Page 1148 - Mode News Today

His initial reaction, 48 hours later. when we saw his initial reaction, and seems to me inadequate in terms of how we define what we want out of presidential leadership. >> was it inappropriate he began a statement today with comments about unemployment, jobs, the economy. >> well, thats donald trump, wolf. weve seen this from him before, were seeing it from him today. certainly thats the conversation that donald trump in this situation would prefer to be having. he doesnt want to be talking abo...

Party that he was going to unite all americans and be a president for all americans, so this was kind of a fundamental part of his transition to the presidency and what he envisioned his presidency looking like, but it hasnt played out that way at all. as i said earlier, i think donald trump had a fundamental problem transitioning from candidate mode to presidential mode. these moments that require great moral leadership, that demand the president inspire the american people, he hasnt stepped up...

President has been talking, but he seems to be just looking at a happiness index about his own base. >> well, thats just his way of saying hes looking at this politically, which is if he, you know, sounds the trumpets of war, he thinks hes going to go back up in the polls because that will appeal to his base. and generally, you know, presidents who are in a war-like mode get more public support. so hes playing from that old playbook, but hes playing a very dangerous game, and it got worse tonigh...

The extent that hes a republican for convenience purposes. he has sensible allies in the senate and the house. all of whom who have made common cause because they share the same policy objectives. he has everything at his dispos disposal, and yet the fact that things have not gone his way has put him in a mode of kind of helpless, impotent, kind of whining about his fate. the whoa is me presidency, we talked a lot about trumps political connection to the grievances of a lot of disenfranchised vo...

>> well, actually he cant dismiss mueller, only rosenstein can dismiss mueller. and rosenstein can only dismiss mueller for cause. and so if the president orders rosenstein to fire mueller without cause and rosenstein declines to do that or does it because he feels he has an obligation to the president to do that, then i think were until constitutional crisis mode. and john can talk well about constitutional crisis modes where you start firing special counsel. >> so, john, the president also com...

Korea and show kind of a wag the dog scenario. nobodys talking about the russian probe, were all talking about north korea. to me he came off today azine hinged when he needs to be in a mode of deescalating this crisis, reassuring allies and work closely with united nations which im sure theyre doing behind the scenes. >> the first question to you where i said was it intengszal. i said was it strategic. is the united states sending a clear message to north korea by what the president said today?...

Effort to set this in a much more stable mode. >> when you say what kim jong un wants, what is that? >> the guy is, what, in his 30s? conceivably he could be running this place for the next 50 years. maybe he wants a modified china model. maybe he wants to seek the economic development of north korea. maybe he wants the end to prospects of regime change and the environment -- look, im not painting -- im not working for this guy. this is a despottic regime. look what they did to that poor kid, ot...

Imagine youre in guam or hawaii, japan, south korea, this is a moment you have to start thinking about civil defense and this is a president that did do a successful tomahawk strike on syrias chemical facility but that may have made him feel like he can do something like that, a strike, thats easy in north korea, and show, you know, a kind of a wag the dog scenario. nobodys talking about the russian probe, were all talking about north korea. to me he came off today unhinged when he needs to be i...

Has at least done the latter, has continued the development and furthering of this program. what do you make of that assessment? >> well, this is the point. this is why its not necessarily a major crisis that suddenly erupted yesterday with these comments. we have been in this mode for well over 15 years. the point is, i think we -- we have to have a little perspective. this is not an issue of the state department defense want to have diplomacy and now we are considering these other options. the...

He just didnt serve. certainly that doesnt give him high ground. its a subjective argument. again on a day where he could have been celebrating 200 days as president and flagging all of his different pluses, he attacked a senator, who isnt even really highly relevant to the president directly, and he did it and he did it again and and again. its not the first time. the last time he attacked a senator for coming on the show he got it wrong about whether or not we asked him about his military reco...