Tillerson: Trump-Putin Meeting Still Under Consideration
JOHN KING, INSIDE POLITICS HOST: Welcome back. Mixed signals today from the Kremlin and the White House. Will Presidents Trump and Putin meet tomorrow or are they too far apart on anything important to make a meeting worth while? The leaders will both be in Vietnam for the Annual Asian Pacific Economic Summit. Russia says the meeting is on and that the exact time and the agenda are being negotiated. But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says it's all TBD.</s>REX TILLERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE: With respect to the potential meeting between President Trump and President Putin, that's still under consideration. The view has been if the two leaders are going to meet, is there something sufficiently substantive to talk about that would warrant a formal meeting. And so I would just say there has been no conclusion made on that.</s>KING: We seem to have a slight difference of opinion here.</s>ABBY PHILLIP, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, I think it's also interesting how often this White House and this administration generally allow the Russians to set the narrative about these conversations. I remember very similar thing happening before their last face-to-face meeting in which there was a lot of information coming out of the Kremlin and not much information coming out of the White House. And what is coming out of the administration is this internal dispute about whether it is wise to do it at this moment or not. So, you know, on some level they have to kind of resolve this at some point, figure out what their strategy is. The challenges that its people like Tillerson warning against the President and, you know, you know who wins those disputes.</s>KING: But there is -- I mean, if maybe they don't have an agreement on any transactions if you will, but North Korea, the President said repeatedly on his trip he needs China and Russia to help him on North Korea. There's been a lot happening in recent weeks in Syria where Russia has not been on the same page with the United States and that's a dramatic understatement. So there's reason for the two leaders to talk. There's also the undercurrent that if they talked, would the President of the United States criticize Putin? Would the President of the United States raise an issue that every, look at the congressional investigations, look at his own intelligence agencies, say Russia is still trying to middle in U.S. elections. Our Jeff Zeleny tried to ask Secretary of State that question. You have to listen closely here. It's hard to hear Jeff's question but we showed here in the screen. If they meet, will the President bring up Russian election meddling?</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Russian meddling investigation is still on the list of things to talk about? Were they considered to be at the</s>TILLERSON: It stays on that list.</s>KING: It stays on that list from Secretary Tillerson's view. But we've also had the reporting in the last week that the President of the United States told his CIA director to meet with a conspiracy theorist who says it wasn't the Russians who hacked in. It was some internal hack job inside the DNC. So we know what the President still thinks about this.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. When they met previously, the readout was that the President brought it up. But we don't know to what extent, in what context if he said look, I'm really, really sorry that they're just investigating. Like we'll get over this, or if he said stop interfering in our elections. We don't really know the answer to that. But the Tillerson/Trump administration versus the Kremlin negotiation about this meeting playing out in public is so fascinating. Because obviously the Russians are trying to make it happen by saying it publicly. And now that they have said it publicly, Tillerson is trying to use that as leverage for whatever he is trying to get behind the scenes to actually make it so. And, you know, sometimes we see this kind of diplomacy that normally goes on behind the scenes play out in public. But not to this extent and that's really interesting.</s>OLIVIER KNOX, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, YAHOO! NEWS: When they met last time in Hamburg, the Russian readout was that that President Trump has accepted the Russian explanation for the election --</s>BASH: Right.</s>KNOX: -- meddling, their denial effectively. Some of this is just diplomatic choreography. Because one of the questions is, is it going to be what's called a pollicized? Do they share a hand shake in a conversation in a corner of the room or the other leaders of the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation former are talking about something else? Or is it a full on sit down bilateral meeting like the one in Hamburg? If so, who's going to attend? You remember all the kerfuffle about the fact that it was just the President and Secretary Tillerson last time. And then he went over and sat down after dinner. He went over and sat down for a longer conversation with President Putin.</s>BASH: But we didn't find about --</s>KNOX: But the Tillerson bar here, if they have something substantive to discuss we've cleared that bar a long time ago, as you illustrated with your list of issues. That part has been cleared. It's not about that anymore. It's not about where the meddling (ph) substantive to discuss.</s>ELIANA JOHNSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Yes. Well, I think it's fair to assume that Secretary Tillerson was trying to exact some sort of concession from the Russians in exchange for a meeting or to determine what exactly it was they would be discussing and then the Kremlin got out in front of him. And is trying to strong arm him. And what's curious to me is that the White House hasn't come out and said anything or they still seems unresolved now several hours later.</s>KING: Maybe he wanted concessions from the Russians but they wouldn't put out a readout saying the President accepted President --</s>JOHNSON: Exactly, exactly.</s>KING: -- what happened in the election. A quick break. Coming up, was Tuesday's electoral route for the Democrats? A roadmap to winning back the House in 2018? Nancy Pelosi thinks so.