparently gone to lengths to conceal details of that meeting, of those meetings. now, wolf, i also had a chance to talk to some senate republicans about the president's unusual efforts to hide information about his interactions with vladimir putin, including senator mitt romney who's now a member of the senate foreign relations committee who raised some serious concerns about the president's efforts to apparently conceal those details. >> i think it is inappropriate for the president of o

tried to imply this concerning these two meetings, but keep in mind that secretary of state rex tillerson was in the first meeting. i doubt the president would have said such ridiculous things in the presence of him and the second meeting was carefully communicated to senior officials. everyone knows what was discussed in helsinki. i know what was discussed in helsinki and that it was a discussion that i think was entirely appropriate. it was not concealed from senior officials. >> shannon: final word to you. >> on this fbi thing i asked a republican today who was involved in this, knowledgeable about this, is the story more about what president trump did or more about what the fbi did? and he said definitely the fbi. this is actually extraordinary. we know all of the suspicions that were raised in the public discussion in 2016 and early 2017 and what's clear is in the two or three days after the may 9th 2017 firing of james comey the fbi just has a complete collective nervous breakdown. these people, the top officials there, they freak out. this is one rod rosenstein apparently talks abo

rex tillerson barely had access to much of of what he -- >> and tillerson knows a whole heck of a lot more about russia than trump ever did. >> what our relationship currently stands with russia. we have no idea what the united states relationship with russia. russia is not a declared enemy but putin clearly is an enemy. >> guys like mccarthy and ted cruz had to say this weekend defending the president. >> if you compare objectively president trump's policies to russia compared to president obama's policies to russia. by any measure, president obama was much easier on russia. >> does it concern you that there's no public record of what the president discussed with vladimir putin, the leader of the country, that interfered in the 2016 elections? >> we've been very tough on russia. >> he's talking about what congress has done. the president hasn't. the president didn't want to put forth sanctions against russia. just before christmas, that's when mnuchin was slipping in, hey, oligarch, you're my boy, i got you. >> when we look at the history, i mean, let's not forget the michael flynn p

dplo gloria, of course, in one of the meetings, re-electix tillerson there. there was a second meeting where there wasn't even an american interpreter present. it was just putin, trump, and putin's interpreter. private conversation that occurred, that was somewhere between 15 minutes and 40 minutes, depending on who you believe. could all of this just be a coincidence? this timing that there's these meetings on the day that the "new york times" affectisks for response and the next day the president has a response, which, by the way, turns out to be untrue. >> and by the way, we didn't know about the second meeting for quite some time. it wasn't as if they came out and said, oh, by the way, the president just met with vladimir putin -- >> to your point, ian bremmer is the one who found out about it. >> exactly. it wasn't anything they wanted to reveal, which is also extraordinary, when it comes to two heads of state having a secret meeting. could it all be coincidence? okay, you have to allow that, sure, it could. but don't forget, we have been involved in cov

and then there was rex tillerson. rex tillerson was there for the whole thing.he knows everything that happened during that meeting. in terms of the president keeping all of the information about that meeting from his aides, one of his most important aides at the time was in the room with him. >> harris: that's an interesting point. i would say that ron johnson of wisconsin, senator, asked defended the president on this point. i don't think we have it out yet. i don't know. it sounds like the president may have taken those notes. but the question i want to ask my next guest is why that's important. and i will. but thank you for pointing out who else was in the room, because that's helpful. john roberts, thank you. ken starr, former whitewater independent counsel, and author of the book "contempt: a memoir of the clinton investigation," is with me now. good to see. let's start with the movement of those notes. we know early in the administration there were phone calls that were leaked, that the president was having with leaders. so we understand the leaking that

secretary of state rex tillerson and trump's personal interpreter now tillerson following this meeting told reporters that a wide variety of topics were discussed and that among them trump had pressed who wouldn't whether russia had meddled in the u.s. elections which putin denied than target or told other senior administration officials that trump responded with the words i believe you but since then the lips of that interpreter have been sealed and we may know the reason why now what into this reporting in the washington post with which cites former and current u.s. officials they say that trump instructed the interpreter not to reveal details of this meeting not even to four other not even to other administration officials and the reporting says that trump took possession of the notes of the interpreter and the result is that not only is there no detailed record of what was discussed between these two leaders in the public arena there may not even exist records in classified records either all of this would which would handicap us foreign policy experts which may have weighed in and

contact with putin to be monitored like his meeting in hamburg where then secretary of state rex tillerson the present trump of course dismisses it all as fake news attacks against him defamation never worked for russia you know that is are better than anybody i've ever worked for russia not only did i never work for russia i think it's a disgrace that you even asked that question because it's all big fat hoax it's just dark but the democrats being democrats now want to raise hell over this they want the interpreter from the helsinki meeting between trump and putin to spill the beans they hope anything to get a trump but if i had a choice i'd rather not do that with the with the interpreters but we may have no choice we'll have to see down down the road what happens but we want to get to the truth impeachment they cry impeachment. impeachment impeachment almost a fetish of theirs at this point the trump seems particularly concerned you can. impeach somebody that's doing a great job that's the way i view it. in greece say ten officers have been injured after they were reportedly forced into