Among other things, sanctions, which the president told us he did not have to do anything of this. The president say basically stay tuned because if you were doing a word cloud over the president s head today, i think the word process would have come up the most because it seems to me that what the president is saying that originally the United States had said we want them to denuclearize before we even get to step one and now it seems to me what the president is saying is this is going to be a long process, which is more like what south korea has been talking about, which is set some benchmarks, have they will denuclearize, ease a sanction here, a sanction there and we do it over a long period. And i think just in reading between the lines today, it seems to me that maybe the president is tending towards that idea more. A gettingtoknowyoumeeting plus. Elise, i was watching your reaction. You were reminding everyone normally a meeting of this stature is done months, weeks in advance, it works from the bottom to the top. Here you have it flipped. Do you think in 12 days, it is june 1st, were talking june 11t 12th is the president ready for this summit . I tell you i didnt but now the president has lowered the expectations of what this meeting was about. A couple of weeks ago it was about a nuclear deal. Now its the beginning of a gettoknowyou process. It was pretty clear yesterday had secretary pompeo came out of this meeting that kim jong un is not ready to take that final step and commit to a timeline for denuclearization, which is what the president and his aides were hoping for at this meeting. Health insurance what the team at the dmz is trying to draft a communique. You cant really draft a communique when you dont have that Firm Commitment from north korea. Pompeo said that he thought that the North Koreans were contemplating a path. So by inviting Kim Yong Chol to the white house today, speaking with him, obviously youve heard from World Leaders the president can be very charming in these meetings, and through the language and secretary pompeos language about bold leadership, they realize theyve come to the acceptance, even i think that the North Koreans are not fully ready but that theres enough goodwill and the relationship has improved enough that lets start a process. Former negotiators have said to secretary pompeo, hes reached out to them, start a process going. Youve gone from fire and fury to here, get this process going and i think that thats probably, even though the president has had to lower his expectations, i think thats probably a smarter way of managing it. The one thing i would say is that the North Koreans are experts at this kind of dragging it out. So i think, you know, the real challenge for the u. S. And for President Trump is to really convince kim jong un at this one summit or series of meetings and im sure secretary pompeo will also be going there, you know, fair li fairly regularly over the process is that the assurances, the security guarantees are going to come from giving up the noose, not from keeping them, brooke. Ive got the voice in all of this joining us now, joseph eun, former point person for the u. S. Who is recently retired. First your thoughts out of the gate in these extraordinary moments. I mean, simply amazing to watch the development over last few weeks. And i think gloria and elise hit it out of park. Whats happened is that President Trump realized through dialogue with North Koreans that their expectations are monot gog to be met going around thinking that we can do it all in one libya model, not really hearing much from john bolton anymore, you know . And so i think all Things Considered kim jong un has done an incredible job of manipulating south korea, United States, china and yesterday you saw the Russian Foreign minister go to pyongyang. I dont know. It kind of reminds me of watching sopranos saying you isolate me, im going to isolate you. You know . What do you think about the whole scene and how it will ultimately be seen by kim jong un . What do you think he will think of that long goodbye and President Trumps words . Well, i think, you know, kim jong un has obviously come out to the major Foreign Affairs stage and weve seen him. You know, hes no longer a caricature that were used to seeing, and hes presenting himself with elder asians, respectful but forceful, now through his envoy, who has gotten the highest possible diplomatic treatment, not only going to the white house, president and secretary of state walking him out to the lawn, to the lane, to his car, long goodbye, photoop with the rest of the delegation. Hes sending a clear message to kim jong un, you know, we can build a relationship. And those are the words that the president used, were beginning to build a relationship. Youre right, process was the key word today and yesterday as we watched pompeo, he used two key words, process and progress. So they realize now in is a long trek and that june 12th is the first step. Joe, what do you think is in that letter from kim jong un . I think its word, words only, very nice words saying looking forward to meeting you, really want to build a relationship, we can live peacefully, we can help each other, our dreams of peace will be realized and of course, you know, security concerns will be resolved and so on. I really doubt there is anything concrete that well be looking for. Just imagine a situation in which in singapore it does become getting to know you only meeting with a promise of next meeting only. I think there will be a ton of disappointed people throughout, you know, not only the United States but in japan and south korea. Toward the end of listening to the president s words there, he was asked did you talk about human rights . And im just reminded that it was Otto Warmbiers parents who were invited to the state of the union in washington and i realize those other prisoners were allowed home recently. Are you surprised human rights was not part of that conversation . No, im not surprised. And i think the administration has made denuclearization and a deal on denuclearization the number one goal. But should it have been a part of that conversation, human rights . You know, thats a tough question, brooke. If were loaded with human rights, are you going to include japanese, are you going to include issues like refugees, are you going to include biochem weapons . It does become overloaded. Really i can understand them for prioritizing, but again, it will be a disappointment to many folks who are very, very concerned and rightly concerned about north korean human rights practice. Well, the president said, though, didnt he, brooke, that he would raise it in singapore. He said down the road, yes, yes, yes. He didnt rule that out. One thing i would add, which is sort of in interest to me and we all remember the days of rocket man and all the rest is that both of these men know that the other within is pretty unpredictable. And so by the time we get to june 12th, which seems close but can be very far away the way washington operates these days, where are these men going to be and how will they react to each other face to face . And thats something none of us can predict. And how will that meeting go . None of us can predict that. I will say one thing, though, brooke, i think as joe said and gloria nodded to this as well, youve seen the last couple of weeks and months kim jong un kind of come out. This is the kim jong un that everybody had hoped when he took over for his father when he died. He is a modern, he went to school in the west, he likes basketball shoes. We can talk to him, he want to reform his economy. This is the kim jong un that everybody has seen. The question is whether hes ready to make what joe and his counterparts would call that strategic choice, that being the darling of the International Community and being accepted as a world leader is really the way forward for his country and for regime sr viefl. Thats really what this reej regime is about, its about survival. If he can get it by giving up his Nuclear Weapons and bringing north korea into the fold and embrace of the International Community, i think that will be the most interesting thing, whether the president can really convince with the deliverables that hes ready to offer, whether he can convince kim jong un that the future of north korea lies with the International Community and not with isolation and a nuclear program. But to elises point, joe, this is about regime survival and maybe this is the kim to perhaps deviate from the path that they have been on in this country for decades and decades and decades, but do you believe that he will do it . Well, brooke, that is the central question. We are trying to tell North Koreans that you are safer without Nuclear Weapons than with Nuclear Weapons. The question is, its become obvious last few days, they dont quite believe it. And its going to take a while for them to believe it. Were going to go step by step to believe it. I mean, ultimately what they want is to have Nuclear Weapons and open air economy. They want to be another india, you know . They cant have both, can they . Maybe they can. Maybe they can. Joe, maybe they can. This is absolutely fascinating. Again, the headlines from the president , we will be meeting on june 12th in singapore. Joe and gloria and elise, thank you so much. Coming up next, americas closest allies blasting him after trump starts his trade war. Moments ago the president respond by defending his decision. Growing up, we were german. We danced in a german dance group. I wore lederhosen. When i first got on ancestry i was really surprised that i wasnt finding all of these germans in my tree. I decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. The big surprise was were not german at all. 52 of my dna comes from scotland and ireland. So, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt. Ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. Get started for free at ancestry. Com. 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Im cautiously optimisting. If President Trump were graves enough to commu gracious enough to commute rods sentence and return him to his family, i would be very grateful, a 14year sentence for a guy who did not take any money and had no criminal intent. My brother was a liberal democrat. Theres no agenda hes got that would be appealing to President Trump. So my view is it would be an exceptional show of humanity to have my brother reunited with his family. With me now, michael smerconish, and author of a brand new book cleaowns to the left of me jokers to the right. Let me quote roger stone, the same roger stone who said two weeks ago he was ready to be indicted said, the special counsel has awesome powers, as you know, but the president has even more awesome powers. Was that message received, michael . Listen, roger may be a beneficiary. Whos to say which way this whole thing goes in the end. I dont know what the president s intention is but even if his intention wasnt to send a message to those who are somehow caught up in the mueller web, no doubt thats the impact that all of this is having. In the case of dsouza, its a twofer. Its a bone to the base and a message to some who might face criminal prosecution or are already facing criminal prosecution that hes got their back, hes going to be loyal to them. I dont think it would spare Michael Cohen if that case should develop along state charge lines, we really doesnt know, b dont know but im sure its having consequences with some individuals. In the way of trump telegraphing, that hes in control of everything, including d. O. J. , but theres something about the almost capricious nature of this, its like a little kid as version of being in charge, i can do whatever i want and nobody can stop me. Its true. And no withone can stop him bec hes acted within the parameters of the pardon powers. I just take note of the timeline, that all of this action is happening. And whats the common denom eighto denominator . Theres no common denominator, as the brother was telling you, between the politics of Rod Blagojevich and dinesh dsouza. You couldnt identify more high profile cases. If you wanted to make sure everybody caught up in the Mueller Probe are aware, you pick these highprofile cases and thats what hes done. We just saw Kim Yong Chol leave the white house and you listen to the president saying the whole summit is on. I want to play sound from the Senate Majority leader mitch mcconnell. He just spoke moments ago. I think you can anticipate the North Koreans making every effort they can to get sanctions and other relief and give up as little as possible. Its going to be quite a challenge and i think for these situations to work, you have to not want the deal too much. If you fall in love with the deal and its too important for you to get it and the details become less significant, you could get snookered. You could get snookered. This is the Senate Majority leader speaking before we heard from the president at the white house. Hes basically saying to the president , dont fall in love. It seems like the president really wants to go have this meeting. Right. But he did push back from the table and, incumbented some willingness not to proceed with june 12th. When i step back from the week drawing to a close, i see the water cooler conversation. I answer the telephone for a living. Its a week that was dominated by Roseanne Barr and in the latter part of the week, the c word. Let us not lose sight of the fact that the Unemployment Rate is 3. 8 and to the president s credit, he appears headed to a sitdown with an adversary that has not resolved itself for 70 years. Im within one of those who has distracted in the past by all the lesser important issues. I think hes got some things to crow about this week. Meichael smerconish, we get your book and thank you so much. In addition to the president making news on the upcoming summit in singapore, he also slapped tariffs on three of americas biggest trading powers. Here was President Trump. If you take the European Union and you see the kind of tariff they charge and then we dont, thats called not fair trade. I want fair trade. I like free trade but i want fair trade. At a minimum i want fair trade. And were going to have it for our workers and for our companies. And you know what . The other side understands it. To be honest with you, they cannot believe theyve gotten away with this for so many decades.