Andrea Mitchell breaks news to US intel chief that Putin is coming to DC

NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Thursday broke the news to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats that the White House has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington, D.C., for a second meeting this fall.

“We have some breaking news, the White House has announced on Twitter that Vladimir Putin is coming to the White House in the fall,” Mitchell said during an event with Coats at the Aspen Security Forum.

“Say that again?” Coats replied, before laughing.

{mosads}

“Did I hear you right?” he jokingly asked, laughing. “OK, that’s gonna be special.”

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats informed on stage at Aspen Security Forum that the Trump administration has invited Vladimir Putin to the White House.

“Say that again,” he responds. https://t.co/FZ5WmbwnUU pic.twitter.com/UJy822WH2f

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 19, 2018

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that plans are underway for a second summit between Trump and Putin in Washington, D.C., this fall. The two leaders met privately on Monday in Finland.

Trump asked his national security adviser, John Bolton, to invite Putin for the second meeting. The president suggested that the leaders would meet for a second time in a tweet earlier Thursday.

“Based on my reaction, I wasn’t aware of it,” Coats acknowledged.

He said that officials will examine what the “potential intelligence risks” of the meeting may be and will pass them along to Trump.

“It is something we will just have to assess going forward,” Coats said.

In Helsinki, @POTUS agreed to ongoing working level dialogue between the two security council staffs. President Trump asked @Ambjohnbolton to invite President Putin to Washington in the fall and those discussions are already underway.

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) July 19, 2018

The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media. I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear……..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018

….proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more. There are many answers, some easy and some hard, to these problems…but they can ALL be solved!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018

– Morgan Chalfant contributed.