When Russia says they want "work jointly to…prevent meddling in internal affairs of Russia and the U.S.," they mean that the U.S. should not mention human rights, murdered journalists, or democratic reform in Russia, and the U.S. means that it wants to prevent Russian hacking of our elections. As soon as Trump agrees to hold such talks, he creates a false equivalency between those issues, and Putin wins because he has defined the playing field and the rules. Any good negotiator knows that successfully defining the issue to be negotiated is a major step toward winning the negotiation. Trump and Tillerson have already ceded the moral high ground by refusing to advocate for democracy, human rights, or a free press.