“Too cozy,” “controversy,” “striking,” “crisis,” “startling,” those were just some of the hyperbolic terms thrown around on Wednesday’s network morning shows as hosts and correspondents panicked over news that President Trump had a casual after-dinner conversation with Vladimir Putin surrounded by dozens of other world leaders at the G20 Summit earlier this month.
The Today show led the way in promoting the media hysteria, devoting over seven minutes of air time to the topic. Co-host Savannah Guthrie opened the show by proclaiming: “Breaking overnight, too cozy for comfort? News that the President had a second encounter with Russian president Vladimir Putin....So what was discussed and why did the White House seem to keep it under wraps?”
Moments later, she introduced a full report on the manufactured scandal by declaring: “Let us start with yet another Russia controversy for President Trump.” Using nearly identical phrasing, correspondent Kristen Welker followed: “...it’s creating yet another Russia-related flap for this administration....a striking new revelation.”
An on-screen graphic misled viewers by claiming that it was “private conversation.” In reality, it took place at G20 banquet table filled with other world leaders.
Despite the screaming headlines, during a discussion after Welker’s report, Guthrie skeptically wondered:
And let me just be devil’s advocate because this is one of those occasions where there’s a lot of heat around this second encounter that the President had with Vladimir Putin and a lot of people watching might be thinking, what’s the big deal? It’s a social dinner, there’s all these world leaders around. You know, why all the fuss? Why all of the storm and fury?
Grasping at straws, Barack Obama’s former Russia Ambassador Michael McFaul argued that Trump/Putin chat was bad manners:
What’s strange about this particular meeting, to the best of our knowledge, is the reporting that we’ve seen, is that he just focused on one leader for an hour. You know, that’s not a good form at a dinner party, right? You need to work the room. You shouldn’t just focus on one. How about a little time with the host, for instance, Angela Merkel, our closest ally.
Turning back to her hand-wringing over the sit-down, Guthrie sarcastically asked: “Would Putin have likely confined the chat to like vacation homes and kids?...Or do you think he would have had a policy agenda?” McFaul replied: “No....He is not a big chit-chat guy. He’s not just there for small talk, he’s going to take advantage of the situation to push his agenda, which in this case is concessions from the United States, things like lifting sanctions.”
Despite the refusal to accept an innocent explanation of the Trump/Putin conversation, the Today show actually ignored a highly suspicious meeting between Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch during the 2016 campaign. A meeting which both parties excused as just being about grandkids and vacation plans.
Fill-in co-host Willie Geist turned to MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace and remarked: “Let’s say for argument’s sake this was an innocuous meeting....But when it comes to Russia, you would think at this point they would learn that he should just put everything out there.”
Wallace ranted:
Yeah, they find themselves sort of trapped either between willful obliviousness or defiance to accept their reality. And their political reality is that there is a cloud of suspicion over this White House about suspected, alleged, some would argue now known attempts to collude with the Russian government to tip the election in this president’s favor, based on the e-mail chain between Don Jr. that surfaced about a week ago.
She later added: “I mean, social gatherings are usually – there’s usually not a lot of risk for any sort of public relations fiasco. So this is another example of a self-inflicted PR crisis on behalf of this team.”
CBS This Morning devoted over four minutes to the story, with co-host Charlie Rose opening the show by breathlessly announcing: “The White House confirms President Trump had a second undisclosed meeting with Russian President Putin at this month’s G20 Summit. They reportedly spoke for nearly an hour with no other U.S. officials involved.”
In a report minutes later, correspondent Major Garrett sounded the alarm:
Everything about this meeting is different and in some startling ways. No White House aide or national security adviser was present. Translation, typically the work of both countries, was provided solely by the Russians. It appears there's no recording or no notes were take oven this conversation and quite obviously the White House felt no need to disclose it to the White House reporters traveling with the President at the G-20.
However, similar to Guthrie, Rose seemed to doubt the importance of the news during a later interview with foreign policy expert Richard Haass: “How do we assess the fact that the President gets up, walks over, and sits next to Vladimir Putin and has a conversation in a room that they’ve been having dinner?”
Haass replied: “The fact that this meeting, he went into without talking points, without his own interpreter, without a note-taker, after not having a NSC official also in the other meeting.” Rose pushed back: “But you’re saying ‘meeting.’ I mean, he just went over to talk to him. They talked for an hour, but in full view of everybody.”
Haass fretted: “I mean, an hour’s a long time. You can get a lot done in an hour....we’re uncomfortable because we don’t know what his agenda is here.”
Unlike their CBS and NBC colleagues, ABC’s Good Morning America only spent a little over a minute on the Trump-Putin conversation. Co-host George Stephanopoulos asked correspondent Cecilia Vega: “...the President is facing new questions now about that second meeting he had with Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit. One report said it lasted up to an hour at that dinner. And the White House had not disclosed this previously.” Vega explained: “Yeah, we just learned about this meeting yesterday...”
News of the meeting was actually reported by BuzzFeed on July 8, the day after it happened. None the networks noticed it at the time.
Vega noted Trump’s reaction to the media frenzy: “The President is tweeting about this, this morning, calling this story ‘sick,’ saying, ‘Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!’” In response, she worried: “But George, here’s the deal, we may never know what really happened inside this dinner. It was the President, there were no other aides inside this dinner at the G20.”
Here are excerpts of the coverage on the July 19 NBC, CBS, and ABC morning shows:
Today
7:02 AM ET
GUTHRIE: Let us start with yet another Russia controversy for President Trump. His face-to-face with Vladimir Putin at this month’s G20 was highly scrutinized, everybody knew about that. But now we have learned that that was not their only encounter that day. We’ve got complete coverage. Let’s start with NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker. Hi, Kristen, good morning.
KRISTEN WELKER: Hi, Savannah, good morning to you. That’s right, we are learning that President Trump and President Putin had a second encounter at the G20 Summit earlier this month. Now, the White House is pushing back strongly this morning against criticism it should have disclosed that second encounter, by some accounts the meeting lasted an hour. Officials here say it was shorter and merely part of a social gathering. Still, it’s creating yet another Russia-related flap for this administration.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump and Putin’s Private “Conversation”; President Defends Previously Undisclosed G20 Sit-Down]
This morning, a striking new revelation, a White House official telling NBC News President Trump had a previously undisclosed conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin at this dinner held for world leaders at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. According to The Washington Post, citing a senior administration official, Mr. Trump left his seat and sat next to Mr. Putin.
Critics say the undisclosed meeting is unusual, with no American aides to witness it and no official U.S. government summary of that encounter ever released. The only Russian/English interpreter available provided by Putin, as each couple at the dinner was allowed just one translator. The American translator accompanying the President spoke Japanese because Mr. Trump was seated next to the Prime Minister of Japan’s wife. Still, critics pounced.
SEN. CHRIS COONS [D-DE]: A basic failure in terms of national security protocol. There’s only one person who really knows exactly what was said in the course of that conversation now, and it’s the Russian translator.
WELKER: The White House pushing back, noting the President circulated freely and spoke to many leaders, adding, “The insinuation that the White House has tried to ‘hide’ a second meeting is false, malicious and absurd.” The President himself tweeting late Tuesday, “story of secret dinner with Putin is ‘sick,’” insisting the “press knew.” The evening exchange happening on the same day the two leaders had their first official meeting, which lasted more than two hours.
(...)
CBS This Morning
7:03 AM ET
CHARLIE ROSE: The White House confirms reports that President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke twice during the recent G-20 summit. Only the first meeting was known about at the time.
NORAH O’DONNELL: The second discussion was not revealed until this week. In fact, it first broke on Charlie Rose’s show on PBS. White House says the President spoke to Putin informally at the end of a dinner.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA: President Trump had an angry response to the news, tweeting “Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister.” Major Garrett is at the White House following this unfolding story. Major, good morning.
MAJOR GARRETT: Good morning. Everything about this meeting is different and in some startling ways. No White House aide or national security adviser was present. Translation, typically the work of both countries, was provided solely by the Russians. It appears there's no recording or no notes were take oven this conversation and quite obviously the White House felt no need to disclose it to the White House reporters traveling with the President at the G-20.
DONALD TRUMP: It’s an honor to be with you.
GARRETT: The highly anticipated meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month wasn't the only face time between the two world leaders. It turns out there was another conversation hours later at a dinner attended by the G-20 leaders. Video shows Mr. Trump taking his seat across the table from first lady Melania Trump.
Later on, Mr. Trump reportedly left his seat to go speak with Mr. Putin for nearly an hour using Mr. Putin's translator. The White House yesterday was forced to knowledge the previously undisclosed conversation calling it brief and informal, describing claiming that he was trying hide the meeting as “false, malicious and absurd.” Late last night, the President took to Twitter to defend himself, saying, “Fake news story of secret dinner with Putin is ‘sick.’ All G-20 leaders and spouses were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew.”
(...)
Good Morning America
7:07 AM ET(...)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And Cecilia, as we said, this is coming as the President is facing new questions now about that second meeting he had with Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit. One report said it lasted up to an hour at that dinner. And the White House had not disclosed this previously.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump Blasts New Putin Meeting Reports; Undisclosed One-on-One at G20 Summit Raises Questions]
CECILIA VEGA: Yeah, we just learned about this meeting yesterday, George, but the White House is really trying to downplay this one. I’m being told here that this was a very social setting with all the G20 leaders. That at one point during this dinner, the President decided to walk over to see the First Lady to talk to her. She was seated next to Vladimir Putin. The President did this, I’m told, with many other leaders, this wasn’t just specific to Vladimir Putin. That he communicated, however, using Russia’s translator.
The President is tweeting about this, this morning, calling this story “sick,” saying, “Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!” But George, here’s the deal, we may never know what really happened inside this dinner. It was the President, there were no other aides inside this dinner at the G20.
(...)
