Cancelling the june 12th talks writing based on the tremendous anger and open hostility i feel its inappropriate to have this long planned meeting. You talk about nuclear capabilities, the president wrote seeming to address kim jongun but ours are so massive, i pray to god they will never to have be used. I am hopeful we can continue to have conversations and put this back on track so we can get to place where we can achieve the outcome. Former u. S. Ambassador to south korea joins us on the phone. The cancellation dramatic. Secretary mpompeo said there wee conversations last night. At the state Department Yesterday at 3 00, yesterday afternoon, i was with pompeo and his chinese counter part. They were talking about the planning proceeding and saying this is a historic moment. We have to take the opportunity for piece to make history. What happened. I think you make an important point. Just laths night white house officials here told me among others that they were still going ahead with their planning. They were scheduled to go to singapore. Some officials this weekend literally to meet north korean officials to continue with the planning process on the south lawn here yesterday the president said a decision would be made next week. It appears that what changed were the fierce words from the North Koreans overnight. Specifically from the office of the foreign minister. Im told it was not the criticism of mike pence referred to by the foreign minister as stupid and ignorant. It was the words that they framed this threat saying they would be willing to meet in a meeting or in a nuclear to nuclear showdown. A white house official said that made it impossible. As we heard from the president moments ago, the tone has changed rapidly in the course of the last several hours. Noting he is told the pentagon, the secretary of defense to be ready. Hes reached out to japan and south korea. Now that he said they are ready in case of any reckless or foolish acts that take place Going Forward. He noted the dialogue they had. He said it was a wonderful dialogue they were building stween the two of them. That appears to be on the back burner. The president speaking of much more fierce terms. Wendy sherman who was the last top official to be negotiating, you were with Madeline Albright with kim jonguns father. Youve been watching this all intently as all of us have. What is the fall out. This is most unfortunate that south korea was caught unaware. They called a National SecurityCouncil Meeting at 11 30 p. M. Their time. They are trying to figure out what the letter means and what it says. Im glad that President Trump has finally spoken with president moon. President moon was elected to open his door to get negotiations under way. This is very tough for him. I think the president used the threats as a reason to tank this summit because it was not fully prepared. They were not ready for what they needed to do and he didnt understand that this was an opening summit. This wasnt the negotiation. That was going to be tough with ups and downs. Thats how it goes with north korea. Chris hill who will is on your program knows that having goerkted with the North Koreans. Its never smooth sailing. What we heard previously from john bolton on one of the sunday talk shows talking chris hill, i think weve had the problem with the telephone connection. Ho i hope you heard the connection. What happens now with the fall out given the fact they didnt even agree going in on what they meant by denuclearization . Ive always had concerns about whether there has been adequate preparation. For starters, i think the issue is always been north korea is prepared to put denuclearization on the table and on that basis theres this idea they would have the summit. I dont think thats enough of a basis. Not withstanding the president felt need to talk about our capacities and nuclear weapons. I hope that the upshot of this will be to send lower level people, lo and behold an assistant secretary or frankly a special envoy. Anybody to sit down with the North Koreans and see what night be possible in terms of their preparedness to denuclearize. I still dont quite understand what happened in the two meetings did secretary pompeo had. Did he ask them the questions. Did he say were prepared to denuclearize. What did they is a . I dont get the sense that there was any real understanding of what the basis of the meeting would be. In the last week we had a president very nervous that this could be a failure and even embarrassing. I think we also had the North Koreans nervous there was no basis for a meeting. The North Koreans started talking about we can have a nuclear war together. I think the president kind of took the bait on that. I hope we can get back to some kind of dialogue so we have an idea or whether they are ready to do anything or not. Much harder than anything we had seen or contemplated in the iran negotiations. One of the few western reporters in northwest korea today, overnight in recent hours for what was supposed to be the dismantling, blowing up of one of their launch sites. This is the Associated Press reporter. Throughout thursday, we saw a viert variety of explosions and most of them were the mouths of tunnels and what they call ob vags posts. Near by to and along some barracks small buildings where workers have stayed in the past. One of the witnesses but an american journalist, no inspectors, no experts and we dont know what was blown up or what else might exist. Was this all for show . We have seen them blow up things before. It will take time for the Intelligence Community to look at that. We dont know for sure whether they have another facility to do this somewhere else. Its under ground. Youre looking for holes in the ground through a soda straw. Thats a hard thing to locate. There may be another facility. Its a good thing they have blown up something. We can pocket that. The president agreed to it before he was believed to the south koreans. He had not notified president moon that he was going to agree to it when he agreed to it at 7 10 on a thursday night in march. Was he overeager. Did he raise expectations too high with all the talk about the Nobel Peace Prize . Absolutely. We all wish everyone well here. This was one of three major mistakes. What were the others . First to insist on denuclearization as the going in position. Thats it. We wont do anything unless we get that right away. Verifiable and so forth. I think that puts us out of step with the south koreans. Its always a good idea to stay roughly in step with them. They want denuclearization too. Theyre prepared to do it step by step over a period of time and this is something that in diplomacy has to be worked out between the south korean, North Koreans and lets bring china into it too. They have the greatest interest in all of this along with the one we have by virtue of our concern about their nuclear weapons. I think the president has warped every ones perception of all of this. What he just said, this is a great set back for the world. Well, if the summit is all of this, yes, it is. This kind of summit doesnt happen until later in the process or in kind of summit is a waving of the hands over the negotiators who as chris hill will know then go off and spend weeks, months, perhaps even years working out the details. Big mistake to put all the weight on this summit. He was say thanksgiving was a great chance for peace to make history. What happened overnight and how shocked is beijing . There hasnt been any reaction yet from officials here in beijing but china was never going to sit on the sidelines here. They wapnt to protect their own geo political interest. The comments made by President Trump saying he wasnt happy with the change in attitude or the change in tone by north korea. That seemed to coincide with the second meeting that kim jongun had with xixing. Perhaps alluding to the fact that maybe china is easing up on sanctions. It will be very interesting to see if there is a change in tone or messaging from the chinese. He has south korea on side and wanting to continue the diplomatic momentum they were able to establish to a degree. China is on side as well. I think our next cue will be out of seoul and to see the next step that south korean president takes. Hes in that emergency meeting right now with all of his top officials. President trump said that he did speak with president moon. Theres no sense of when he spoke with him. They did seem blind sided. They were trying to grasp what President Trumps intention is. Its our understanding it was well after this became public. It was not in realtime. One quick question. Do you give any credibility to the president suggestion which the chinese here, the chinese minister was very eager to try to dispel that china some how toughened north koreas stance. China was nervous about this all moving too quickly. I think its probably a good time to revisit what it is that brought north korea to the table in the first place. They were looking less for relaxation of sanctions than recogniti recognition. For them they wanted to be perceived as a Nuclear State and come to the table of their own volition. Im going to have to interrupt you because the president is now taking questions. Lets listen. We are in a very strong position. I think they want to do whats right. I really think they want to do and only recently that this has been taking place. I think i understand why its been taking place. They want to do whats right. I really believe kim jongun wants to do whats right. Hopefully things will work out. Thank you all very much. We have a wonderful dialogue. We have a wonderful theres been a very good working relationship. It started with the hostages coming back home. The hostages came home. We didnt have to pay. We wouldnt have paid. They are very happy and thrilled. They never thought it was going to happen. The dialogue was good until recently. I wont say that. What happened . I wont say. You can write about it in a book someday. Well see if the opportunity is seized. Great for them and the world. Thank you all very much. Do you expect him to call you . We see the president leaving the roosevelt room where he was signing the roll back, a partial roll back of dodd frank where Congress Passed legislation to reduce the requirement, the Capital Requirements on some banks that were considered burdensome and a drain on economic growth. Were still talking with our colleagues here. The president seeming to say there might be a way to restart this. They had a good dialogue and he hinted at i think i know what happened. You can write about it in books. This seems to be another hint and chinas possible interference. Something he suggested two days ago. Reporter i think thats right. You noted that suggestion two days ago. Wasnt the first time we heard the president. After the second meeting took place between kim jongun and president xi he saw sort of a change in tone there. I want to make one other point thats important to consider right now. The letter appeared to have blind sided our allies. The president said he spoken to. Consider the fact that more than 24 foreign journalists were in north korea at the time. They were tilstill in north kor. They were to witness the alleged dismantling of that nuclear test site. To be clear why the president has been talking about how happy he is to have brought the hostages home there were some americans and foreign reporters in north korea when this took place. They remain in north korea right now which speaks to how rapidly this came together. This wasnt any consideration of do we want everybody to get out of north korea before we take this action. The president himself referred to the potential for reckless and foolish acts. He talked about how the Nuclear Capability of u. S. Is so much stronger and more powerful than north koreas. He did suggest the potential for a real moment exists right now. There were some foreigners, including americans in north korea at the time he made the very assessment. Indeed there were. I think this can get back on track. There will be similar meetings, im assuming. This is how diplomacy really works. Now everyone can step back, take a deep braeath and do this the way its normally done. Full understanding of where the other side is before making a decision to leave into a summit. Secretary state went to north korea within days of being sworn in. It was his first trip. You have a new National Security advisor who is arguably a hard liner. You have mike pence echoing that last night. Right. Kim even though we believe its a monolithic regime has hard liners himself. Faith is important in that part of the world. Process is very important. Hr mcmaster had left. They may not have had a process many place to get everyone around the table and kind of much toward a coordinating decision. It feels that way to me based on my experience. With bolton getting rid of a number of people from the National Security counsel. The whole deputies process in which this was all up in air. We can come back on track. Well leave it there for now. A lot more breaking news today at this hour. Now including the top democrat on the House Intelligence Committee at the very last moment. Adam schiff throwing a wrench just before his republican counterparts. To look at classified information about the fbi russia probe of which the president is a subject. Nunes and trey gowdy are viewing the documents trying to prove the president s allegation there was a spy in the Campaign Even though theres no evidence of that. This afternoon a second briefing with members of the bipartisan gang of eight will take place on capitol hill. That was announced at 10 00 last night. Back with me Peter Alexander at the white house. Msnbc justice and security analyst matt miller. We knew a second meeting with democrat present was scheduled for later this afternoon. Up until this morning we did not know that a democrat would be able to attend the first meeting as well. Reporter thats right. It was nancy pelosi who said that adam schiff would be attending this mornings meeting. It speaks to the ad hoc nature of both of these two meetings and this musical chair thats going on in this morning meeting where you had democrats earlier in the week saying this kind of thing should not be happening at all. This is purely partisan. This is weaponizing doj information for the benefit of president but saying if this is going to happen, there needs to be democrat in the room. As late as probably 45 minutes before it started, the understanding was this first meeting would include only three republicans. Speaker ryan who couldnt come to the later meeting. Democrats had been very upset there would be a republican only meeting before this gang of eight meeting. I dont know yet thow schiff wa able to get into this meeting. I think that will assuage some democrats concerns. The next is john kelly going to be in the meeting. Thats another thing democrats have said is totally inappropriate at this stage. You were one of the former Intelligence Leaders who signed a letter protesting this and your argument was this blows up decades of proper bipartisan congressional oversight. Thats right. First you have to say that intelligence oversight is really important. This is the most sensitive stuff that the u. S. Government does. Years ago when these two committees were accomplished back in the 1970s, the deal was they would approach these things in a bipartisan way. To give the public the confidence that this is all being done properly. When you start to do it like this in a partisan way, which is clearly a partisan, it erodes that confidence. This meeting, these two meetings are wrong on a couple of basis. One initially was set up only for the republicans and thats just wrong. You dont need a second meeting. You need one meeting, if any at all. The white house only calls such meeting with gang of 8 when its with an executive program, not when its about an investigation. Thats the big break here, i think. Everything about this meeting is open corruption. Theres corrupt motives on the committee. Devin nunes isnt seem concerned about blowing the source who has associates all around the world. Its corrupt for the white house to have gotten involved. The president to have a meeting with the acting attorney general and the fbi. Its corrupt for his chief of staff to be sitting in this meeting right now and sort of influencing what the Justice Department turns over. Everything about this is inappropriate. What were seeing is the house intelligence economy, republicans on the house intelligen Intelligence Committee working with the president of United States to try to interfere with the Justice Department active negotiations with no concerns for what the investigation is trying to uncover and what it does to this source and investigations hes been involved with and what it does for the fbi to recruit future sources. Harry, you had rod rosensteins job. How precarious is his situation now and is he give too much by playing ball on this meeting . It is unprecedented. I second what they said about the problems with the meeting. Nunes and company has these two roles. One is oversight and the other is partisan shield for the president. He is the head of executive branch. Hes a subject in a criminal investigation. Hes getting information thats completely inappropriate in the second. Its this exploitation of a legitimate role to do something not just unprecedented but completely illlegitimate for an investigation and Going Forward for the fbis work. Weve seen before that devin nunes was forced to recuse himself from the russia probe because of improper procedures that he took as house intelligence chair before going to the white house, getting private briefings from some of mike flynns deputies and people very early in the administration. For him to be leading this charge is very issususpicious. I think you make an important point. I think that do