troops to vladimir putin assassinating journalists. that was a telling moment -- >> that was a huge moment. >> and raised questions not only in our minds but in a lot of other people's minds, but you can trace events from that point toward and they just doesn't make sense. none of them make sense. his kowtowing in helsinki doesn't make sense. no president that has been in his chair, sitting in his chair before him has ever considered that for a moment. >> i know that moment for us was a big one, and we looked at him differently ever since that moment. you could see our faces in realtime on television literally transition from seeing him as, you know, a reality star buffoon who kind of is bumbling his way towards the presidency because of his branding ability. we saw that he could win. we also saw at that moment like, whoa, what is going on here. and we looked at him differently ever since and he gave us material to worry about as it pertained to russia every step of the way. >> and, willie, he continues to do that. i remember you and s

think it's curious that throughout that whole summer when these investigations started, you had vladimir putinolicies almost being parroted by donald trump. you had trump say only nice things about putin. he never spoke ill about russia. the republican campaign doctrines softened on russia and decreased their willingness to defend ukraine. there was a series of outside actions. >> top democrat on the senate intelligence committee also said it was pathetic that u.s. officials don't know exactly what vladimir putin and president trump talked about in private, fred. >> boris sanchez at a very snowy white house, thank you so much. >>> it's important to keep in mind that we are talking about russia, the country that meddled in the 2016 u.s. election, the country that's at the center of the special counsel robert mueller's investigation. and now we're learning of the glaring gap in records of the private conversations between president trump and putin. all officials have to go off of the president's word of what happened at those meetings. >> we had direct open and deeply productive dialogue. it wen

with vladimir putin's translator.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 get answers from those interpreters are robert mueller and our next guest, the new chairman of the house foreign relations committee. joining us now is congressman eliot engel, a democrat from new york city and chairman of the house committee on foreign affairs. mr. chairman, thank you very much for joining us tonight. i really appreciate it. given this reporting in "the washington post", you have announced one of the first investigations or the first investigation you intend to do in your committee is to find out what vladimir putin and donald trump have been saying to each other. how will you try to do that? >> well, let me first say that since the time in 2016 when the russians interfered in our electio

on vladimir putin.on't see really any -- you're talking about a few specific actions. in general, this president has never said anything negative about vladimir putin. has he, steve? >> i will concede, for example, the helsinki presser was to me -- >> no. has he said anything negative about vladimir putin to your knowledge? >> i don't know. but i know what he's done. and a thug like vladimir putin and he is a thug, he respects actions and force a lot more than he will pay attention to maybe some harsh words from president trump. believe me. he cares a lot more about the ukraine being armed and about his soldiers being killed directly in combat with america than he cares about maybe getting some disturbing comments out of president trump at a gaggle. >> just interesting. i mean, kirsten, just interesting the president who, you know, is more than happy to insult just about everybody else has never said anything. i mean, not that i can recall at all. >> it's not just that he hasn't said anything critical a

talk about mueller, and it seems he doesn't want the american people to know what he said to vladimir putin. why does the president of the united states defer to putin, an enemy of this country, over and over and over and over again? he's been doing it since the early days of the campaign, you know. >> putin is a nicer person than i am. i think putin's been a very strong leader for russia. a very smart cookie, much smarter, much more cunning than our president. wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along, as an example, with russia? i'm all for it. if he says great things about me, i'm going to say great things about him. >> putin's a killer. >> a lot of killers. we've got a lot of killers, what, you think our country is so innocent? >> putin is the leader of russia. russia's a strong country. donald trump is a friend of putin. well, actually, putin did call me a genius, and he said i'm the future of the republican party. putin's fine. he's fine. we're all fine. we're people. >> would you say vladimir putin is a friend or a foe? >> i really can't say right now. as far as i'm concerned, a c

-- to vladimir putin and vice-versa. and by the way, show, if helsinki is any indication of what was said, we know publicly when he sold out the u.s., publicly when he blamed america for russian's sbooerns. interference. if that's what he said publicly, heaven knowles what he said privately because we'll never know because dent have proximate cause in with him and he took the notes. >> i think that helsinki moment is one we will all remember for a long time. take the notes away from the translator and interpreter, that tries a new level. there's another aspect with this with respect to this meeting that we're not talk about here and sam touched on it. there's an immense amount of intelligence value in what he stowed president trump. that allows the intelligence community to understand vladimir putin's intentions and allows us to compare what he says to the president to what we're seeing in our own intelligence collection activities. when the president doesn't share that information and when he takes deliberate action to

how many times was he prodded by vladimir putin to do just that? you're right. this didn't all happen all at once but the hard to look over the past two years and finds moments when trump himself, distinction from others in his administration or other officials, is directly critical of russia or putin, or in favor of a policy that goes against russia's interests. >> one thing about this. the president, you know, complained about leaks repeatedly, and in your article you point out that his desire for secrecy may also be driven by the embarrassing leaks that occurred earlier on in his presidency, however, these stories continue to come out, greg. who benefits from this, particularly this story, made public? what might an agenda be for someone who wants to get it out there? >> i think you know, these leaks do continue in this administration and i think to a large measure that's because of how trump treats his subordinates. right? many people in this administration realized that they could be dismissed on any day with an insulting tweet, and not, you know, that loya

on the campaign trail while trying to do business with vladimir putin. at least according to what buzzfeed's reporting is, while trying to give vladimir put uh a $50 million penthouse in trump tower moscow. so this is -- i don't think there's going to end up being a clear line between where the trump business deal ends and where trump's collusion with russia begins because it's donald trump himself who has erased whatever line might have existed between the two. now, that being said, sort of one of the interesting theories that we've seen come out over the last couple days is the idea that sort of the -- benjamin witus at law fair has been writing about this. that the obstruction could be the collusion, that's sort of the way the president has been trying to stymie the russia investigation is the thing that he's doing on russia's behalf. >> thank you all. i appreciate your time. and happy birthday to susan. >> happy birthday, susan. >> we'll be right back. >>> the big question about the russia investigation tonight. why did president trump reportedly go t

and the president, everything in helsinki between the president and vladimir putin. the real issue is the president took extraordinary measures to stop leaks and officials in this government, the deep state who want to leak this information, they are the people talking to the washington post and trying to create this fake news story. this information was not concealed from the president's senior advisers. >> top democrats in the senate, dick durbin, had this to say about the notes in question. >> he thinks interpreters notes, wants to destroy them so no one can see what was said. it raises serious questions about the relationship between this president and vladimir putin. >> we are hearing from lawmakers that they want to subpoena and get their hands on the interpreter and/or the notes. >> the incident recounted in the post about interpreters notes was from the meeting in hamburg. if you saw when the camera pulled out of the meeting in hamburg rex to listen was sitting there and he talked to other officials about it. inside the administration after a couple of specta

you have vladimir putin and you have the president of the united states sitting down together. cause there's no one else there, you essentially have the president and putin who have secrets with just each other, secrets that the intelligence community doesn't know, that his senior advisors don't know and certainly that the american people don't know. considering everything that's happened with regard to people in the president's atmosphere, the people in his circle who have been found to be engaged with russians,s that an absolutely startling revelation at this particular period in time. for anyone out there who is looking at this objectively, at a minimum we understand that the president has every right to meet one on one with a world leader, but considering everything that's going on we don't want president trump and vladimir putin having secret conversations that no one else knows about. >>> now to the president of japan's olympic committee denying accusations of corruption in connection with tokyo's successful bid to host the 2020 games. >> french authorities have placed tak

has over him and under either scenario, it is extraordinarily clear that vladimir putin and russian intelligence is able to manipulate the president of the united states and that he is compromised in some way, whether willingly or unwillingly. >> phil -- i'm sorry, sam. let me stay with phil with this. phil, there is this meeting that was supposed to happen, the second summit between president trump and president putin and scheduled to happen during the fall of 2018 and postponed until after the midterm and supposed to happen now in 2019. do you expect "the new york times" that we saw yesterday about the fbi investigating if whether the president was working for russia and now this "the washington post" reporting, the scrutiny decreases the li likelihood of that or the likelihood the president will go into the meeting without subordinates or making sure his interpreter doesn't share what happened in the meeting? >> you're asking me to read the president's psychology. i'll take a shot at that. >> try for me, phil. >> it's sunday morning at 7:00 a.m. i'll give it a shot! i think the s

he so believed vladimir putin's position or wanted to believe vladimir putin's position that he felt it imperative to call david sanger and tell him about it. of course lawmakers want to know what else went on during the conversation with vladimir putin and president trump? the only way they think they can get the answer is to see the interpreter's notes which the president took, or to interview the interpreter. >> it's hard to imagine there is an explanation for the president seizing the interpreter's notes, especially everything we know that's going on at the time. want to talk panic? it's calling an off the record conversation with david sanger to push a lie that as early as october of 2016, the intelligence community's unanimous assessment is russia was intervenintervening. the president of the united states is trying to push back on that narrative. if there is reluctance among members of congress on either party frankly to -- >> there is reluctance. >> there shouldn't be. >> it would break a precedence that they are allowed to speak freely to each other. >> a hostile foreign pow

what does this tell us about the relationship between trump and vladimir putin? e relationship collapsed from what i see is both for trump and putin. trump already avoided two meetings with putin even if he says he wants to meet and so forth, and for the russians, you can hear and read it all the time, that you know, america is not, sanctions are not going to be lifted in our lifetime. so we really have to, we have to act on our own. which actually makes putin more dangerous rather than not. >> saying there, there, that there is no longer there? is that right? sew summ to summarize. >> one sentence in the "new york times" story that intrigued me saying no evidence has publicly surfaced. someone who writes sentences like that, you don't write that unless evidence surfaced privately. >> something behind the door there. >> something behind the door. >> craig unger, nina and natasha, thank you. >>> after the break, the results of a new poll as americans sound off about the government shutdown. and the president's demand for a border wall. >> these are middle-class fam

vladimir putin. this comes as we learn president trump tried to conceal details of his meeting with the russian leader, even confiscating the notes taken by an interpreter. we have a lot to talk about. we begin with lauren fox, inside the hearing room on capitol hill. it will be confirmation hearings for william barr shortly. >> reporter: in just a little over an hour bill barr will take the seat behind me and unfold his confirmation hearings to be the next attorney general. first the committee chairman lindsey graham will begin reading his opening statement. after that the top democrat on the committee, dianne feinstein will read her opening statement. then bill barr will be sworn in and will make opening remarks. two significant developments we expect in the remarks. first, bill barr will say that the mueller investigation should be able to continue its work. then he'll say it is in the best interest of congress and the president for the findings of the investigation to be able to be released to th

thank you. >> let's set the table with the times president trump met with russian president vladimir putin. july 7th, 2001. the two met in germany. "the washington post" says president trump took notes of that meeting from the interpreter. during the same trip, he met with putin at a banquet later in the evening. november 2017 president trump and putin met at a summit in vietnam. then you'll remember helsinki. for two hours, behind closed doors, one-on-one with interpreters, that was july of 2019. "the post" reports that several officials were never able to get a reliable read-out of the helsinki summit. on november 11th of last year, they reportedly had what was described as a good talk at the paris world world war 1 summit. let's bring frederik pleitgen how this report is being received there in russia. hello, fred. >> reporter: hi, victor. the russians really waking up to this report right now. i've sort of been skimming through russian media earlier today and sort of news reports that basically state the facts of what has been going on and what president trump says about these allegati

look, the bush administration misread vladimir putin from the very start. russia was helpful in some ways with iran and then i vadinvadin crimea and then a reset under obama which wasn't successful. but you have to worry about things in common with russia's influence given what we know about this zblip do you think the president would rather be talking about the wall and trying to gin up support among his base in the midst of this shutdown than the various russia matters at hand? >> i think that's one of the big political reasons we have the shutdown and the wall. but the cnn polling over the weekend quickly shows that for the first time noncollege educated white voters, 47-45 don't support the president. the base is beginning to crack. >> thank you all very much. >>> meanwhile, the "wall street journal" reports that the white house asked the pentagon for a plan to launch military administration against iran last year. this request fold an attack on the u.s. embassy in baghdad. cla ris is warded is live in northern syria with more on this. what have you le

curtailed most of his international travel but has discussed again having some sort of meeting with vladimir putinanother summit. putin himself is eager to come to washington, to have the recognition of a white house summit. and people around the president, even his own intelligence community and some of his closest advisers are putting up the stop sign like, sir, this is not a good idea and yet, to this point, the president is willing to delay it but not been willing to rule out happening. >> look how happy he is in the white house with russians, lavrov and kislyak. >> the optics are so confusing and any normal administration, they would be, like, listen -- >> these pictures came to us from the russian foreign ministry of an american president in the oval office. >> looking gleeful. so, in any normal administration, you would simply say, the optics of this are terrible. let's not do this. let's let this cool down. >> that's to a real friend that you want to cover up. this is a real adversary. >> yes, and then on top of that, i just keep coming back to your question, which is, how are people suppo

this kind of macho posturing you see in any strong men, there are specific goals he shares with vladimir putiner, putin wants territory, sanctions eliminated. these are kleptocratic empires and if you have that kind of alliance with each other, if trump is aligning with putin, with erdogan, with various eastern european autocratic leaders it makes et easier for the illicit financial actions to keep going without any kind of oversight or accountability. there's pragmatic goals in mind as well as just the sort of spectacle of abusing power itself. >> yeah. that's a very good point. it is always follow the money and these oligarch regimes are able to rake in the dough. to the fact that he's been able to get it out of russia. let's go to malcolm nance on this because putin did -- has said through a translator, this was about the collapse of nay naoto being a good thing for russia, this was an interview at an economic forum in st. petersburg in 2017, he said in a sense maybe they should be falling apart that will help. so note that. then i want you to comment on the fact that united states senate f

whether it's just notes or recordings or whatever, russia and vladimir putin know the truth about what happened in those one-on-one meetings between trump and putin. if they didn't know it before, now thanks to "the washington post," russia knows the truth of what happened in those one-on-one meetings between trump and putin, that's something that the american president, that trump has desperately been trying to keep from public view and even from the view of other officials in his own administration. so russia now knows that whatever happened in those meetings trump is desperate to keep it secret. and they undoubtedly have a record of the truth of what happened in those meetings. that's like -- that's like blackmail in a bottle, right? think about it. whatever happened between trump and putin in those meetings, russia knows. russia has a record of it. and now they've got that to wield against him in case they ever need to give his leash another little tug. and then on top of that today, just in case the u.s. and europe were not back on their heels enough with what appears increasingly

nato, of course, the alliance of vladimir putin hates most.rns out he found a unwitting ally in undermining it. from the "times" report, "there are few things that president vladimir putin of russia desires more than the weakening of nato. last year, president trump suggested a move tantamount to destroying nato, the withdrawal of the u.s. senior administration officials told the "times" that several times over the course of 2018, mr. trump privately said he wanted to withdraw from the north atlantic treaty organization. current and former officials who support the alliance said they feared mr. trump could return to his threat as allied military spending continued to lag behind the goals the president had set. this new report on the heels of friday's revelation that donald trump was suspected by his own fbi to be working on behalf of russia when he fired fbi director jim comey leaves this white house in a very precarious position. joining our conversation, rick stengel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. phil, matt and elise

gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with russian president vladimir putin. and that on at least one occasion, trump took possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructed the linguist not to discuss what had transpired during his chat with putin with other administration officials. the white house has now had 38 hours to respond to the "new york times" story. even if the initial shock made it hard for them to figure out what to say, how to explain that 38 hours later, no one in the administration including trump himself, has been able to utter the simple phrase, of course the president isn't working for the kremlin? instead we have seen weird umbrage-filled nondenials. here is trump's lengthy nondenial response to his pal janine piro on fox news last night. >> are you now or have you ever worked for russia, mr. president? >> i think it's the most insulting thing i have ever been asked. i think it is the most insulting article i have ever had written. you look at what's going on, i fired james comey. i call him lying james comey. he was a terribl

he broke that story about president trump concealing details of that meeting with vladimir putin. terrific reporting. thanks for being with us. you report that the president went to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of these conversations. what lengths? >> well, in one case, he comes out of a meeting with putin and actually turns to the interpreter, the u.s. interpreter and takes that interpreter's notes and instructs the interpreter he's not to discuss what just transpired with any other officials, including officials in the trump administration. i mean, this is just -- needless to say, extremely unusual. no president in our lifetime has gone into a lengthy meeting with a russian leader without either at least one aide if not multiple aides, but trump does this routinely. >> why does it matter that there be people taking notes, that there be some kind of record of these dialogues? >> yeah, that's a great question. and the answer is that there are a number of reason yes it matters. for starters, the president is supposed to be advancing u.s. interests in these meetings. and

did he destroy notes from talks with vladimir putin? how the president responded. >>> they have the vacation because they don't have to use their say cavacation days. >> no paycheck? no apparent problem says an sxhik advi economic adviser, but the pain is growing. >>> women will not see cuts to birth control coverage thanks to a ruling from a federal judge. >>> and the field of 2020 democrats expands by two. already one of them facing harsh backlash for positions uncovered from the past. this is clearly going to be an enormous democratic field as we approach 2020. good morning, everyone. happy monday. welcome to "early start." >> and it is monday, january 14th, it is 5:00 a.m. in the east. a trio of big stories about president trump breaking over the weekend. two of them new revelations connected to the russia investigation. the "washington post" reporting that the president went to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with russia president vladimir putin. among the unusual steps he took, confiscating his own in

the russian president vladimir putin is hosting he's. in moscow discussing the face of. the russian president vladimir putin is hosting. discussing the face of. in northern syria. today. what we were. when we were. even percent of americans or something and really experience hardship. for.

expert working on the national security council staff, fiona hill, who literally wrote the book on vladimir putin but yet she was not present in that room. so what we see here is how president trump has been handling multiple meetings with president putin, is that he is operating consistent with what we've seen over the last two years, which is to say busting through the norms that have applied in the foreign policy space and in foreign relations. what we need to remember, brianna, is these norms and these normal procedures aren't there just as a matter of bureaucratic -- just for bureaucratic reasons, they're there to protect u.s. national interests. and when you don't have anybody else present except an interpreter who, as the reports indicate, has been told to cough up their notes and potentially have them never see the light of day, when you don't have anybody else present and you have no record of that meeting for our own intelligence agencies to understand, that is really not in the u.s. national security interest. >> and, shar chairman rogers, y chaired the internal community. how do you h

trump reportedly has gone to great lengths to keep his talks with vladimir putin secret. what might he have been trying to hide? >>> leaving mueller alone. mr. trump's pick for attorney general says the special counsel should finish his investigation and then the results should be made public. is that giving the president second thoughts about william barr's nomination? >>> and rejected. president trump says no to a proposal by a senate ally, lindsey graham, aimed at re-opening the government. mr. trump refusing to budge even as our poll shows that most americans blame him for the longest shutdown in u.s. history. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> tonight, president trump is hitting back against fresh allegations that he's a puppet of vladimir putin. declaring that he, quote, never worked for russia. that extraordinary pronouncement by a u.s. president prompted by blockbuster reports related to the russia investigation. cnn has obtained transcripts showing that fbi officials say

gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with russian president vladimir putin. concealing details from senior officials in his own administration and the paper adds that he went as far as to take his interpreter's notes at the one of those meetings and instructed him not to discuss what transpired with other officials. the president not taking this report lightly. he pushed back on the posts allegations in a telephone interview just last night. >> are you now or have you ever worked for russia, mr. president? >> i think it's the most unsulting thing i've ever been asked. i think it's the most insulting article i've ever had written. >> all right. so all of this, of course, comes just one day after "the new york times" reported that the fbi opened an inquiry into whether trump was secretly working on behalf of russian interest. joining me now msnbc white house correspondent geoff bennett. this has been a tough two days for the president. how is the white house responding to this washington post report? >> reporter: hey, morgamorgan. president trump is misdismiss

and i like so many americans aghast at the fact that you do appear have have a president doing vladimir putin'sople are lining up on the side of putin. >> what i don't stand is people who hold ronald reagan in high esteem hold donald trump in high esteem. it doesn't make any sense. i think of this from a policy perspective, about america's role in the world and what american democracy is meant to mean ideally for people around the world. ronald reagan had a distinctive loathing of authoritarian leaders, donald trump does not have a distinctive loathing of authoritarian leaders. just the basic sunniness and opt. >> -- i don't know how you hold these ideas in your head at the same time. >> jeffrey touches on a great point about reagan's sunny optimism. it was also a view of a world ever expanding, that america's greatest days truly did lie ahead, that open markets and free men and women actually all that we could compete and outcompete against anybody else in global stage and we had nothing to fear. donald trump, as matt lewis talked about in an op-ed a few weeks ago said that trump's view was ju

he's an association, a very close association of president vladimir putin. the business he is controls were sanctioned under the russian sanctions legislation that congress enacted through bipartisan action in 2017. as i have sponsored numerous bills with mr. mccarthy when he was the majority leader. to make sure that the congress was on record and had policies which would staunch the attacks on our country, on our security, by the russians. i was deeply disappointed that the republican senate rejected a similar resolution yesterday. when i say rejected it, the majority of the members of the senate, 57 to be exact, support it. -- supported this resolution. talked to secretary me knew chitch -- mnuchin yesterday and the day before. i asked secretary mnuchin given the concerns about this legislation, about the withdrawing of sanctions, that they give us until february 28 to have hearings, to reflect upon, to have further discussions with the administration to make a determination whether we thought this action was in the best interests of our country. unfortun

he spent the first half of his presidency backing away with from criticizing vladimir putin or russia. yet sanctions on russia have been toughened. sanctions on people close to president putin have been toughened as kwl. so the president is in some ways right when he tweets i have been tougher on russia. in a way he's right, he has stepped up sanctions and they are starting to bite around president putin. but it's the way this president is so very luck tant to criticize vladimir putin and the conjunction of these to stories there's a president hiding effectively some of the things he said with president putin, asking translator not even to disclose them to his own aides in the white house, in conjunction with bob mueller is investigating. >> while often undermining nato in other institutions while he's at it. >> and the european union, which is what president putin wants to do and say russians were behind the meddling in the 2016 election. for his reasons he doesn't want to show he didn't win the 2016 election bhimself with these big rallies and it was his popularity contest. he doesn

intelligence or vladimir putin and this is what he said. >> just now president putin denied having to do with any of the election in 2016 and every u.s. intelligence agency has concluded russia did. my first question for you, sir, is who do you believe? my second question is would you now with the whole world watching tell president putin and denounce what happened in 2016 and warn him to never do it again? >> my people came to me, dan coats came to me and some others and they said they think it's russia. i have president putin, he just said it is not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be. i have great confidence in my intelligence people. but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. and what he did is incredible offer. he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. i think that is an incredible offer. okay. thank you. >> an incredible offer. an offer you might say to collude on the investigation. now, we have two new pieces of informati

. >> well, the plot thickened today in the mystery of donald trump and vladimir putin. the financial times reported late today that donald trump sat down for a fifth -- for a meeting that was at least 15 minutes long with vladimir putin at the g-20 summit in november after president trump publicly announced that he canceled a one-on-one meeting with vladimir putin at that same summit because of recent russian aggression against ukraine. president trump did not have an american translator or a staff note taker with him in that meeting. vladimir putin did have his translator present, and so only the russians really know what was said in that meeting. the financial times report came at the end of what was an already historic day in the senate intelligence committee on this very subject. when the leaders of america's intelligence agencies refused to publicly answer the question -- does the president of the united states secret discussions with vladimir putin put the united states at a disadvantage in dealing with russia? >> it's according to press reports donald trump met p

we think about what we've seen here, you have vladimir putin and you have the president of the united states sitting down together and because there's no one else there, you essentially have the president and putin who have secrets with just each other. secrets that the intelligence community doesn't know, that his senior advisers doesn't know and certainly that the american people don't know. and considering everything that's happened with regard to people in the president's atmosphere, people in his circle who have been found to be engaged with russians, that is startling revelation at this particular period in time. i think for anyone looking at this objectively, at a minimum we understand the president has every right to meet one-on-one with a world leader but certainly considering the case of everything that's going on, we don't want president trump and vladimir putin having secret conversations we don't know about. >> that is extraordinary. thank you for joining us and shawn turner, we appreciate the conversation. >> thanks. >>> well, meantime we are watching riyadh, waiting for

evening they have banquet for world leaders, trump leaves his seat and goes over to sit down with vladimir putin for some extended period of time. he doesn't even tell his aides later about that meeting. they're in the dark about his conversation with putin where there's no american presence. there's no even american interpreter in that case. >> and here's the thing about it. it's one thing to not allow anyone else in the room. kind of on the fronte end makin a pro-active decision about that. it's after the fact taking the step to take the notes from the interpreter and say do not share the information from this meeting. that is something completely different that does suggest at the very least the president was considered about what it would look like if that information came out and you can take steps to what other things that could suggest. have you gotten any indication if the president did this after could conversations with any other foreign leader? >> no. i don't know of another case with any other foreign leader where he's seeking out and taking notes from the interpreter afterward. even

certainly a very symbolic visit by vladimir putin to belgrade after being somewhat divided right now in the geopolitical sense a means it has taken cool some building up close a time. he's with the european union but also wants to stay close friend of russia as well a thing that could prove indeed challenging to other states while serving is certainly trying to play this card more than twenty documents have been signed here in belgrade today looting deals in the energy and transport sectors we've got to realize that words we are ready to lengthen the turkish stream to european countries and to european consumers we have more than enough resources for that we are dealing with serbia on this issue this is also true for infrastructure development and also if a transitional infrastructure development on serbian territory we are ready to invest in it and these investments will be about one point four billion dollars but speaking of the divisions i should say they're quite visible in the streets like on wednesday for example thousands of people marched through central belgrade in oppositio

russia's behalf, we're learning about yet another undisclosed exchange the president had with vladimir putin. no american interpreters, just putin and putin pfrs own interpreter. this is wildly out of step with the usual protocol and if you were disposed, you might conclude this is how the president meets with his handler. we knew the president had spoken briefly with putin late last year turring the g 20 summit in argentina. they informed a quote conversation only after it was revealed by press but now they report was longer and more substantive than we were led to believe. it was accompanied by mu melania trump, his wife but no staff, while mr. putin was there. according to a russian government official's account, the two spoke for about 15 minutes about a number of foreign policy issues. that came president cancelled a formal meeting scheduled, siting a russian attack on ukrain's navy. just before the president had been implicated as individual one in court proceedings with michael cohen. and suggests talks lasted later than previously -- and this is the seconds time they had a private ch

vladimir putin. tell you why in our reality check next. (client's voice) remember that degree you got in taxation? (danny) of course you don't because you didn't! your job isn't understanding tax code... it's understanding why that... will get him a body like that... move! ...that. your job isn't doing hard work... here. ...it's making her do hard work... ...and getting paid for it. (vo) snap and sort your expenses to save over $4,600 at tax time. (danny) jody... ...it's time to get yours! (vo) quickbooks. backing you. >>> so remember when president trump said we would all get really tired of winning? well, there is one person who might actually be tired of it. vladimir putin. cnn's senior political analyst john avlon with a reality check. >> how's your new year going? i'm guessing not as well as vladimir putin's. autocrats ever getting a way with murder, alliances are being weak he end and the west is in chaos. britain's government suffered its latest fail with the implementation of brexit. parliame

report where the president met privately with putin and then basely came out on the stage with vladimir putinnd complimented putin and questioned the american intelligence community. >> garrett, do you know, could congress try to question that interpreter? >> well, i think that's not -- that's a very complicated answer, and there are some legitimate executive privilege concerns stemming from the idea that president's need to be able to have some private conversations with foreign leaders and that's not necessarily a precedent that we should want to set as a democracy and as a government. but you do have to look at the pattern of behavior here which is this is a president who knows that these questions are being raised about his behavior with russia vis-a-vis vladimir putin and is still going out of his way to have these incredibly odd one on one no staff conversations with the leader of russia. >> eli, is that executive privilege going to end up being the president's best defense? >> it may be. i do think congress is going to try to subpoena the interpreter. adam schiff has said it. he said h

the president giving the series of gestures apparently to vladimir putin as putin was speaking. unclear what it meant. looked like a you and me guy, a fist of solidarity perhaps, interpret it as you will. >> the president met with putin and took the interpreter's notes and that is one of many incidenin incidents that, fairly or not, have raised suspicions. just to be fair we should point out the constitution gives the president almost total discretion to conduct foreign policy. that said knowing the suspicions, and this dates back to the campaign, the president has made little or no effort to allay concerns that just as it seemed to be in hamburg vladimir putin and president trump are on the same wavelength, eye to eye, on the same page. now the kremlin appears to be stirring the pot. here is what the foreign minister said that he's some sort of asset. >> translator: honestly, to be frank with you, it's hard foe me to comment on what happens in the united states around the accusations of mr. trump that he's a russian agent, in fact. i think it is just the american media. such di

trump set up a plan to meet vladimir putin in person.ys mueller's team learned about trump's directive, as well as e-mails and texts and other documents. cnn has not yet independently confirmed the report. neil is here, this is a block buster of a story. thank you for joining us today. is the president implicating a crime here? >> thanks for having me. look, we are reading the story right now, we don't know all the sourcing and so on. it is suggesting that the president was engaged in criminal activity, beyond treasonable doubt standards, it applies to the president at this point. and look here is the fundamental point, this is not just nefarious behavior, it is a federal crime to order someone to lie in their testimony to congress. that's what the buzzfeed article says and it says the mueller corroborated that with e-mails and text messages and electronic information. again, we don't know the ver at. if it is true, it is a block buster, don. it is the president himself committed felonies and did not direct somebody but he did it himself

vladimir putin's goal of weakening the wes. selling chaos and discord is having a binner week in the uk and u.s. >>> for the first time in more than 30 years speaker nancy pelosi has called on donald trump to delay his state of the union address. pelosi citing the longest government shutdown in this country's history as the reason, leaving donald trump unwanted on that center stage he so palpably craves. pelosi also robbing the president of an opportunity to dig out of increasingly unfavorable poll numbers. it's a political crisis he's created for himself and his party over a border wall that is not popular enough among the public to create any pressure on the people's house. this humiliation caps another devastating day of headlines about donald trump's subservience and secrecy when it comes to russia. "the new york times" today revealing key details of donald trump's first face-to-face encounter with putin in germany. just a few months into his presidency. including this stunning account of what took place just afterward. fro