Trump and Putin's Second Meeting; Trump Meeting at Pentagon.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump sounding off in a wide-ranging interview with "The New York Times," opening up about the newly revealed second meeting he had with Vladimir Putin at the G-20, while defending once again his son, Don Jr.'s meeting with a group of Russian officials. Back with me, Ron Brownstein, Rebecca Berg, and Salena Zito. So, Rebecca, to you first. Let's listen to how the president described that meeting that a senior White House official told CNN previously lasted an hour. Listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Actually, it was very interesting. We talked about adoption.</s>HABERMAN (ph): You did?</s>TRUMP: Russian adoption. Yes. I've always found that interesting because, you know, he ended that years ago. And I actually talked about Russian adoption with him, which is interesting, because that was a part of the conversation that Don had with this meeting that I think, as I said, most other people - you know, when they call up and they say, by the way, we have information on your opponent, I think most politicians - I was just with a lot of people and they said, who wouldn't have taken a meeting like that?</s>HARLOW: All right, he also said to "The New York Times" the meeting was 15 minutes, not an hour. So two different stories from the White House on that. Rebecca Berg, what's your takeaway?</s>REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, one of the things that is so problematic, Poppy, about this meeting is that we will only ever have the president's version of events here, because there was no American with the president. None of his top advisers were here for this meeting, whether it was 15 minutes or an hour. It's important that we have that record by the United States. Otherwise, we only have Russia's word and the president's word. And as we've seen, sometimes he can be sort of an unreliable narrator when it comes to these things. So it's good to hear from him some details about what was discussed. But, unfortunately, we're not going to have a Rex Tillerson or an H.R. McMaster to come out and give us more details about what was said because they weren't there.</s>HARLOW: But the Russians have that because they had their translator there.</s>BERG: Exactly.</s>HARLOW: So Salena Zito, to you. Yet again a sort of full-throated defense of his son and his son-in- law and his former campaign chairman's meeting with that group of Russian officials. Listen.</s>TRUMP: I didn't look at it very closely, to be honest with you.</s>BAKER (ph): OK.</s>TRUMP: I just heard there was an e-mail requesting a meeting or something - yes, requesting a meeting. That they have information on Hillary Clinton. And I said - I mean that's standard political stuff.</s>SCHMIDT (ph): P Did you know at the time that they had the meeting?</s>TRUMP: No, I didn't know anything about the meeting.</s>SCHMIDT: Abu you know -</s>TRUMP: It must have been a very important - must have been a very unimportant meeting because I never even heard about it.</s>HABERMAN: No one told you a word, nothing? I know we talked about this on the plane a little bit, but nobody</s>TRUMP: Nobody told - no, nobody told me. I didn't know - it's a very unimportant - sounded like a very unimportant meeting.</s>HARLOW: Salena.</s>SALENA ZITO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, most parents are going to defend their kids, right? I - can I just say, I loved this interview because it was so amazing how they were able to not only draw some things out of - with him. But because he's comfortable with these reporters, he's also very, you know, loose with his words. He's - and he also, you know, makes sure that he gets across what he wants to get across. No, this was not a normal meeting. This is not the kind of meeting any candidate that I have ever interviewed would have considered or part of their team would have considered to go and listen to. Having said that, this was part of sort of them not being part - not part of the political establishment. You know, they're very naive in how they approach politics. They approached it like business.</s>HARLOW: So, at the same time, he made sure to applaud himself, Ron Brownstein, about his performance on the world stage, right? He had these big two foreign trips. First, you know, to Poland and the G-20 and then to France. Here's what he said about the speech that he gave in Warsaw, which was applauded by many. Here's what he said. "So I go to Poland and make a speech. Enemies of mine in the media, enemies of mine, are saying it was the greatest speech ever made on foreign soil by a president." Ever made on foreign soil by any president. What do you make of that?</s>RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.</s>HARLOW: Right.</s>HARLOW: The -</s>BROWNSTEIN: So, you know, the big question has always been whether America first translates into America alone. And so far that is a direction in which it is trending.</s>HARLOW: What is also surprising, guys, is that he gave this interview to "The New York Times," which he has many times called a failing publication. That he gave it to them and talked about so much other than the initiative of the White House this week, which is "Made in America Week." That is not the headline that his advisers -</s>BROWNSTEIN: Or health care.</s>BERG: No.</s>HARLOW: Or health care.</s>BERG: And for a White House that has said it does not want to be talking about Russia, the president talked a lot about Russia in this interview.</s>HARLOW: Yes. That's an important point. Thank you all very much, Ron Brownstein, Rebecca Berg, Salena Zito.</s>BERG: Thanks.</s>HARLOW: Up next, you see it on the side of your screen. Well, it was right there. Could O.J. Simpson soon walk a free man? In just a few hours, a parole board will decide just that. But if he is paroled, will he even be allowed to go home? Next.