He even sang happy birthday to the countrys leader. He has defenders, including Jesse Jackson. He says that it encourages diplomatic relations. Members of congress say the trip does nothing of the sort. Overall, we want to get your reaction. What do you think about his antics and his basketball diplomacy . Was to trip a good idea or a bad idea . Cannumbers on your screen be used to reach out to us this morning. Host do you think it was a good idea or a bad idea . You can reach out to us on social media as well. We are on facebook and you can always and as emails too. The story in the daily news wraps up the concerns around the trip. He made statements on cnn. He says he is sorry he was drunk. He apologized on thursday for his incoherent, drunken rant that implied that kenneth bae deserve to be held. He says he wants to apologize. Seeings one day after happy birthday to his best friend, north Korean Leader kim jong un. He says he takes full responsibility for his actions and it was a stressful day. His teammates were leaving because of pressure from family and business associates. His dreams of basketball diplomacy were falling apart. By the time the interview happened, he was upset that overwhelmed. It is not an excuse, just the truth. The statements were made in light of a basketball game that was being played a diplomacy, exhibition game, in north korea. Getting some reaction as well. Jesse jackson weighed in. He made a couple of tweets. He says that, referring to china, think on diplomacy ping pong diplomacy works in china. He also says congratulations to Dennis Rodman on the efforts in north korea. In,ou want to weigh basketball diplomacy, what you may have taken away, here is how you can do that. 2025853880. 5853881. S 202 you can also use our Facebook Page or twitter or send us email. Not only is Jesse Jackson weighing in, don mccain is criticizing it. In the washington times, on january 8, the headline is that john mccain called him a dangerous idiot. More in the piece says that he has always been a wacko. He and his friends are giving good propaganda for this brutal dictator who had his uncle killed and exgirlfriend shot. It helps this two bit dictator. That is the statement from senator john mccain. The numbers will stay on the screen. If you want to weigh in, please call us. Host the first call is from david in arlington, virginia. Caller good morning. I just think that is a horrible thing what he has done. Unless this is a secret diplomacy with the u. S. Government going out there and singing happy birthday to kim jong un, whatever his name that and having a basketball game is wrong and horrible. Alwaysthat Dennis Rodman prides himself on being a bad boy. That guy or whatever. Bad guy or whatever. I think he has gone over the limit this time. Host what makes it wrong in your mind . Caller it gives respectability has got to beo the worlds worst police state. Father sentenced people to death. North korea can have its own napalm. He supports all sorts of terrorists. He keeps a horribly brutal regime. That is lifted right out of 1984. Was remarked in 2000. Host that is david from virginia. Here is maryland on the republican line. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I think that Dennis Rodman is really a full. Fool. It is unfortunate that someone who cannot control his liquor or his words is being put in a position where he is close to such a dictator. I do think that if a medic diplomacy is important. It is just the wrong person. Him iny felt bad seeing that interview. I felt that for the gentleman his teammates there. They were supporting the efforts. I do not know how they can continue on when they have to be part of it was someone like him. This basketball diplomacy or soft diplomacy, you would think that those things are valuable . Caller i do think that those things are kind of valuable. The previous caller mentioned the ping pong in china. It opens lines of communication. In our country, we do not always see information that is accurate from the government. I am not saying it is true there. Citizens see this gentleman coming in from the united dates. He is being friendly with their leader. That might be a positive thing in some ways. Dennis rodman is not a representative of the United States in my opinion. Host here is susan from roseville, california. Independent line. Caller hi. I just wanted to say that this is as the last lady said, mccain said more damaging things than Dennis Rodman. Rodman is rodman. You have a senator, a u. S. Senator saying disparaging things about korea. How damaging was that . Host what do you think about his trip overall . Caller overall, i think that he is a drunk. He went there and i am sure he had good intentions. He cannot hold it together. Otherwise, i do not have anything to say about it. Saying atter ways in, simple i think he should be prosecuted. If you want to weigh in on twitter or put something on our Facebook Page, you can do so. Give us a call on the phone lines. Here is great from fort washington, maryland. Caller good morning. I think the trip to korea was very positive. It was a small step. It should be emulated by others who are more respected by people in the political and social class. He is a basketball player. He made a courageous effort. Host what do you think are the positive aspects . Caller it put attention on the u. S. Or lack of u. S. Policy. Most people ask what is our Foreign Policy toward north korea . Most americans have no idea. Unfortunately, our media has not helped us understand that. The u. S. Government is failing. North korea is a small country. There is no big threat to u. S. Interests. They can barely generate electricity. Yet, people seem to think that they are a threat. If there was some other serious effort toward diplomacy, it might be surprising how much positive movement could be made. Phoenix,yd from arizona. Republican line. Caller hi. I am an army veteran. I just cannot believe how naive some people are. I truly believe that Dennis Rodman was giving aid and comfort to the enemy. I cannot say it any other way. The war never ended. It was more or less a ceasefire. We still have 38,000 troops protecting south korea. He is a brutal dictator. Host in your mind, when it comes to your statement about aid and comfort, how so . Caller he is promoting north koreas positive entity. I think that his passport should be remote. Wouldnt gocitizen to north korea. It is dangerous. He brutalizes his people. There is starvation there. Political prisoners. People just need to wake up and understand what it is all about. The previous caller said these trips bring attention to what is going on. Even more so than the ability of raising peoples interest around the country. Caller i do not believe that. It was all about Dennis Rodman. We did not learn anything more about north korea. We did not tour the prison camps or see people starving in the fields. The whole focus is about Dennis Rodman and his basketball game. It was nothing about north korea. Host glenn in lakeland, florida. Democrats line. Caller i watched that cnn interview. He was interviewed with his teammates. I look at iting, from a standpoint that he is not a politician. He is a basketball player. His teammates are basketball players. This is not his first trip to north korea. He has been there three times before. Anytime he actually goes to north korea, the media takes attention. The problem here is, after watching the interview, i noticed that the person from cnn was trying to get him to do those things. Person, talk about the in prison. That is not a basketball players job. They are there to plate basketball. If you want to talk about the person in prison, that is the state department. That is the secretary of state in the white house. It is not their job to do that. He was getting Dennis Rodman to do those things. On the one hand, you criticize them for going home to north korea. At the same time, you want him to be a diplomat and a politician. That is not what he does. If that needs to be done, then the u. S. Government has to take care of that. Areh korea and south korea like east and west germany. That is the problem that we have. People in south korea protest all the time because they do not want to elect him. It is not the people. American citizen currently under arrest in north korea part of that interview on cnn. There is a followup from the family reaction. Mr. Rodman reacted angrily to a question about whether he was helping kenneth bae. Accusationsd on that he attempted to topple the government. Rodman suggested that he had done something wrong. The reaction from the family his sister says that the comments were shocking and outrageous. The married father of three suffered Serious Health problems and has been transferred to a hospital. Stories go on to say that rodman did apologize for his statements. He says he was drunk when he made the statements. Were talking about the trip overall and the diplomatic efforts. Is with theritics House Foreign Affairs committee. He is the ranking member. He talked about the trip and criticized on tuesday. Heres what he had to say. [video clip] thank you, mr. Speaker. Dennis rodman of nba fame has announced that he and 10 or so basketball players are going to north korea. He is going to visit his friend, the notorious which are and dictator, kim jong un of north korea. Bringing american basketball to north korea, a state with nuclear weapons, which starves its own people and imprisons , bringing american basketball there and sitting down with a dictator like mr. Kim would be the equivalent of taking adolf hitler to lunch. Terrible thing. A terrible idea. It makes us gloss over the terrible suffering of the north Korean People and just ignore it or it they say were going to play basketball and make the sky look legitimate. Host again, you heard from mr. Engel and we have heard from mr. Mccain. The state department weighed in on this. Now it is your turn. Do you think it is a good idea or a bad idea . The numbers to call our on your screen. Host you can also reach us on twitter and facebook or send us an email. The Bergen County record from new jersey is following up on chris christie. Scrambling to keep the lid on is the headline. Placeliberations taking among the aids stretch from the weeks before september, and are punctuated with full garritys aimed at the Media Attention between new york and new jersey officials. Story goes on here is stand to talk about Dennis Rodman. Caller good morning. Im kind of conflicted on this whole issue. Dennis rodman is not a politician. Is to bedman, if he taken seriously, he has to act seriously. He goes over there and sets up these meetings. I am all for that. However, you have to know that kim jong un is a brutal dictator. Not only brutal, but somewhat insane. If the reports out of the chinese newspaper on december 24 he fed his uncle and three others to start dogs, that is worse than a maniac. To shine any publicity on that idiot is not a good idea. Finally, this is my last statement. To, as a country, take north korea seriously. We do not have a whole lot of interest there. They are developing nuclear bombs. That is dangerous. That is my thought. Us fromhn is joining decatur, illinois. Republican line. Caller good morning. Dennis rodman is a single individual. Nixon did the same thing by going to china. Dennis rodman is going to north korea to get paid. Look into his bank account. I bet he got paid good money. Nothing about diplomacy. It is about Dennis Rodman getting paid. Thank you. Host a couple of stories about health care. The Washington Post is leading off with a contractor for the healthcare. Gov website. They have been dropped. The administration has decided to jettison the i. T. Contractor, cgi, which is responsible for building the Online Health insurance marketplace. They are immersed in the work of preparing. There is a story in the internal paper about a house full looking at federal websites. Here is the headline. The house will to secure health care websites attracts 67 democrats. Democrats joined to approve a measure that would require notification of a potential breach within two business days. A followup to that story in the that says that cms said there had been no successful attack on the website. No person or group has accessed personally identifiable information. The site undergoes testing on an ongoing basis. Going to the New York Times, a little bit about this weeks issues with health insurance. In interviewst with executives, newly insured people have faced challenges of verifying coverage. A surge created backlogs. As a result, many have yet to receive insurance cards, policy numbers or bills. John in georgia. Caller i think Dennis Rodman is a citizen of the world. He has a right to go anywhere he wants to go. It is nobodys business where he goes. Anybodyt a slave or that other people can control and tell him where to go. The news media have no business interviewing him about anything to do with politics. He is there to make money, just like everybody else. He is free to do that. People need to shed up and get a life. Host what about the diplomatic aspect . Caller he is not a diplomat. Why do they ask the somatic questions . Ask him about basketball. That is what he does. Host tom in detroit, michigan. Caller give me a few minutes here. The United States of america does business with a communist country. That is china. Along with these corporations going over there they are abusing their workers over there. Theyre treating their people worse than north korea. But when Dennis Rodman goes over there for basketball, it is a bad thing. I think it is a good thing. The president of the United States loves basketball. Nixon went over there to china and had those pandas. That broke the ice. Rodman going over there and playing basketball could break the ice. In the news media, they are following him. Why are they following him . Leave him alone and let him do his thing. They have giant corporations in china that are taking all of our good jobs. Theyre sending our jobs all over the country. We should be focusing on those giant corporations. Instead of focusing on Dennis Rodman. Bring the jobs back to america. That is what the news media should be focusing on. Host the Justice Department announced that those 1300 marriages conducted in utah before i hold was put on the process will be recognized by the united dates. That was written about this morning. It is a new twist in a fight for individual equality, against states defining marriages. It has added to the legal confusion about companies married and a brief window after a Federal District court judge struck down utahs ban on samesex marriages. Nuptials down further for the duration of litigation. In pennsylvania, republican line. This is jay. Caller this is really hilarious that we are even talking about this. I remember saying something in the paper about the time that he left. Uncleng un had his executed, i believe, maybe you can verify for the audience, pedro host somebody else made note of this morning. Caller i was probably getting a cup of coffee. They actually cannibalized him. That is part of their country. Culture. Is, what i dog not like is that this Team Looks Like they are all black grid a do not represent me. I thought they were supposed to look like america . Host massachusetts, independent line. Here is right. Caller i think he is an idiot. You do not see jordan over there. You do not see the wall or anybody else. Bill walt or anybody else. Let him stay there. Host tell us why you think the trip caller he is there to make money and get drunk. How he hasout nothing to do with the people. He is not there for politics. Over here, he talks about politics. He sticks his nose over here. Over there, he does not want to do anything. He wants to get money. Let him stay there. Do not come back. We do not need him. Host the Facebook Page that we talked about this morning if you want to make comments, there is also a poll. You can tweet us or email us. You can also make your thoughts known on a poll. Do you think the trip was a good idea or a bad idea . 11 people weighed in this morning. Seven set a bad idea. Another person says that he has done as much as anyone. The same thing should be done in cuba. Er from illinois democratic line. Caller hello. Host you are on. Thinking i dojust not have a problem with Dennis Rodman going over to see the guy. He is no different from the Founding Fathers of this country. I do not see any problems with them. I see statues of those guys, for example. Their pictures are on currency. They owned slaves. We have the nerve to put that like we doer there in other countries. Problem withe a darker skinned people all over the world. Whether it is vietnam, iran, syria everyone all over the world. That is my opinion. Host we are talking about Dennis Rodmans basketball trip to north korea. Youre seeing a little bit there. Talking about diplomatic efforts and the results of statements made. We are catching it in the terms of whether this was a good idea or a bad idea . You can talk about the trip itself or the idea of the diplomacy behind it. The phone numbers will be on the screen throughout the morning. If you are familiar with the book or movie black hawk down, you probably will be familiar with the story followup. For the first time, the military has established a coordinating cell in somalia to advise the government and forces fighting there. Involves only a small number of military personnel. It is the first time in nearly two decades. 1994 joint forces in with true forces in 1994. The last personnel left in 1995. New jersey is on the republican line. Caller good morning. Actually, i have been following Dennis Ro