hello, i'm ana cabrera. breaking news. a pivotal day in a young presidency. a pivotal meeting happening between two of the moist powerful leaders. president donald trump and russian president vladimir putin holding their first official talks at the g-20 summit in

hamburg, germany. former ceo meets former kbb. here is what president trump said just before the doors closed for the camera. >> thank you very much. we appreciate it. president putin and i have been discussing various things. i think it's going very well. we have had very, very good talks. we are going to have a talk now and obviously, that will continue. we look forward to a lot of positive things happening for russia, for the united states and for everybody concerned. it's an honor to be with you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> today's meeting of the proverbalial meeting and the bear has an elephant in the room. russian meddling is the topic, a topic president trump probably won't bring up. sarah murray is joining us live

in hamburg. i'm looking at going on 50 minutes of which was supposed to be a 30 minute meeting. are they still having the meeting right now? >> reporter: we are waiting on word from white house officials whether this meeting is still going on. we expect to get more information about what topics did come up. it wasn't slated to be a long meeting. as you saw in the early parts the press was allowed into, president trump is speaking in english. russian president, vladimir putin speaking in russian. there are two translators in the room to improve the back and forth there. a senior diplomat, ser va lavrov and rex tillerson. they may not have a lot of time to cover a lot of terrain. they are wondering whether russian meddling is going to come up or draw a line and take a firm stance on president

putin. there are other issues that these two world leaders had to talk about. aggress from north korea and how they deal with that. white house officials made sure president trump was planning on bringing up russia's role in ukraine and syria. there are diplomatic issues on the table. what we are heard from president trump when he was a candidate and once he got in the white house, he wants to build on the relationship with putin. he wants to build the relationship with u.s. and russia. i don't think we should be surprised that the first images were cordial. >> they both used the word positive as they prepare to have their behind closed door talks. we eem come back to you as soon as we have a wrap on the meeting itself outside the g-20. in the meantime, protests are so intense, melania trump, the first lady did not leave her

hotel. she had to miss events with other g-20 spouses. fred fligis among the protester. >>reporter: we are in the middle of a melee. i'm going to take you over here. moving in here with those water cannon trucks. there were big scuffles a couple moments ago. sorry, we had to run a little bit. they are using water cannons to get those guys back there, away from that ledge over there. the police have just cleared an area over here. what we have had over the course of the day is there's been little pinpoint attacks going on by some of the ultra left wing protesters, cars set on fire earlier this morning at 8:00 a.m. local time. get here in the middle of the street. these police are using the water

cannon trucks to clear that area. one of the reasons is because the protesters aren't supposed to be in this area. they are not mandated to be here. it's sort of an ad hoc demonstration moving into this area. obviously, at some point, things kicked off. someone threw the first bottle and the police started retaliating. it's been basically the story the past 30 minutes or so. >> we can hear you are out of breath. you are having to dodge and weave and cover the ground. stay safe, fred and keep us updated on the developments. we appreciate your time. joining us to discuss this ongoing meeting between president trump and president putin, cnn could wanter terrorism analyst seasoned former cia official, bill. moscow bureau chief, jill. cnn national security and legal

analyst, susan. everyone, as we await the readout on this meeting between president trump and putin, let's take a look at that little interaction with we saw and what we heard from the two men just before their meeting. watch. >> it's an honor to be with you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> translator: spoken on the phone with you several times. on very important bilateral and international issues. phone conversations are never enough. >> what stands out to you about that first face-to-face interaction, their comments and the body language we saw? >> it seems calm so far. remember, the president set the table earlier this week when he called out the russians on both syria and ukraine. i don't think that's an

indication he's going to go tough on putin. i think he was trying, in part, to take that issue off the table. to tell critics i have raised it. the russians know i'm concerned. he goes into this meeting, calm, cool, it's going to be positive. he's not going to be a pushover. i think when they get into the meeting, the tone that is set there is going to be cooperative, especially on this question to find a way out of syria, maybe safe havens for civilians. >> we are waiting to hear whether they are still meeting. if they are, it's close to an hour pretty soon here. in the past, putin made his counter parts wait for their meetings. in some cases, when he met with the german chancellor, angela merkel four hours. for president obama, it was around 40 minutes. this meeting seemed to start promptly, what do you think this means? >> you know, president putin

does things -- sorry. >> go ahead, jill. >> president putin does things for a reason. so, he was there right on time. in fact, i think it was reporting early. there's a reason he did that. i think, at this particular point, both sides want this to go very well. note, again, not to get too much into the body language, but they look informal, leaning forward, the respect, the happiness that they are meeting. don't forget, they are beginning from almost ground zero on their relationship. this relationship is very, very bad. so, certainly for president putin, if he gets a couple things across, number one, having the meeting. two, the respect is an important thing putin would love to hear and he got it. also, president putin saying we are going to deal with bilateral issues, but also international issues. you can read into that, that

russia has a role on the world stage to play. he is the man who will do it. i think they wanted to come out. i don't see that with president trump, who is kind of new to this game, obviously, and would not, at least i think his advisers would not want him to get into the nitty gritty of the details, beginning the conversation, beginning the dialogue is probably what both sides want more than anything. >> there's so much anticipation about the content of their discussion. so far, the only words we have heard from them were remarks like trump saying, it's an honor to be with putin. putin saying i'm delighted to meet you personally. is that establishing personal respect or how does it set the stage for how they interact in the meeting? >> one of the most important things to president trump is personal respect. you know, stroking his ego a

little bit. the most notable thing about the meeting is not what we are seeing, but what we are not seeing. that's the conclusion of h.r. mcmaster or fiona hill. there's reports white house staff pushed for those individuals to be in the meeting. people who are putin skeptics, seasoned and experienced in this area. that preliminary decision to have a small meeting to include it. that opens up the ground about what might be discussed and increases the risk, but it might go off script in a way that's not add venn teenageous to trump or the united states. >> why do you see it that way? >> only because as jill and others mentioned earlier, putin is 17 years into his presidency, donald trump is six months into his. we know he's a shrewd negotiator

and has been good in the past, even than for more seasoned presidents. i think the push to include as many adults in the room as posz zable, as much experience as possible was a hope to bolster president trump and that he wasn't tricked into something without understanding the altercations. >> i want to put up the four people in the room expected to participate. on the u.s. side, president trump and his secretary of state, rex tillerson, then vladimir putin and his counter part, sergey lavrov. is it unusual to have such a small group? does it make this meeting more intimate? >> well, look, it's just a meet and greet here today. i mean, it is a big moment. in 2016, all we did was talk about putin. it's cleared up already. donald trump never met putin

before. putin told us that. donald trump thinks in the terms of brands like himself. the whole world, the meeting vladimir putin is a big deal for trump. but, i think what's going to happen out of this is going to be a continuation of meetings. they are going to touch on syria, north korea, you know, defeating global terrorism. the ukraine, perhaps. what's going to come out of it is an invite to mar-a-lago or washington d.c. this will be an ongoing dialogue between the two world leaders. i think the urgency at the moment of north korea means trump has got to talk about that. i see it as much more friendly. i think we are treating it as if it's a summit meeting when it's just a quick hello and got the phone call, now we can look at each other eyeball to eyeball. >> about that. the fact they have at least three phone calls before this meeting, they have talked about

how good it is to meet in person. does that personal contact make much of a difference, doug? >> i think it does. i remember when ronald reagan was meeting with gorbachev, he was bundled up and reagan came out without a coat on to show, look, i don't need to bundle up. people were all going to be microlooking at the body language and looking for little clues. personal relagships matter. if trump and putin can develop one and come up with a scenario where we can solve the mess in syria or work in collaboration with north korea, it's a win for the united states. as been mentioned, the problem is putin is very good at fooling american presidents. remember when george w. bush said he looked into putin's eyes and saw his soul. we done want donald trump to buy the putin bait, a kind of charm

he has because of his power. >> meantime, earlier, president trump, today, was tweeting this. quote, every one at the g-20 is talking about why john po december ta, from the hillary clinton campaign refused to give the dnc server to the fbi and cia. the top ranking democrat, congressman adam schiff said, quote, sure, that's the big talk, not climate change. why didn't john podesta give a server that wasn't his. your reaction? >> i can't figure out. you go overseas and the conversations have to do with climate change, what's going on with syria, american commitment to nato. critical issues. i can't believe anybody knows what happened to the dnc server. the critical aspect is the president left the united states and he's airing american laundry

overseas. it's like you go to a dinner party and yell out my wife is fat. you look around and say who invited that guy. he's talking about u.s. intelligence and u.s. inspections and what happened with a server from a democratic party in an international setting. everybody's got to be sitting around thinking, what is this guy thinking. it's odd. it's weird. >> susan, what is your reaction? is he just caught up in his own world? >> it's an incredibly strange thing. i don't think anyone believes everyone is talking about that at the g-20. the president appears to be confused. john podesta did not give the dnc servers to the fbi, not the cia. they weren't his to give in the first place. in continuing to muddy the waters on the stories of what

happened during the 2016 election interference and is a strange thing to do, considering how much attention is being focused on whether or not president trump is going to raise the issue of election interference during his meeting with president putin. the idea that at that same moment or shortly before, he would choose to once again raise issues on his twitter feed. it puts the starkness and sort of bizarreness of his position to not bring this up to president putin in a starker light. >> please stand by. we are awaiting the readout from the meeting between vladimir putin and u.s. president donald trump. they started meeting over an hour ago and a meeting was supposed to last just 30 minutes. we are waiting to hear whether thear continuing to talk. we will have the highlights as soon as we hear the meeting is wrapped up. we are following other stories. another wrinkle to all of this.

disturbing cnn reporting that russia ramped up spying on the u.s. hear why and how the trump administration is responding.

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trump and russian president, vladimir putin, finally face-to-face for the first time. both leaders voicing optimism before starting their high stakes talk. meantime, cnn has new information that russia intensified its spying efforts here in the u.s. since the election. i want to bring in producer, shimon. you are part of the team that broke this story alongside pamela brown and perez. the obama administration kicked out 35 as a result of hacking. now there may be 150 russian operatives here in the u.s. how is that happening and why? >> that's right. we have learned the russian spies are ramping up intelligence gathering in the u.s. officials say they have noticed an increase since the election. the russians have not been slowed by efforts after meddles in the election. officials say they have been

replenishing their ranks since the u.s. expelled the 35 russian diplomats suspected of spying last december. in some cases, we are told the russian spies, believed to be here have tried to gain employment at places with sensitive information. the fbi would not comment for the story and the russian embassy didn't respond for request to comment. >> if u.s. intelligence knows this, what is being done about it? why aren't they stopping it? >> there are several things going on. the fbi is continuing to investigate some of this. but some of it has to do with after the 2016 where the russians were accused of meddling both the obama and the trump administration have been slow to take measures to respond to the intelligence threat, you know, according to the former u.s. officials we talked to. also the way in which our political climate, the partisan political agreement over the russian activity and president

trump's reluctance to accept intelligence and collusions about russia's meddling, have slowed efforts. there's this other issue that is ongoing, a frustration with the state department over the granting of visa's to people that u.s. intelligence suspect are intelligence officers. the state department would not comment on that for us. also, as i mentioned, the fbi has a robust and continuing counter intelligence investigation, which keeps an eye on some of this activity. >> shimon, thank you very much. i want to bring back my panel. i want to get your take, as a former intel guy, why now by the russians and the u.s., do you think? >> i wouldn't read too much into this and i wouldn't lose sleep over this either. this is a game. this is how it works. we throw out spies. months later, they come in and say we need another computer

technician at the american embassy. they are going to issue him a visa and find out he's a spy. the reason i say don't worry is the fact they are going to replace the people who were tossed. they are not out there, necessarily to look at secrets that surround president trump. you can find that in washington, d.c., every newspaper and cable show including cnn. they are chasing more serious stuff. i'm worried about defense secrets, science and technology. new technology for aircraft, for ships and submarines. that's what i worry about them stealing. >> you think they are on to bigger fish, even? >> they are on to a couple things. i think they would be, in particular, not just gossip by the white house. i would be interested if i were them. the russian sanctions, officials at the white house who are in

favor of removing russian sanctions, i'm sure spies hunting that information. the big fish are fish that either give the russians an advantage in understanding american weapons systems or give the russians a chance to steal sufficient that helps them build their own weapons system, things like special sonar, new materials for aircraft and ships, that's the kind of stuff they want to steal, in addition to cyber stuff. >> john, so curious about the timing here. russia knows their actions are under scrutiny here in the u.s. jill, does it make sense to you that they would have an operation like this under way? >> well, yeah, because i think both things can happen at the same time. i mean, i totally agree with phil, this is kind of standard operating procedure. it's not good, but it's the way the game is played. for putin, if you look at what he's trying to do in that room, he's trying to understand, you know, what makes donald trump tick. i'm sure that before this

meeting, he has had a lot of information, psychological profiles, understanding of who donald trump is, who motivates him, how you can get to him and make his pitch for the things he wants. this is putin. what does he want? he wants the end of sanctions. he might find an interesting different way of approaching it, kind of making that case to trump, which could say, look, this is completely unfair, not right. it's going to backfire. this is my surmisal that i think this is probably what is going on. it's interesting, right before their meeting, mr. putin was talking about north korea and he used the phrase that we have to make sure we don't lose our self-control. these are all, you know, things he can approach trump in a different way and, again, as an experienced person, he's done this before. he can almost give advice.

i could see him trying to, because he knows psychology, being a former kgb operative. this is what he did for a living. he sits down across from the other guy, wants to recruit him and having him recruit the other guy. glandishment, praise, whatever it takes. a lot of acting. there's probably a lot of game playing going on. >> on the flip side, trump and those who know him have been known to have a strength as being somebody who is good at those one-on-ones, a charm offensive, so to speak. could that work on putin? >> you know, that is true. however, president trump is a lot more off the cuff, gut. let's see how it's working right now. president putin is very disciplined and very organized in the way he does his stuff. he goes in with a plan. you know, obviously, he can react to what happens at any

given moment. i think he comes in much more prepared, even psychologically, for what he wants. another point that would be interesting is, because it's a small number of people in that room, the readout, i think is going to be really crucial. the americans could say something. the russians will say something. are they the same version? could the russians pinpoint something else. could americans say this happened and russians say this happened? entirely possible it will sound the same, but the tone could be slightly different. president putin really wants to look like the experienced adult on the world stage. this is a delicate thing, but he wants to look like he is a person that the world should really trust. he is the person with experience. he is the person who doesn't -- who believes in climate change. he's already started doing this.

don't do sanctions. sanctions are unfair. he's got to message across. he's said to the europeans and others, i believe in climate change, even if he doesn't particularly believe in climate change. he's saying that. there's another game being played, which is, look at me. i'm vladimir putin and also the leader of the world. you could argument. >> he's definitely set that precedent of being a man in power. just his expertise in the power play. we are getting new tweets from john podesta as we were talking about the back and forth that's unfolding between the president at the g-20 and john podesta, former hillary clinton campaign. here is what john podesta writes. on a cross country road trip with my wife, for a pit stop in w, west virginia to see our wax job president is tweeting about

me at the g-20. these are his words. get a grip, man. the russians committed a crime when they pulled my e-mail to get you e lekked president. maybe you might try to mention that to president putin. by the way, i had nothing to do with the dnc. susan, your reaction to this? >> i think the harsh words are somewhat merited, particularly the get a grip part. remember the trump/putin meeting is not the only thing at the g-20 meeting. climate change, syria, north korea. we need a president whose focus, at the top of his game, representing the united states on the issues that are important to us. sort of his tweets about john po testa and the dnc doesn't evidence an individual who is taking the threats really, really seriously, representing the united states in a way that really is going to be advocating for our interest. i think it's unsurprising but

he's going to get substantial pushback. >> what do you make about the president tweeting about internal politics while on the world stage and seeing now this back and forth, what seems to be, all in all, juvenile, no? >> extremely juvenile. you know, i did my doctorate at georgetown in diplomatic history. the first thing you learn when you study diplomacy is an american senator, congressman or senator doesn't distheir own president when they go abroad. that's what donald trump has done. this whole visit has been embarrassing. great britain doesn't want trump there. france doesn't want him. only poland took him. now in germany, only 8% of the jerman people like donald trump. donald trump, himself, our first

lady is holed up in a hotel. she's not able to go and meet the other wives of the g-20. meanwhile, you know putin is going to be getting a better out of this meeting with trump. here, we have the president of the united states sending crazy tweets about po decembvan po de. >> do you see after this meeting, this isn't a win/win for putin? >> it is a win. the guy who hacked our elections in 2016, ransacked our sacred institutions of free and fair elections, donald trump is calling it an honor to see him. he's already kissing the ring of putin. putin is going to go back ard a champion. if he doesn't talk about the russian hacking, then putin got what he wanted out of it. we were the world's leader in

climate change a year ago. now, putin is going, meeting all the europeans i'm on your side and the united states isn't. if putin deems automatically with this private time with the president. >> stand by, everyone right now, we are awaiting the readout by vladimir putin and president trump. we are about to get the details about what they are talking about any moment now. we will bring that just ahead. plus a development in the republican party's bill to pass the health care bill. why the senate leader says you may have to work with democrats. this is cnn, special live coverage. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call today to request a free decision guide.

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breaking news this hour. president donald trump and vladimir putin in their first face-to-face meeting now at the g-20 summit in hamburg, germany. we brought the pleasant tris live a short time ago, then they began their closed door meetings. we are waiting for details on what they discussed and if the meeting is still going. the outcome could shape u.s. and russian relations for years to come. joining us now, former ambassador to russia and the united nations, thank you so much, ambassador, for joining us. >> thank you, ana. nice to be with you. >> there's a lot said about the men in the room and how few there are. what's interesting about tillerson, putin and lavrov, they have a relationship that goes years back. how does that play? >> i think it plays well for the

idea that they may actually find some agreement here. the fact that the meeting is going on so long would seem to me to be a reasonably useful and helpful sign. predicting about president trump is a dangerous pursuit and i would want to be careful about that. we are waiting to hear what happened at the meeting. we are in a wonderful position where almost everything has been said by everybody, but not quite. i'm not sure i want to join the crowd in repeating, again, exactly what's been said. it does seem to me, this meeting is a very important one. it could help to settle what is clearly a problem that has been deteriorating. u.s./russian relationships. putin and trump tried, despite the fact they have differences and they have begun to emerge, to pull themselves together. so, we have to wait and see whether, in fact, this is a meeting in which there will be some kind of agreement or some

kind of accord. i think it's clear and has been said before, each of them will come out of this meeting, giving their own interpretation. for president trump, he wants to be the centerpiece of the meeting. it's important for him to show he, in fact, dominated the conversation and helped to lead it. president putin will have exactly the same. what will happen in russian may not happen in english. we have seen that before. that's an old diplomatic game. it will be useful to watch. the most interesting thing will be where there be specifics that take us forward or really be we had a great conversation, we understand each other very, very well. things are moving along okay, trust us. >> what do you suppose we learn of what happens in this meeting? is there somebody that takes notes to give us an altered assessment of what this is or assessment without the spin or whatever we hear from the president and his secretary of state themselves? is there a recording we would

expect to be happening as well? >> ana, look at the two people standing or sitting behind the principles. they are the interpreters. they are the primary source because they make the notes as they go along to convey to each of the parties in what is said in one language how it is translated into the other language. they are a useful source. there may be people not in the picture. sometimes there are, who are also taking notes. their professionals, diplomats who know the subject matter. perhaps better than they interpret but the interpreters are good for a meeting like that. we could depend on a record. i don't think their recording would record. it would be interesting to know and something that happens in diplomacy. >> i can't help but be serious.

there's a pot of flowers between the two men. makes you wonder. wish we had more time. thank you for your expertise here. >> good to be with you. >> happy friday. >> same to you. >> thank you. did senator mitch mcconnell make a huge concession? details ahead. ♪ approaching medicare eligibility? you may think you can put off checking out your medicare options until you're sixty-five, but now is a good time to get the ball rolling.

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continuing to follow the breaking news of president trump and president putin, meeting on the sidelines of the g-20 summit in their first face-to-face, a bilateral meeting that was supposed to last 30-40 minutes. it is still going on, we have just confirmed. we are going on 90 minutes they have been meeting behind closed doors. we expect an off camera briefing by rex tillerson, who is inside that meeting with the two presidents. much anticipated to hear what

the content is they are discussing coming out of their meeting. we expect that to happen shortly after. we will bring the remarks, as much as we get, to you. meantime, here at home, domestically, health care is a big topic as senator mitch mcconnell gets the votes he needs. he has a new solution. if we can't repeal obamacare, we'll fix it. he said, if my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, some kind of action must occur. senate minority leader, chuck schumer called this encouraging. he opened the door to bipartisan solution. let's discuss. alex burn, cnn analyst and reporter for "the new york times." alex, what do you make of this suggest by mcconnell? is he saying it to threaten republican colleagues or where

where you think things are headed? >> we heard him say before, the reason republicans need to take action on their own is nobody wants to work with chuck schumer. it's the other path path. you are at a place where you are hearing people on the right, rand paul and ted cruz and the president saying repeal then replace later, if the talks don't work out. mcconnell is saying that's not really an apgs. >> he's option siding with democrats. >> he went out on that. in some ways, i don't think he would recommend, necessarily, the same solution as democrats. if he is trying to strengthen his hand in corralling votes from his own side, this is a way to do that. >> he didn't want to wait for the vote after the fourth of july recess, because that would give us, people at home, a chance to voice opposition. that's what we are hearing from susan collins who went home,

heard from constituents, it was across the board, we support you not voting yes on this republican plan. are you hearing otherwise, any chance that other republicans who were on the fence or in the no column may have switched the other way? >> if that's happening, i'm not aware of it. i don't think we are seeing public evidence of that. the reason mitch mcconnell wanted that vote at that time was so we wouldn't end up in a situation where this unpopular bill is dangling out there, a target for everyone on the left and the right. that's the situation we are in now. i do think that, you know, if you are mitch mcconnell and you want to get to other things on your agenda, you are pretty rapidly approaching the, you know, cut moment here on health care. there is a sense among folks in the party that we could kick this down the road even further. the idea of repeal now, replace later frrks the perspective of those in the republican party,

who want to do tax reform, the idea of replace later is a good way to burn up the rest of the year and maybe the rest of the congress. >> let's talk about jobs. promising numbers if you are in the trump administration and for america. new job support numbers, 222,000 new jobs a and is this what we should be looking at? >> economic issues at home including health care are much more asill ya more -- than what's going on in aus russia. where the look at the relative position of the two parties one of the reasons the president is not popular but stable in a mid to high 30s, maybe around 40% -- >> hasn't gone down. >> not too much. >> yeah. >> the economy is okay. right? as long as the job market keeps

on chugging along and essentially in the way we've seen it, you're probably not going to see the president get that much less popular than he already is. >> wall street and the markets responding to the good numbers. >> one of the favorite president's things to bring up. why won't the media cover this? >> we are. nice to see you. much more on breaking news still ahead. president trump and vladimir putin still meeting behind closed doors. which means they've been meeting more than 90 mints. mu minutes. much longer than scheduled. much more, just ahead. and you're not going to let anything keep you sidelined. come on! that's why you drink ensure. with nutritious calories 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals. that was the best one ever! giving you the strength and energy, to get back to doing what you love. and finish!

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continuing to follow the breaking news. president trump and president vladimir putin meeting on the sidelines of the g-20 summit right now. meeting over 90 minutes. in a meeting supposed to last at least half that time. the comments just before their meeting pointed to wanting to work together and having a positive interaction. let me just quote from what the president said, the few comments we had. he says -- we look forward to a lot of very positive happenings for russia and for the united states, and

for everyone concerned. it's an honor to be with you and the russian president also responding with, i'm delighted to be able to meet you in person, mr. president and hope our meeting will yield positive results. what could they be talking about? what can we take away from how long this meeting is lasting? f fareed zakaria joins me. >> the united states and russia have many, many things to discuss, two major powers. there are particularly the issues on, for example, with regard to syria, with regard to ukraine. so there's lots of material. don't forget, they do it in translation. so it's about half as long in terms of realtime compared with a meeting with angela merkel, who generally these meetings will speak in english, privately, or, of course, the

british prime minister, but it's encouraging, because, look, we do have -- the united states has serious business to conduct with russia. the trump administration has been frozen on russia policy. they really have no russia policy, because they came in, president trump came in praising russia to the skies, but then when the -- the election interference was revealed, it became clear that, you know, it would look very bad if he suddenly had a very cordial relationship with russia, made lots of concessions so he didn't do that. the result is, he's done nothing. american policy towards russia has been frozen for three months. this might be the beginning of the thaw. >> they certainly set the stage for that in the opening remarks they made. both respecting each other. talking about the positive side. being optimistic going in. it's an honor, i'm delighted. saying the right thing, shaking hands.

if the president doesn't bring up russia's election meddling is it a missed opportunity, or do you think in some respects from what you're saying being able to focus on other issues it might be in his best interests not to talk about that? >> i think a mistake. it's important, seems to me, for the president of russia to understand that the united states does not want interference in its elections. it does not want interference in its political system, and no matter who it benefits. i think what trump could really take the high road and say, look, i know i may have benefitted from it, but i'm telling you, you've got to cut it out, because we don't -- we don't want foreign governments involved in our elections. >> it's important for him to take a stand? >> i think important for him to take a stand. i think the odd thing about this, i've always felt, is it would help donald trump politically. imagine the way in which the media would have to report this?

donald trump raises the issue of russia's interference with vladimir putin to his face, even though this was interference that might have helped him win the presidency. he took the high road, he was statesman-like, represented america and its institutions, not just himself and his political fortunes. so i don't see a down side, but she clearly -- there is a personal issue here. he's in something of a defensive crouch. it means a lot to him that he won -- he wants to believe he won fair and square. the way i look at it, he won. it's over. now he has to represent the united states, and so it would be a mistake and missed opportunity and i think putin would interpret it as a sign of weakness. as a sign that he has complicated the relationship between the united states and russia when he can -- he gets to do this kind of thing and the americans can't respond. >> sounds like you're saying americans need to set the

boundary and do so face-to-face. that could have an impact. and fareed zakaria, your op-ed in korea. no time to do it today. we'll have you back. do read fareed's op-ed on "the washington post." thank you for joining us at this hour on a friday. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thanks for sharing your day with us. the first meeting between president trump and russian president vladimir putin is running overtime. at the beginning, updeceit tabe for the cameras. you see the handshakes there. the two presidents still meeting. supposed to run 35 minutes. it has now been running an hour 45 and kourccounting. also on the g-20 stage, an awkward moment with the mexican president. >> mr. pres