Big question for the world tonight. Thanks for joining us. You can watch us any time, anywhere on cnn go. Have a good weekend. See you monday. Ac 360 begins right now. Good evening. We begin with more startling headlines from President Trump. In just a last four days, hes threatened north korea with fire and fury, said maybe that wasnt enough of a threat. Said American Forces are Locked And Loaded and late today he said even more. Appearing this morning outside his new jersey golf club, the president went before reporters. When he was over, he raised the possibility of u. S. Military action in venezuela and renews his warnings to north korea. Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump, that i can tell you. Hopefully it will all work out. But this has been going on for many years. It would have been a lot easier to solve this years ago before they were in the position that theyre in. But we will see what happens. We think that lots of good things could happen, and we
president xi about north korea. Thats a critical part of solving the problem with north korea, because china is seen as having some kind of leverage over pyongyang, although they havent shown a lot of that lately and the president has shown a lot of disappointment. One call the president has not made, from what we understand, hes not spoken with the governor of guam. That is despite the fact that government there in the u. S. Territory has been handing out bulletins to the residents on what to do and what not to do in the event of a nuclear blast. So for all these questions were seeing the president take over the last couple of days, white house officials are telling us the president wants to have his message carried over, other senior officials like the Secretary Of State and Defense Secretary and so on. But tonight this message out of the white house thats coming from the white house is continuing to create a lot of uncertainty around the world. And despite comments by tillerson and mattis, which are
perhaps more measured or preplanned, the president continues to double and triple down on the comments he made yesterday. Reporter absolutely. Hes making it very clear to kim jongun that hes going to go tit for tat when it comes to this kind of belligerent rhetoric. The problem is its rattiling u. S. Allice around the world. Russia and china are urging the United States to lower the temperature and the question is whether the president is capable of doing that. He is going to hold a News Conference on monday. By guess is, from observing what has transpired over the last couple of days, the white house is seeing some kind of political benefit of the president going out and engaging in this kind of tough talk. So my sense is, were going to see more of that on monday. Jim acosta, thank you very much. Lets go next to Barbara Starr for more on north korea and perhaps venezuela. The president was asked if he
ordered change in military readiness. Has there been any change that were aware of . Reporter none that were aware of. In fact, pentagon officials are telling us at this point, no need to send Additional Forces to the region. That everybody is ready, that they have Missile Defense on guam that could shoot down the north korean missiles if they come that way. They have ships at sea, troops in south korea always on a high state of alert. So they feel they are ready, that they are ready to defend against a potential Missile Attack that north korea has laid out, the possibility of, if it were to go beyond that. If the president were to decide to order some type of preemptive attack or something broader, then it would be relooked at, of course. Right now, tonight, as were talking, of course u. S. Intelligence keeping a very sharp eye out for any moves by the north koreans towards a missile launch. As of now, they dont see it. And there have been no evacuations of military
personnel from the region or civilian personnel i should say. Right. Theres no indication of moving civilians off of guam. The guam government, the governor seemed pretty calm about the whole thing, issuing those bulletins, communicating with his citizens on guam. They have a pretty active program there. I want to play what the president had to say about venezuela option. We have many options for venezuela. This is our neighbor. Were All Over The World, and we have troops All Over The World in places that are very, very far away. Venezuela is not very far away, and the people are suffering, and theyre dying. We have many options for venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary. So whats the pentagon saying about this . Is Military Intervention seriously being considered . You know, on a friday night in august in washington, this caught the pentagon by more surprise than almost anything
else. They did come up with a statement. So let me read part of that to everybody. A pentagon spokesman telling reporters, i refer you to the white house to characterize the president s statement. The pentagon has not received any orders with regards to venezuela. The military conducts Contingency Planning for a variety of situations. If called upon, we are prepared to support whole of Government Efforts to protect our National Interests and safeguard u. S. Citizens. Lets unpack that quickly. There are u. S. Citizens in venezuela. If it came to a dire situation, the military always is there to protect u. S. Citizens abroad. Theres no indication its at that point right now. But the president may have played directly into the hands of the venezuelan president , president meduro, who is facing stiff opposition, violent opposition in his own country, backed by his own military. President meduro, to put it
politely, has long claimed there will be a u. S. Invasion and a u. S. Backed coup attempt against his government. There is a lot of concern tonight that donald trump may have played right into the hands of a very unpopular venezuelan president. Barbara starr, thank you. I want to bring in our panel. Retired general tony tata. Peter fever, rick francona, and kimberly dozier. General, what do you make of the fact that despite all the rhetoric coming from the United States, and obviously the very real concern here, that the current u. S. Military posturing does not seem to have changed Nonessential Personnel Arent Being recalled from the region. Right. Well, anderson, i think what youre seeing is the very deliberate and synchronized application of the elements of National Power against north korea. So youve got military power
that are doing shows of force. We have Carrier Strike groups going back and forth, airplanes flying over. You have diplomatic powers to get a Unanimous Security Council vote for sanctions against north korea. And you have information power. And the president making a statement, fire and fury and those kinds of things, is a very deliberate and clear message to kim jongun and north korea. And then when you have the Secretary Of State and the secretary of defense both saying something similar, the Secretary Of State being a little more diplomatic, and the secretary of defense being a little more direct but all buttressing what the president said, thats all power information. And just on cnn an hour ago, you had an analyst laying out all of our offensive capabilities and all of our defensive capabilities. I can promise you that the north koreans that have televisions are watching that. Because we get this second order
benefit of the president saying hey, we are strong as well. And how many Missile Tests should we allow north korea to take . How many Nuclear Weapons should we allow north korea to have and how much threats should we allow against the United States from this rogue regime thats expressing intent and now has the ability to harm our nation. I think the president is right to synchronize these elements of power. As you mentioned, theres been no Combatant Evacuation or deployment of troops. So right now, i think its in the application of elements of power stage where we are trying to leave the golden bridge for kim jongun to walk across into the land of diplomacy. Do you see a strategy behind the president making a particular kind of comments and then the Secretary Of State and secretary of defense following it up with i dont knoweasur
coming at it from a different angle. Simplistically youve got a good cop, bad cop scenario going on. But you see the synchronization of the National Security team around whatever President Trump says. They are learning to use his willingness to use bellicose rhetoric to their advantage, by having tillerson message that there is a way out of this but having mattis back up some of the president s threats, the message is meant to break this log jam in north korea. Everything the u. S. Has tried to do over the past couple of decades hasnt stopped them from moving forward on nuclear development, Nuclear Weapons development. The last time we saw some sort of break in this was back in 2003, after george w. Bush called them part of the axis of evil, then you saw sixparty talks leveraged by china. I think thats what theyre
trying to produce right now is enough pressure on beijing that theyll take this so seriously, they go to pyongyang and say, youre running out of chances here. Peter, how much of the u. S. Language on this is, do you think, directed towards china . A lot of it. They clearly have a diplomatic strategy, and that requires that China Ratchet up the pressure on north korea. Im not sure i agree with your other guests that they have a cleanly synchronized messaging strategy. I think this white house is still struggling to get everyone singing on the same sheet of music, even if theyre singing different parts. And they dont have a ben rhodes kind of figure who in the Obama Administration delivered talking Poichlt Points for everyone to speak, that were tightly coordinated. The evidence of that is things like the venezuela comment, which was distracting and then interrupting whatever was the focus of the message on north
korea. Ive got to agree. Maybe its not synchronization, but theyre pivoting a little faster than they have in previous weeks. I think theyre Getting Better at reacting to him, and pretending they planned this all along. Colonel francona, whats interesting is a lot of the threats that the president has been making is talking about threats. In the previous days, it was north korea shouldnt make any more threats against the u. S. , and there were questions like, well, did he mean just rhetorical threats or was it actual action . He now has made it clear that it was they shouldnt speak any more threats. And then even today he sort of made it, well, kim jongun himself should not make any direct threat. Well, weve seen a whole change in the rhetoric coming out of north korea, as well. I think the rhetoric coming out of the white house, this bellicose rhetoric from the president , followed up by what i consider a very strong message from secretary mattis, and even
the more diplomatic talk from Rex Tillerson, i think its had a real impact in pyongyang. Weve seen the north koreans react differently to this level of bellicose rhetoric with that it wasnt really a threat against guam. It was saying were developing a plan by which we could strike guam and present that to the commander in chief, if he wants to exercise that. Much analogous to the u. S. Defense department preparing plans to strike korea, giving the president an option. But we never saw the detail. I think theyve been shaken by the rhetoric coming out of washington, and i dont think they know what to make of it. So i think its had that positive effect. But we have to make sure, and i think not raising the defcon status, not deploying more troops and not evacuating Nonessential Personnel keeps it a little lower volume. Once you see those steps, things
are probably going to happen. Were going to take a quick break. Well have more on the conversation where the korean crisis goes from here. And later, the president takes another poke at Mitch Mcconnell. The question, of course, is why . With advil, youll ask what twisted ankle . What muscle strain . Advil makes pain a distant memory nothing works faster stronger or longer what pain . Advil. Knowing where you stand. Its never been easier. Except when it comes to your retirement plan. But at fidelity, were making Retirement Planning clearer. And it all starts with getting your Fidelity Retirement score. In 60 seconds, youll know where you stand. And together, well help you make decisions for your plan. To keep you on track. Time to think of your future its your retirement. Know where you stand. Time to think of your future dj siri ok, 10 minutes andr 10 counting. Es. Chef ludo je sens ce que the rock mijote. Dj Man Everything does sound better in french. Dj gimme some, chef. [siri ding]
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they strike anywhere in american territory, that china will not stand by their side. And at the same time, a message to us from china, is if we preemptively strike, then they will come to the aid of north korea. I think thats chinas Perfect Place for them, and its not a bad place for us, because it could keep in check north korea. And i just want to go back to what one of your other panelists said. The last thing this Administration Needs to do is mirror in any way, shape, or form what the Previous Administration has done particularly with respect to north korea. This messaging and this synchronization of the elements of National Power are what are getting results for the United States right now, and we cannot have the proliferation of Weapons Of Mass Destruction as we had in syria with chemical weapons. Now we have with Nuclear Weaponsin north korea. China is the key here, and thats why the president is talking to them right now, and hopefully that china will help us out and put some more pressure on north korea and defuse this and i how for that golden bridge i mentioned earlier. Peter, do you see china stepping up on this . We