Hour-Long Nighttime Meeting Kept From Media
President Donald Trump held a highly-anticipated meeting with President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 in Hamburg earlier this month. That meeting, scheduled to last 30 minutes, lasted two and a quarter hours.
But as it turns out, there was a second, secret meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders later at the G-20, and the White House kept it a secret. Why?
American political scientist Ian Bremmer, a U.S. foreign policy expert and president and founder of the Eurasia Group, tells Bloomberg News (video above, apologies – size not configurable) of the second meeting that was held on the “sidelines” at the G-20.
“The first thing I thought of when I heard it was the fact when [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions was having these meetings with [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Kislyak, that weren’t ‘meetings’ because they were in broader meetings, but were ‘pull asides,’ so you don’t really need to talk about it, but it turns out, that’s where they’re conducting business,” Bremmer says. “That’s kind of what this sounds like.”
Bremmer also noted that there was no “clear read out of what was said from either side,” after the first meeting, but “then on top of that, you have an hour that evening, that no one’s even heard of.”
Until now.
NBC News’ Dafna Linzer confirmed the meeting with the White House:
It turns out that second meeting was between just Putin, Trump, and Putin’s translator. There does not seem to be any record of what was said.
“We clearly know that Trump doesn’t care what the media has to say about his desire to have a close relationship with the Russian president – and what drives it.”
Bremmer says of all the foreign leaders Trump has met, “clearly his best personal relationship” is with Putin.
“Never in my life as a political scientist have I seen two countries, major countries, with a constellation of national interests that are as dissonant, while the two leaders seem to be doing everything possible to make ‘nice nice’ and be close to each other,” Bremmer told Bloomberg’s Charlie Rose in an interviewed that aired Tuesday.
During his official meeting with Putin Trump says he twice asked Putin about interfering in the U.S. election, and said Putin denied it. Russia said Trump accepted Putin’s denials.
In his Bloomberg interview, Bremmer also says it “seems clear there were many people around Trump, some high-level, that were compromised by the Russians.”Â
Some responses via Twitter:
Politico cybersecurity reporter offers a sarcastic take:
Obama foreign policy advisor:
Others:
UPDATE: 6:00 PM EDT –
Bremmer weighs in on Twitter:
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