WAPO: Trump Continues To Reject Evidence On Russia, Has Never Held Cabinet Meeting On Russia
HARLOW: All right. Now more on that new reporting out of the "Washington Post" on the president and his handling, of all things, Russia and the interference in the U.S. election. Sources tell the "Washington Post" that the president refuses to accept the claims that Russia meddled in the election. We've seen that firsthand from the president. Really importantly, he has never held a cabinet meeting, cabinet-level meeting on this issue.</s>BERMAN: All right. Joining us to discuss Democratic Representative Eliot Engle of New York, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has skin in this game to be sure. Congressman, the fact that the president has never convened a cabinet-level meeting on Russian meddling, what does that tell you?</s>REP. ELIOT ENGLE (D), NEW YORK: Well, it tells me that he's not serious about trying to find out what the Russians did or didn't do in the election, and also not serious about confronting Russia. It just makes me scratch my head. I mean, you don't have to be a scholar to understand that the Russians interfered with our democracy. They try it with not only the United States but with our allies in Great Britain and France and Germany, and only the president denies. Everybody else knows it's true.</s>HARLOW: OK. But the devil's advocate, the White House did not revoke the sanctions that were passed almost unanimously by Congress against Russia, and Nikki Haley said, in fact, they have already been implemented. The White House has not handed back those two big diplomatic compounds in the northeast that we took from Russia at the end of the Obama administration. You could make the case, sir, whatever the president thinks, his actions are not reflecting that. Fair?</s>ENGEL: No, I think it's not fair because I think that we need to look at this in a much more serious way. It's not a matter of giving penalties back to the Russians, it's a matter of finding out what really happened. The president is in denial. He's in complete denial. He was in denial from day one. He likes Putin and he thinks Putin is a great guy. Putin, I don't have to tell everybody, and everybody knows Putin invade Crimea and Ukraine and tried to disrupt the NATO alliance in the European Union Putin is not a friend of the country, but the president is in denial because Putin smiles at him and he thinks he's a friend. I think it's ridiculous. I think we need to investigate and let the chips fall where they may, but we can't do that if the president keeps to deny it.</s>BERMAN: If I can, I want to ask you a little bit about the investigation right now into Russian meddling, and it's not part of that investigation directly, but it has to do with these text messages sent by Special Agent Peter Strzok, who was fired from the Mueller investigation, removed from it and reassigned.