Tillerson: Trump and Putin ‘Connected Very Quickly’ and ‘There Was a Very Clear Positive Chemistry’ Between Them

EXCERPT:

TILLERSON: "Well, it will be out of the State Department and --"
REPORTER: "State."
TILLERSON: "And the national security adviser's office. As to the nature of the 2 hours and 15 minutes, first let me characterize -- the meeting was very constructive. The two leaders, I would say, connected very quickly. There was a very clear positive chemistry between the two. I think, again -- and I think the positive thing I observed -- and I've had many, many meetings with President Putin before -- is there was not a lot of re-litigating of the past. I think both of the leaders feel like there's a lot of things in the past that both of us are unhappy about. We're unhappy, they're unhappy. I think the perspective of both of them was, this is a really important relationship. Two largest nuclear powers in the world. It's a really important relationship. How do we start making this work? How do we live with one another? How do we work with one another? We simply have to find a way to go forward. And I think that was -- that was expressed over and over, multiple times, I think by both Presidents, this strong desire. It is a very complicated relationship today because there are so many issues on the table. And one of the reasons it took a long time, I think, is because once they met and got acquainted with one another fairly quickly, there was so much to talk about -- all these issues. Just about everything got touched on to one degree or another. And I think there was just such a level of engagement and exchange, and neither one of them wanted to stop. Several times I had to remind the President, and people were sticking their heads in the door. And I think they even -- they sent in the First Lady at one point to see if she could get us out of there, and that didn’t work either."