United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly met for a second time back on July 9. The meeting was private as there were no other people nearby so details about what they talked about remained unknown. The second meeting reportedly lasted an hour per a senior White House official who talked to CNN.
White House denies private meeting
The White House later acknowledged that the two presidents did talk. However, they noted that the senior official's statement that it lasted an hour is not true. The White House said the meeting was just brief and that a translator was present.
No one else was at the private meeting.
The White House continued to say in its statement that the conversation took place while the other world leaders were in the area. They said that this was during the G20 summit and they all attended a dinner hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Accordingly, Trump sat near Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife. The First Lady of the United States, Melania, sat beside Putin and the Trump decided to talk to his wife so he also talked to Putin.
The president of the United States-based Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer, told BBC that Trump and Putin sat down during the dinner hosted by Merkel and talked for an hour. He described the meeting as "animate and very friendly." Bremmer pointed out that he was not at the dinner but attendees gave him details about the talk of the two presidents.
In the statement released by the White House, it said that the interaction between Putin and Trump at the dinner table was normal. The White House added that it is part of Trump's duties to interact with the other world leaders present in the dinner, CNN reported.
The White House called it malicious, false, and absurd while Trump himself regarded the rumors about his supposed second private meeting with Putin as "sick."
Second meeting reportedly took place hours after first private talk
The second rumored private meeting of Trump and Putin came just hours after they had a two-hour closed-door talk.
It is normal for world leaders to have private meetings but, since this issue came to light just now, it is questionable to many. It is all the more of a big issue as Trump is in the middle of a probe regarding the possibility that his aides contacted Russian hackers to mess with the presidential elections last year.
During the first meeting between the two presidents, Trump said that he brought the topic up about the Russian hackers interfering with the elections. He said he asked Putin if he did it and the Russian chief said no he did not. Trump added that he asked Putin a second time around in a "totally different way" and Putin answered the same, he did not.
