HAPPENING NOW: Biden/Putin Summit Over, Putin’s Press Conference Begins

Happening now, Putin gives his press conference following the meeting with the United States and our President, President Biden. Next, President Biden gives his press conference in Geneva.

We've got Rick Renell to help us break it all down for you today on Sekulow. Alright, so the summit between the United States and Russia, between President Biden and President Putin has come to an end. President Putin right now is holding a press conference like we have discussed throughout this weekend and even last week as this trip was beginning. No joint press conference, so instead Russia going first with President Putin and then President Biden will be second. And again, we'll cut into some of this for you just to give a flavor. Obviously President Putin is speaking in Russian and some of the questions are in Russian, some are in other languages.

So it's mostly dubbed over in translation, but we will go to that for you in the next segment of the broadcast so you get a little bit of a flavor. All of it started off in a kind of chaotic way in the sense that usually these are very predetermined pre-planned events where chaos is not a word you use. Even when you've got strong disagreements between these two countries and questions about why they are even holding this meeting right now. A lot of critics say this is too early in an administration unless there's some pressing problem to sit down with an adversary before your staffs have been able to hammer out one of the three main topics they should focus on.

Where can we come to an agreement and basically be able to come out and do a press conference and say, hey we agree on this, this, this and this. Instead we see these separate press conferences, not a sign of agreement at all, but a sign of again I think a division. But it started off chaotically with reporters trying to get in the room to just take the initial footage as they sat down for their meeting or some pictures as they sat down for the meeting. But what you ultimately had here is a situation where there was Russian security pushing back on the military, US staff, Biden staff, State Department staff say you can't push reporters that way.

And that's how it started off. Then it went into about a four hour meeting or so. The first meeting was an hour and a half. That was very limited to the President of these two nations and their two, the Secretary of State Blinken and the Foreign Minister Lavrov from Russia. Then they did an expanded out meeting with their advisors as well.

So a significant amount of time. The big question is, you know we know the list of grievances, we know the hacks, we know there's Americans in prison abroad in Russia. We know about the situation in Ukraine, Russia's work with Iran. I mean the list goes on and on. The question is did any of this get not just even resolved but even on a path to resolution.

I want to go right now to Wes Smith. Wes we've been watching this together this morning as we were kind of debating where to focus because we didn't know when this would start. And Putin came right out of this meeting, right to the podium to speak to the press, which to me signals that at a minimum he didn't lose anything. I mean I'm still waiting for translations on all of this but it doesn't seem like Russia and the way that his top advisors were. Their body language, which Russian body language can be pretty hard to read unless they're laughing, which is a pretty interesting signal for them to sit.

Yeah, it's truly, truly. Timing is important as well as perceptions and I thought about both of those throughout this meeting, timing and perception. And on the timing piece, you know, critics have said it was too soon for President Biden to do this.

Probably so. There were not a lot of tangible, deliverable things to be accomplished. Maybe returning the ambassadors to their respective capitals because whenever Biden called Putin a killer they withdrew their ambassador from DC and we responded accordingly.

But the timings off, there wasn't a whole lot to accomplish. I think the perception piece is going to be the most significant part. How they come off perception-wise with their domestic audiences, both Biden and Putin. So Putin told us, CNN corresponded, there was no hostility during the meeting with Biden, said it was constructive and they began, they'll begin consultations on cyber security.

That's interesting. We'll be right back. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena.

And we have an exceptional track record of success. But here's the bottom line, we could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org where you can learn more about our life-changing work.

Become a member today. ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, a play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. The one area of agreement it looks like so far is that there should be, ambassadors should return to Moscow and to Washington D.C. from their respective countries. Just to give you a sense here, this is again translated, Putin is speaking now live, if you're hearing this broadcast live in Geneva, following this four plus hour long meeting with the United States, including an hour and a half with those two Presidents and their top diplomats, the Foreign Minister for Russia, the Secretary of State for the United States.

But take a listen, Byte17, this is again Putin with the translation of course. The two ambassadors we agreed should return to their posts and take up their functions. This is a purely technical question as to exactly when that will happen, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, whatever. And the consultations will begin on a whole raft of diplomatic issues.

So, I mean, there you go. If this was literally a meeting just to get our ambassadors back, you wonder, okay, but there was another four hours there. He did talk about cyber security, he said that that will ultimately be discussed, they agreed to discuss that.

You just heard there, this agreement to discuss that basically where they're just going through a litany of items to say, okay, we'll start allowing our diplomatic staff to discuss this. Now, the important part of this will of course be hearing what President Biden's interpretation of this was. There was some scuffle about was he nodding when he said that Russia is a great power, this list goes on. But I think that there was chaos at the beginning. The truth is it will be interesting to see if what Putin says is basically in line with what Biden says or are there any major differences.

And what will this actually come down to? You know, I haven't heard anybody talk about Iran, I haven't talked about Ukraine, talked about elections there, but that's how Putin is talking about it, not necessarily the ongoing conflict as well. He did acknowledge that their positions are, he called, the way it was translated was divergent, which means you don't agree. So you're meeting with an adversary and they're coming out and saying, we have different positions, take a listen again to Putin. Many of our joint positions are divergent, but nevertheless I think that both sides manifested determination to try and understand each other and try and converge our positions.

And I think it was very constructive. As far as cyber security is concerned, we agreed that we would begin consultations on that issue. And I believe that's extraordinarily important. And obviously both sides have to assume certain obligations there. To me, there's kind of that idea, in Putin's words, right where he says that both sides have to assume certain obligations of equating the cyber attacks we're seeing out of Russia. And something that he's talking about is coming out of the United States, though nothing has been reported widely in the news about any Russian systems being going down by hacking or anything like that. Certainly not anything out of the United States being responsible for it. Russia is a country that has major criminal elements that have significant impact on how the state functions. The United States does not function that way. But again, this idea that cyber security, which is major when you talk about our pipelines, when you talk about the grids, and all they've done is to agree that they'll begin discussing it.

Well, it's suggesting a moral equivalency, isn't it? I mean, it's going to be very interesting to contrast that with what President Biden says when he comes out. I wonder if his posture is going to mirror what his posture and demeanor was inside the room.

It's going to be, I don't know if we'll ever know that, Jordan, but that would be interesting to know. You know, I would first echo your point about you don't need a face-to-face meeting between these two leaders to begin staff-level discussions. I mean, that's something that's already happened with China. It certainly could have been ordered by both leaders. I was interested, though, Jordan, you alluded to this before the break, but Vladimir Putin is saying that there was no hostilities between President Biden and himself. So I guess he didn't take the killer approach. I guess he took the worthy adversary approach inside the room. But I would just tell you, Jordan, my sort of top-line takeaway from this, Vladimir Putin's already got what he wanted out of this. He wanted visibility and he wanted elevation on the world stage. And as I sit here watching this press conference, I obviously can't hear it right now.

You're playing sound from it. But that's what he's getting. He's being elevated on the world stage. So I think in Putin's mind, this is already a win.

Yeah, I mean, so what do you think about that? I mean, the idea again, we spent all this time, we've spent years in the United States elevating Vladimir Putin. And the media has elevated Russia's role and their ability to interfere. Was it with their elections? Did they do that? Were they working on it with a campaign?

On and on and on. All we've heard is Russia and Russia. And now we have yet another summit, a new American President, and it puts Vladimir Putin right back on the world stage looking like a leader. You know, like Biden said, like a worthy adversary.

We even commented on the difference in the way his advisors, their body language, their age, the experience level. These are names that because of his autocracy that those who follow the news closely and international news have come to know. Like Sergey Lavrov, who has been the foreign minister for as long as I can remember. When you get into these kind of high level geopolitical conferences and policies and strategies, perception is critically important.

And that's part of what you're alluding to. You know, Vladimir Putin is ruthless. He's a dictator.

He has, you know, an unlimited term in power because he changed the laws in Russia and made himself, you know, the absolute supreme leader, if you will. But even if that were not the case, even if he weren't a shrewd killer, as the President called him, and that's actually true, even if you took that off the table, he still comes off as strong as does his team. And his principles may be way off, but Putin, you know, he sticks to his principles, sticks to his guns. Whereas on the other hand, and I want our President to succeed.

I want him to be strong. But in his demeanor and in his policies, President Biden at times appears hesitant and weak. For example, he telegraphed his move going into this meeting with Putin by lifting the sanctions, you know, connected to the Russian pipeline.

Why would you do that? Whereas he telegraphs what he's thinking. Putin plays it very, very close to the vest. There are a number of things that President Biden could have confronted him on.

Hopefully he did. You talk about the cyber attacks. Ukraine, you know, this pipeline is bypassing Ukraine by Russian design to continue to isolate them as far as their energy and their economy. You look at the 20 brand new military units that Russia has formed on the border with our NATO countries.

You look at energy, you look at Iran. There are a number of things that Russia needs to be confronted on. The question is, did President Biden do that? And I'm not sure this early in his administration that some of those things happen.

Maybe we'll find out. And one final thing concerning the cyber attacks. The other day when Putin was asked about this in a news conference, his response was not to deny any Russian knowledge or involvement in it, but simply to say, you have no proof of that. And he said it in a very smug way. In other words, he didn't say we didn't do it.

It's you can't prove it. But a cyber attack should be responded to with a counterattack. That's what you do. Cyber war is another form of war. And so if Russia continues to do this, hopefully President Biden put them on notice that that cyber war is war.

And if we are attacked again, we will counterattack, because that's certainly what needs to happen. You know, one thing I'm going to talk to Rick Rinnell about is this focus, it seems by the Russians, and we'll see if it's echoed by the Biden administration as well. But certainly this idea, and I think it points directly to how difficult it was for them to plan out, which is good I think if it's an adversary, kind of what they would do because they could not predict Trump. They could not read him as well. He could smile at you with the one hand and at the same time be planning something that would be, you know, see as an aggressive action against you.

Because he had that ability to work the media, work the room, and these situations. But Putin keeps saying stability, stability, stability. Which to me is just, we want to know where you're going to go to the United States, we want to know the lines, we want to know what lines we can cross, what lines we can't cross. He was just talking about that with cybersecurity.

He said, we talked about red lines, but we didn't actually define what those red lines were. His ultimate goal then is to get to a place where they can predict the United States makes their job easier. Well I think they would like the predictability of the Obama administration, don't you?

I mean look, they knew where the Obama administration was going to land, and if this can be the third term of the Obama administration, they win. I mean look, Jordan, this is true in diplomacy, it's also true in warfare. If your adversary cannot predict your next move, if they're not sure exactly where they're going to go, that's a good thing for you. Look, you want to be predictable for your allies, that's the benefit of having allies.

They can trust you, you can trust them. But if there is an adversary, Jordan, the last thing that you want them to know is what you're going to do before you do it. Alright, so we come back. Former acting director of national intelligence, an ambassador to Germany, Rick Grennell will be joining us to talk about all this. We'll continue to monitor, of course, these press conferences as well. Biden will follow Putin, so there will be no joint press conference here again.

But we will get to see our President's interpretation of the meeting to see if they are in line with President Putin's as well. We'll be right back on Secular. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. The challenges facing Americans are substantial. At a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today.

ACLJ.org. A unique moment in history. And we'll go to Rick Rinnell here in the translation.

Rick, I just saw this up on the screen as we're about to talk. Vladimir Putin using Black Lives Matter, the arrest of January 6 to deflect on his own human rights abuses and says, well, America mass arrested a bunch of people. And so I don't want to get into those details. We don't want to have that happen in Russia. And the question was just, the question he was asked was if all your opponents are in jail or dead or outside the country, how can there be fair elections in your country?

And he pivots very quickly. But I want to get your thoughts, Rick, just initially. We're just learning kind of what was discussed, what actually happened in this four-hour-plus meeting.

But your just initial reactions. Well, I'm listening to Putin's press conference right now, and I think you're right. The language that he's using is clearly the talking points from the Democrats about systemic racism. And that's troubling. I mean, I think that this is a warning for the Democratic Party that all of their criticism of America, and I would say unfounded criticism by saying, you know, when you use the word systemic racism, you mean that the entire system, the entire operation is built to be racist.

That is not true. And yet they continue to say it, and now our enemies and others are picking up this language and using it against us. We saw the Chinese use this in Alaska. We see the Russians are using this. I see Middle Eastern leaders from the NGO community beginning to use this language, and it's very troubling. Rick, another word that the Russians are pushing a lot of, and it'll be interesting to see if Joe Biden uses any of that same language, but that this word stability keeps being used over and over and again.

It sounds nice. Stability sounds great if you can have stability in world affairs, stability between adversaries, if it all adds up. But is that the Russian way of stability of just saying, hey, we basically want you off our backs? He even said in one of the translations was, we talked about red lines on cybersecurity, but we didn't get to any definitions of where those red lines would be. Well, first of all, on cybersecurity, President Putin just completely blamed the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Latin American countries for cyber attacks.

He said it does not come from Russia, which we know is typical Putin speak. He always tries to pretend like everything is fine, and this gets at your question about stability. We have to be very clear that stability is not peace. It can be peace, but usually when leaders like Putin use stability, what they mean is you be quiet in fear. It's not peaceful.

It's a stable situation for the government to then completely be corrupt, and that's not peaceful, and I think that not using the word peaceful is a real poignant moment. Rick, I'm curious as, you know, ultimately, what do you think comes out of this? What's the achievement here? What happens after this? Because at this point, other than making Putin look strong and principled in his own perverse way, what else happens? Well, first of all, President Putin is going to sit through G7 statements, press statements from the White House, maybe even some remarks from Biden and from the press, and he will be very pleased because at the end of the day, he's going home with a pipeline of influence and cash for the next several decades.

He is so pleased that this culminated with a Russian pipeline of leverage for 20-plus years that he'll sit through any uncomfortable press moments or press statement moments. He's also decided, I see the announcement that our ambassadors will be able to go back. That's certainly a good thing, but I think this gets to Jordan's question about stability. Having our ambassadors go back plays into this idea that everything is stable and therefore fine. But I think that we have to be able to work and have transparency and look for peace rather than just this facade of stability. Do you think 40 United States comes out of this? There's a lot coming out to benefit Russia. Yeah, I don't see where we have gotten anything. I think we have sacrificed a lot and I can't come up with anything other than our ambassador goes back, but our embassy has been open and others have been there. Our ambassadors go back, but that's such a diplomatic nicety that's not really a gift to the United States. Hey, Rick Than here.

I just wanted to follow up on that real quick. We're all on Team America here. All of us have a vested interest in the American President, no matter who he is, doing well in situations like this and demonstrating and articulating American leadership in the world. I don't know how he pulls that off now, quite frankly. After the optics of seeing Vladimir Putin come out and take the lead in this press conference, declining to appear alongside of him, I'm just interested in your perspective on this. Is there something that President Biden could do following up on this press conference to keep Vladimir Putin from emerging with the upper hand in all this, or has Vladimir Putin already accomplished that?

It's a great question. I think Biden is looking weak. He's looking weak out of the G7.

I mean, there were moments in those videos that I thought my video stopped because he was in meltdown mode, and my video didn't stop. It was Joe Biden, his mind collapsing. You see that. You see the British leader putting his hand over to Joe Biden a couple of times to shush him and say, we've already discussed that, Joe. President Biden laughing, almost being laughed at, but not realizing it, fumbling. Now he's not able to do a press conference with Putin. He's given up our Nord Stream 2 policy by giving the pipeline to the Russians. I think he looks incredibly weak, and we see not only Russia, but China and others beginning to test him. They're moving troops into Ukraine. Now we see some action over near Hawaii, military action from the Russians, and so it's clear that they don't fear him, and they're just clapping and applauding him because he's so weak.

We will see Biden's press conference. My final question for you, though, Rick, before we get to that and ultimately get some analysis there, but with everything that Putin is saying, I want to go back to what you said. He is seizing, and he's done this before, but he is seizing on American domestic political divisions and just ramming that home through every single question, every single response. I mean, the fact that he invoked Black Lives Matter, that was the direct translation was Black Lives Matter, and the protests in the streets in America, the unrest, the January 6th, but also what he was talking about was the arrest of Americans on January 6th.

So you put down opposition, so I put down opposition. This, to me, again, the way we talk about what's going on in our own country, it's just on display about how important that is. Look, we can have political differences at home, and they can be very, you know, tough rhetoric and fights, but what President Biden did at the G7 was really, and NATO, he opened us up by critiquing Republicans. He opened up the rest of the world to critique Republicans.

He did not have a unified message. I've never seen anything like that before, where you have a world leader internationally talking about domestic political parties in his own country, and the turmoil he wishes they were having. America, it's always great to have you, especially during this summit.

We'll be right back, second half hour, coming up on Sekulow. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today. ACLJ.org. Live from Washington, D.C., Sekulow Live.

And now, your host, Jordan Sekulow. So, you know, what is interesting, we talked about this with Rick Riddell, that the Russians, the word of the day for them is stability, they want more stability in the relationship. Do we want to give the Russians stability?

Ask yourself that. Do you want the Russians to feel, and their government, because of its current posture and how it's operating, if the cyber attacks, if we're supposed to believe this to be true, you know, do we want their stability to be there? On the one hand, Putin just said, one of the translations was, I have no friendship with President Biden.

You don't have to be friends, and you don't have to, I think it was an eternal relationship, you know, to represent your countries. That makes sense. So much of Putin, what is clear, and I'm not trying to praise him as a leader, but what he does, and you can see this in his preparation, and this is throughout his career, and I think why he's been able to retain power in a tumultuous country post the fall of the Soviet Union, is that he is so well prepped. So he doesn't shy away from taking the tough questions like about Navalny and the poisonings of their own political opposition leaders, but he's prepped for an international audience to turn that question into things they talk about a lot, like Black Lives Matter protests, and unrest in the streets, and what happened in January 6, and the prosecutions that flow from that, and the instability that, you know, trying to focus on the U.S. But I think what that shows you is this high level of preparation. They take it very seriously, and then you can always tell the difference between political leaders who are well prepped, and not afraid to take the tough questions, and obviously, without any notes referring to, but obviously they know exactly where they're going to take that tough question, and how they're going to respond to it. And of course, in these meetings, when you've got the translations and all that, as long as you know your response, and you stick to that, and you know it will resonate with your adversary's domestic audience, like his invocations already have, that again, it shows a degree of preparation, and now next we'll see ultimately whether Joe Biden even tried to embark on that kind of preparation. Well, and the ability to do that, Jordan, is especially important when it comes to personal diplomacy from heads of state at the highest level. That ability has to happen. I would answer your question about do we want the Russians to be predictable? Do we want to be predictable? The answer to that is no, Jordan.

I want them to be off balance. Here's the truth, though. In order to keep them off balance, you have to be very clear about what the American message is, and quite honestly, Jordan, I don't know what that is. I don't know if the message from the United States is that Vladimir Putin is a killer, or if it's that he's a worthy adversary that we want to foster a relationship with.

There's a confusion there. I actually thought that Senator Blunt, a couple of days ago in an interview he gave to CNN, I thought he presented the correct posture. He said, you really have to treat Russia like it's virtually a criminal enterprise.

You know, they harbor criminals, they don't appreciate the rule of law or any kind of level of personal freedom, and I do think we have to push back. Jordan, I think that kind of posture is what would keep Vladimir Putin off balance, but as I watch this press conference, I think he's as comfortable as can be, Jordan. Yeah, this is, again, he's continuing to take questions, he's not trying to wrap this up, he's taking questions that are tough. He's also now blamed the United States, this is coming out of the press conference, for cyber attack on the Russian health system.

I'll play that for you when we come back. That's something, again, I think he's, one, he's using domestic issues in the United States, and he knows the international media understands that we all understand, even through translation, it resonates with us. Not so much for his at home audience, but then he's also then, you know, accuses the US of harboring hackers who took down the Russian health system that no one's ever heard about this happening before. So again, being prepared, taking the adversarial questions, not being afraid to, listen, we've got a White House that doesn't like taking questions from, the President taking questions from Fox News.

This is a Russian President who puts all the dirt out of the table, and then is explaining it away to the world because of a meeting we asked for as the United States. The challenges facing Americans are substantial, at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena.

And we have an exceptional track record of success. But here's the bottom line, we could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms. That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side.

If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today, ACLJ.org.

Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected, is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases. How we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists. The ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later. Play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry. And what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Sekulow. I want to cut in live so you can hear.

We played some of the bites. We're pulling some of the two when he invoked Black Lives Matter. But this is live in Geneva. President Putin, of course, with translation, answering the questions. Based on the outcome of my meeting with Mr. Biden. First of all, a month. See you tomorrow.

A month just isn't what we're going to start seeing songs. Blue, blue fog, deceit. And now our foreign colleagues are going to understand that reference. OK, let's get the floor to one of the foreign outlets in Bloomberg, please.

I have a follow up question. Bloomberg News, Mr. Putin. In 2016, you met with Trump. After that, American sanctions were adopted.

The latest round was adopted very quickly. Did you talk with Joe Biden about the guarantees that you would have for the sanctions to be lifted or rather for the new sanctions not to be introduced against Russia? And you said that there's some incipient hope. With regard to Biden, you mentioned some initial agreements. Do you have more trust that he'll be able to do it?

Because it's believed that the American administration has more solidarity with the American President than was the case during Donald Trump's term. You talked about cybersecurity. You had consultations on Ukraine. I wasn't sure.

Was there a working group on cybersecurity? And you talked about some red lines. Did you lay out the red lines specifically about that? Can you tell us about that?

Let's turn to the red lines. I've already addressed that many times. The understanding arises during negotiations on key areas of our interaction. It makes no sense to try to scare one another when people sit down in the negotiating table in order to establish relations, not to intimidate each other. As for the sanctions, as for restrictions on economies, I've already said we don't know what the domestic policy move is like over there. We know the general situation. We can't say what's happening in detail. So there's some who are against Russian development.

There's some who are proponents of it. It's difficult to say which side is prevailing. But if after our meeting, some steps are taken, the ones that you recalled in 2016, then what will that mean? That will mean that we've lost the latest opportunity.

Please. One final question from a journalist from Canada. Final question there. It was interesting. He ignored completely the idea of trying to comment on the previous meeting with President Trump.

And I think that's probably appropriate. You don't have to go into detail about former Presidents and that's not what they're dealing with right now. But it's interesting enough because he had an opportunity there to try and contrast if he wanted to. But again, overall, it just seems like this is a very happy Russian President. Whether or not he's faking us all out, and this is not what the meeting was like at all, we'll get a sense of that from President Biden next when he does his press conference.

But Wes, that's what I'm picking up on. This is not a culture where, and that's just cultural, smiling is like normal, laughing, jokes, especially from their leaders. But even from the people. It's just part cultural difference. He's joking, laughing. He's making jokes to the Russian press corps. He is not trying to put himself off as the strongman dictator that the media usually makes him out to be and that we know based on fact is the case.

Yeah, he's confident. Vladimir Putin is having a very good day and by all appearances he's actually enjoying this press conference. Because, like you said, he can fake it, act like he's a normal world leader even though we all know that Russia is, while they're a nuclear power, they're really a second-rate nation economically and militarily compared to the United States and China. But they're subtle, they're aggressive, they're shrewd in their international relations and he exhibits that. He's very, very confident and I think it is super, super ironic and shocking if you really ponder it for very long that you have the President of Russia criticizing the American justice system, our record on human rights, all about cyber security, when we all know and the world knows what goes on in the nation of Russia itself.

How ironic is that? And unfortunately, the United States and the Biden administration has given him the opening, the platform to do that very thing and to come off as somehow legitimate when he indeed is a shrewd, ruthless man. What's the world to be a reliable place where everyone can flourish on this planet, Than? I mean that sounds like a U.S. politician, but again, and that is a translation, but the idea again, reliable, stability, basically, just tell us how angry you're going to be with this, are you really going to do anything if we do X, Y, and Z? And he seems to be very pleased with how this is going for his country. Yeah, well first of all, Jordan, I don't think that description would describe the life of tens of millions of Russians living in Russia currently, today, so that's number one. Number two, actually the question that we cut in and listened to, this is a really good question from this reporter, and I don't know how easy maybe it was to follow for people listening, but the contrast that the reporter drew from what happened after Putin's meeting with President Trump and then what is happening now is a very good one. Remember, after the Trump meeting, Russia got sanctioned, so we got tough with Russia. After this meeting, the question is whether or not those sanctions will come off, whether or not Biden will cozy up to Vladimir Putin. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays in Washington, D.C., Jordan, but already Senator Kaine has said that one of the things that he's grateful for is that we no longer have a President that's cozying up to Vladimir Putin. Well, I hope the senator was watching this press conference because the press corps there understands that the reaction is very different this time around than it was the last time the Presidents of the two countries met.

Yeah, they could see it. Even when President Trump was criticized in Helsinki, the truth was, as you just said, sanctions were slapped on Russia almost immediately following those meetings. We don't know, again, how they want to come out to the world and say how a meeting went versus what happened behind the scenes.

It's why now this is over with President Putin. President Biden should take the stage very soon, and we have another segment coming up, so we should be able to bring you a lot of that. Secretary of State, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is actually on Fox News now. Let's take a listen to the stuff.

I know Mike's going to be on the broadcast tomorrow. We do have an American President standing there saying, wait a minute, that's not right, and confronting it. Well, not only that. Somebody made the decision with Biden going last to make this all about Putin. I mean, you just gave a killer, even though our President doesn't want to call him that. Secretary, I'd be curious of your thoughts on why that would be, but you said don't let this happen. You said it makes the current President look weak and that this is a failure.

You said that going into it, and now maybe it's a little bit more clear. No American flag up there when these things, no American President, no pushback, none of that. And you can imagine that Biden now, Secretary, will be asked about what? Exactly what Putin just said. Everything he just said. What do you think?

Harris, it's the strangest thing. He was allowed to go up there and spout Russian propaganda to create the context for moral equivalence between the United States and Russia on every front, whether it was talking about BLM or protesters or our judicial system. He talked about his protesters. When we have a problem here, it goes to courts. We have a system, a constitutional foundation. They have none of that. And he got free reign to go on for all of that time and to the world spout this propaganda without, to your point, an American standing beside him saying, no, that's not what we talked about.

That's not right. And making the case for American interests. I knew that this was the risk that was created. I hope that President Biden is able to confront this, even if it is just as an afterthought to what President Putin said just a few minutes ago now. There's former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responding directly to this. I mean, everything is, to all of us watching carefully, I think with having Rick Grenell, with having Mike Pompeo on our staff, the ACLJ is part of our team. It's also helped focus how we watch these events, too, these keywords to look for, the optics, obviously. But, you know, we've been doing this for a long time as well.

You put that all together, you put all these brains together, we are all, everybody is coming to the same conclusion. It's one thing if you, again, not having the joint press conference allowed Putin to go on a domestic talking points list of things wrong in the United States of America domestically. I mean, to even start that list with poverty in Russia, lack of freedoms, human rights issues in Russia, I mean, the list goes on and on. But it's not what you would typically do at an international level if you are trying to make progress on big picture items. But you see, again, I know it's going to be a headline, Putin invoking Black Lives Matter, Putin invoking the January 6th arrest of Americans saying, and you know what his words were, quote, they came to their capital and 400 of them are facing jail terms as long as 20 years. So all of what's happening in our country, he uses that to deflect on anything that's happening in Russia.

Now, it's not, again, it just talks to skill preparedness, but also it's working the international press and how everyone will interpret this. We come back, President Biden should be taking the stage to answering questions. We'll carry it live for you. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

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ACLJ.org. This is part of the, again, the translation was, you know, he didn't feel any pressure. There wasn't like, it wasn't, it didn't feel like the, again, this is his spin on the meeting. But what he's saying is that he came out of a meeting saying, I didn't feel like the US was pushing me or trying to pressure us into a position. Now, he's saying all this knowing full well that President Biden is going to have the opportunity to counter. But, so I take a little bit more him at his word, at least on how this meeting went, now he perceived it. I'm not saying to trust Putin or trust his words, but him knowing then that he's got his, you know, an adversary who's going to get to do cleanup on this if they actually are able to rapidly respond. Not via Jen Psaki tweets, but via the President of the United States actually speaking to reporters. But I think by Putin doing that, he backed Joe Biden into a corner so that there are going to be questions about how did Black Lives Matter come up in your discussions?

How did the unrest on January 6th come up in your discussions? And it's going to divert away from all the big issues that are actually facing, I'm not saying that aren't important inside our country, but the big issues between these two countries. Yeah, this is my opinion, Jordan, but I think President Biden is very likely to be on the defensive on all those things. And I agree with you, those are important domestic matters that we need to deal with internally, but on the world stage, we should be talking about what we expect from Russia. We should be talking about what we expect them to do as far as their relationship with Iran goes. Those should be the points of conversation, but I would imagine that the President will be responding to what Vladimir Putin said. You know, Jordan, I just don't, you know, President Putin said that there was no hostility between President Biden and I. Is President Biden really going to disagree with that when he steps to the election? I'll be really surprised if he does. And I guess I would just say kind of top line this. I genuinely hope I'm wrong on what I'm about to say.

I genuinely do. But I think the narrative, Jordan, has already been written today. I think the narrative optically is going to be that this was a big win for Vladimir Putin, that he got visibility, that he got elevated on the world stage. I hope I'm wrong with that, but I just can't envision anything that President Biden would say when he comes out now that would dissuade that. If he has to talk about BLM, if he has to talk about January 6th, Jordan, those are the topics that Vladimir Putin wants to be talking about. Yeah, and here it is.

I mean, it was pretty surprising when I was reading this as I was talking to all of you, and then we went right to Rick Rinnell on it. Take a listen to the entire bite because it's how Putin was asked a question about his own oppression of political opponents. The question was simple. It was if every political opponent you have is dead or imprisoned or unable to return to Russia, how can you say you have free and fair elections?

This is how he responded. America quite recently had to deal with terrible events after the murder or the killing of the African American and Black Lives Matter ensued. I don't want to make any judgment about that, but what we saw, mass violations of the law and so on and so forth, we sympathized with the Americans, but we do not wish that this kind of thing should happen on our territory, and we will do our utmost to prevent it. Upmost to prevent any kind of freedom of speech or protest movements.

We've talked about this a number of times on our broadcast. There's a difference between intentionally violent protests and peaceful protests that may be violating the law, like civil disobedience, and Putin taking that. And I think actually trying to do what he's been accused of in the past, which is trying to get involved directly in domestic US politics and echo talking points that we might be talking about here in the United States when we're talking about our own country. Yeah, he doesn't want those kinds of things to happen, as he said, on his territory.

Well, those kinds of things, by and large, don't happen because the police and the secret police in Russia will lock you up forever or kill you or poison you if you do that. I think one of the lessons out of this, and it will not be learned, Jordan, unfortunately, and that is leaders in Black Lives Matter, some of the Democrats, the leftists, the elitists, they need to know that the world is watching and listening and that their fellow Americans are not the enemy. The GOP is not their enemy. Donald Trump is not their enemy. As Americans, we need to be unified. We need to have a measure of gratitude and grace and forgiveness for one another and for who we are as a country, because when we don't do that and we haven't been doing that, people like Vladimir Putin, they take advantage of that, and it makes America look weak. It makes them somehow look legitimate and strong, and we know that's not the case. I mean, now, Than, if you're Joe Biden, and again, we're waiting to see if this press conference occurs before we're off the air.

It might not. It's a beautiful backdrop. It's a totally different backdrop. It's outdoor. It's two big U.S. flags.

You can see the lake there. So it's a very, again, visually, it looks good, but you have to wonder if that team now, and some of the delay here, is basically going through that checklist that Vladimir Putin went through because he wasn't standing next to him and could not in real time rebut that. I think it actually adds that much more work for Joe Biden and his team as they scramble now to be ready to rebut what was just told to the world by Putin.

Yeah, I mean, they need to be doing that work, Jordan. It won't carry as much punches if he responded in the moment, but President Biden needs to say those comparisons are ridiculous. To draw that moral equivalency between BLM and January 6 and people ending up dead in Russia when they disagree with you, those are not the same things. I mean, Jordan, I literally think those words should come out of his mouth. He should say those who dissent in Russia end up dead. That should be his response to this.

Maybe that would turn the tables on the narrative. And, you know, Jordan, just maybe to echo something that Wes said just a minute ago, this is something I remind people of a lot when they get upset about the political discourse in the United States. If you look around the world at the places that don't allow disagreement, that don't allow public dissent, Jordan, those are the very places where oppression reigns, where people like Vladimir Putin do have unchecked power. Those are the places where freedom happens the least. So we should be grateful for the discourse that we have in America. But when a leader like Vladimir Putin says those domestic disagreements that you have, that's the same as my political enemies disappearing?

Jordan, the American President, I don't care who it is, the American President needs to stand on the world stage and say that is not true. Yeah, I mean, it looks like we've only got a minute and a half left on the broadcast today. So it looks like we will be analyzing, if it warrants it, by the way, what Joe Biden has to say.

If it's a lot of blah, we're not going to spend tomorrow's broadcast on a lot of blah. But again, the time, so it wasn't like he just ran and took the stage immediately. So their idea, obviously, the Biden team in this last minute of the broadcast, this is just me working from this, coming out of that world is, OK, you let the adversary talk first. It did give them the center stage and let them lay all this out.

Now, it appears they're taking time to I probably go through the list of things they need to first correct because they weren't on stage. And then you do ask yourself, too, how much of that Vladimir Putin would not have said standing next to a U.S. President, whoever that U.S. President was, knowing that in real time they could say, oh, give me a cut, cut, cut this off, cut the junk out. We know what happens in your own country. So we will watch closely as a team here. Of course, we've got people like Mike Pompeo and Rick Grenell ready to respond tomorrow.

But we're going to watch to see how President Biden handles what was a very forceful press conference by the Russian President. We will talk to you tomorrow on secular. As always, check out aclj.org for decades now. The ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at aclj.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today. aclj.org.