Heilemann: Inviting Putin to the W.H. Speaks to the Extraordinary Leverage’ that Putin Has on Trump

EXCERPT:

HEILEMANN: "And then in the middle of the interview the President comes out and he issues a statement that says that he’s inviting Vladimir Putin, despite all of the sound and fury of this last week, that he’s inviting Vladimir Putin to come to Washington, D.C. Really, it’s a moment that we will remember, I think, historically, and it’s kind of astonishing on a million levels. But I will say that — that apart from everything else, what we learned with that invitation is one of the things that happened in that meeting. One of the things that happened in that meeting is that Donald Trump in secret — in secret not just from the press, but in secret from his own DNI and much of the rest of his government — made an agreement with Vladimir Putin to have Vladimir Putin come to Washington in the middle of a mid-term election. That speaks to the extraordinary leverage that Vladimir Putin has over Donald Trump. We still don’t know exactly why, but it's an incredible thing.”