Leaders' closely watched 1st encounter to be shadowed by investigations into Russian election meddling
HAMBURG, Germany — German authorities tried to prevent protesters from disrupting the G20 summit as it got underway Friday in Hamburg. But the tension outside, as cars were torched and protesters faced-off with water cannon-wielding police, may not rival the atmosphere inside, as President Donald Trump prepares to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time.
After weeks of build-up, President Trump’s first meeting with the Russian leader will generate headlines but, CBS News chief White House correspondent Major Garrett reports, it may do little to thaw the frosty relationship between Washington and Moscow. Their meeting will be shadowed by the investigations into whether Mr. Trump’s campaign coordinated with Moscow during last year’s presidential election.
Mr. Trump’s meeting with Putin has no set agenda, reports Garrett, and the White House has said nothing about any plan for the president to protest the Russian election meddling during the encounter.
CBS News has learned that Mr. Trump and Putin will be joined by U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Tillerson has far more experience than his own boss in dealing with Putin, having negotiated regularly with the Russian leader and top Russian ministers as CEO of Exxon-Mobil.
The leaders are expected to delve into a series of vexing foreign policy issues, including the conflict in Syria and Russia’s provocations in Ukraine. But much of the focus — both in Washington and Moscow — will be on whether Mr. Trump broaches the issue of Russia’s meddling in the election.
Before the meeting Friday, Mr. Trump tweeted that he was looking forward to the visit, saying there was “much to discuss.” During a news conference in Poland on Thursday, he again refused to accept the conclusion by multiple U. S. intelligence agencies that Russia alone interfered to try to help Mr. Trump win last November. He said it could have been Russia, but that other countries could have meddled, too.
“Nobody really knows for sure, ” Mr. Trump said. He also renewed an accusation against his predecessor President Barack Obama, claiming he failed to act against Russia over the hacking after he learned of it in August 2016, “because he thought Hillary Clinton was going to win the election.”
On Friday, Mr. Trump tweeted that “everyone” in Hamburg was talking about the Democrats’ response to Russian election hacking.
“Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA. Disgraceful!” Mr. Trump said in his tweet.
Podesta is the former chair of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. He did not run the Democratic National Committee.
U. S. intelligence agencies have blamed the hacking of the DNC, as well as Podesta’s personal email account, on the Russian government.
U. S. lawmakers and federal investigators continue to look into Russia’s election interference, along with possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russian government officials. That puts President Trump under intense scrutiny over how he handles the sit-down with Putin, a former Russian intelligence agent known to come to meetings like this well-prepared.
The White House has scheduled 35 minutes for the meeting, raising questions about how much ground the leaders can be expected to cover.
Mr. Trump, who likes to have neatly packaged achievements to pair with high-profile meetings, may seek some concessions from Russia to show he’s delivering progress and helping restore a once-productive relationship that he recently described as being at an “all-time low.” Putin would almost certainly want something in return.
The list of issues ranges from Syria to Iran to Ukraine, and now North Korea, following Pyongyang’s test this week of a missile capable of striking the U. S.
Russia wants the U. S. to return the two compounds in New York and Maryland that were seized by the Obama administration as punishment for election meddling. It also wants the U. S. to ease sanctions it imposed on Russia after Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula, and over Russia’s support of separatist elements in Ukraine.
The U. S. wants a resumption of adoptions of Russian children by American parents, which Russia banned in 2012, along with an end to what it claims is intensifying harassment of U. S. diplomats and other officials stationed in Russia.
Lawmakers in both political parties say Mr. Trump must confront Putin over the election.
Several senior Democratic U. S. senators served notice Thursday that Mr. Trump would be in “severe dereliction” of his presidential duty if he fails to confront Putin over the issue, telling the president in a letter that he must make clear that Russia’s interference in U. S. democracy will not be tolerated.
“The upcoming elections cannot be a playground for President Putin, ” said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York; Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat; and the top Democrats on the Intelligence, Armed Services, and Foreign Relations committees.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said this week that he will “raise holy hell” if Mr. Trump goes soft on Putin. “It is very important for us to make a statement that Russia does not meddle not just in our elections, here and the future, but in our allies, ‘” he said.
Every detail of the Trump-Putin meeting will be scrutinized, from their facial expressions to the color of their neckties to how they shake hands.
“I expect an Olympic-level of macho posturing between these two leaders, ” said Derek Chollet, executive vice president and senior adviser for security and defense policy at the German Marshall Fund, a Washington think tank. “The big thing to watch will be what Putin asks for and what he offers in return and whether there’s a sense of receptivity on the president’s part.”
Before Putin, Mr. Trump will try to manage another rocky international relationship when he meets with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Pena Nieto had been scheduled to visit the White House shortly after Mr. Trump took office, but he scrapped the trip at the last minute due to disagreement with President Trump over his insistence that Mexico pay for the wall he has vowed to build along the U.
