CNN historian Tim Naftali gushed about a meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky the funeral of Pope Francis.
The 88-year-old Pope passed away Monday, and his funeral was held on Saturday at 10 AM Vatican time, six hours ahead of Eastern time.
After the mass, Zelensky posted a photo of his meeting with Trump, and wrote “Good meeting. We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out. Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results. Thank you
@POTUS.”
Anderson Cooper anchored CNN’s live coverage of The Funeral of Pope Francis, along with correspondents Clarissa Ward and Christopher Lamb.
Hours after Trump’s arrival, Cooper reported on the sideline meeting, and Naftali waxed that it was a “beautiful sign of hope”:
ANDERSON COOPER: Tim Naftali, these images Tim, extraordinary two chairs drawn up in Saint Peter’s Basilica. TIM NAFTALI: Well, we’ve heard about how Pope Francis tried to bring together the rival groups in South Sudan. He’s made he made a mission of trying to heal wounds around the world. He was the first pope of the global south. And for this meeting between President Trump and President Zelensky to happen on the day of Francis’s funeral is
a beautiful sign of hope. What comes of it, we won’t know, we don’t know. But the very fact that these two men, after such heated words, are willing to speak again in the shadow of the late Pontiff is a moment to be remembered. And a reminder of how global these papal funerals have become since Paul VI’s funeral in 1978, which was the first to be televised and the first occur outside of St. Peter’s.
Watch above via CNN’s live coverage of The Funeral of Pope Francis.