. >> i did not: with russia, nor do i know if anyone else in the campaign who did so. i had no improper contacts. i have not relied on russian businesses, and i have been fully transparent in providing all requested information. charlie: donald trump jr. and former campaign chairman paul manafort will also appear before the judiciary committee this week.joining me from washington, robert costa from the washington post and moderator of "washington week," on pbs, susan page of usa today, and hugh hewitt, of "the hugh and frank bruni of the new york times. tell me about the appearance today and what might have been this week with respect to the testimony. >> i think jared kushner did about as well as anyone could in a difficult situation, charlie. i read his entire 11 page letter over the air so that commuters could hear it. it was not denial. it was specific and details. it was explanatory. for those trying to give trump the benefit of the doubt, they would find it comforting.i found it interesting that he said he has never met sergei gore called for -- before. i also fo

i don't believe this administration will be defined by russia. i think mr. mueller there's no evidence of collusion induced, but there may be wrongdoing by individuals. the administration will be defined by what it does or fails to do. right now, the ice is thin. when it breaks, it will be dramatic, unless they deliver. you get the fall and the first quarter of 2018, but after that, nothing happens. you don't want to go into the midterms with your party staying at home angry and the other party marching in the streets. that's a recipe for a wave. charlie: so trump will be defined between now and right before the midterm election? >> absence and extraordinary crisis abroad, yes. >> he's right. we spend a lot of time talking about the russian investigation. that dominates headlines. but i think when voters go to vote in 2018, i agree 100%. i think what will happen will be more reflective of whether they see anything in washington true to his promises. as an american, i'm really concerned, because he tapped into a great deal of anger in this country. legitimate

witchhunte cries of and all of the talk of russia trying to assist the president's andaign was a witchhunt there was nothing there, just a cockamamie scheme, this shows that they actually knew that the russian government was interested in trying to help the trump campaign. host: the president says that he has nothing to do with this. >> that is right. he praised the transparency of his child and said that he ,efers people to his counsel his criminal defense that he has hired. that donaldsaid trump was not aware of this, even though it took place just one floor below his office and that paul manafort and jared kushner, a senior advisor at the white house, was involved. he may not have been directly involved, but there are lots of questions as to whether any of the three ever mentioned that they met with this woman. if that is the extent of it, fine. if there is evidence that he was encouraging it or was contacted are going into serious and new territory. host: what have we learned about her and what she is doing? questionss a lot of about the information she had and what she was doing there

is a new twist in a month-long investigation into possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia. said these aoregon mill show there is no longer a question of whether this campaign sockesought to collude with a foreign power. joining me from washington is shannon, a correspondent for bloomberg news and ed o'keefe. he is a congressional reporter for "the washington post," and a contributor to cbs news. welcome to both of you. donald trump junior said he released these emails so he could be totally transparent, but it was only because the emails were about to be released by a newspaper. >> that is right. the "new york times" got these and he rushed them out. we appreciate the transparency in putting it out there, but it demonstrates the clearest links yet between officials in the russian government trying to talk to the trump campaign about potentially damaging information about hillary clinton. in the words of mark warner, all of the denials over the past year or so from trump and his sons, that there was no attempt to talk to rush about any of this are now cast aside by the proo

-russia relationships. he's trying to rebuild his presidency and he's on the plane ride back and he gets the call from "the new york times." they're coming out with this story on don, jr. so every time this president and this presidency try to take a turn, a turn back to the mid 40st, a turn back away from russia, a new story, a new bombshell seems to come right at them. and that has been the story of this first six months. they do all these different things on populism and bannon and trump and steven miller but at the end of the day, it's the cloud, as the president itself has called it that hangs over him. >> rose: bob casta thank you for coining us, pleasure. we'll be right back, stay with us. >> president trump returned to washington from france this weekend. it was his second trip overseas in as many weeks. earlier this month he was in hamburg, germany for the g20 summit. during the annual trump sat down with president putin in a widely covered bilateral meeting. it was revealed earlier today that trum

one of the starkest illustrations's attitudes toward russia. the hostile to russia party, vladimir putin was a big bogeyman. donald trump gets elected and take republican voters have a much more favorable view of vladimir putin and people heading in the opposite direction. both sides do this, i am sorry but that is ever long answer to your question. i was much more struck by the latitude he has and clearly he made the joke about being able to shoot somebody in the street and people would give him, i don't think that is the case. within the realm of normal politics, i think you could get away with very much anything. alison: he is their guy. >> that is a more powerful thing. imagine you're a coal miner in west virginia. lots of democrats did not understand why people in coal mining towns in west virginia voted for a billionaire who showed up and said you guys will have your jobs back. democrats look at that and say the president can't do that, he doesn't get to command the world price of coal. coal comes from wyoming these days. they have a ton

other than that, i have nothing to do with russia. jonathan: in 2008, donald trump, jr., told the real estate conference russians make up a disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets and he added we see a lot of money pouring in from russia. as craig unger reports in this month's edition of "the new republic," the money has been pouring in for the better part of three decades. as some of that money has come from questionable stories. i'm pleased to welcome him to the program. details, heavily researched story about trump's ties, business ties to russia, about the role russian money has played throughout his business career. >> absolutely. i think we see these blockbusters dropping almost every day now in the press. what i was trying to do is say they do not come out of the blue. this is part of the story that goes back to i found in 1984 when for the first time a guy named david met with donald trump. this was a fellow with ties to the russian mob. he goes in and buys five condos. the state attorney general later said that

and it's also the case that depending on how you define things outside the scope of russia and again there's some question about the things that trump says, well, if he starts finances, that's outside of -- i think he defines the russia thing is what calendar year16, 2016. it's clear right now. charlie: between my election russia's.nd john: when he says is nothing council, --pendent muller,ial counsel, bob obviously thinks trump has a intertwinement with russia and he thinks that ofrelevant as to the issue collusion. someone rescued him and gave him funds. mark: no one in america wants a counsel appointed to investigate this. similarly butelt this special counsel has things about him that are distinctive. one, he's extremely competent. number two, he is beyond ofroach in the view republicans and democrats alike, and number three, he has hired is moving fast. sometimes moving fast is a good thing for someone because they don't want a long investigation this guy moving fast i don't think is in the president's interests because he's in the presidency ands the whole thing, right now, to

i don't believe this administration will be defined by russia. in the final a sl-- analysis i think mr. mueller will find there is no collusion there may have been wrongdoing by individuals. the administration will be defined by what it does or fails to get done. and right now the ice is thin. and when it breaks it is going to break pretty damn dramically unless they begin to deliver. they do get about 14 months. you get the fall and the first quarter of 18 but after that, nothing happens and you don't want to go into the mid terms with your party staying at home angry and the other party marching in the streets. that is a recipe for a waive. >> trump as president will be defined between now and right before the mid term elections, six months before the mid term election. >> absent some extraordinary crisis abroad, yes. >> hugh is absolutely right. we all send enormous amounts of time talking about the russian investigation. that dominates theadlines. but i do think when votedders go to vote in 2018 in the congressional mid terms, i agree 100%. i

aimed it at russia's in these. -- russia's enemies. that means trying to destabilize the west through propaganda campaigns. the propaganda campaigns went far into the united states. president trump certainly echoes some of those propaganda points. >> information has been weaponized. cyber warfare has been weaponized. >> it is one and the same. the russians do not see it differently. early last year, there was a fake story about the so-called rape of a german-russian girl. it was fake. the russian media knew that it was fake. the russian foreign minister knew it was fake but used it as a tool against german chancellor angela merkel. you have a real notion all of this combined, whether diplomacy, information, you can use all of the tools at your disposal to try to weaken your enemy. >> there is economic suffering in russia. i wonder how the putin administration fends off any negative discussion of that. >> this is where you see a generational divide. this is what we are seeing in the last few months. a lot of people say the 90's were wor

in particular, on russia. i think if you put a gun to the head of a trump white house official, they cannot tell you right now what our policy is toward russia. what do you think about that, karen? you have thought about trying to write about trump and foreign policy. do you think he has one yet? karen: i think there are pieces of policy, but i am not sure they come together in terms of a strategy. i think they would like to get rid of some of what they call the sort of minor issues, the housekeeping issues, in terms of -- we took over their compound under the obama administration in this country, they won't let us build a new consulate in st. petersburg. russian security under obama was harassing u.s. diplomats -- they would like to get rid of all that stuff, so you have had lower level talks that have dealt with those issues. susan: that is not really policy. karen: but they feel like they need russia. i think they still believe, as trump said during the campaign, that it does not make sense to have bad rela

who is going to be there and defend you against a potential threat from a country like russia. alison: correspondent shannon pettypiece reporting from washington for bloomberg news, thank you so much. shannon: thank you. ♪ ♪ alison: donald trump's victory in the 2016 election took some of the nation by surprise. his support has remained largely unwavering despite the issues that have so far plagued his administration. a new special report in "the economist" examines what led to the president's rise and why politics may be forever changed. our guest is the u.s. editor and also the report's lead author and spent several weeks in states across the country to better understand the mentality of the president's steadfast backing. i am pleased to welcome him to the program. hi, john. what prompted this? >> i was interested in looking at the trump phenomenon from the ground up. it really feels like in 20, 30, 40 years time, people will be saying about the trump presidency, how did that happen? there is one way to answer that which is to look at the campaign, the tweets, what is hap

that's the way you figure out policy in russia. from their perspective, hillary was going to win because the establishment was going to figure out a way to ensure their people would win. i think the russians were probably more surprised than the americans that trump actually won. i absolutely believe that. but it's hard for me to imagine -- charlie: but you have no doubt that they hacked and attempted to influence the election one way or the other. ian: no doubt whatsoever. charlie: but where you can't go yet is a collusion between the president of russia and his government and his intelligence operatives, and members of the trump team providing them something which would have clearly been beyond the pale. ian: and that they would have gotten something in return, some commitment of meaningful offers. charlie: or they wanted to do it because they thought they had some leverage on the president, and if he was elected, they would have an advantage. ian: but it clearly seems there were many people around trump, some quite high-level, t

charlie: between my election campaign and russia's. john: when he says is nothing but the independent counsel, the special counsel, bob mueller, obviously thinks trump has a long history of intertwinement with russia and he thinks that is relevant as to the issue of collusion. charlie: that someone rescued him and gave him funds. mark: no one in america wants a special counsel appointed to investigate this. bill clinton felt similarly but this special counsel has things about him that are distinctive. number one, he's extremely competent. number two, he is beyond reproach in the view of republicans and democrats alike, and number three, he has hired quickly and is moving fast. sometimes moving fast is a good thing for someone because they don't want a long investigation but this guy moving fast i don't think is in the president's interests because he's in the beginning of his presidency and the whole thing, right now, to some extent has overtaken anything else and could quickly bring it down. john: and before he is a man behaving as of

he was asked if russia meddled in the election what would you do about it, he said, i think it was russia, could have been people from other countries, nobody knows for sure, once again casting doubt, and attacking president obama for not doing more about it even though president trump isn't sure it really happened, and then mentioning the whole iraq war intelligence fiasco to say who really knows with these intelligence agencies anyway. so these mixed messages are really a very interesting product of the first day. >> it's the full spectrum trump. you have donald trump in many ways, you know, the obsessive, micromanaging partisan figure, and then this very bombastic speech. i want to ask you about the speech. donald trump seems to have embraced the full-on clash of civilizations rhetoric in this speech. did you hear anything new in what he had to say? >> no, but the context of where he gave the speech. remember first stop in europe the poland. not france, germany or britain. poland, warsaw, where they have a government, the law an justice party government which is a catholic right-wing g

this is the president of russia. it's actually quite late in the game even in the first year of a presidency for him to be meeting with vladimir putin, but if he goes in there without an agenda, which is what the white house sort of indicated when they briefed reporters about this trip and confirmed the meeting was happening, that is a huge risk for him and the united states because you can bet vladimir putin coming in with a big agenda of his own, including he wants to see the sanctions that have been imposed on russia for the seizure of crimea, the interference in ukraine and the meddling in the elections lifted and that he wants to seek common grounds and cooperation in some of the areas including syria that phil mentioned in mighting i.s.i.s., but what is he -- in fighting i.s.i.s., but what is he prepared to give in return? if it's not clear what the united states is seeking or what points we want to make, what points donald trump needs to make with regard to election meddling both here and abroad, then he could

shannon: that week will be crucial because this russia-cyber threat is real. not just interfering in our elections, but hacking other aspects of the american infrastructure. hacks of the electric grid. if there is a threat from russia after the invasion of crimea and further expansion that the russians may have. it is crucial, too, as relations go with nato and other european leaders. at the g7 meeting, the president's last international trip, they were tense moments between germany, france, and nato members. chance to rebuild some of those relationships and encourage nato in europe that you have a strong ally in the u.s. who will be there and defend you against a potential threat from a country like russia. alison: correspondent shannon pettypiece reporting from washington for bloomberg news, thank you so much. shannon: thank you. ♪ ♪ alison: donald trump's victory in the 2016 election took some of the nation by surprise. his support from palm beach to kansas has remained largely unwavering despite the issues that have so far plagued his administration. a

when he returns to washington, he will find russia is still dominating the news. on thursday, senate republicans released the newest version of the bill to repeal and replace the affordable care act. joining me now, megan murphy, the editor of "bloomberg businessweek." and from washington, mike allen, the cofounder of axios. and yoni appelbaum, the senior editor for politics at "the atlantic." it has been a heck of a week. i heard the president before he left for france was frustrated and lashing out over the fact the russia story will not go away. i have heard it suggested by some he saw this story involving his son as perhaps the worst development and worst day of his presidency. we have new developments. more new developments today. we have heard the president has hired a new criminal attorney, ty cobb. megan: they have been looking for someone to come in for some time now to be the enforcer on this probe, figure out how they will react in terms of rapid response, as well as making sure people adhere to a similar storyline going forward. you are right in the se

he's watched russia become a mafia state. and rather than being appalled by it, it seems to me he is embracing it. and the mafia state that putin has put together. it's an interesting trays but what does it really mean. what you see is a sense of oligarchs and crime bosses that comes up again and again and again. putin allows them to work and allows them to become wealthy as long as they're serving putin's interest and a long as they don't challenge him politically. >> many of them seem to take interest in trump property. trump tower was a demand property from the very beginning. >> right. but you have to wonder about money laundering though in this. if you look at special counsel robert mueller and look at the people's he's hired recent ly hired lisa pay who has enormous experience. and andrew wiseman who is also an expert in money laundering. >> i want to get to that in a minute would you think the investigation might be going and whether or not it could be looking into some of this. but among, you highlight sell of these k

he a fears the independent counsel will investigate things beyond russia. he fears that-- . >> rose: meaning the building of his. >> financial empire. he fathers his children will be dragged into this in a way that will be really bad for their lives. and he fears that people will start cooperating with the independent counsel. creating all sorts of potential problems. >> rose: to save their own skin. >> to save their own skin. and obviously he fears this will block anything he could do to make him a tbreat presidency. >> rose: and perhaps re-election. >> for sure. he may fear substantially more than that but he fears at a minimum those things. >> a couple of those things is he right to fear. his children, don, jr. is now being dragged in the middle of this. jared kushner, his son in law is dragged in the middle thereby dragging in some sense at least by marriage his daughter into it. and so that is happening. they're already in the middle of this now. and it is also the case that depending how you define things outside the scope of russia and again there is

the continuing coverage of the investigation into possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia. we talk to do shannon pettypiece of bloomberg news and ed o'keefe of "the washington post." >> we have not heard much from the president today. his twitter feed has kind of been eeriely quiet. he was a bit quiet yesterday as well. and sarah huckabee saunders spokesperson to the deputy press secretary put out a statement from the president, a very short brief statement calling his, complimenting his son and saying i admire his transparency. i typically would expect the president is not one who is shy, obviously to lean into controversy when he's attacked, he fights back. of all people to be drug over the coals, his own son, his family is very important to him. >> we continue with charlie's conversation with the cast of the new production of george orwell's 1984. it is with reed birney, tom sturridge and olivia wilde. >> this is a play that speaks to our times and that's why it's really important we all experience it together. >> we conclude with the actor and comedian kumail nanjiani

the rules that caused him to recuse himself from the russia investigation would also make him have to recuse himself from anything having to do with hillary clinton because of his involvement in the trump campaign. >> rose: we turn to jeremy grantham, chief strategist at g.m.o. we talk about controversial views on the future of capitalism. >> i think the biggest risk to american society is the drift to more corporate power in politics and through monopolies and so on, unless -- and less to the workers and the destruction of the unions and the income inequality where we are 20t 20th out of 20 rich countries. we are the most unequal society. also, the speed with which you can move from one economic class to another. one always used to think of america as being extremely mobile. we're the stickiest, the most difficult society in the developed 20 countries -- >> rose: to go from lower class to the middle class. >> yes. >> rose: politics and economy when we continue. >> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by the following: >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news a

i think the whitehouse house to figure out what's the strategy with dealing with the russia probe in the midst of all that. they need to create a clear separation between the president and the governing part of the whitehouse and the russia investigation part of management control. and move down both those tracks simultaneously. that's where we're going to be for a while and that hasn't been very effective for them so far. they're going to have to figure out how to separate scandal management from governs and put some things on the board. >> rose: do either of you know, speaking of the russian probe, an answer to why the president's so resistent to this probe, other than there is something that's damaging to him, whatever it is. >> i think there is at a minimum, there's a trump style that says basically you give no quarter when you're under attack or you're under siege. so you give no ground. is that because there's something working in the shadows or because he's afraid that was not fighting everybody every step of the way is a signal of weakness. i don't think we know which of thos

he can't hear the rules that recused him from the russia administration would have to reduce himself from anything with -- recuse himself with anything from hillary clinton because of the campaign. he said i don't want my attorney general to go after hillary clinton. it is not a priority. during the campaign he said, whatever we would do with hillary clinton, it would be a to my attorney general. a lot of mixed messages. every day, the president attacking sessions, anthony scaramucci saying, suggesting the president doesn't want sessions to keep the job. there is no substantive argument here in terms of the key parts of the trump agenda, whether immigration or cracking down on crime. those critiques are not being leveled at jeff sessions. it is the russia investigation or what he hasn't done in investigating hillary clinton or the side issues. it is worth remembering there is no more loyal member of the cabinet if you measure who is out there loud and proud for donald trump when there was political risk. charlie: and first. john: and first, and at a crucial time when ted cruz was cha

he gets to escape the headlines and the drumbeats of the russia investigation. but also he does get to , establish a personal relationship with some of these leaders, which is something he is comfortable with. he is very transactional. a relationship with a foreign leader can be transactional. we can do this for you and you can do that for us. that might be an area where he is more comfortable, as opposed to dealing with congress where you have hundreds of people you are trying to get on the same page. jeff: it is really all about these bilateral discussions with him, right? dan: shannon is right. foreign policy is often where presidents who are embattled turn to because they have greater latitude. as she said, you do have to worry but every member of congress and their views on it. you are the president of the united states dealing with another head of state. that creates a different dynamic. we know one thing about president trump. he likes to deal one-on-one with people. he likes to get to know them. he likes to take a measure of them. he feels he knows how t

i think trump awoke to the danger that the russia probe posed to him. he sent bannon back from saudi arabia to try to stand up some kind of outside legal war room to fight harder. he knew that the lawyer from the campaign, when they were fighting off these accusations from women who said that trump had groped them. bannon and the lawyer knew each other well. charlie: this is what is interesting to me. the person trump seems to admire the most is james mattis. general mattis. he has given him the most power. he can make decisions on the battlefield and getting praise .rom military strategists josh: i would go a step further and say, veneration. whenever trump was in trouble, he would surround himself with generals. when he was finally forced to apologize for the birther slander. he calls the very strange press conference in his trump hotel, surrounds himself with all these generals. they wanted the visual of trump surrounded by x generals because it would project strength. he gave this rambling talk about how great trump was and at the very end, he said