Trump Reversal on Health Care Throws Talks into Turmoil; Trump to Meet Putin Face-to-Face Next Week; Handshakes and Hugs Between World Leaders.
TRUMP: The era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed. Many years, and it's failed. And, frankly, that patience is over.</s>PAUL: A warning from President Trump to Kim Jong-U.N. -- we are out of patience. These comments come as President Trump hosts the President of South Korea, looks at ways of increasing pressure on the communist regime to stop missile tests. Now, U.S. officials are watching North Korea very closely and say the country could be preparing for another missile launch or a nuclear test.</s>BLACKWELL: In just a few days, President Trump will meet Russian President, Vladimir Putin. That's at the G20 Summit in Germany. Now, this will be the first time the two will be face-to-face since Trump took office, but is this the first time they've met? That depends on who you ask and when you ask them.</s>TRUMP: I never met Putin. I don't know who Putin is. He said --</s>BLACKWELL (voice-over): It's a claim President Donald Trump made many times during the campaign.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm asking you --</s>TRUMP: I never met Putin. I don't think I've ever met him. I never met him. I don't think I've ever met him.</s>GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: You would know it if you did, wouldn't you?</s>TRUMP: I think so.</s>BLACKWELL (voice-over): The White House says next week's G20 Summit in Germany will offer the first opportunity for President Trump to meet Russian President, Vladimir Putin, face-to-face. However, all the denials contradict what candidate Trump said in an October 2015 radio interview.</s>MICHAEL SAVAGE, AMERICAN RADIO HOST: Have you met Vladimir Putin?</s>TRUMP: Yes.</s>SAVAGE: You have?</s>TRUMP: One time, yes, a long time ago.</s>BLACKWELL (voice-over): Mr. Trump did not say during that interview when or under what circumstances the two men met. And days before their meeting in Hamburg, there are several unsettled opposing claims about their history. The White House says Trump and Putin have spoken by phone at least three times since the 2016 election. But on conversations before the election, more contradictions. In July 2016, candidate Trump said this.</s>TRUMP: I have nothing to do with Putin. I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about him, other than he will respect me.</s>BLACKWELL (voice-over): Well, that contradicts what he said two years earlier.</s>TRUMP: I was in Moscow recently and I spoke indirectly and directly with President Trump, who could not have been nicer.</s>BLACKWELL (voice-over): During the campaign, candidate Trump denied any relationship with Putin.</s>TRUMP: I have no relationship with him, other than he called me a genius.</s>BLACKWELL (voice-over): But when asked about their relationship during a 2013 MSNBC interview, another contradiction.</s>THOMAS ROBERTS, MSNBC ANCHOR: Do you have a relationship with Vladimir Putin, a conversational relationship or anything that you feel you have sway or influence over his government?</s>TRUMP: I do have a relationship.</s>BLACKWELL (voice-over): The G20 Summit begins on Friday.</s>BLACKWELL: All right. So let's bring in now Kimberly Dozier, CNN global affairs analyst and senior national security correspondent at "The Daily Beast." Kim, good morning to you.</s>KIMBERLY DOZIER, SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, THE DAILY BEAST: Good morning, Victor.</s>BLACKWELL: All right. So we're going to set aside, for the moment, if this is the first time they're actually seeing each other in person. But you've got a piece out that I want to get to in "The Daily Beast," in which you have some information from European officials who are concerned because they believe that President Putin is going to try to play President Trump in the room and get something out of it.</s>DOZIER: Well, according to their intelligence, that's what Moscow thinks it will be able to achieve when they put Putin and Trump in the same room. Putin is the ex-head of Russian intelligence. He is good at charming world leaders. He has charmed previous U.S. presidents. He had both George W. Bush and President Barack Obama thinking that Russia and the United States could reach some sort of cooperative arrangement on things like counterterrorism. But every time, according to the officials that I have spoken to who dealt with Russia in the past, that they were near to what they thought was a good give-and-take, Russia would sort of use that relationship to get one over on them. Like, if Russia invaded Ukraine and the U.S. said, well, you've got to stop doing that, Russia will say, well, in that case, we're not going to share XYZ counterterrorism information with you.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes.</s>DOZIER: So they worry that this is what Trump is going to get convinced to do, enter into some sort of partnership where it's one- sided, with the U.S. giving everything and Moscow not giving very much.</s>BLACKWELL: That President Trump, essentially, is going to be rolled right there in the room. Let me go to this next element because we know that this meeting comes in context, right? The Russian potential collusion with Trump associates through the campaign. That investigation continues, although President Trump has called it a hoax. There is the investigation into Russian meddling in the election that goes on that President Trump has never 100 percent bought into. What role do you think those two will play in this meeting?</s>DOZIER: Well, the fear is that Trump will emerge from a Putin meeting saying, we had a great meeting and our relationship is going to be able to go forward now against the back drop of possibly continuing revelations that there was some sort of conversation during the campaign between Trump administration officials and Russian officials. So that that would put the Trump administration in sort of a compromising public position. So you have to think about going into this. You have the national security officials who want to start getting on a better footing with Russia, but you've got the political side of the house saying, we've got to handle this delicately and not give the farm away to Moscow.</s>BLACKWELL: So, you know, this meeting between Trump and Putin, those aren't the only meetings we need to watch, of course. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week, Thursday, it was, the German Parliament, that these discussions at the G20 will be difficult. She talked about trade. She talked about the climate deal. Did not name the President outright, but she said this: anyone who believes they can solve the problems of this world with isolationism and protectionism is making a big mistake. And she also went to talk about the climate change agreement, their first meeting since President Trump pulled the U.S. out: we cannot wait and will not wait until the last person in the world can be convinced by the scientific findings. Beyond the rhetoric here, what is the significance of what we are hearing from Angela Merkel?</s>DOZIER: Well, we're seeing Merkel emerge as one of the key European leaders who is willing to stand up to Trump, and there are polls that show that her people want her to do that. So she is going to be the counter point in the room, and if the U.S. wants a good relationship with Europe, with the European Union, they are going to have to deal with Merkel. So I think you're going to see her as one of the people when Trump stands up and does what he did in NATO, for instance, when he balled out NATO leaders right in front of them for not investing enough in their own defense, count on her to be the person to speak out on that. So we could be in for a little bit of fireworks at this meeting in Hamburg.</s>BLACKWELL: All right. Kimberly Dozier, thanks so much.</s>DOZIER: Thank you.</s>PAUL: Well, the Pentagon is delaying a decision now on allowing transgender people to enlist in the military. Today was the original deadline for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to make that decision. According to a memo obtained by CNN, the Pentagon will not make the announcement for at least another six months. Remember, former Defense Secretary Ash Carter originally said, last year, transgender recruits would be able to openly serve in the armed forces. And President Trump waking up at his New Jersey golf course this morning. Back in Washington, however, you know the GOP health care bill is stuck still in the Senate. What does this mean moving forward? We'll take you live to New Jersey in a moment.</s>BLACKWELL: Plus, an official says the liberation of Mosul from ISIS is now imminent, but the battle continues.