Mark Halperin on Trump-Putin Potential Alaska Meeting: ‘There’s No Reason to Think That This Will Work’ Based on History

BAIER: “We don’t know what comes out of the first meeting. Let’s bring in our panel, start there. Trey Gowdy, former congressman from South Carolina and host of Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy, Axios political Reporter Stef Kight, and Mark Halperin, editor-in-chief of 2Way. Mark, it is significant that Putin is coming to a U.S. state for this first meeting, and the question is, you know, can President Trump get him over the finish line to really deal with Zelenskyy?”

HALPERIN: “Well, I’m surprised it’s in the U.S. If I were Putin, I’d be a little cautious, maybe. Look, there’s no reason to think this will work based on history and based on Putin. But it’s the best available option. A lot of the people I talk to say, well, why not? You’re not going to get Putin — Putin-Witkoff deal is not going to move anything to a final conclusion. You’re going to have to do a deal with the devil. And when you deal with the devil, the devil’s in the details. And the details of this will matter a lot. The Europeans are going to be not literally at the table, but figuratively. And so, the president’s going to have to demonstrate that he’s got the capacity to not only sell a deal and broker a deal with Putin, but then sell it to Zelenskyy and then sell it to Europe.”

BAIER: “Stef, as you look at the map of Ukraine, and it really hasn’t changed much. I talked about that the other day.”