Why we need Trump and Putin to get along

[GMDino]

Don't worry folks!

Trump and Putin had a two hour AND SIXTEEN MINUTE meeting!

They even sent the FLOTUS in to break it up...and they talked for another hour!

They even agreed to not do the thing anymore that Trump said Russia probably didn't do! 

And everyone is saying it went really great.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/07/07/trump-putin-g-20/458210001/

Quote: President Trump repeatedly pushed his Russian counterpart on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, U.S. and Russian officials said Friday, with the two leaders agreeing not to meddle in each other's elections in the future.


The accord, however tentative, was stunning given the reluctance of both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to acknowledge Russia's use of hacking and propaganda to influence the U.S. election last year.



But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the issue was "a substantial hindrance in the ability to move the U.S.-Russian relationship forward." The two sides are setting up lower-level talks to work out details of the non-interference agreement.


One issue: How the two sides would monitor compliance. "How do we create a framework in which wee have some ability to judge what is happening in the cyber world and who we can hold accountable," Tillerson said.


The agreement comes despite specific denials from Putin that Russia engaged in the interference campaign, which U.S. intelligence agencies say was an effort to get Trump elected president. And as recently as Thursday in Warsaw, Trump said "nobody really knows" the extent of Russia's involvement.



There remained differences in how each side portrayed the issue Friday. Tillerson said Putin continue to deny Russian involvement and — in a typically Russian refutation — demanded evidence.



His Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, said Trump had "accepted" Putin's denials and agreed to move on.


But to Tillerson, it was more of an effort to avoid getting stuck in past disagreements. "I think the president is rightly focused on how can we move forward on what may be an intractable disagreement," he said.


The meeting — the first face-to-face encounter between the two presidents as world leaders gathered in Hamburg for the G-20 summit Friday — also cemented a Syrian cease-fire agreement and discussed crises in North Korea and Ukraine.


Except for two translators, Tillerson and Lavrov were the only other people in the room for the meeting, which was supposed to last 30 minutes but instead clocked in at two hours and 16 minutes.

"There was just such a level of engagement and exchange, and neither one of them wanted to stop," Tillerson said.



Such was the chemistry between Trump and Putin that U.S. officials tried to wrap it up by sending first lady Melania Trump into the room to break it up.



"That didn't work, either," Tillerson said. The meeting went on another hour after that.

Indeed, the highly anticipated face-to-face meeting provided the world with its first visual clues about how the personalities of two powerful presidents would shape the relationship between the United States and Russia.


In a meeting room at the G-20 summit of world leaders, the two men appeared comfortable but formal, sitting forward in low-backed armchairs. They leaned in closer to have a private word, and then farther apart to size each other up. 


"We look forward to a lot of very positive happening for Russia and for the United States and for everyone concerned," Trump said at the beginning of a meeting that was supposed to last half an hour.


Putin said the two had spoken over the phone several times, "but phone conversations are never enough definitely." To address important international issues, "that will really need personal meetings," he said.


Their pre-meeting small talk belied the complicated web of issues facing their relationship: Conflicting objectives in Ukraine, Syria and Iran, and common concerns about terrorism in the Middle East and nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.


And, of course, there's the elephant in the room that neither leader seems eager to talk about: Allegations that Putin personally ordered a campaign of hacking and propaganda during the 2016 presidential election in an effort to get Trump elected President. 

And none of that is propaganda!  None!