States. Chilling words. I couldnt help but go back and Jesse Rodriguez called me up and we talked about it. Couldnt help but go back to something that we had talked about on the show a year ago. Lets take a quick look. Several months ago a Foreign Policy expert on the International Level went to advise donald trump and three times he asked about the use of Nuclear Weapon. Three times he asked if we have them, why canty use them . Thats one of the reason he just doesnt have Foreign Policy experts trump asked three times . Three times in an hour briefing why cant we use Nuclear Weapons . Be careful, america, and be careful republican leaders. Your party is blowing up. I want to ask one more time and it may be classified but the steps, donald trump decide to use a Nuclear Weapon, what is the time frame between his decision and when the Nuclear Weapons are launched . Joe, its scenario dependent but the system is designed for speed and decisiveness. Its not designed to debate the decision. And of course, willie, when we were sitting there, nobody really thought donald trump had a good chance of winning the presidency, but even then even under those scenarios, i remember all of us were chilled by those questions. And the discussions that followed. Here we are a year later, donald trump was elected president and yesterday we heard the sort of language that sounds like the man is just as open a year later to the use of Nuclear Weapons as he was when he was talking to that Foreign Policy adviser, who walked out of his office completely chilled by what he just heard. Ill never forget that day. Ill never forget what john hayden said thats words met with fire and fury are on the front page of every paper in the world this morning. We have Mike Barnicle, national consider correspondent steve bern bernaki, Washington Bureau chief and mika has the morning off. The Washington Post came out with a report that says a u. S. Intel assessment believes north korea now has the ability to miniaturize a Nuclear Weapon and attach it to a missile. However, according to a u. S. Official briefed on the intelligence, it does not believe pyongyang has a nucleartipped icbm. Here it is again. North korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury, like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening beyond a normal statement. They will be met with fire, fury and fraenkly power, the likes o which this world has never seen before. Hours after President Trumps warning, north korea state media announced the regime is seriously considering to strike the u. S. Territory of guam developing fire around the area. Guam is home to Andrew Air Force base. Its just rhetoric but its more specific rhetoric than weve heard in the past. Its the sort of rhetoric weve grown to expect from north korea. Its not, though, what we expect from any of our president s, president s of the United States. David ignatius, i know people were throwing around examples in the past where bill clinton or somebody else may have said something about strikes to north korea but nothing to this degree. Again, going back to what we were talking about a year ago, there it been some concern in the International Community and among Foreign Policy experts that donald trump might take extreme measures if elected president of the United States. One of my children called me yesterday and said you were concerned about this last year. Well, last year we didnt know he would win and this is very, very frightening. David, tell us what youre hearing and hearing from others overseas. This crisis which has been coming at us slowly over months has just speeded up big time. Intelligence reports say that the north korean ability to put a Nuclear Weapon on top of a missile is probably farther along than we thought even a month ago. President trump has ratcheted up the rhetoric, but its also true in the last few weeks, he has increased efforts to draw china into the diplomacy that might seek a peaceful resolution of this crisis. From early in his presidency, he saw beijing as the key to some way of dealing with north korea. Hes made some progress on that. Last weekend china joined the United States in a Unanimous Security Council resolution condemning north korea for its Nuclear Missile tests. The north koreas have rejected any possibility of negotiating. The president s rhetoric, this fire and fury stuff is as much intended to scare china he might take action, which will be devastating for chinas region as it is north korea. The president wants china to put itself in between the u. S. And north korea as a way out of this. To do that he thinks hes got to be very, very threatening. And where, david, are his generals, general mcmaster, general kelly, when lobbing such bombs north koreas way. From the first day, his top military adviser, starting with secretary of defense mattis, have been warning that a conflict on the Korean Peninsula would be at a level of civilian casualties, level of destruction that the world has not seen, one official said since stalingrad in world war ii, a terrible cost in human lives. There is not a good military option here. That said, these senior officials, mat yes, sir, m mattis, mcmaster, are all working to give him options, how do you take over north korea weapons without leading them to attack, seoul, just across the dmz and kill hundreds of thousands of koreans. Thats the problem theyre looking at. No one should think this is just rhetoric. The military planning is going on right now. Its accelerating in Pacific Command headed by harry harris. Our military people are staying up late trying to answer trumps question how do you do this . In answer to trumps remarks, response has been swift. I take exception to the president s comments because youve got to be sure you can do what you say youre going to do. In other words, old walk softly but carry a big stick, Teddy Roosevelts saying, which i think is something that should have applied because all it going to do is bring us closer to some kind of serious confrontation. So all i can say is that i dont believe that president reagan or president eisenhower or other president s that ive admired would have said the same thing. They might have done as much as we could but not that kind of rhetoric, im not sure how it helps. And democratic senator brian schatz of hawaii said we need nominations to ambassador to south korea, secretary for east asia affairs and secretary for Asian PacificSecurity Affairs sent to the senate now. Youre talking about american servicemen and women closer than that along the bored are, youde talking about tokyo. Theres a lot that happens. The are in the koreans have enough armaments to kill 20 Million People within a couple of minutes in terms of missiles in the air. Everybody i speck to yesterday afternoon and early evening, they all had the same question and i dont think its been answered yet. Im wondering if David Ignatius has an answer to it. Who vetted this statement in who helped him write this statement . Was it just him or was it the nsc helping him with the statement . Was it general mcmaster . Was it general kelly . Because it is a frightening selection of word, david. And an imposed threat and the threat is more powerful if its made privately and directly to the chinese. Do you have any information about who helped vet that statement . I dont specifically, mike, on that statement in general. I know that most senior officials in this white house, in our government, have concluded we have elected one president and its donald trump and he has his on way of communicating. He using hyperbole, he uses bullying language. Theres a view here making clear to north korea and the chinese that the president is serious in saying if you dont help us solve this, were going to do it our way. Senator mccains point that that often doesnt lead to the outcome that you want, rather than scaring people, it puts it in this area of rhetorical, chang. But the one thing we know about this president is nobody really vets the tweets, nobody i think in this case vetted that particular language. He spoke it as if he was very proud to be saying just those words. And unfortunately its right in line with what peggy noon aa wrote about in her column, talking about how donald trump speaks loudly and tries to be gruff but in the end undercuts himself and often looks weaker. Julie, i know around the white house you follow the president and im sure youve seen some of the stories and heard some of the examples where hes used the phrase the likes of which the world has neff seen before. Hes used them on corn prices, im sure at some point in a promotional video. Here we, go the price of corn has jumped over 50 . This will cause a jump in food price perhaps beyond what weve ever seen, nasty for the economy. Im sure he used them on trump steaks. What can you tell us from inside the white house yesterday after the president developed these frightening words . Youre right, this is almost look a verbal tick. Its much difference to use it regarding military power, perhaps military weapons. Inside the white house there are two camps on these types of things. Do you have people who cringe when the president uses this type of bellicose rhetoric. We dont know how theyll react to this type of rhetoric, but there are other people who look at the situation and say, okay, maybe other president s havent talked this way but other president s havent resolved the situation with north korea the way the obama or Bush Administration handled it, maybe delivering threats privately, backing off, not giving the north korea the attention they wanted. But john mccain said, you cant use that language if you dont have a plan to back it up when youre talking about a foe like north korea. And if you dont back it up, what have you done . Youve become barack obama and youve put down a red line in syria and then you walk away from it and it makes the United States look foon even weaker on the internation stage and its one more reason why donald trump and other president s should never talk this way. Its why when a president has said Something Like this, its usually calculated, vetted and gone through all the National Security channels. To put a point on the likes of which the United States has never soon, he used that when talking about the Opioid Crisis and borderline. Heres President Trump yesterday. It is a problem the likes of which we have not seen, i would say the likes of which that country has never seen this kind of strength. Steve kornacki, that comes against the back drop, david talked about a significant week in terms of sinanctions, a billn dollars, a third of their exports taken away from them. Up have secretary of state Rex Tillerson saying were not for rooj eem change, we just want to you pull back your nuclear program. It interesting because the thing that i was trying to figure out listening to him yesterday, thinking about it afterwards is who was the audience that was in his mind as he was delivers that . Is this the president who was thinking of the American People . This this annin stint on him to try to sound tough to the voters who lelected him . I think that was interesting listening to david a few minutes was the idea maybe this was intended and maybe the audience in his mind of the chinese and maybe in his mind there might have been some strategic purpose here of making the chinese think we better take this sanction message more seriously. Is that a message that the chinese received from this . If this is what the president was thinking, is that how theyre likely to respond to it . Are they likely to take it a different way . China and the u. S. Are playing a little bit of a Good Cop Bad Cop diplomatic round here. China has been warning north korea on its own but also saying youre really going to have to got into this diplomatic round, this guys crazy, this guys going to go after you. There is that dynamic here. So the more the president ratchets up the rhetoric, the more the president it would be a disaster for china, for south korea, japan, the whole region. I think thats at play here. The problem with this kind of rhetoric is you get stuck in it. Joe made the right point, you in effect draw a red line and people sometimes call you on it. The North Koreans are very good at that. Their business is defines. So they wait for moments like this to puncture the other side with actions of their own. The North Koreans have played the United States quite effectively for the past 30 i asked the question yesterday, it was more of a rhetorical question and i think unfortunately i know the answer to it. Do we really believe does anybody at this tape really believe, do people that know this pred really believe hes going to be the president that lous north korea to gettenons that can strike seattle, portland, San Francisco and possibly los angeles . Is he going to let that be written about him in the history books and i just dont see that as a possibility. I mean, as frightenings that is, i just dont think he has the mindset to say, well, theres nothing we can do about it so i guess were going to have to try to figure out how to contain that Nuclear Threat like weve contained pakistans Nuclear Threat, like were going to have to contain irans Nuclear Threat. When you start thinking that way, willie, suddenly everything David Ignatius is saying and everything that mika and i have been hearing off the record that people are preparing for a war with north korea, preparing for all the possibilities of war with north korea from the south to the north or defending an attack from the north to the south suddenly unfortunately it seems frighteningly real. I agree with you he will not and does not want to be the president to allow north korea to launch a Nuclear Attack against the United States. The question is how does he stop it . Is he willing to strike preemptively against north korea with all those implications . And hes also the first president weve had since ut talked about bill clinton in 94 that north korea ignored, when north korea put out the rhetoric about engulfing in flames and hes the first to respond with comment as strong as with fire and fury. The problem is weve had a lot of thanksgiving happening and history is speeding forward much more quickly than donald trump would have expected, than a lot of our generals would have expected. Things are happening faster out of north korea with the development of these weapons that we would have expected. Barack obama, when they were sitting and talking during the transition for those who havent heard this yet, he sat down with donald trump and said you can worry about obamacare, go ahead, do it, have fun. Whats going to keep you awake at night is going to be north korea. Thats what you better start focusing on now. And of course thats proved to be unfortunately all too true six months later but i dont even think the Obama Administration or many Foreign Policy experts would have expected their nuke cler or Missile Technology to move this quickly forward in six months. And it ties into your book as you talk about the devils bargain with steve bannon influencing it doesnt feel like steve bannon. Where is that mindset coming from now is. Donald trump is now in the west wing, not surrounded by people like steve bannon, who can present a more bannon is not a guy in his cabinet who would be pushing for this. When trump going to bedminister, he tends to react, it was at bedminister where he deaver sided to fire jsid decided to fire james comey. David ignatius, this has always been the conflict at the center of Donald TrumpsForeign Policy, even during the Campaign Donald trump would say we fought too many wars, we need to bring our sons home, let everybody else worry about their regions, were not going to spend money on more missiles. And at the same time in the same speech he would say were going to destroy isis, were going to run them into the ground. Were going to wipe them off the face of the earth, its easy, were going to do it quickly, were going to stand up to the iranians, were going to tear up that nuclear deal. Theres always been trump the isolationist when hes playing for the crowds but then theres been trump, the jacksonian. The purest sense of the term, were going to go over and destroy anybody quickly that gives us any trouble and then were going to come back home. I think youre right, joe. I think theres that tngs ensio trump. Within one of the things hes been consistent about is saying to u. S. 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