Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks his meeting with President Donald Trump is a "moment for a charm offensive" and will try to remain positive, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday, but there is "no idea yet what Putin really wants to do."
"I think very fact he is willing to do an interview with [Fox News'] Chris Wallace, for example, is a good sign," Gingrich told Fox News' "Fox & Friends."
"I think Putin thinks this is a moment for a charm offensive. He will try to be positive."
However, former CIA Agent Daniel Hoffman, appearing in the segment with Gingrich, said he does not think Putin approaches meetings with "what he called his main enemy the United States" in good faith, but that does not mean the United States should not speak with him.
"It is important we explain to them what our positions are: that we nevertheless try to find some common ground where we could agree on things with Russia, certainly on arms control, extending the new START [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] set to expire in February 2021," Hoffman said. "Vladimir Putin at the heart of it is a KGB officer. That is the way he thinks."
Meanwhile, Gingrich said he would not try to "rewrite" Trump's tweets, after he was asked about the one the president posted claiming the United States' "relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!"
"There has been a lot of weakness," Gingrich agreed, saying Trump's tweet goes back to former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
"[Putin is] a KGB agent," Gingrich said. "He was trained by the KGB. He had a good career with the KGB. He is feels bitter that we won the Cold War and had the audacity to say he won it."
Further, efforts to get Putin to be "normal" won't get people anywhere, said the former speaker.
"What you have to do is say this is who he is," Gingrich said. "There are times we sent all sorts of signals. The Obama red line, for example, in Syria, after which nothing happened. The way in which we tried to deal with Russia in the late part of the Bush administration, we showed them no respect at all in the Balkans.
"Promptly they invaded the country of Georgia. These things, this is a guy who is very determined to reenter Russia as a major power, and I think Trump going meeting with him, we'll see what happens. I think Trump has a pretty good measure how to deal with him."
Hoffman, meanwhile, said if he was advising Trump, he would tell that moral persuasion does not work with Putin and "sometimes you have to rap him on the knuckles and make him feel pain."
He added he would not ask Putin not to meddle in upcoming elections, but "we tell him we know they do it, and if they continue to do it, they will pay a price for it."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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