Transcript for What were Trump's business dealings with Russia?

Between that and on the heels of Michael Cohen's testimony that he lied about his contacts with Russia and reports that Putin -- listen to this -- he was offered a $50 million penthouse at a proposed trump tower in Moscow, Donald was up early tweeting that he, quote, lightly looked at a building in Russia while campaigning which was very local legal, quote unquote. Could this be why trump is canceling his meeting at the g20 summit? He doesn't like the optics of this? I think it's all about optics, it's all about perception. I also think it tells that you he's legitimately worried and taking it seriously because despite all of the allegations and all of the charges that American intelligence have said Russia interfered in the elections, he didn't cancel previous meetings. He had alone time with him in Helsinki just a few months ago. So we're seeing a completely different -- I actually disagree with you on that, Ana. I think if you look at the substance of the policy under the trump administration when you're dealing with Putin in Russia, you could argue that they've been tougher than any administration since the cold war. You can talk about the optics, you can talk about his tweets which I actually hated that he tweeted canceling this meeting because that's not how you handle diplomacy. But no one ever talks about the actual issues and what's being done to combat Russia, because that's not the shiny object. No one cares about that. No one gives the president credit for anything that he does right. That's what I can't stand. Let me ask you something, because of his relationship with Putin and now that we know that while he's saying America first, America first, he's making deals with Russia by the way, isn't he compromised a little bit with Russia now? How can he now -- what's the word -- have diplomacy with Russia when they have him in their pocket? So it doesn't really work. You follow my point? He's not the only one doing diplomacy though. I can tell you a number of people in meetings making these decisions. President Obama met with Putin six months after taking office in Moscow. He said Obama talked about the extraordinary work you've done. President bush said I looked at the man in the eyes and found him to be very straight forward. I was able to get a sense of his soul. Bill Clinton talked about the congenial, easy going relationship he had with Putin. But they weren't making deals with him. Those are two different things. Why the meeting was cancelled, it just strikes me as odd that Michael Cohen, this bombshell gets dropped about not how only trump was involved with Russia and building this tower, his children were also notified about it and ivanka is part of that as well. Now he is saying the reason -- trump tower meeting. I'm sorry, the meeting with the spy. And there's also a building of the tower in Moscow. But now he's saying the reason he's not meeting with Putin is because he's upset because they haven't returned the Navy sailors to the Ukraine. Yeah. Um, when was he concerned about the Ukraine? Really, sunny? Really, sunny? Trump has actually been tougher on Ukraine than president Obama was. The first thing he did was put sanctions on Russia as it relates to the Ukraine. That's the point I'm trying to make. If you want to talk about the Mueller investigation let's have that talk and the dealings that trump had with Russians before he got into office but if you want to talk about actual diplomacy and things that are happening with Russia, that is a very different thing. I would love for this table -- not Meghan included -- You believe he cancelled the meeting because he's so concerned about the Ukraine soldiers? I talked to my dad who lives in Moscow and deals with this every single day, they were already figuring this out before he decided to cancel it. They were already making that decision. Really? Table pundits think they know everything that's going on behind closed doors on diplomacy and come out on television and give facts that are inaccurate. I'm actually talking to people that are in those discussions and know what's going on. Abby, your dad was not in the alone time that trump had with Putin in Helsinki. Nobody was. It was trump, Putin and some translator. I don't know if he was a translator. I don't know if he speaks Russia. I will not defend what happened in that press conference. I was among the first to speak out -- Let me say one thing. I think the thing that bothers a lot of Americans is the fact that something that happened in 2016 which had not happened before and people, including your father who was upset with those meetings and I remember your father saying I didn't see his soul, I saw kgb. He was right there and continuously. What a lot of people are upset about right now that had not happened then is the fact that they interfered in our elections. We don't need more proof of that. Let me ask you this -- let me ask you this. Let me finish my point. Tell me what Obama did. Do you remember when Obama met with the guy and said after the elections I'm going to have more flexibility and every Republican set their hair on fire, rightly so? I did that. We all did. Didn't Obama impose sanctions on Russia which crippled their economy and that's one of the reasons why trump Jr. Had that meeting. Because of my father and it had nothing to do with Obama and let's keep that very straight. He did impose sanctions. No. The normalizing of what happened with Putin happened on the Democrats' watch. Abby is 100% right. Nobody cared about Putin until the election. Don't tell me this isn't politically motivated. -- Democracy and coming after our elections is an attack -- Human rights, the torturing of -- you don't care about sergei magnitsky being killed for being someone who sounded

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