Take a listen. We dont know that theyre going to work this time. It was something we needed to do. We said on saturday when we took the vote that this wasnt going to stop our north korea problem. What this is going to do is send a very strong message and a united message. It was a strong day for the United States. It was a strong day for the united nations. Now, President Trump touting the new sanctions on twitter as a diplomatic victory. At the same time today, hallie, he retweeted a story that cites unanimous sources. Let me read you the headlines of that story. U. S. Spy satellites detect north korea moving antiship cruise missiles to control both. What is significant about this is that President Trump has stories that rely on Anonymous Sources and, of course, his attorney general has vowed to crack down on leakers. So, all of this, the backdrop, as the president prepares to monitor the situation in north korea for yet another day, hallie. Kristen welker there in bridgewater, new jersey. Well ask you to come back in a couple minutes to talk through some other headlines of the day if you dont mind. First, courtney who is at the pentagon. Courtney, we were talking about north korea. Obviously, a focus of the day. Also some new news we mentioned on afghanistan, on another area of Critical International concern. Walk us through what the pentagon is looking at, how many more troops were talking about. What are we looking at here . Just under 100 marines that are going into southwestern afghanistan to helman province. Of course earlier this year the u. S. Sent 300 more marines there and established a task force called task force southwest. Soon after they arrived there the commanding general said he needed more troops. He needed some more marines for both internal security, which is securing the additional marines who are there already and some more trainers and advisors. The head of u. S. Central command approved that request, but those marines have not yet moved in. So, i think one of the questions on everyones mind is, is this part of this new strategy that the white house has been working on for some time now. This south asia strategy and the answer is no. This is something the commander on the ground needed an additional capability, he requested it and it was approved. This also is not part of what general mattis got. President trump, as you well know, halli, gave secretary mattis the ability to destroy war troop without white house approval. This is not part of that new authority, as well. This is something that is an inherent right of the Central Command commander to move troops around within his region, within the Central Command region. Courtney, you got a by line on another critical piece out today talking aboutthe fight against isis as it relates to the philippines. Well talk about that later on in the show, too. I think a lot of americans would be surprised to know there is a big isis problem in the philippines. It has been a problem for several months. The u. S. Has provided them some additional intelligence access, some cessnas and a couple of drones recently. But now theres talk of doing several things. Number one, providing them, naming an operation, naming a u. S. Military operation which has some implications. What it would also potentially mean is giving some, providing some armed drones. The u. S. , of course, would control the armed drones, but they would share some inof the intelligence and it would mean the u. S. Taking air strikes against isis in the philippines which would be, of course, the u. S. Military striking against isis in another country around the world. Like i said, were diving into that with bill neely and others in the show. Thank you for that. With me, jamie as well as a Senior State Department adviser and now a senior fellow at the atlantic counsel and White House Reporter ken thomas and npr and host of the npr politics podcast tamra. Jamie, i want to start with you, you know a thing or two about north korea. Can you blame them . What is his incentive for coming to the negotiating table . Well, north korea has one big goal, that is to develop Nuclear Weapons. To maintain the position of their regime. So, they are going to hold on to power and they see Nuclear Weapons as essential for doing that. Having said that, once they have established their Nuclear Deterrent and theyre pretty close to that, they would like to have negotiations, particularly direct negotiations with the United States. So, thats their goal. If they can keep Nuclear Weapons and negotiate with the United States, thats a big win for them. Nikki haley was out on today show this morning and she was talking about this. Giving stark acknowledgments about what is and what is not realistic on the ground, jamie. I want you to listen to what the u. N. Ambassador had to say. He may not negotiate now. I think what we did we sent a message and now we have gone directly after their hard currency. Think about it, all the revenue that comes into north korea. It dozen go to feeding their people. The human rights there are terrible. What it does go to is a Ballistic Missile program. They no longer will have the amount of money to do that. But the question that matt lauer was about to press to nikki haley, is it too late . Are the capabilities as such it doesnt matter what you do with the revenue straem coming in . For sure they have come a long way in developing their Nuclear Weapons and missile capabilities. On top of this, this is among their highest priorities as a country. Even if we squeeze them more, how are they allocating even more resources that they have. And its still going to go toward developing these capabilities. It may be that as a result of these sanctions and particularly as a result of russia and, more importantly, china, joining in that there could be a pause in missile tests. But theyve already come a long way. So, in many ways, north korea starting with a very bad hand is negotiating extremely well and they have been trying to see whats the limit . How far can they go . Theyve gone a long way and both a lot of tests of missiles and nuclear capabilities. If there is a pause and nuclear negotiati negotiations, in many ways, that is a win for them. I saw them nodding that same time at what youre saying regarding some of these issues, particularly in north korea and coming to the negotiating table with a weak hand. Right. I think the question here is how patient is the president going to be in trying to get china and russia to help these sanctions get implemented. We saw him in june tweet that, you know, weve tried to work with him on this issue and its not working out. How patient will he be. He tweeted that, but then there wasnt necessarily action backing up that tweet. We still have a dialogue with the u. S. And china. It it seems like chinas response to all the tweeting, yeah, okay. The tweets were going to look for action from the United States and, ultimately, they did agree to this u. N. Security counsel resolution along with russia. Which is sort of a victory for President Trump and especially for u. N. Ambassador nikki haley. When it comes to china, jamie, you have made the point that others have made. Ally to the u. S. Is chinas nightmare and the view from china might be changing because the benefits of a divided north korea might be changing. What i mean for china right now they have a strong, historic relation with north korea. North korea wouldnt exist but for chinas intervention and north korea is kept alive by their trade and essentially aid that they get from china. Having said that, the costs to china of north koreas Nuclear Weapons program are great. It justifies stronger u. S. Relations with south korea and japan. It justifies Nuclear Missile shields that harm china. It just, it undermines the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty that china benefits from as it becomes more Important International actor. And it potentially would justify the development of Nuclear Weapons by south korea and maybe even some day japan. So, a lot of costs to china as those costs go up, china will be forced to make some difficult decisions they havent beignet forced to make. Very quickly i want to touch on what Kristen Welker brought up. We know he wants to talk about the sanctions against north korea and retweeting this fox report, by the way, citing unnamed sources potentially it appears based on leaks. He doesnt like leaks, but he likes this article. Explain this to me. What is going on . He just retweets stuff. He read the article and it had unnamed sources. He saw a headline and he retweeted it. He retweets fox news several times a day. Do you think it will blow over, ken . I think this is how he operates. And ying ti think well have to how these things are implemented and whether there could be an attempt to reach some sort of agreement. Ill ask you to hang out for a little bit longer. Jamie, thank you for joining us from new york. Im asking you all to stick around because President Trump in the last 24 hours hummable bragging about his base being stronger than before. Fact check. Not so much. Brandnew polls just out today. The president set to talk today with his team from new jersey. Up next, the one big question we have about what could come out of it. Your brain is an amazing thing. 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Looking ahead to this afternoon the president is speaking about his Health Secretary about the Opioid Crisis. Is he going to make this declaration of a National Emergency that his Opioid Commission wants him to. Do we know . At this point, no indication that that is going to happen, hallie. I wouldnt rule it out. As you point out, that is something that is certainly on the table. What we do expect is for tom price to brief the president on efforts to crack down on the opioi crisis. As you know the president created a panel to deal with this led by Chris Christie. We just learned moments ago that the first lady is going to attend this meeting. Her spokesperson telling us opioid abuse is affecting thousands of families across the country and the well being of our children is a priority of the first lady. She requested to attend todays briefing. Tap to put this into broader context, back in 200515,000 americans died of opioid addiction and in 2015 that number skyrocketed to 33,000. This is a National Epidemic and hardhit areas include places like ohio. It also comes on the heels of last week the leaked conversations that President Trump had with foreign leaders he won New Hampshire because a drug infested den. Damage control also today, hallie. We expect the president will make some brief remarks after he meets with his hhs secretary, hallie. Were going to hit three topics with them. We want you to hang out, we have two more to discuss regarding the president s day in bedminister. We want to bring in Michael Steele and former chairman of the rnc and friend of this program and back with me npr tamra. Michael, ill go first to you. The president calling New Hampshire a drug infested den. He brought Chris Christie in for this commission. Do you see movement or action in august on this and how will that play over on the hill. I think there will be some movement. I think the president is looking for anything that will be a positive reset for him. He will take the time at his summer retreat to sort of regroup in that sense and this is a good way to do that. Its a National Conversation thats ongoing. He can now be a part of that conversation. Sort of direct it. Hes been very clear about this during the campaign. Its something that Chris Christie certainly brought to the attention of a lot of people during the political process. So, i think the president will take advantage of it. For the folks on the hill, yeah, everybody will have a wait and see. See exactly what this means. The first lady getting involved, thats news. Thats an important elevation of this topic. Thats exactly why its so important for her to step out on this. You have done a lot of reporting on the Opioid Crisis. The drug czar will be there for this briefing. Members of staffs of a couple of senators, bipartisan, both sides of the aisle have asked them about this. And they say that both of these senate staff say, you know, the senators just dont really know in practical terms what this Emergency Declaration would mean. But they also emphasize that the time for talking and writing nice reports is over. And action is absolutely necessary. One item in that report in the Opioid Commission report that is just stunning says that every three weeks the death toll from overdoses in this country is another 9 11. Its stunning numbers. Its something that clearly has the president s attention. As you mention, michael, hes looking for kind of an august reset, if you will. And that is sort of in stark contrast of what were seeing across america with frankly his poll numbers. Kristen welker will come back and join us now for point number two. The president has been talking just this week while on his working vacation that his base is bigger and stronger than ever before. Is that actually true based on new polling that seems to suggest that its kind of the opposite. It does seem to suggest its the opposite, hallie. Lets take a look at the numbers and then discuss them on the other side. This is according to a cnn poll that finds that strong support from republicans is down 14 since february. Among whites without college debrd degrees. Remember, thats an important trump group. Their support down 12 . Overall, 38 . Approve of the president s job performance. Thats down six points since april. Also the lowest number for the president in this particular poll so far. Now over the weekend Kellyanne Conway was asked about these poll numbers more broadly. She acknowledged more broadly that the numbers were down in the trump base and she said, look, the bottom line is his agenda isnt getting through. She sort of put the blame on congress but there is no doubt that the stalled efforts in Health Care Reform fed into this and then you have a lot of voters saying theyre frustrated by the president s tweets. So, i do think in terms of that august reset, he could be looking for that, particularly when it comes tahis legislative agenda, hallie. Support for republicans, down 14 since february. You heard kristen Mention Health care is a part of that. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said to me, yeah, because congress is Holding Things up. Not about the president and his trustworthness or credibility, the fact that members of congress arent getting it done. Thats just crazy lala talk because the fact of the matter is what is driving a lot of that is how people feel about the president. Yes, agenda is part of it. That is not a big driver for this administration because they have not led with their strength. Which is tax reform. Which theyre hoping to get to at the end of the summer and the beginning of the fall. But, up to this point, youre looking at negative numbers on the president , not necessarily the agenda. So, that 56 , which is now up, you know, up to disapproving of the president s handling of his job has very little to do with the lack of an agenda and more how people are seeing and perceiving what this administration is doing overall. Its focusing on the president s job. What does this mean for 2018 . It means a lot. Folks are already beginning to assess how much water, baggage, whatever you want to call it theyll carry for this white house going into 2018. If youre a candidate on the ballot and youre looging at these numbers. The president is at 56 disapproval overall, hes about, you know, about that in my district. My conversation is not there is also a direct correlation between these numbers and losing seats in the house. Republicans have a lot of gerrymander districts and it will help them hold on. The senate map seems to be better for republicans. But you just cant defy expectations if youre at like 38 approval. Theres only so many fr