and defended putin while denigrating our fbi, intelligence officials and anyone who wants to see putin held accountable. this was an embarrassing and sad dayfor america . based on the president's own words, here's what we know about what place in the meeting. the two had a direct, open, deeply productive dialogue and spoke on a wide range of critical issues for both our countries. the president believed putin whenhe told him it was not russia who appeared in the 2016 elections regardless of the fact the intelligence community as without a doubt identified russia as the source of the attack . he walked back his stance after widespread outrage and mounting evidence to the contrary of his claims. the president considered an incredible offer to allow russians to question ambassadors of the united states intelligence community. he walked this back to after his but on advisers were incredulous at this dangerous proposal . substantively, most of what we know about the media has come from the russian government. the major general was reported to have said the ministry of defense is ready for p

vladimir putin is not our friend. and there is simply no comparing the actions of the united states with those of putin's russia. ultimately, helsinki was a squandered opportunity to challenge vladimir putin's false narratives on issues including ukraine and syria and russia's ongoing interference in our democracy. so i understand the interest in these issues. i'm sure this resolution is a popular idea in some political circles. but ultimately, it is not a wise approach to oversight. indeed, it would only threat ton distract if the bipartisan -- threaten, distract the bipartisan legislative and investigative efforts of this committee. this resolution's broad demand for documents conflicts with the strongest form of executive privilege recognized by the courts. the so-called presidential communications privilege. rooted in the constitutional separation of powers, presidential communications privilege applies to direct decision make big the president -- decision-making by the president and also protects communications m

. >> and putin's popularity. russian state tv starts airing a new weekly show praising vladimir putin as his popularity among russians appears to be sinking. will the series boost his support? >> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer off today. i'm jim sciutto, and you're in the situation room. this is a situation room special report tonight. president trump blasting attorney general jeff sessions over federal charges against two republican lawmakers ahead of the midterm elections. mr. trump sarcastically saying, good job, jeff, in a tweet suggesting that sessions should have considered the political consequences despite justice department guidelines to the contrary. we'll talk about the breaking news and more with congressman ted deutsche of the foreign affairs and judiciary committees and analysts here with all of the day's news. first, the cnn senior white house correspondent, jeff, the president regularly has criticized jeff sessions, but this stands out right

used by president putin strictly off limits. it's a sign of the times since the collapse of the ceviche union the russian orthodox church a seen a dramatic rise in its fortunes. twenty five thousand new. build or restore churches eight hundred one of stories millions of him believe us we are on other way not a trend you're from europe the question is goes down in venice go down in russia we have moral trends back to christian rules. every week a staggering nineteen new orthodox churches are either built or restored in russian . many welcome this increase including president putin seen here opening a new church with patriarch kirill the primate of moscow and all russia. but not everyone is happy. you have kenny lebedev is part of a group of parents who oppose the churches illegal seizure and ny frequent utilization of a moscow park in order to build a new church not that it will not. reach it. what it is it is not much and it shouldn't surprise you. to be sure michaelmas i said you the receipt. that you would need it but he actua

well revenge is a dish best served cold and i think that's what president putin meant that there will be no russian response though he said earlier of the russia was fully entitled to respond in the immediate future but that steps will now be taken to ensure that any repetition of these kind of crimes will exact a much higher price a real price from those involved is simply intolerable that from us far away france our country almost in flames because of the social problems problems of mass poverty and so on that it has that they've got money to burn off the coast of syria i don't know why france is there how it has the temerity to launch missiles against syria and of course the british are no doubt skulking somewhere ready to do the same job very troubling. trump has made a comment on syria on the u.s. military presence there let's have a listen. we have done a tremendous job in syria and in that region eradicating isis which is why we're there. we're very close to being finished with. and then we're going to make a determination as to what we're going to do but we have eradicated isi

the war started, putin started bombing the rebel area three days ago. and the same thing, the syrian army is massed around idlib. it could happen any time. the problem which we are facing, what will happen to the civilians? i believe president assad is about to issue a pardon to everybody there saying, ok, the syrians should come back but what are they going to do with the foreign fighters? they have no other option. they will fight to the death. exactly. because they know if they surrender they will be executed, they will be liquidated completely. so this is the problem. what will happen to those people? as i said we could see anger in a mosel scenario, we could see them surrendering and executed. we don't know yet. putin decided to go ahead with the military option and i think nobody can surrender. there does seem to be a deal between the states and rouhani and putin, which is they won't allow iranian forces close to the border and just as an adjunct to that, where are we in terms of that particular crisis implications of what is happening in syria an

but never vladimir putin. in february, robert mueller's staff announced the indictment of more than a dozen russians accused of conspireing to hack the democratic national committee and hillary clinton's presidential campaign. president trump did not attack the russians who were indicted. instead, president trump attacked the investigation that led to the indictment of those russians. and he never attacked vladimir putin who ordered those russian military officers who were indicted to attack our democracy. that stunned new york sometimes columnist tom friedman. he gave up his weekend to write a column. he joined us to talk about what he called code red in america. >> our democracy is in serious danger. that was the first sentence of an extraordinary column by tom friedman. it describes the trump presidency in truly threatening terms, threatening to the united states of america. tom was not scheduled to public a column, but at the end of an extraordinary weekend, tom felt compelled to say something. tom friedma

it's star one vladimir putin. the new program mostly shows the softer side of the russian leader enjoying life away from his usual duties. but why now, and could it change how his country sees him? cnn's brian todd has the story. >> reporter: hiking in the mountains, traversing lakes and rivers, projecting toughness and strength. staples of vladimir putin's image building machine. now part of a weekly show on russian state tv titled moskow, cellle cellle kremlin, putin. a show devoted to depicting putin as russia's government, talking to school children, or engaging with a noted pianist. >> classic kremlin project to elevate vladimir putin and to humanize him at a time when he's under increasing fire from his own public. it's not an accident that this is occur, it seems to me right at a time when he's embroiled in a real political controversy. >> reporter: that controversy has brought thousands of russians into the streets this summer. protesting putin's plan to raise the main. age when russians can start collecti

fairly neutral if not positive attitude towards putin of what he has done for this country but. that none of us standing my question still stands don't you think that. you know he too has to think about what russia yeah will be after he's gone absolutely and i think and i talk about this in my book in the chapter about suicide oh i think he's trying to leave. a positive legacy of ideas the idea of the russian wilderness can mirror the idea of. civil is that he is actually trying to leave a legacy of a multicultural russia a russia of many of the cities not just to the docks russia. certainly proper respect for the ducks he has in england this respect for the anglican church but not not of the periodic table of the ducks for other religions and i think he's trying to leave a legacy of multiculturalism and i talk about that quite a lot. he's trying to leave you know sort out this question. what is the russian motherland if you're not if you know off the books what is the road enough to you and he's trying to help broaden that concept we have to do this in australia too because whe

this demonstration we were not impressed by president putin. to say the least. turning to egypt now where the government has ratified a new social media law that critics able to finance political dissent the law gives the government new powers to moments of people with large online followings it's part of a series of bills introduced by president sisi taking aim at so-called cyber crime and the city international has criticized the president calling the recent legislation an assault on online freedoms the group says the legislation is quote vaguely defined and could allow the government to sense that any dissent on social media. we're going to get more on this now from. one of my egyptian colleagues who's been following this story for us walk us through what's happening here why is the government with the egyptian government cracking down on people with all these social media followers the government doesn't actually say that it cracks down on people with large social media accounts it says that it's introducing this law as you said is part of a larger package o

what is it about putin that you admire? but, hang on. minister, if i may interrupt, vladimir putin represses opposition at home, we know that. in terms of his foreign policy, he has annexed crimea, the british prime minister, as you know, hasjust accused him and his government of signing off, authorising a chemical weapons attack on uk soil, for which sanctions have been imposed by europe and the united states. and yet, you describe him as a politician you admire most in the world today. that really doesn't seem to make much sense. has your party, the league, received money from russia? we know that marine le pen's party in france has received millions of dollars... zero. zero? zero. and yet, your party does have a co—operation agreement with united russia, putin's party. where does this leave the european union? in the past you have called it a gulag, you describe the euro as one of the biggest economic and social crimes ever committed against humanity. and yet, italy is a founding member of the european union, prides itself as one of

now vladimir putin has addressed the claims directly. on stage at an economic forum, he announced that the men were no agents, but civilians. translation: we know who they are. we found them. i hope they'll appear and explain everything. this will be best for everyone. there is nothing special here, nothing criminal, i assure you. the president's tone matches this. other officials have been busy mocking the british case as absurd, a soap opera, even claiming that cctv footage was faked. british police say the suspects' names are likely to be aliases, so it's possible whoever russia has now found, it's not the men who travelled to salisbury at all. with these surprise comments, vladimir putin has raised the prospect that the suspects in the salisbury poisoning could appear in public, perhaps very soon. but all along, moscow has dismissed the allegations coming from london as nonsense. so whatever happens now, it seems unlikely to take the british investigation any further. this former kgb officer told me russia could be behind the salisbu

new clue a nod of approval from donald trump to a potential meeting with russian president vladimir putin back in two thousand and sixteen that's according to the lawyers a former campaign aide george papadopoulos one of mahler's main targets. while some in the room rebuffed george's offer mr trump nodded with approval the document came as a hopeful defense for papadopoulos who admitted to lying to the f.b.i. during that meddling investigation the picture papadopoulos as lawyers are painting though describes anything but a criminal with them saying that his motives were not sinister as the government suggests they say he was just trying to show loyalty to his master the lengthy document aside though trump's nod might help to revive the investigation which some say has become frustrating as hell i'm sure there will be people at the end of this who feel that we came to conclusion that they vehemently disagree with i know that commits integrity standpoint we've got to prove what would find and if you can't prove that then we can't make the claim oh that might be frustrating especially when j

to the russian or pro-putin community. i would take the war home to putin. no reason why the democratic national committee should be the only one who's hacked. no reason why, for example, we can't get, try to find out where his bank accounts are and where his money is and go public with just how much he and his buddies have stolen from the russian people, whose condition gets worse day by day. true information, not propaga a propaganda, true information. credibly reported, reliably sourced, is a force multiplier. >> i'll just add a couple points on that. outside of growing kind of resiliency of the society, operations, there's things that we could be doing in d.c. fair reform, for instance. foreign agent registration act, right now you have -- it's too easy for people to be foreign influencers without having to register as such. then naming and shaming as we've seen in kind of some of these occasions that hopefully it will make people think twice about engaging in kind of questionable activities. in the back of their mind they think, not sure who this is, wh

viktor orban and lot of mir putin have been keeping in touch quite regularly for the past eight years. the foreign writing to wheel and deal with putin the media are consistent in painting a very sinister picture of the two of them getting together. this is hungary's prime minister. back in one thousand nine hundred ninety he was calling for soviet troops to leave the country. fast forward almost thirty years and here years one of russian president vladimir putin's closest allies correct me if i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure russia today is a bit different than the soviet union even the flags are different nonetheless these two associating with one another gets under some politician skins and the way they say it is hunger becoming the kremlin's pawn. i did not go so far as the late great john mccain who wants to scribe obama as a neo fascist in bed with putin however i would certainly not have disagree with mr mccain's analysis in twenty fourteen we can't stand aside and that populist far right governments drag democratic european states into vladimir putin's orbit and undermine the pos

used by president putin strictly off limits. it's a sign of the times since the collapse of the ceviche union the russian orthodox church the scene a dramatic rise in its fortunes. twenty five thousand new build or restore churches eight hundred one of stories millions of them believe us we are on other way and now the trend you from europe to question is goes down in venice and goes down in russia we have moral trends back to christian roots. every week a staggering nineteen new orthodox churches are either built or restored in russian . many welcome this increase including president putin seen here opening a new church with patriarch kirill the primate of moscow and all russia. but not everyone is happy. you have kenny lebedev is part of a group of parents who oppose the churches illegal seizure and why frequent utilization of a mosque a park in order to build a new church not a little bit too much. which is. what it is it is not much and it shouldn't surprise you. that he should like almost a siege of the regime. that you wou

>>> and putin's poison plan? members of a russian activist group say one of their members has been poisoned. did the russian president order an attack on one of his leading critics? >>> i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >>> there are new doubts this hour about president trump's supreme court nomination of judge brett kavanaugh now that a california professor has come forward saying that kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party more than three decades ago. kavanaugh denies the accusations, and both are willing to testify under oath to congress. we'll talk about that and more this hour with senator patrick leahy. he's a senior democrat on the judiciary committee. our correspondents, specialists, and analysts,a also standing by. first to our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta. the president is said to be privately angry about all of this, but his remarks just a little while ago were relatively subdued. >> reporter: that's right. pretty tempered. the white house showing no sign

surprise announcements by vladimir putin at the russian eastern economic forum. from doha also coming up lawyers make their closing arguments in the assassination trial of former lebanese prime minister rafiq hariri. during an assault on edge lib syrians arrived in the turkish border as the u.n. demands a diplomatic solution. and former brazilian president lula da silva drops out of next month's election and his running mate takes his place. that amir putin says two men accused of attempting to murder a full russian spies in the u.k. asa billions in may the monks at the eastern economic forum and that of a stock. a prime minister treason may said the suspects were members of the russian military intelligence service u.k. prosecutors issued a european weren't for their arrest russia denies it was behind the nerve agent attack insoles free in march that's going live challenge and that of all stock so really a totally unexpected comment buried in the depths of this economic forum. absolutely yes this took place in the plenary session where russia's president putin a

president putin has raised the prospect they could appear in public perhaps very soon. but all along moscow has dismissed the allegations from london as nonsense, so whatever happens now, it seems unlikely to ta ke happens now, it seems unlikely to take the british investigation any further. this former kgb officer told me russia could be behind the salisbury attack, but the culprits never expected to be discovered. so behind their public statements, he thinks russian officials are worried. translation: all of the elite understands the mess that russia's now in, but the leadership sets the tone. they say the british media made it all up, that it's rubbish, but that's just laddish bravado. everyone knows the consequences will be serious. the poisoning of sergei skripal and his daughter has already led to diplomatic expulsions and sanctions. now all eyes are on moscow for a first glimpse of the key suspects. but whoever appears, the chances of them facing criminal charges in britain are as slim as ever. sarah ra i nsfo rd , britain are as slim as ever. sarah rainsford, bb

with a firm handshake the presidents of china and russia have announced stronger ties bloody mirror putin is hosting cheating ping as well as the japanese and south korean leaders at the three day eastern economic forum in vladivostok it aims to boost investment in the far east region of asia but putin is warning trade barriers are a threat to asian economies as the world stopped two economies the u.s. and china imposed trait terrorists on each other as the talks began so did the largest war games by chinese and russian troops since the soviet union three hundred thousand troops thirty six thousand tanks and armored vehicles and a thousand war planes and ships are all on parade in siberia and from the fire into the frying pan as putin introduces tce to russian cooking rory chalons takes a look at how the countries are stretched and the bilateral ties. with the slight awkwardness of two leaders who probably don't spend much time in the kitchen sheeting paying hands bloody made through tin conducted some pancake diplomacy in blood of all stock the chinese president is here for the eastern e

and that's your guide to the putin orban relationship the way different sides see it right now. trump has announced a new round of trade tariffs on china because a broad range of goods worth hundreds of billions of dollars and reports. well there's been a great deal of anticipation for donald trump's next move regarding trade negotiations with china we now have an official statement from donald trump himself regarding that situation today i directed the united states trade representative to proceed with placing additional tires on roughly two hundred billion dollars of imports from china the terrorists will take effect on september twenty fourth twenty eighteen and be sent as little as ten percent until the end of the year when general the twenty five percent previously there was a fifty billion dollar tariff imposed on china a tariff on fifty billion dollars worth of chinese imports china then responded with a sixty billion dollar tariff of their own now at this point in the aftermath of this two hundred billion dollar tariff at this point eighty five to ninety five percent of

putin? what should we be doing both in retaliation against russian interference and what ideally do you think we should basically threaten mr. putin with in order to deter future interference in our poll sicks? -- ol poc -- our politics? >> there should be conversations with the russians. i think diplomacy is important and to have those conversations at a varpt of different levels. i think our best tool at the moment continues to be sanctions, and i think we need to make clear not only are the ones that are on will stay on but there might be some tougher ones, given some of the things that mr. mueller came up with, and to keep the pressure on. i think we need to have more outpouring of outrage by members of congress on this and just generally talking about the fact that we need to keep the pressure on the russians, but not to say we will never talk to them. that's ridiculous. i have been in many tough meetings and i was with putin, and i think one has to push back, not just agree, oh, you're

to the russian or pro-putin community, let me take the war home to putin. there is no reason why the democratic national commission would be the only ones that are taxed. no reason we can't try to find out where his bank accounts are and his money is and go public with how much he and his buddies have stolen from the russian people whose condition gets worse day by day. that kind of information is true information, not rep. guinta:, incredibly reported, reliably sourced and is a force multiplier. >> that's exactly right. >> i would add a couple points on that. outside of growing the resiliency of a society to these types of operations that we could be doing in dc , that's something that needs to be done. and there's the foreign agent registration act, right now it's too easy for people to be foreign influencers without having to register at such and then naming and shaming as we've seen in some of these cases that , hopefully will make people think twice about engaging in these kind of questionable activities that may be in the back of their mind, they say

russian military plane is shot down off the coast of syria killing fifteen servicemen president putin calls it a tragic chain of events after the russian defense ministry accused israel of provoking syrian anti-aircraft fire. is a row admits that its warplanes were bombing syrian targets at the time of the tragedy of but insists that damascus is fully responsible for hitting the russian plane. search teams find the remains of some of those on board the downed plane which fell into the mediterranean sea. our broadcast live direct from our citizen of this is our t.v. international i'm sean thomas truly glad to have you with us and we start with a tragic story fifteen russian servicemen have died in a friendly fire incident off the coast of syria their plane was hit by syrian anti-aircraft guns which were responding to israeli airstrikes for israeli fighter jets had been targeting syrian facilities in latakia province at the time russian defense ministry accused israel of being indirectly responsible. on the seventeenth of september at around ten pm for its ready finds jets launched guid

the russian president vladimir putin has spoken with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and during that phone conversation netanyahu expressed his regret he blamed the domain of the russian aircraft on syria and he also stressed the importance and i'm quoting of continued security cooperation between the sides to prevent a repeat of what happened on monday night now natalia who did repeat his political position that he's had for years and that is that israel will be determined to stop iran's military build up inside syria and the transfer of weapons to his beloved there so certainly netanyahu not suggesting that israel's going to stop its military strikes in syria moving forward he did however say that israel was prepared to share all details for a fire investigation to be conducted with the russian side he went so far as to suggest that the israeli commander of the air force flying to russia to provide full details for such an investigation this is a severe test in terms of what is often presented as a strategic relationship and a close relationship between netanyahu and putin now

the russian president vladimir putin has spoken with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and during that phone conversation netanyahu expressed his great he blamed the downing of the russian aircraft on syria and he also stressed the importance and i'm quoting of continued security cooperation between the sides to prevent a repeat of what happened on monday night now natalia who didn't repeat his political position that he's had for years and that is that israel will be determined to stop iran's military build up inside syria and the transfer of weapons to hezbollah there so certainly netanyahu not suggesting that israel is going to stop its military strikes in syria from moving forward he did however say that it will most prepared to share all details for a fire investigation to be conducted with the russian side when so far as to suggest that the israeli commander of the air force flying to russia to provide full details for such an investigation this is a severe taste in terms of what is often presented as a strategic relationship and a close relationship between netanyahu and pu

vladimirnt putin -- and he met with vladimir putin during the course of this and immediately realized it was the wrong guy, so he fled. organizedecialty was crime, he was never a spy in the sense of working for the british undercover. so he went to the u.k. with our up to then he was say, by the would british secret service as an outside consultant on russian organized crime. and that's what probably brought him to this assassination, because at the time he was investigating for the british and the spanish law enforcement, the doings of russian organized crime all over europe including spain. and spain appears now as a particularly soft spot of mr. .utin that is his biography in a few words, but he was a very honorable and honest guy with a lot of idealism, and that's the evolution of a very important conversion from being part of the system to going against the system. host: let's talk about details of the legal claim. just did ac council report on pushing back against russian propaganda and one thing they said in the report was that it's often difficult in the united states to bring

happened as you well know there is a close working relationship between the russian president vladimir putin and the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and when ever israel conducts any kind of strikes in syria it always a con firms consults and lets the russians know in advance russia of course being in control of the skies of assyria so in this case where what we hearing that the israelis provided this information something like just one minute before the strikes occurred does point to a disastrous situation on the israeli side and disastrous enough that we know that fifteen russian servicemen were killed while we what we're also hearing from the russian side is that the israelis behaved irresponsibly that this that they created a dangerous situation in the area and the russian ministry of defense but also saying that russia reserves the right for an adequate response following israel's hostile actions in syria the incident happened at around ten o'clock last night the russian military pay and was on its way back to the how many force base near the syrian city of latakia it was some

president putin reveals that russia has identified the suspects that britain says carried out the script poisoning. special criminal. are these civilians yes they are definitely civilians. russia's u.n. envoy clashed with his u.s. counterpart over syria with russia again insisting that on separating the terrorists from rebel forces. coexistence with terrorists is impossible. which we've been fighting since the terrorist attacks in two thousand and one let's not waste time with to disinform a distraction and outright law. could be stripped of its evoking rights after being accused by any piece of breaching european values with its tough immigration policies. there is one pm wednesday september the twelfth mosque i want to call him brazen he is for this hour president putin says that the suspects named by britain over the script poisoning of the been identified by russia he was speaking at the eastern economic forum in vladivostok from way now reports. this is an absolutely groundbreaking follow up from vladimir putin to last week's statement by british authorities on the suspects in the s

>>> and putin's military show. russia calls it the biggest military exercise since the soviet union collapsed. more than 300,000 troops putting on a show with some help from china. is it meant to send a message to america? >>> wolf blitzer is off today. i'm jim sciutto and you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >>> and the breaking news, the latest forecast just in from hurricane florence. the category 4 monster threatening some 20 million people on the east coast. 1.5 million have already been ordered to evacuate. the storm predicted to be a direct hit and could be the strongest to make land on the east coast in a quarter century. the carolinas will bear the brunt of the storm, surges up to 13 feet high and up to 2 feet of rain. maryland, virginia and d.c. also have declared states of emergency. president trump says the federal government is, quote, totally prepared. even as he boasts of incredible success in puerto rico, where the death toll was close to 3,000 people. >>> i'll speak with c

do you think vladimir putin had knowledge of what happened? in russia, vladimir putin, he does not give the final approval to, in his eyes, such small actions like this. but he definitely creates an atmosphere, he creates an atmosphere where such paramilitary groups and agencies do what they can do. so it generally falls into the line which has been determined by vladimir putin. and why you? i'm intrigued as to why they would pick on an activist like yourself, a young man, who... can he really be described as a thorn in vladimir putin's side? we are only making a distinction like that, because the actions we do are as loud as anything happening in russia. for them, it is quite a big deal and they think of ways to counterbalance that. and yeah, that's just the price you have to pay in russia. if you want russia to change and be a different country, then you have to be ready for things. are you frightened now? are you frightened ? i wouldn't say i really... maybe it is my psychological problem, i do not really feel what can be described as fear

this demonstration we were not impressed by president putin. to say the least. in rwanda voting has begun in parliamentary elections that are being held over the next three days with more than seven million voters eligible to vote in the east african country who wonder is still scarred by the genocide of one thousand nine hundred four when hutu extremists the minority community this is the first poll since then in which independent candidates are being allowed to stand when a young candidates from smaller parties are also vying for a seat but the governing patriotic front is still expected to cement its absolute majority in parliament. there was a party atmosphere in london capital kigali on the last day of campaigning before the three day parliamentary polls. the supporters of the governing party. front are confident of victory once again. we're feeling very confident and wherever we've been on the campaign trail masses of people turned out for us. they are happy with our party and our policies. and there's little doubt that the r p f will once again win the ma