President Donald Trump is no longer having a meeting alone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, CNN's Kaitlan Collins reported ahead of the meeting.
She noted that a White House official told reporters on Air Force One that other people would join in the meeting. Collins noted that it was just a few days ago that press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed it would be a one-on-one meeting. By Friday, however, that changed to a three-on-three.
Joining Trump will be his special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State and Interim National Security Advisor Marco Rubio.
"That is a huge development here," she told fellow anchor Jake Tapper, "in terms of the structure of what this meeting is going to look like. And you've got to look at those two voices who are going to be inside the room with President Trump as this goes forward. One Steve Witkoff, who is no stranger to Vladimir Putin and has met with him at length, and actually was in that last meeting with him that set up all of the motion that was put in place."
The other, Rubio, previously has taken "a very hard line stance against Russia," she recalled.
Collins also recalled that as a senator, Rubio grilled previous officials about whether they thought Putin was a war criminal.
Reporter and host Jim Sciutto said that it's likely a smart move "because you want to have multiple witnesses so that you put your own readout, your own spin on it."
He also noted that not having only Trump or Putin in the meeting allows Putin to be fact-checked on Russian statements and alleviates concerns about what Trump might reveal.
See the clip below or at the link here.