Expensive suits in the closet. According to another new report, manafort was under Government Surveillance before and after the election. Cnn reporting he was wiretapped under fisa warrants. According to that report, the government snooping continued into early this year, including a period when manafort was known to talk to president donald trump. Sharon lafraniere is a reporter who broke the story tonight. She joins me by phone. Your reporting is they told manafort they planned to indict him. How common is that . Thats not that uncommon that a prosecutor would say we dont believe your story, youre not really cooperating with us. Were going to indict you. The difference here, i think,
might be, as my colleagues found out is that they threatened an imminent indictment and this was in the summer and we havent seen it. One of the themes of the piece is the approach of mueller and how it differs particularly in white color investigations. The report says its more like that mafia investigation. Explain what that means. I think were seeing that theyre trying to create a sense of fear, right, that look, were a bunch of sobs and dont try to play the usual White Collar Game with us and stretch it out because were not playing by those rules. And typically, in a white collar case, the attorney would the Defense Attorneys would say, okay, lets spell this out. Risenberg, who was the former Deputy Counsel of ken starr said, its setting a tone. Striking terror in the heart of washington. Were not being nice about this. And they actually dont have you think they have all these resources, they have 17 prosecutors, but they dont time is really not on their side because because if they carry on and they dont produce results like an indictment of manafort or that would take the pressure off. But if they go on for some period of time, then people dont see results, then theyre going to start asking like, why are we spending all this money . Theyre all over the place, money laundering, obstruction of justice, what do they have . Is this just a fishing
expediti expedition . Thank you, sharon. Natasha is a senior insider who have been following the Russia Investigation with particular attention to Paul Manafort, she joins me now. First your reaction to the times report that he had been informed by muellers people they plan to indict him . Thats huge news. To be honest im more surprised by the cnn report that Paul Manafort was actually wiretapped because that implied that the fbi was able to get a fisa warrant, which is difficult to do. They had to prove to the Department Of Justice and then to a federal court that they thought there was reason to believe that Paul Manafort was working on behalf of a Foreign Agent. And Paul Manafort is not the only person that they did this with. They also got a warrant for carter page, who if you remember
in the dossier, it said that carter page was working as a liaison, being managed by Paul Manafort. So these pieces are starting to come together and its really alarming. The fisa warrant, which cnn is reporting, my understanding this is a sort of key part of it and one of the more fascinating aspects is it may or may not pertain to information before the trump investigation opens up in the fbi, theres a Manafort Investigation that precedes that . Is that correct . Right. The fbi opened an investigation into Paul Manaforts lobbying activities in 2014. He was lobbying on behalf of a ukrainian the ukrainian president at the time, and the fbi thought some of his activities he was doing in washington d. C. Were a little bit suspect. Paul manaforts lobbying activities over seas have been
subject to a lot of scrutiny. Its not clear who he was paid by, where his funds came from and what he did with them. Hes been known to put a lot of his money in Shell Companies and buy real estate across the United States with those Shell Companies so its masking his funds allegedly. So this is something the fbi was looking into in 2014, and according to cnn they closed the investigation in 2016 because they couldnt find any more reason to continue looking into him, and then all of this russia stuff started to happen. And then said, maybe we should take another look because we know he has these ties to russia entities in the ukraine and he was Trumps Campaign manager. Just to zoom in on what you said before, fisa warrants, we know they give them out almost 100 of the time, theyre not difficult in the sense of getting the court to agree to
it, but the standards you have to meet, its not just that theres a crime, but you are a f Foreign Agent is the bar to get that warrant. The reason why these fisa warrants are granted is because getting to the court and presenting the evidence that you have that you would allow them to grant you a fisa warrant, its a difficult process. So once you get to the final stage, which is presenting the evidence before these nine federal judges, its you managed to pass all the phases where youve proven you have enough evidence to find evidence that a crime was committed or this person had conspired with a foreign entity. In terms of manafort, he and Michael FlynnMichael Flynn we got some news today, is starting a fund a Legal Defense fund essentially to
raise money for his criminal defense. Is there anything in the reporting of the last 24 hours to suggest that these two people it seems that these two people are the biggest targets. Is that your understanding from what weve learned in the last 24 hours . Definitely. Michael flynn and Paul Manafort have been at the center of this Russia Investigation. Michael flynn drew scrutiny when it came to light when he was talking to the Russian Ambassador and saying they would lift sanctions after trump came into office. He registered e belatedly but there are questions surrounding who he was working for, where those funds came from, and why he didnt register as a Foreign Agent immediately with the Justice Department and i feel mueller is going to hone in on these vulnerabilities that manafort and flynn have, in
order to get them to talk more about what they know about the russia interference in the election. Thank you. Thank you. Kerry, let me start with you, to jump off what natasha was just saying about the significance of this fisa warrant news, if it, in fact, bears out. Right. So first i have to say, chris, the release of fisa information, this is really highly Sensitive National security information. So it looks like were in another information where Classified Information has been leaked and leaks of fisa information if, in fact, this reporting is organize nating from current or former Government Officials its a significant fact that that is out there now and this is some of the most lye highly sensitive type of information. So i have to the start off noting that fact and this
probably will trigger yet another leak investigation. That being said, if this reporting is correct, it gives us another window into the investigation that the fbi and now the special counsels office have been conducting of manafort. The standard to get fisa is higher for an american or u. S. Person. The standard, as you mentioned, is probable cause that the individual is an agent of a foreign power, a Foreign Government for example, and when its an american or a u. S. Person, as the statute calls americans, and other aliens, the surveillance has to be necessary to protect the National Security of the United States. So the court has to make a number of findings and there is an extensive process as natasha has some good sources described, that the government has to go to both at the fbi and at the Justice Department and
ultimately to an independent federal judge to get the surveillance or search approved. Matt, its somewhat mind blowing to conceive of the fact that the president of the United States, as President Elect, possibly was part of communications that were being intercepted by the u. S. Government as part of its fisa warrant as a u. S. Person who was in communication with the target of that surveillance. It shows an incredible amount of recklessness on the presiden President Elect and maybe the president s part. I think the thing thats interesting about the fisa warrant, is there were two of them one that expired in 2014, and was pulled down in 2016. And it was pulled down because the Justice Department found no evidence that Paul Manafort committed a crime. Something changed for them to go back and get another fisa warrant late in 2016 after he left the campaign. Clearly they saw new evidence that led them to believe that he
was acting as an agent of a foreign power. We dont know what that is, we heard reports they heard russian officials talking to each Paul Manafort and Paul Manafort talking back to them. So they went back and got another fisa warrant that continues to this day or expired recently. The purpose of the surveillance is to collect foreign intelligence information. So the fact that an ongoing surveillance wouldnt necessarily produce evidence of a crime, would not necessarily be the reason that the surveillance would have to be shut down. There would have to be continued demonstration of probable cause that the target is an agent of a foreign power and as long as that standard is met, the surveillance can continue, but it has to be approved by the court every 90 days. Can i ask you about the takeaway from the times reporting of the posture of mueller. I think its fascinating because
its contrasted against the way these normally work at high level white collar investigations. That Criminal Defense Lawyers are very good at selling themselves as allies, essentially, to prosecutors. Were all on the same team, what can we help you with . Were going to be very cooperate fich and mueller is taking this hard and fast approach. What do you make of that . Theres two possibilities one is in the early stages of the special Council Investigation or the fbi investigation before there was a special council, we dont know that, that prosecutors or investigators tried to work with manafort and he rebuffed any of those efforts. We dont know, but i think thats a possibility. So then if they passed that, now hes in a very adversarial position. The second piece i know some other observers think the
execution of the Search Warrant was extraordinary, i think theres a lot of aspects in the Paul Manafort investigation that feel similar to a very large public corruption investigation, a very large criminal enterprise investigation. And so, i dont think that the tactics that are being used feel that unusual for Big Enterprise Criminal White Collar investigations. How much, matt, do you think the Psychology Matters in terms of how the various players throughout both the Trump Campaign in its previous it rations, the current administrations are making calculations about how to act. I think its a big part of it. Bob mueller has been sending clear messages to everyone involved. Which is im coming as aggressively as i can and you better cooperate or youll find yourself in a grand jury or agents in your house. Raids are usually very Public Events and neighbors call reporters and you see them show up instantly. Im sure mullers team expected that to become news quickly. It sends a signal to everyone involved look i am conducting one of the most serious investigations in the history of the Justice Department if you have any if youre Paul Manafort or mike flynn, if youre anyone else for example who has been talking to Paul Manafort and now knows your conversation has been intercepted, you need to talk to the special council and cut a deal. Kerry, i want you to weigh in on this somewhat bizarre story that was published earlier by the New York Times in which ty cobb, who is an outside lawyer is talking to john dowd, in which the two of them are arguing and wrestling over the fight hes having with White House Counsel Don Mcgahn about
how cooperative to be and how to navigate this legal thicket and theyre having this conversation loudly in a restaurant with a Reporter Listening in. Its unbelievable for any washington lawyer to think that that type of conversation, when your client is the president of the United States and youre discussing it at a d. C. Steak house. So that aspect aside, i think what the results of that conversation as theyve been reported reveal, is that this is a broken legal team. And the difficulty is lawyering requires trust. It requires trust between the client and the lawyers. It requires trust amongst the lawyers and the team themselves. And if there is not trust between those different components, the legal team cant function effectively. Thats a great point. Kerry and matt, thank you both. Thank you. Next more on that story, is someone inside the white house
wearing a wire for Robert Mueller tonight . We know the president s lawyers are worried about that. More on that story in just two minutes. Ugh. Heartburn. Sorry maam. No burning here. Try alkaseltzer heartburn relief gummies. They dont taste chalky and work fast. Mmmm. Incredible. Can i try . She doesnt have heartburn. Alkaseltzer heartburn relief gummies. We are following two late breaking stories tonight on the Russia Investigation. A report that prosecutors told Paul Manafort they plan to indict him, according to two people close to the investigation. And a report that u. S. Investigators obtained court orders to Wiretap Manafort before and after the election under the fisa statute. The president s lawyers are feeling the pressure and its Making Them Par enjoyed and sloppy. Last week two of his attorneys met for lunch at a d. C. Steak house and discussed the probe, a conversation that was overheard by New York Times reporter ken vogel. He heard a contention behind the
scenes feud on how much to cooperate with the counsel. The White House Counsels Office is being conservative. Referring to mcgahn, he has documents locked in a safe. Discussing the White House Legal Team cobb told dowd, ive got some rezer reservations about one of them. Colleagues may be wearing a wire to record conversations for mueller. Joined now by two reporters who are well sourced inside this white house. Olivia, have you heard i mean, as someone who reports on these folks every day, are you getting the palpable paranoia off the folks as well. Certainly. Thats been there since the
beginning. It was there during the campaign with what was now a Different Group of people. I cannot overstate the level of incompetence here for members of the president s legal team to very loudly discuss these things near the New York Times at a restaurant a few doors down from the New York Times or any restaurant in washington loudly. Thats something if you know how things work you dont do. So its difficult to overstate how incompetent this entire operation seems to be right now and a difficult time for the president. It couldnt go worse when it comes to this story right now for this white house. I cant quite put my head around the incompetence here because these are people in other contexts are very good attorneys don mcgahn whos specialty is election law. I dont quite get if theres some vortex of incompetence when you get within an orbit of it in the white house you start acting like that. There might be something to that theory. The Senior Trump Aids in the white house who ive been talking with and messaging with earlier today and e yesterday regarding the New York Times story regarding what mr. Dowd and mr. Cobb were doing. One of them likened it to me by having the president be respected by a side of the highway mall lawyer. Having said that, this white house staff, or anybody working in the white house right now, accusing this legal team of being rather jv might want to the look in the mirror as you were pointing out earlier. Like people and senior officials around President Trump being incompetent isnt exactly breaking news. Theres also the added layer of the fact that now everybody everyone is lawyered up, including white
house counsel, don mcgahn who has his own lawyer for this inquest, you have layers of legal representation. And there is this kind of Prisoners Dilemma kind of dynamic you have to imagine that people have the interest of the president of the United States, who they work for, the Executive Branch in a constitutional sense but their own interest in terms of how theyre going to come out in this. Certainly. I think the latter probably matters a lot to most of the people in the white house, more than any other point. Theres a type of person that works for donald trump they tend to be out for themselves, further their own careers, further their own reputations, and i think we can expect thats one of the main concerns right now for most of the people surrounding the president. But i mean, i cannot think of something less attractive to donald trump than having to deal with more of this story this week. Theyre trying to hard to get
something, anything done. And instead were being side tracked again by russia and news that perhaps indictments are going to be coming. This is not how they wanted to spend the first year, certainly, and the first couple months of this administration, but they are. And it doesnt look like its going away anymore soon. And Paul Manafort, as was reported by the daily beast, Paul Manafort was still advising trump through the tran tigs. As we get deeper into the investigation, as it broadens its scope were going to see that habit that donald trump has of keeping people with problematic things around him is going to be detrimental. The posture of the folks in the white house around this investigation, i can see it going a number of different ways. One is okay this is a witch hunt
theres nothing there well be fine. Its going to blow over. The other is, the shoe is going to drop any day and someone is going to show up at my condo and pick the locks. How are people thinking. In terms of public, its the former. In terms of of whats going on in their own heads and hearts is the latter. Olivia brought up Paul Manafort earlier. Hes an interesting case in terms of trumps inner circle and white house officials working there because they greatly resent mr. Man sfwoafor many of them blame, fairly or unfairly, for the widening scope of the investigation into the finances of the president and his family. They kind of consider mr. Manafort a patient zero in that sense. And at the same time, even though he headed the campaign for several months, there was
never a feeling with trumps family and closest advisors, that Paul Manafort was one of them so they would throe him under the bus harder than they are right now if they knew what he knew. But there is the notion of what if Manafort Snitches . And the problem is they dont know what he would be snitching about. Thats a great point. Theyre ready to deliver him up but dont know what he knows. And maybe the case that people never thought of him as the inner circle but the president himself kept talking to the guy, and lord knows what they talked about and what is on the transcripts of the intercepts apparently being surveilled by the u. S. Government. The fact is no matter how his family or close advisors feel about any individual, donald trump is going to do what donald trump wants to do. So he will continue to speak to people who have been a problem for him. He will continue to call them late at night and ask what do you think of this or what do you
think of this person . I think thats going to be a problem with Paul Manafort, it might be a problem with other people implicated in this investigation as well. All right. Thank you, both. Tonight Senate Republicans again trying to push replace and repeal obamacare while no one is paying attention, and this time they might be able to do it. Senator brian shot says the new bill is worse than the one that fails and he join mes ahead. What do you have there . P3 its meat, cheese and nuts. I keep my protein interesting. Oh yea, me too. I have cheese and uh these herbs. P3 snacks. The more interesting way to get your protein. And lifes beautiful moments. Ns get between you flonase outperforms the 1 nondrowsy allergy pill. It helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause symptoms. Pills block one and 6 is greater than 1. Flonase changes everything. Protesters are back out in the streets of st. Louis for the fourth state night following the acquittal on Murder Charges on
former officer Jason Stockry who killed andrew smith. Prosecutors alleged stockily planted a gun inside his vehicle. Yesterday a group that the mayor described of as agitators sprayed chemicals at police, leading them to make arrests. Officers in riot gears gathered alongside a city boulevard were chanting, whose street, our streets. This morning Peaceful Protesters were back on the stleets, students walking out of two high schools as protesters locked arms and marched silently to city hall. As long as were still dieing in the streets, as long as the system dispor portion gnatly
affects minorities well be here. Today Business Owners were boarding up business out of fears. At this hour the protests are peaceful. Well continue to monitor scene throughout the hour. That im 2. I had no idea. Just to know this is what im made of, this is where my ancestors came from. And i absolutely want to know more about my native american heritage. Its opened up a whole new world for me. Discover the story only your dna can tell. Order your kit now at ancestrydna. Com. Dicaller my husbandhescy. Having trouble breathing. First responders hear it a lot. And everyone age 65 and older needs to hear it, too. The flu, and its complications, can be deadly. Especially for those with a chronic medical condition. Thats why there are higherstrength flu vaccines made for seniors. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for a senior flu shot. Do it today. Before the flu. Becomes an emergency. Dispatcher 911 caller she has the flu, please hurry. Oh, you yeah ht butch. butch growls at man hes looking at me right now, isnt he . Yup. butch barks at man butch is like an old soul that just hates my guts. laughs vo you can never have too many faithful companions. Introducing the allnew crosstrek. Love is out there. Find it in a subaru crosstrek. Copdso to breathe better,athe. I go with anoro. Go your own way copd tries to say, go this way. I say, ill go my own way with anoro. Go your own way oncedaily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators, that Work Together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. Anoro is not for asthma. It contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. The risk is unknown in copd. Anoro wont replace Rescue Inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder, or urinary problems. These may worsen with anoro. Call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain while taking anoro. Ask your doctor about anoro. Go your own way get your first prescription free at anoro. Com. My name is jamir dixon and im a locafor pg e. Rk fieldman most people in the community recognize the blue trucks as pg e. My truck is something new. Its an 811 truck. When you call 811, i come out to your house and i mark out our gas lines and our electric lines to make sure that you dont hit them when youre digging. 811 is a free service. Im passionate about it because every time i go on the street i think about my own kids. Theyre the reason that i want to protect our community and our environment, and if me driving a that truck means that somebody gets to
go home safer, then ill drive it every day of the week. Together, were building a better california. Republicans are right now mounting one last sneak attack against obamacare, and this time they could succeed. Mitch mcconnell and other republicans are attempting to rush through a bill in less than
two weeks. Even the Congressional Budget Office says it wont have enough time to figure out what would happen if the grahamcassidy bill were put into law for the expected vote next week. Republicans need to hit that September 30th Deadline in order to pass on a straight Majority Vote without a filibuster and no time for discussion or hearings. Nevertheless, the bill is showing signs of momentum among republicans. Senator john mccain who provided the dramatic thumbs down for the last act. Said the support of his states governor would be key to his support of this legislation. Well, the Arizona Governor may have given him what he needs to vote for the Bill Tweeting saying he is okay with it. Senator brian schatz of hawaii
tweeting today saying whats crazy is this bill is much more harmful than the skinny repeal. He joins me now. Explain what you mean when you say this was worse than the skinny repeal which is what they were trying to pass when john mccain gave the thumbs down . There were two or four bills over the last few months that all did awful things. But in Graham Cassidy they do all the awful things. It lifts the prohibition on charging people more as they get older. It lift it is prohibition on charging more than 15 as an administrative expense as opposed to for health care. And it guts medicaid as we know
it and eliminates Medicaid Expansion and defunds planned parenthood. Most of the bills we looked at did about two thirds of that in various it rations. This is a bill that decided to do all of that in one radical piece of legislation. And what is scary is they are pretty close. Depends who you ask, but theyre certainly very close to enacting this into law, we are going to need people who were with us in this fight over the last six to eight months to fire up those phone lines, get online, knock on doors at District Offices and make sure that we kill this thing again. But i have to say, i was trying not to sound the alarm until it was absolutely necessary. And now we are really in an extreme situation. We have to try to kill this bill in the next ten days. Theres something sort of bonkers going on, which has been the case every time they try to do this. Its the case in the house and senate where theres no regular
order, no committee hearings, none of that. Its just like keep it closely held and then break in like its a heist of a bank and see if you can get in and get out. They dont have enough time aim correct on this . Theyve given it to the cbo to score, for would premiums go up, people to lose coverage, and theres not enough time for the cbo to give the full score, is that correct . Thats right the cbo got back to us and said the only thing they can do is assess the fiscal impact of the legislation. So they will know if theres any, quote, savings. Remember savings comes out of the hide of the American People so lets be careful using the term savings. But they said they need a couple weeks to analyze the impact this bill will have on coverage in everyones home state. So we have people are going to vote yes or no on a piece of
legislation to restructure one fifth to one sixth of the American Economy to probably throe 20 to 30 million off of their health care. But were not going to know the impacts until after we vote. What is so shocking to me is so many people talk about the regular order. And that means the senate acts like a senate. It has hearings, we talk to experts, we have a proper debate. Now were not going to listen to the impact of the bill. But heres what we know, because it has the elements of the previous bills that had awful cbo bills 23 off coverage 26 million, 22 million, this will be as bad if not worse of that. The final point, i saw you make it on twitter. I think we will have anywhere by rule 90 seconds to two 2 minutes of debate on this legislation. That is an abomination. That is legislative malpractice. Senate procedure can be arcane and it is in this case because youre dealing with reconciliation. By rule, i want people to understand this, there are essentially 90 seconds. Seconds. Everyone clock that in your head. Theres 90 seconds of debate left for this entire legislation before the senate. Is that accurate . Thats accurate. Theres no reason to do it this way. I think that the really encouraging thing that happened over the last month, which was as a result of john mccains moment on the floor is that the chairman of the labor and pekss economy and the top democrat on that committee has been working together. Thats what people want to see all along. They are blowing this thing up so they can shove it down the American Peoples throat. Its because they have no political wins this year. So theyre going to inflict pain
to notch a win for drop. Senator, thanks for joining me. Thank you. While candidate trump labeled the u. N. As weak, how did he handle it today. Plus tonights thing one, thing two starts next. Steve was born to move. Over the course of 9 days he walks 26. 2 miles, thats a marathon. Because he chooses to walk whenever he can. And he does it with support from dr. Scholls. Only dr. Scholls has massaging gel insoles
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and after harvoni treatment. Tell your doctor if youve ever had hepatitis b, a liver transplant, other liver or kidney problems, hiv or any other medical conditions and about all the medicines you take including herbal supplements. Taking amiodarone with harvoni can cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. Common side effects of harvoni include tiredness, headache and weakness. Ready to let go of hep c . Ask your hep c specialist about harvoni. President trump today made his first appearance in new york where he criticized the u. N. For excessive bureaucracy and mismanagement. Albeit in Farless Harsh tones than he spoke about the group on the campaign trail. Which brings me to my next point, the utter weakness and incompetence of the United Nations. The United Nations is is not a friend of democracy. Its not a friend of freedom. Its not a friend even to the
United States of america whereas you know, it has its home. Over the weekend, the president taunted the leader of Nuclear Armed north korea kim jongun tweeting i spoke with president moon of south korea last night and asked how rocket man is doing. Long gas lines forming in north korea. Too bad. That was followed by nikki haley suggesting the u. S. Ran out of Diplomatic Options dealing with the rogue nation. We have pretty much exhausted all the things we could do with the Security Counsel at this point. I said yesterday im perfectly happy taking this to general mattias because he had plenty of military options. Tomorrow the president will make the first remarks with north korean diplomats sitting front and center for the speech. With me now, someone who knows a lot about both diplomacy and north korea. Wendy sherman serving for political fairs, the State Department and crucially special advisor to president clinton and Policy Coordinator on north korea. I want to start on north korea. Sure. Lets well, lets start with the tweet which was strange for a variety of reasons but one of the most concerning things to me is it seemed to show the president s mental model of the north Korean Society was completely wrong. The idea that there would be long gas lines just seemed bizarre. What did you make of that . Well, you know, i think its very typical of the kinds of things we hear from the president unfortunately, which is really to sort of be dismissive of the seriousness of who what is going on in the world. I dont think there are long gas lines forming in north korea because quite frankly there arent thousands and millions of cars traveling the streets of north korea. Right. Yeah. Here is the dynamic that id like you to sort of ill limb nig illuminate. The chose esclosest the u. S. Ca were there with madeleine al bright. Indeed. President clinton before the election in 2000. Right now you have this sort of threat and counter threat rashing up between the two nations. What is your read on where this is headed and what we should be doing to move it maybe in another direction . Well, i certainly think there is a strategy here at the United NationsGeneral Assembly to say to everybody we might move to Military Action so they should do more. This is a little difficult because neither President Putin or president of china but their delegations are. I think some of the orchestration in the language is to say were tough, were serious. The senate just increased the Defense Department tremendously. Secretary mattias is quoted as saying there are options that wouldnt devastate seoul. This is to ratchet up pressure. Im all for Ratcheting Up Pressure but in a very disciplined whole of government way. Its not clear to me that we have that whole of government strategy, which uses the threat
of force and service of diplomacy and quite frankly, as you have discussed on this program before, chris, we dont have a lot of diplomacy going on because we dont have ambassadors in positions and we dont have a team at the State Department and Secretary Tillerson is sometimes in the picture and sometimes out of the picture. And that is very concerning when you have to do something that is this complex and this difficult. So here is the question i feel like i dont understand as someone watching all this play out, which is can north korea successfully be cohorsed through pressure into abandoning the Nuclear Weapons program . It seems thats the fundamental question, right . At one level to them they view it as essentially a matter of the regimes survival they hold on to them and pressure wont help or maybe they will make some calculations at a certain point, the pressure is great enough and hurts them enough they can move on to a different track. Which of those do you think it is . I think Everybody Needs to understand sanctions never stop
a country from their bad behavior. What sanctions are meant to do is to force a choice about coming to the Negotiating Table in seriousness. When we began negotiations with iran and europeans did in 2006. They hadcentrifuge. By the Time Administration got into deep negotiations, they had 19,000 sent t 19,000. So these sanctions, which should be ratcheted up need a team to enforce them all over the world. It will take a little time. They will not stop irans program sorry, they are not stop they didnt stop irans program. They wont stop north koreas program. The idea is to put pressure on them in the Negotiating Table but this is a much, much tougher problem than even iran was. Excellent point. Ambassador Wendy Sherman who has been working on these issues for quite sometime