Our Alex Marquardt is outside of the building. Theyve arrived and getting this under way, is that right . Reporter they havent quite arrived. Were hearing sirens. You probably hear them as well. We believe that is kim yongchol arriving here at the condominiums which is normally the residents of the deputy u. S. Representatives to the united nations. Earlier there was another motorcade that showed up. We assume that was mike pompeo. These meetings are due to get started very shortly. Expected to last around four and a half hours and the goal today between these two top representatives of these two respective countries is to bridge this massive divide to bridge the understanding so that a possible summit can take place right now it is scheduled for june 12th, but the u. S. Is calling it a potential sum mist we just saw a tweet moments ago froM Mike Pompeo, he wrote the potential summit between potus and chairman kim presents dprk, north korea, with a great opportunity to achieve security and economic prosperity. The people of north korea can have a Brighter Future and the world can be more peaceful. Poppy, in order to set up this day of meetings after kim arrived yesterday here in new york, there was what they called a working dinner. The state department releasing pictures of mike pompeo showing kim the skyline of new york including the freedom tower, the u. N. Headquarters. We know that they dined on steak, corn, cheese and vanilla ice cream, so a warm dinner to start off these very intense talks which as i mentioned are expected to last around four and a half hours after which secretary pompeo is due to give a press conference. Hopefully will get details about what transpires in these important meetings. Last night went well but theres a lot of work to do as you laid out. Appreciate the reporting. Thank you. Steak, corn, cheese and vanilla ice cream. Ice cream solves all world problems, apparently. Maybe chocolate. Lets bring in alyss lavet. Whats the trump team looking for here . Theyre looking to bridge the gap of what the North Koreans are willing to give at this summit versus what the u. S. Wants to get from the North Koreans. The u. S. Is looking for a very concrete sign that the North Koreans are looking to denuclearize and what does that big buzz phrase we keep talking about, give up their Nuclear Weapons program and thats a very tall order for the North Koreans. They thought for years is the one thing they need is regime survival. Thats all they wanted was for the regime to survive and they thought the Nuclear Weapons were the way to do that. Now the u. S. Is trying to convince them that those weapons are not keeping them safe and the way to do that is through these security guarantees that President Trump is teasing out, also economic prosperity. You see with that steak and that skyline and everything, you know, kim yongchol just showed up in a cadillac and showing him what north korea could get in a return. Its a very tall order for the North Koreans so you have all these circles of meetings going on. You have one in singapore on logistics. You have one in north korea. A team there led by ambassador sung kim about content and then these two leaders, the point people, secretary pompeo for President Trump and kim yongchol for kim jongun to try and see if theres enough Common Ground to have this summit. All right. Thank you so much. Poppy . This morning the president is claiming he did not fire former fbi director james comey over russia. Heres the problem with that assertion. He previously said this. Regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it and, in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story. Its an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. Youre looking at live pictures right now of secretary of state mike pompeo meeting with the chief Nuclear Negotiator of north korea, kim yongchol both the former top spy chiefs of the respective nations. Theyre at this condominium in midtown manhattan just a few blocks of where i am right now sitting down for an extraordinary meeting. This is one of three meetings the two are having. We heard earlier they dined last night and were told by a state Department Spokeswoman that that was a, quote, great dinner but there is a lost work to do. So now they sit down for what will be a half day meeting and theyll do a lot of work. These two men just below President Trump and kim jongun, they are setting the table for what will be or likely will be the june 12th summit in the singapore and brianna, let me bring you in here. This is extraordinary these images were seeing. This is fascinating. You dont normally get all this access where youre looking into a meeting and i think it just goes to show how important this is to this administration to show that there is some that there is some obviously work being done on the affront end here, poppy. Lets bring in our Foreign Policy guests as well to talk about this as we look at those pictures and try to rerack here so people can see whats going on. Do we have our guests, guys . All right. Thank you both for being here very, very much. John, let me just begin with you. Were told by the state department that this went well. The dinner last night but theres a lot of work still to do and you have warned against underestimating kim jongun here, so set the table for what you think is happening at that table right now in midtown manhattan . So, i think that its great that theyre establishing rapport but steak is not going to get kim yongchol to give away the store as others have mentioned. The North Koreans consider the Nuclear Weapons program as a guarantee of regime security, so the next four hours is a hard task for our secretary pompeo. I see that state department and cia are represented at that table, so weve got some season im so sorry to interrupt you. You want to listen to President Trump speaking on the tarmac. And were going to dallas, were going to houston and well have a little fun today. Thank you very much. I dont know. I dont know. If you know steve, let me know. I think the meetings have been very well see what happens. Its a process. Its all a process. Well see and hopefully will have a meeting on the 12th thats going along very well but i want it to be meaningful. It doesnt mean it gets all done at one meeting. Maybe you have to have a second third and maybe well have none, but its in good hands. That i can tell you. You know that, actually. Thank you. President trump there just moments ago in that tape we were just able to turn around as hes leaving for a fundraising tour. Its just its stunning, right, how you watch this. You see that video that we just saw coming in from where you are in new york and its all being so stage managed right now. This is made for television negotiations. It is, right . He was, you know, the apprentice, Reality Television and this is diplomacy playing out in real life on television in front of our lives and well go back to you, jung, we saw those pictures just moments ago of secretary of state mike pompeo and kim yongchol sitting down and we have the president saying just there, yeah, it looks like well maybe have the summit, maybe we can get this done in one meeting. Maybe itll take two or three meetings, you know, but its all in good hands. What do you make of the fact that so much of this is playing out in realtime in front of the world . If anybody knows how to play realtime and optics its the North Koreans. Their rejet stream is built on propaganda and and making sure the people see what they want to see. The North Koreans have been pretty clear and consistent that theyre not going to give up their Nuclear Weapons, but i think kim yongchol is going to dangle just enough in front of secretary pompeo so pompeo can return to trump and say that everythings fine and that the summit can go ahead. Shawn, you heard the president speaking there. He said a lot of it was just platitudes. Its very positive. The meetings have been positive. Hopefully still going to have the june 12th summit going on. Maybe there will be a second or third meeting. That was curious, did he mean a second or third meeting between him and kim jongun . So hes opening the door to that but then he also says maybe there will be no meeting, so all possibilities here on the table. Right. I think we have to recognize this for what it is. Over the past couple of weeks there has been this effort to manage expectations with regard to this meeting if it should happen. This is interesting because the administration has gone from a very clear and matter of fact decision to want clear, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of the Nuclear Program to maybe there will be a second meeting, maybe this will take place over time. I found it very interesting what the president said there. I also think its interesting that youve got two former heads of intelligence agencies that have been adversaries for a long time sitting down across the table from each other and these two men this is not for them. Its not just about getting the summit back on track. Its about getting a sense for what the other side is thinking and figuring out how much wiggle room there is and whether or not theres a reason to go forward. For right now, were still fairly far apart with regard to what north koreas willing to give and what the United States absolutely wants. Russia is now a larger part of the picture here, right, because you have the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov sitting down with kim jongun this morning and two notable things that came out of that meeting. We all know where russia stands in terms of being more an ally with north korea than the United States on this, but he said that sanctions must be lifted against north korea until denuclearization can happen, one. And he also warned against, quote, sudden moves in these negotiations. Jung, what do you think russia is trying to do here . Russias been side lined in most of this process and the russians, like the chinese, want denuclearization, but the russians and then chinese do agree that there has to be some sort of phased approach that north korea has to have some incentives to move forward on denuclearization. So what the North Koreans have been successful in doing is to rally the chinese and the russians on their side so they can have a stronger position going into the summit with President Trump. Shawn, can you imagine we just heard elise lab ott reporting about how there is this Sticking Point over denuclearization. It seems like theres just one but this is huge. This is a gulf between how north korea is going to define this, what theyre going to accept, what the u. S. Wants to see. Clearly the president wants to shut it all down but its very difficult to see how kim jongun would be on board with anything really close to that. As this summit goes forward, we know what the United States wants and kim jongun actually goes into this meeting with somewhat of an advantage, because what were really trying to figure out here is what hes willing to give. Theres no ambiguity about what the United States wants. Its about what hes willing to give. I think at this point as we move forward, if the president stays at the table, knowing that hes not going to get the grand deal, then that is somewhat of a victory for kim and for nuclear. Depending on what he does when he stays at the table that will tell us whether or not the president is going to be able to get something that his predecessors have not been able to get. We still got a vast gulf here between what the United States wants and what north korea is willing to give. Thats what he wants, poppy. The grand deal. Its hard to imagine the president wanting something different, right . Very hard to imagine. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. The president falsely claiming he not fire jim comey, the fbi director because of the russia investigation even though hes on tape saying the exact opposite. Were digging more into that. Also President Trump not calling out roseanne for those racist tweets. He did have some choice words, though for someone else, the ceo of disney. 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A new report this morning from the the New York Times talks about former deputy fbi director Andrew Mccabe being so concerned over the firing of james comey that he wrote a memo at the time and shared it now with muellers team, the special prosecutor. Were just learning about this and cnns joe johns is live at the white house to tell us more about it, joe . Reporter are you going to starbucks . Both from laura jared of cnn as well as the New York Times and it is about a memo that was written by the former acting fbi director and Andrew Mccabe relating to his impressions of a meeting he had in turn with the Deputy Attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, and some information apparently in this memo about whether rosenstein had, in fact, provided cover, if you will, for the president when he fired the fbi director james comey. It also raises some questions, if you will, about whether that very same situation would have been enough reason for Rod Rosenstein to recuse himself from the investigation because, in fact, he had become at that point part of it. So new questions, questions about Rod Rosenstein, questions about whether he can actually be perceived as not having any type of a conflict of interest and interesting point in this investigation, of course, because it gives us a little more of a view about the state of mind of the players right after the fbi director james comey was fired. Back to you. Joe johns, thank you so much with that update. Joining us now we have cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor laura coates and joined by Mary Katherine ham and josh dawsey with us. In the middle of all of this just moments ago the president tweets you guys. Not that it matters but i never fired james comey because of russia. The corrupt Mainstream Media loves to keep pushing that narrative but they know it is not true. Also pushing that narrative, though we should point out the president himself. Lets listen to what he said in may of last year to lester holt. He made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. I said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story Mary Katherine, there it is, his words. Yeah, surprise, trump contradicts himself and he will continue to do so. Hell probably say 79