Better. The president has put a great deal of focus on this. This president doesnt have the luxury of time. This president was forced to deal with it, unlike his predecessors who were able to kick the can down the road, talk about sanctions and things that havent worked. This president doesnt have that luxury. I dont think north korea is a partisan issue. I agree. I absolutely agree. Its something that everybody is concerned about and everybody is looking to President Trump what youre seeing from World Leaders is a concern that he is rushing to war and being erratic in his behavior. I dont think thats a fair analysis. This was an opportunity to do that on the trip. There is a concern, kristen. In some countries as you know, according to international polling, there is more respect for President Trump and more faith in the United States leadership. In russia, in israel, and in other countries but the world as a whole if you look at this according to pew, its down. So up in ally israel, up in traditional i dont know what you call them, nemesis russia, but down in the world and, in fact, in asia, its also a mixed bag. It is down at least in the last poll i saw in japan and south korea, two American Allies but up in other Asian Countries. What do you make of all of that . Well, thii think is it has at to do with President Trump take the philippines for instance. The leader there is someone we have a lot of reasons to be gravely concerned and yet President Trump has made what i frankly think im uncomfortable with very kind overtures to the leader of that nation. So i think it is on a country by country basis because President Trumps Foreign Policy is not some kind of overarching clear, single unifying doctrine. I think its a very country by country basis that hes choosing leaders that he likes and gets along with and leaders hes getting along with perhaps better than barack obama. But there are other countries thats not the case. What do you think, david . I think thats the way to approach it. You cant have a one size fits all diplomacy. Every country is a give and take, specially dealing with north korea and the asian, you know, peninsula there on the korean peninsula, everybodys got a different take on this. Youre right in terms of what happened in the philippines. There are definitely a lot of negatives about the president of the philippines. Im not quite certain what happens behind the scenes in terms of them help with terrorism and other things, on the back channel what they may be doing or not doing, again, on the whole, i think this trip was a big success for the president and america. And jen, where you surprised that President Trump obviously felt the need to come out and talk about the speech. He didnt take questions. Obviously the political question of the day about roy moore and what President Trumps position is on roy moore, the Alabama Senate candidate. He didnt answer a question about that. Staying very disciplined. But are you surprised he felt the need to come out and give this mini address . The truth is i think it was smart. We didnt do that enough. Most president s dont do that enough. When you finish a foreign trip, its not like the American Public is watching every move you make. The time change is very difficult. No one knows really what youre doing or what big foreign deals mean for you. Whether its a success or not, we can debate that, but coming out and describing why you were in asia and what you were doing that is a smart tactic for any president. I want to bring in cnns boris sanchez, hes at the white house. Boris, you have some reporting. Why does President Trump feel the need to make the speech . You just heard jen psaki, former Communications Director in the Obama White House say that was a good idea, we should have done more of that. Why does President Trump feel the need to do it . Reporter well, jake, for months now weve heard from this white house and other key republicans that this administration is not getting credit for the things that it has accomplished and with so much else going on in the political landscape, whether it be rob muellers special investigation into alleged links between the Trump Campaign and russia or the special election in alabama and the allegations against roy moore, there is a feeling that some of their accomplishments could be overshadowed. In this speech, though, you saw the president go on a stop by stop tour detailing every accomplishment that he perceived was made in places like japan and south korea, and china. Specifically on japan, he said he convinced shinzo abe, the prime minister, to enact new sanctions against north korea and also to reinvest in the Japanese Military by buying u. S. Arms. In south korea, he said that he convinced moon jaein to expand definite from any possible aggression from north korea. In china, he said he had a frank conversation with xi jinping, saying that time was running out to deal with the north korean regime. He also said that he told him that trade the trade deficit had to be equalized between the two nations. The president specifically going out of his way to combine the message of security and trade in this speech. And in his conversations with asian leaders saying that the United States had established a new standard of trade and that the years of being taken advantage of, jake, were over. Interesting. Boris sanchez at the white house for us. I wanted to bring in democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen of new hampshire. She serves on the Senate Foreign relations and the Senate Armed Services committee. Senator, thanks so much for being here. Whats your reaction, President Trump saying that the u. S. Standing in the world is stronger than ever before . Well, i think its important for the president to travel, to reassure our allies who have been very concerned about some of the positions of this administration. I think we need to continue to engage with our allies and with the world situation, both on trade. Im concerned that by pulling out of tpp, while we all want fair and competitive trade, the fact is what weve done is left the Playing Field to the chinese to engage with those partners. So i think we need to do both. We need to strike better deals but we need to do it in a way that ensures that we are at the table on these deals. Were there elements of the president s trip to asia that you think were successes for the United States . Well, again, i think whenever the president is there representing america, especially with our allies, thats very important. I was disappointed. I thought this was a great opportunity to try to further engage russia in whats going on with north korea. One of the things we need to do with north korea, which is a rogue nation, is to get the International Community in support of further sanctions, of keeping pressure on the north korean regime and russia is a key player there and he missed that opportunity to engage putin on that issue. The president said that in meetings with other World Leaders they were united in applying even more pressure on north korea to give up that countrys nuclear program. He blamed the predecessors of the president s for their failures to take on north korea. He didnt mention them by name but obama, bush, clinton. Does he have a point . Look, i think we need to keep steady pressure on north korea. As i said, we need to build an International Coalition as president obama did on iran to get People United in working and keeping the pressure on north korea. What we dont need is inconsistent messages on twitter that leave are open to interpretation by kim jongun, who is a very irrational and radical leader, so i think thats the kind of consistent, stable diplomacy that we need to continue and i think, unfortunately, this administration has fallen short in that score. Well, let me ask you, to play devils advocate here, President Trump doing what hes doing on twitter. I understand it meets with a lot of criticism, especially when it involves kim jongun, who is the leader of a rogue regime, subjects his people to horrific human rights abuses and obviously is pursuing nuclear weapons. Is it not possible that what hes doing on twitter is having a desired effect in terms of, you know, the mad man theory . In convincing kim jongun, wow, maybe i really better take this seriously because who knows what this president s going to do. President obama would never do anything like that. He was too rational, but who knows what this guy is going to do. Is it not possible that thats working in a way . Well, its certainly creating uncertainty. The concern is that at some point it could be miss interpreted in a way that would cause a dramatic miscalculation on the part of the north koreans about what were really willing to do in terms of responding to any of their actions. So is it creating uncertainty . Is it making the leader of north korea think about what hes doing . Sure. Thats probably true. But is that the best way to approach this situation . I think thats the real question. So i know youre in favor of the pacific trade deal that was scrapped by the house even before President Trump scrapped it. He said that the u. S. Is prepared to negotiate fair bilateral trade agreements with any country that believes in free and fair trade because the days of the u. S. Being taken advantage of are, quote, over. Given the fact that the Republican Congress wasnt going to support this anyway, is this not a possible decent route for the president to want to negotiate these bilateral trade agreements with Asian Countries so as to make up for the lack of u. S. Participation in the tpp, in the pacific trade deal . Well, well see. So far we havent negotiated any of those bilateral trade deals. So if we can do that successfully, that will be great, but so far we havent seen any proof of that. I want to ask you before you go about alabamas Republican Senate candidate roy moore, who has been accused of inappropriate, frankly sexual abuse by one 16yearold girl and one 14yearold girl, now grown women. Several republicans, including many of your republican colleagues, are calling on him to drop out of the race. I believe youre on the Senate Ethics committee and this might come in front of you so you cant talk about shut, but do you think in general that this is an issue that President Trump should weigh in on, given the fact that he is the leader of the Republican Party as well as the president of the United States . Listen, i hope this is an issue that people everywhere will weigh in on. Because we should be having a National Conversation about whats appropriate, whats acceptable and what is not. And were seeing that in terms of other allegations around Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment. This is a conversation thats long overdue in this country. I hope everyone will stand up, whether its our civic leaders, our religious leaders, our entertainment industry, whoever it is, and say this is not acceptable behavior and we are not going to tolerate it any longer. Well, while were on the subject of that, as long as you said that, i do want to ask you, its come to light because of the hearings in the house yesterday on Sexual Harassment and assault that congress has a problem of its own. Congresswoman Jackie Speier said that there are two current house members currently right now in the house, one democrat, one republican, she didnt name them, who are sexual harassers and what women have to do to lodge a complaint is an incredibly byzantine process. It looks, frankly, designed as if it is set up to protect sexual harassers. What kind of changes need to happen so that congress does not avoid this wave sweeping the country of awareness and action when it comes to people who commit these acts . Well, absolutely. Congress needs to abide by its own rules in so many areas. And this is one where im pleased to see that speaker ryan and also that the senate is talking about mandatory training for all employees, for members to understand what Sexual Harassment is, how you should respond to it. I hope that we will make filing a complaint easier for those victims so that they have an opportunity to be heard in any process. And we need to deal with this issue in the same way that the rest of our society does. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, democrat of the great state of new hampshire. Thanks so much. Always good to have you on, senator. Thank you. I want to bling my panel back in. There was a lighter moment from this rather substantive speech. The president , as happens when one speaks for a long time. You both have water in front of you, i have water in front of me. The president got a little drymouthed. Lets show that clip. And jobs. Thank you. They dont have water . Thats okay. What . Thats okay. Oh. Japanese manufactures, toyota and mazda the only reason i bring that up is because President Trump when he was candidate trump made a lot of hay during the campaign of another famous incident of dry mouth featuring senator marco rubio. Frustrated me more than false choices like the one the president laid out tonight. The choice isnt just between Big Government or big business, what we need im not going to run im not going to roll all of the clips of President Trump candidate trump making fun of marco rubio with his dry mouth but it happens. Sure. And to marco rubios credit, he tweeted at trump giving him some tips on how to do it better next time, including to keep his eyes straight on the camera, which was one of the weirdest parts of the marco rubio water incident. I thought trumps was a little bit smoother because he was like where is the water. Thats true. Marco rubio handled it pretty well. When rubio did it, it was almost like he tried to pretend he wasnt doing it. Right. Like no one would see it. More substantively, david, let me ask you, President Trump avoided a question about roy moore shouted at him. I understand that. He wanted to focus on the speech. That was discipline and i totally get it, but at some point isnt he going to have to come out and Say Something about roy moore . I dont think so. Look, jake, i think the roy moore issue is easily dealt with and best dealt with by the folks in alabama. The governor of alabama pushed up the election, she has the ability to delay the election. She can postpone this election, take everyone out of this misery, have a new election and roy moore is no longer the candidate. We dont have to deal with the issues of unseating him if he wins, all of those things that you said that senator shaheen will have to deal with. I think its squarely the ball is in her court. I think there is maybe a little political pressure in alabama not to do that, right . Perhaps from the alabama republicans. I think the best course would be for her to postpone that and allow him to get out and allow republicans in alabama to remove him, the party not to endorse him. Kind of correct the record on this whole incident. Although were just learning some breaking news right now. The alabama Republican Partys governing body has called an emergency meeting at 5 00 p. M. Eastern at state party headquarters. We dont know the topic but one can assume pressure is mounting on roy moore. Separately, an attorney for the Roy Moore Campaign is also planning to hold a News Conference at 5 00 p. M. Easternateastern as well. Kristen, do you think that President Trump can and should avoid talking about this . Interestingly, remember, President Trump endorsed the other candidate. Luther strange, yeah. He wasnt his choice in the primary so he has the ability to distance himself but i think what is making this challenging is a lot of the reason why roy moore is appealing is the same reason voters found trump appealing. This sentence, well, i may not like the guy and some of the things hes done, but you know what, id rather have him in there than someone from the other party. I want to send a message. Thats the exact same message you would hear folks say why they supported trump. I may not like the access hollywood tapes but im going to vote for him to send a message. You hear a lot of that from voters in alabama about roy moore. I think it would be very important for President Trump to come out because so many voters who put their trust in trump would be responsive to him if he and other major conservative leaders of his wing of the party were to come out and be unequivocal. Although, jen, i have to say that jeff zelenys sources are telling him that President Trump would prefer that moore leaves the ra