‘This is about fear’: Ex-FBI agent says Trump cancelled on Putin because he was too worried about optics

President Donald Trump cancelled his planned G20 meeting with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin out of fear, a former top FBI official explained to MSNBC's Brian Williams on Thursday.

NBC News national security contributor Frank Figliuzzi is the former Assistant Director for Counterintelligence at the FBI.

"Cancelling the meeting with Putin, was that just for optics?" Williams asked. "Because nothing about the Russia/Ukraine situation changed today, but there was obviously a shift in the people around the president, it appears they might have prevailed upon him in mid-air."

"So, let's put this in perspective, this very principled decision by our president to not meet with President Putin," Figliuzzi sarcastically replied.

"Remember that we have just come off a decision that nothing is wrong with Saudi Arabia killing a journalist and so our relationship with them is important and should remain in place," he reminded.

"But the Russians have had a skirmish in a strait of waters that's, by the way, very contested with very questionable provocations on both sides that intelligence analysts are debating do this day, and the president decides that that's enough for him to cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin?" he asked.

"This is about optics," he concluded. "This is about fear and perceptions of the public."

"And I think we are dealing with a president tonight who is very much in a mode of worry and anxiety in cancelling this meeting," he added.

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