Ladies and gentlemen, we invite you to Meet the Predate to Press.

So we're going to do a little something special here for 1947, the Meet the Press Podcast.

Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates has agreed to stick around a little longer for an extended

interview and we're going to continue the conversation with him now, just for podcast listeners.

All right, so they got the first part.

A lot of these folks have heard of the first part of this interview on Meet the Press,

but I want to delve deeper into a conversation that you recounted that you had with President

Electrum about the dilemma of Russia.

And you had said the dilemma is the relationship is spiraling downward fast with the United States

and at the same time, you feel as if he's adopted the the cruise chef model, which is what's

mine is mine and what yours is negotiable.

And that as a bully, we have to stand up to him.

How are we doing so far?

I think if you pay attention to what the President has done as opposed to some of the things

he said, I think we're doing pretty well.

I think that the sanctions on Russia that were imposed as a result of both Crimea and

Ukraine, Eastern Ukraine, I think that the decision to provide defensive weapons to the

Ukrainians, a decision that the Obama administration was never prepared to make.

And I think even if you just track the rhetoric of the Secretary of State and the Secretary

of Defense, you see a pretty tough line toward America.

And I don't think that on the other side that Putin is seeing that he's gotten very much

from Trump.

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