Much. It is 11 00 a. M. Out west and 2 00 p. M. In washington where we are watching two big stories right now. First, at the white house, President Trump has called off what would have been a historic meeting with north Koreas Kim Jong jongun. Our other big story is unfolding on the hill where intel officials are briefing the bipartisan gang of eight this hour on the fbi informant who aided the russia investigation. And we just learned from a doj official that white house lawyer emmitt flood, one of the president s attorneys, came to the doj for the meeting. But this official who talked to us did not know how much, if any, of the meeting flood was able to attend. More on that in a minute. But we are going to start with that breaking news on north korea, since ss touch big breaking news. President trump is walking away from the planned june 12th meeting with kim jongun, at least for now. He sent a letter blaming the cancellation on the tremendous anger and open hostility in a recent statement by the North Koreans. Well, many things can happen and a great opportunity lies ahead, potentially. I believe that this is a tremendous setback for north korea and indeed a setback for the world. Our military, which is by far the most powerful anywhere in the world, and has been greatly enhanced recently, as you all know, is ready, if necessary. Hopefully positive things will be taking place with respect to the future of north korea. But if they dont, we are more ready than we have ever been before. If and when kim jongun chooses to engage in constructive dialogue, and actions, i am waiting. Its possible that the existing summit could take place, or a summit at some later date. Nobody should be anxious. We have to get it right. So the june 12 meeting is done. Cancel the conference room. Right . Well, maybe not. President trump said it is possible a summit could still take place on that date. Something echoed on capitol hill by secretary of state mike pompeo who played a key role in initially setting up the oneonone. What i am hopeful is that we can continue to have conversations and put this back on track so that we can get to a place where we can achieve the outcome. Outside of that hearing, lawmakers were quick to react. I think it is a good thing for kim jongun. We got this letter from the president saying, okay, never mind, he must be having a giggle fit. We were in a much better situation, the entire world is safe. This is the example of what happens when you dont understand the nature of the diplomacy that has to take place. I think kim jongun has made a serious mistake in deciding to make it impossible for this summit to occur. I think President Trump was right in walking away from a summit that clearly was not going to be about denuclearization. We have got a lot of questions. Is this deliberate . The president has often bragged about lis ability to walkway from a negotiation. Or was the white house just not prepared . And why didnt the white house give allies like south korea a headsup . Kim jongun has already released the three american hostages, and today he may have dismantled one of his nuclear sites. So it all points us to our big question what happens next . What does north korea say, and are we headed for a Nuclear Showdown . We have got a team of reporters here in the u. S. And abroad to help us understand this. Nbcs Kelly Odonnell is at the white house. Nbcs hans nichols is at the pentagon. And nbcs Janice Mackeyfrayer is in beijing. Kelly, first to a question thats nagging me. This statement seemed to come out of nowhere this morning. It was very abrupt. Why did the white house at the very least alert south korea . It seems like they did not, given the way south korea reacted. It would appear that the timeline put the release publicly before the contact the president had. He did say that he spoke with his counterparts in japan and south korea today. We dont have the exact timeline. We have seen, even in the initiation phase of this summit the abrupt way the president accepted the request from north korea and just feet from where i am standing now is where the south korean delegation came out and announced it a couple of months ago. So the protocol of how you notify your friends or how you publicly release this is not something that seemed to bear a great deal in the process. But as we are now hours after it, katy, i think it is important to keep looking for ways, that this is a tactical move that could still keep this perhaps on track. Just listening to the president s words today where he was forceful in saying it is over, and then back saying, it could be, it could be back on, including the same date, june 12th. So there is a lot of back and forth here on this. It has set into motion is it tactical im sorry to interrupt. But hes often thats how he speaks. Maybe this is going to happen, maybe it is not going to happen. Well see. It would be great. It would be terrible. He takes all sides of an issue in order to say, listen, i never promised this, or im not wrong, look what i said here. Its very trumpian syntax, no question. But the letter was more forceful, more direct and committed in a formal way. If we just take that, within the letter, there is still the, you can call me back, mr. Kim jongun, if youre interested. But it has triggered a response from other nations, and from lawmakers in both parties. Some who believe the president made the right move by pulling out of this, not liking the rhetoric coming from north korea. Others saying it exemplifies an administration that has not respected the longterm protocols of preparation and planning for such a summit. I think a key thing will be to find out if the white house representatives who were intending to be in singapore in the next few days to scout locations and do all of the things that are required to prepare for the summit, if they still go, thats a sign im holding on to my airline tickets. Good sign to watch out for. That letter, were going to read the entire thing in full in just a couple minutes because it is worth hearing the entire thing in full. Just a portion of it though, if you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write. Thats what the president said to kim jongun. And one other question thats been nagging me, kelly, that i hope youll have some clarity on. John bolton initially brought up north korea ending like libya if this summit doesnt work out or saying that that was a good plan for denuclearization. The president squashed that. He dismissed that idea, said no, no, no, were not doing that when north korea reacted poorly. Why did the Vice President bring it up again in a fox news interview . It is curious. He was prompted by a question about what could trigger a failure in this before we knew about todays decision to hold off on the summit. And in his response, he said that really the only thing that could turn this in to the libyan model, meaning you denuclearize, and then the leader of the country is ultimately killed by his own people, would be an utter failure on kim jonguns party. Thats sort of where the Vice President was going in the paragraph of his answer in a response to what could go wrong still. The problem with that, of course, is that it does invoke a dire ending for one of the parties of the summit and that was viewed unfavorably by north korea, prompting them to be critical of the Vice President , which gave us one of our iterations today where we were saying, by speaking harshly of the sitting Vice President of the United States before a summit, that that wouldnt fly. So that is one of the components that has caused the United States to back away, perhaps much more strongly is the threat of Nuclear Showdown. But it was an interesting choice t from the Vice President who typically does not freelance his comments very much. Good point. Janice, we havent heard from north korea yet. When could we potentially hear from them . Potentially, we could hear by tomorrow morning. The region has been blindsided by this, in particular south korean president moon jaein. Hes been a proponent of the engagement with the north. He was just in d. C. Meeting with President Trump about preparations for the summit. Now it appears there was no advanced communication with seoul that this letter was going to drop. As far as reaction from japan, theres Nothing Official yet, but people expect that shinzo abe might actually be a bit relieved. He was uneasy with the pace at which the diplomacy seemed to be moving forward. And there is no doubt that china has a role in this. At least according to President Trump. We can look at those comments that he made earlier this week about the change in attitude that he noticed in north korea and in kim jongun since that second meeting that kim had with xi jinping. Then again today, the president talking about dialogue being good until recently, and he thinks he knows why. So it is unclear whether hes apportioning some blame to china. But it does acknowledge the role that china plays in this. So they now reassert that position. China now reclaims that leverage over north korea. Remains to be seen whether we see that emerge in trade negotiations with the United States. But so much of what happens next is going to be determined by the reaction by north korea itself. Kim jongun had promised moon jaein that he would stop testing missiles, but hes made no promise that he is going to stop building them. And even with the dismantling of that Nuclear Testing site today, nothing has been verified, and even if it is, it will change nothing about north Koreas Nuclear capabilities. Remember, tomorrow in north korea is today. It is 3 00 a. M. Out there. So morning will be or when people are waking up, at least, will be just a few hours from now so we could hear something sooner than later. Hans nichols, how is the pentagon reacting . What weve learned the last couple hours here at the pentagon, one, military assets we have out there are on high eye lert b alert but not on heightened alert. Thats an important distinction because the pentagon says their posture has not changed. They are always on high alert out there, but they havent raised it because of these breakdown in talks. The pentagon thinks to themselves as the engine room of diplomacy. They keep churning, they keep working. Theyre not necessarily concerned about whats happening atop the ship. They want to make sure though that the military provides options to the president. I also think we learned another couple things. One, in terms of sanctions enforcement along north korea and the maximum pressure campaign, the pentagon is saying that they dont have any evidence that china is softening its enforcement of sanction. There had been some speculation about that. The initial view from the pentagon is that they dont think that china is walking back at all. And then crucially, theyre still assessing intelligence here at the pentagon on whether or not that Nuclear Test Site was completely dismantled. They are looking at pictures. Theyre looking at all the data. Theyll ultimately make a determination on that. One quick thing, katy, rhetoric here, while it might seem quite hot, talks about ready to fight tonight and were in a fighter stance, were in a boxers stance, a threestar general said earlier, thats fairly common here at the pentagon. Just the fact that theyre repeating it today, i dont think we should freight it with any more significance. Rhetoric from this building hasnt changed. Good context. Hans nichols, thank you very much. Kelly odonnell. And Janice Mackey frayer, appreciate it. Democratic senator ben carden of Maryland Joins us from capitol hill. Hes member of the Senate Foreign relations committee. Senator, thank you for being here. Do you know if anybody was made aware of this decision before it was announced this morning . Im quite certain that no one on capitol hill knew about it. We had a hearing this morning with secretary pompeo. As we are walking to the hearing, we got the letter. And it was quite a surprise. It was a surprise to our chairman, senator corker and the members of our committee. So we were not expecting this. You said it was puzzling a little bit earlier today. You also talked about diplomacy. Do you think that this is going to be a larger strategy for the president to get them back to the negotiating table with more favorable terms . Is there reason to believe that . Well, i have major questions as to how the president conducts Foreign Policy and diplomacy. So this, to me, is strange. But i do think the president understands that diplomacy is the only satisfactory way to resolve this crisis. And we all agree that north korea is the bad guy. Theyre the ones who are violating the nuclear protocols and they need to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. We all agree to that. But we need a pursued diplomacy. Seems to me at times, including today, the president elevates the tension where i dont agree that was necessary. Senator cardin, what do you think might happen next . Before this, the president was trading jabs with the north korean leader, tweeting about his big nuclear button. And in this letter that he wrote to him he also says, you talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that i pray to god they will never have to it be used. Are we heading for another Nuclear Showdown . Or another testing of missiles . Well, one of the positive results from these discussions is that we now have direct conversations from the United States and north korea. So i am hopeful that well see those communications continue. There was some concern as to whether enough work had been done in preparation for the june 12th summit. I hope that we get back on track and that we can find a way to move forward. Clearly we have to be very strong. Our objective is to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. We need to make sure we have inspections in place. We got to be tough, but we have to pursue diplomacy and i dont think it helps when we do these macho type of comments back and forth. Well, on that, should people be nervous . I mean kim jongun is irratic. Hes got Nuclear Weapons. He was testing them, then suddenly he was conciliatory with the president. The president was taunting him with insults and tweets, then he was conciliatory towards the north korean leader. People are a little off center from all of this. Should people be nervous given todays announcement . Absolutely. I dont think north korea or the United States wants to initiate a military confrontation. But there could be a miscalculation. And todays actions by President Trump leaves that possibility as a stronger possibility that could be a miscalculation. Once you start shooting, it could be extremely tragic. Senator ben cardin, senator, thank you very much for joining us and helping us understand. And next the letter. The letter. And, what happens next. Stay with us. David. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. Thats it . Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. Its part of our commitment to being americas best first job. Sure. Mom,whats up son . Alk . I cant be your it guy anymore. What . You guys have xfinity. You can do this. Whats a good wifi password, mom . You still have to visit us. I will. No. Make that the password you stillohave toovisit us. Thats a good one. [ chuckles ] download the xfinity my account app and set a password you can easily remember. One more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. Welcome back. Were still following breaking news. Donald trump has canceled the june 12th oneonone in singapore between himself and the leader of north korea. The white house had said the summit was supposed to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula and denuclearize the north. The president called off a meeting in a letter to kim jongun. And here is the letter in full. Dear mr. Chairman, we greatly appreciate your time, patience and effort with respect to our recent negotiations and discussions relative to a summit long sought by both parties, which was scheduled to take place on june 12st in singapore. We were informed the meeting was requested by north korea but that to us is totally irrelevant. I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, i feel it is inappropriate at this time to have this longplanned meeting. Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the singapore summit for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place. You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that i pray to god they will never have to be used. I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately it is only that dialogue that matters. Some day, i look very much forward to meeting you. In the meantime, i want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated. If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write. The world and north korea in particular has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth. This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history. Sincerely yours, donald j. Trump, president of the United States of america. Former director for korea, japan and Oceanic Affairs at the