I have no doubt. Were going to start a process. And i told them today, take your time, we can go fast, we can go slowly, but i think theyd like to see something happen. And if we can work that out, that would be good. The announcement and those words came after trump spoke with north korea with the north Korean Leaders right hand man, the former spy chief kim yong chol. In a meeting at the oval office lasted over an hour. Kim yong chol traveled to washington to hand deliver a letter to trump from the north Korean Leader. Here is trump speaking somewhat confusingly about that letter. Dont forget, this was a meeting where a letter was given to me by kim jongun and that letter was very nice letter. Oh, would you like to see what was in that letter, would you like how much . How much . How much . In response to the letter, did you send anything back . No, i didnt. I havent seen the letter yet. I purposely didnt open the letter. I havent opened it. I didnt open it in front of the director. I said, would you want me to open it . He said, you can read it later. I may be in for a big surprise, folks. My baby, my baby my baby just wrote me a letter. Were going to talk about that with two learned gentlemen from the united states. Mr. Peter baker and nbcs own hans nichols who joins us from singapore in 11 days President Trump and kim jongun are expected to meet face to fashion. Peter baker, how much would you pay to read that letter donald trump apparently hasnt read . Id pay a certain amount of money. He said its a very nice letter, havent opened it, but very nice. Its hard to know what to make of that. Obviously the letter itself wasnt the only thing that was going to be said in that meeting, but it is a little surprising he wouldnt read it before going out and making an announcement to the press like that. Yeah, it seemed like the letter was kind of the point, right, peter . All this pomp and circumstance, he brings the letter, they come out trump comes out and says the summit is back on, but apparently the agreement to bring the summit back on had nothing to do with what was in the letter since trump says he hasnt read it. I find that incredibly confusing. It is a little odd. As he said at the end of the session with the reporters, he said maybe i should go back and read it. Who knows, maybe there is some big surprise in there. You would have thought at the very least a staff member would have opened it and read it to make sure there wasnt some sort of unsettling moment in there. But, you know, he wanted to get the summit back on, okay. Thats the real bottom line here. It didnt really matter in some ways what was in the letter. He was intent on getting the summit back on if he could find a way to do it and save face. In effect he feels like he did that. The North Koreans clearly wanted to have the summit back on. That was the bottom line, the letter was a vehicle to accomplish that. He didnt use the vehicle the way most people would. The bottom line is were going to come see hans in singapore in a few days. Peter, ill give you some breaking news. The white house is saying the president has in fact now read the letter after saying that he hadnt read the letter, first taunting reporters with what was in the letter, he hadnt read the letter. We at this hour still dont know whats actually in the letter. But i want to ask you from the perspective of someone who has covered a lot of white houses who has seen a lot of interplay in your career, step back and give us where you think this moment ranks in its importance. Is this a chimera or should we assume the summit isnt going to happen . Anything weve seen repeatedly with this president in particular, dont cancel your plans. But we dont know for sure. Look, this is a big deal when a sitting american president meets with a north Korean Leader for the first time ever. Look, his meeting today with this envoy from north korea was only the second time a sitting american president has met with any north korean official. So thats a big deal. Underlying issues, the underlying challenges still remain, which is where are you going to go, how are you going to make a deal that eliminates Nuclear Weapons out of north korea that they are willing to live with, that gives them something they want in exchange for that . Thats a big, big challenge. It hasnt got any easier just because of today. Hans nichols, my friend, its good to see you. Apparently going to be sending peter baker over to see you. Hell be bringing you a good slice of new york pizza on my behalf. I want to ask you sitting in the region now people, the first blush, is there surprise now in the region this thing is back on, or is this sort of what people expected, this outcome . The expectation was that talks were on track and that they were proceeding at a good pace. The idea this is official, is now somewhat set in stone. You never want to say anything set in stone with President Trump. But the idea this is proceeding apace was baked into the expectation when we were earlier today, a big defense ministers summit here gathered at the hotel. The expectation was these talks would go forward. I would say to peters point, we still dont know whether or not the North Koreans have signalled that they are committed to denuclearization. And thats always been the threshold question. Pompeo suggested that yesterday. He hinted at it. We had no response from President Trump on that. And as to whether or not he read the letter, im not going to fault anyone for that. I will when i start listening to all my old voice mails. A lot of times talking is just easier. I think now that hes finally read the letter there is not a lot of surprise in there. If you could have a facetoface conversation with someone, i would prefer that for gleaning information intelligence as opposed to reading perhaps a formal letter. Hans, if you go through your emails, youll find four or five drunk ones. Please disregard that. I want to ask you on the ground there, we have very few days now. This is a hurry up summit. It was a hurry up summit even before today. What has to happen logistically now with the North Koreans, South Koreans and the americans in terms of tackling and get this thing set up so it can go off purely logistically without a hitch . Well, you raise something very important. Will the South Koreans participate. We have no indication of that. There are indications zraSouth Koreans want to a much that t m themselves to the summit. In terms of securing a hotel thats easily done. They need to make a decision. Maybe they havent announced it on the actual site. There are the logistics. Where is the water placed, how high are the rooms, thats why you have the parallel negotiations taking place. Those can be very tricky issues sometimes. However, again, going back to the basic theory that everything is different under trump, if this president wants to have a summit which he so clearly does, i dont suspect theyre going to be caught up in whether or not the water is still or sparkling. I suspect the summit is going to move forward as long as the president is driving this administration. Thats one thing we hear at the pentagon. This is a president that makes snap decisions. The Foreign Policy whether its pompeo, the president ultimately makes these decisions. As long as there are big maces it will be okay, hans. Hurry up, summit, its apparently happening, its on. What has to happen in the white house now . This is not a low jgistical question, but a substantive question. What has to happen in ernest . What has to take place in terms of Donald Trumps preparation, in terms of the state departments preparation, everybody who is going to be part of this, what do they have to get done in this tight window . Well, the most important thing they have to get done is figure out exactly what they want this meeting to produce. Thats been very vague from the beginning. How much of the issues that are on the table are supposed to be resolved by this meeting, what kind of progress are we supposed to make, what would be success. You heard the president today really downplay expectations in a way much more so than you think he has in the past. Look, this is just the beginning. Its a get to know you session, plus were not going to solve it all at one time. There may be other meetings as well. He did seem to suggest its possible some sort of an agreement to a peace treaty formally ending the korean war of the 1950s might come out of this meeting. Basically he tried to suggest, dont get your expectations up. He told the visiting north korean official, take your time. Peter, hans, you guys are awesome. Thank you for helping us out. I want to bring in the panel in new york city. Joining us at the table journalist mara gay, the New York TimesEditorial Board and youve been on the board, youre killing it. Reverend al sharpton. One remote guest is bill crystal, regular on this program, friend of the show, founder and editor of the weekly standard. Bill, i want to start with you since were doing all these remotes right now. What do you think . Again, just whats your first reaction to what you saw today, the fact that the summit is on, how trump talked about it, just the kind of state craft and stage craft of what we saw leading up to this announcement this afternoon, and what it augers for whats about to unfold the next couple weeks . I guess a couple thoughts. President trump having stressed before we have to denuclearize north korea, its now having to get acquainted summit, i think thats a propaganda victory for the North Koreans, having a meeting with no preconditions, no action on the part of the North Koreans. If it all works out, no one is going to second guess it later on. Im not going to second guess it too much now, but i would say this isnt the traditional american view is we need to know theyre serious about denuclearization before getting them, in a sense, legitimatizing, getting this totalitarian brutal regime as it were a legitimatizing summit with an american president. The other thing i would say hans and peter were good on the call. The question marks remain on the washington side. North korean is capable of two days before the summit, saying weve been misled, the negotiations arent going well, we need this concession, that concession. That is a regime that many, many times in dealing with the u. S. Has tantalizingly seemed to offer things and pull it back. They could well be it will be important to watch what they do the next ten days as well. Mara, i think you know, the reality is if you go back over the recent history of american and north korean relations, they have been characterized by north korea lying, cheating disdecemberibling, fraudulent behavior, head fakes. Theres never they have never dealt with america in any circumstance as a good faith partner. So, again, we should all be hopeful because god knows denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula progress is to be wished for. Is there any reason today we think it moves us closer to that or should all our skepticism be intact . First youre absolutely right. Bill made great points as well. We dont have a great set up here for highlevel talks and highstakes talks. Usually it doesnt really help when youre lobbing insults across the world at one another. Its not usually a great set up. I also want to point out that while these talks are high stakes and theyre gravely serious, 100 , this back and forth thats going on right now about the letter, its all drama. Its theater. Its something the president s excellent at. And while were not, you know, while were talking about this, were not talking about puerto rico. Were not talking about russia. And i think this is something that has actually this summit has give n the president a chane to look a little more president ial. Thats reflected in his poll numbers. I dont see a need for the day by day back and forth. Al sharpton, i always like to talk about donald trump with you because youve known him a long time in different settings. Mara says he loves the drama. The whole thing today is exactly what he wants. Is that right . Well, yeah, its exactly what he wants because drama and him being the center of attention is what he really, really is all about. But i think that we cannot in any way dispel the fact that he caught himself out there and in many ways north korea called his bluff. Because what is different now than it was ten days ago or eight days ago, whenever he canceled the meeting . They have not promised that they are going to seriously deal with denuclearization in a meeting. We have not gotten any signal from them that is any different. So, with all of his bluffing, theyve called his bluff because youre going to get a letter. The letter made no concessions. You didnt even read the letter. And when you were questioned about denuclearization, you said, oh, they want it. I believe they want it. I dont know when, how. So what are you talking about . Then why did you cancel the meeting in the first place, and why was bolton and them talking about libya in the first place . Its a flimflam game on a global level on something very serious that we ought to not be playing with. Bill crystal, i think we all agree with this, its a serious thing we shouldnt be playing around. But lets take as read, the summit is now going to happen. For the sake of argument, its going to happen, right . What if you were asked to come into the Trump White House right now, having worked this executive branches when sum its are taken place. You were called in, bill, we want to make this a success. Give us the hard talk, the hard truth of what we need to do the next 12 days to make this, to increase the odds, the likelihood of success, what would be the bullet points to say you have to do x, y and z and that will give you the best chance of real success . Get at some real north korea experts to start w not me. One thing thats interesting, we havent had since the end of the cold war, weve had meetings with putin, the chinese leader. These g. 7 meetings, Multi Lateral summits, they read prepared remarks, sidebar, one thing we saw with reagan, real things can happen. It will be very important for pompeo and bolton and mattis to make sure trump understands what we want to achieve and what we wont giveaway and what we need to see happen in terms of real verifiable progress on denuclearization before we talk about presumably lessening sanctions or other things. One on one is a very different dynamic than a big round table with 15 people. Bill, you are so right. And i think over the next couple weeks everyone would do well to go back and study their history about reykjavik. Its an important word, gives you a sense of how incredibly fluid a situation can be when you have two heads of state, especially two heads of state where youre not friendly countries, how much can actually happen at the table no matter how you prepare for it. Its a realtime crisis in the making. So, when we come back, were going to move on to other topics, a man who just got granted a pardon from President Trump. Dinesh dsouza who speaks outs revealing what the president wants in exchange. Plus, a big question. Are there more pardons to come . Plus, the president just cant help himself. Why Donald Trumps own policies may be stepping on the gains we have seen in the economy. And roseanne and samantha bee. One fired for a racist tweet, the other facing calls from the white house to be fired. Is there a double standard or a false equivalency or what . Well talk about all of that coming up. This is bills yard. And bill has a noweeds, not in my yard policy. But with scotts turf builder weed feed, bill has nothing to worry about. It kills weeds and greens grass, guaranteed. This is a scotts yard. Donald trumps most recent pardon beneficiary the conservative commentator Dinesh Dsouza is back on television today revealing what donald trump told him that he wants in exchange for the clemency he got. The president said, dinesh, youve been a great voice for freedom and he said that i got to tell you mantoman, youve been screwed. He goes, ive been looking at the case. I knew from the beginning that it was fishy, but he said upon reviewing it he felt a great injustice had been done and that using his power he was going to rectify it, sort of clear the slate. And he said he just wanted me to be out there to be a bigger voice than ever defending the principles that i believe in. A voice for freedom, thats what donald trump says Dinesh Dsouza has been. Take a little peek at what dinesh has been a voice for. He came to prominence in the mid 1980s, a former provocateur at dartmouth, known for outing gay students. Hes become infamous in a whole bunch of things in the obama era, including inflammatory tweets like this one, you can take the boy out of the ghetto, there was a nickname for the former president , grownup trayvon. Hes even defended hitler. Let that one sink in for just one moment. But beyond the inflammatory talking points, President Trump may have a different agenda in mind with his pardon of dsouza convicted of Campaign Finance charges, like the ones swirling around trump fixer Michael Cohen. A message for the attorney to stay strong in the face of offers to flip, or to one of his most vocal critics, preet ba bharara who convicted dsouza. Donald trump uses whatever hour he has to attack people he feels wronged him and hell do whatever he feels he must to protect himself. For him pardons are a means of vengeance. Those he issued to date are a smaller hint of what could be coming as the russia investigation heats up. Joining us in washington from the Washington Post is the Washington Post bureau chief phil rucker. Hi, phil. Joining the table mimi rocca, former u. S. District attorney, now at pace law school. We quoted the New York Times editorial, i want to start with you. There are a lot of things to say about these pardons and some were said on the show yesterday. The notion of the pardon as not a form of clemency, not a form of forgiveness, but a form of retribution. Not what the pardon