I always found Paul Manafort to be a very decent man. Hes like a lot of other people, probably makes consultant fees from all over the place. Hes on the cover of the national eninquirer this week, doesnt usually end well for associates of donald trump. Commander in chief saving the toughest dig for Mitch Mcconnell. Im very disappointed in mitch but if he gets the bills passed ill be very happy. This ongoing war is completely baffling. Why would the president of United States want to pick a fight with his own leader. Its a good point. If hes never going to get a democratic vote, hes essentially saying, i have no hope for getting anything ever passed. Theres a lot going on here but lets go back to what the president is saying about north korea and preparations locked and loaded. Fire and fury, beat to a jelly, a nuclear war of words between President Trump and kim jongun. Its a frightening game of one upmanship. Two World Leaders tripling down on threats and taunts. These are two men who never back down. The prtd was asked on thursday about the fire and fury remarks that rattled allies and add sers varies alike and issued a warning about guam and it is more than 160,000 u. S. Citizens there. For those frankly the people questioning that statement, was it too tough . Maybe it wasnt tough enough. He does something in guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before what will happen in north korea. Then this morning north korea blasting out a new string of threats saying President Trump is driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war. Were talking about two nations with Nuclear Power then warning, quote, a single shell dropped on the peninsula might lead to Thermo Nuclear war, calling the u. S. No more than a lump which we can beat to a jelly any time. And trump using his own twitter account to launch attacks back at north korea saying military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded should north korea act unwisely. Hopefully kim jongun will find another path. This is extraordinary, ali, these are tough words on both gentlemens parts and playing a dangerous game. The reference to a single shell dropped on the Korean Peninsula is in reference to a plan that weve discussed whereby the United States not escorted by south korean or japanese fighters would target with artillery military targets in north korea without involving the South Koreans and japanese. You heard general mcmaster saying thats not going to work. Thats what the North Koreans are saying. What so many are wishing for the sanctions that are already in place or additional ones put them in place truly enforce them and then lets see where we go. Were pushing fast forward on rhetor rhetoric. Lets go to south korea where kelly is standing by. Reporter those words, those war that war of words going back and forth between President Trump and the north korean regime is really raising anxiety levels here in south korea and region as a whole. In guam Homeland Security sent out a twopage tip sheet advising people on what to do to survive the missile attack, things like dont look into the fire ball it can blind you and tips on where to find protection, how long to stay in a protected area. These are the kinds of things that are coming out right now in this extraordinary time where youre saying the rhetoric just ratchetted up over and over again between trump and the north korean regime. You mentioned that latest commentary, appearing in a north korean newspaper this morning, more fiery language from the North Koreans calling the u. S. War mongers and and saying donald trump is really the person responsible for bringing this region to the brink of a nuclear war saying once again that even one shell dropped on north korea could start a new world war. Now, it appears as though the South Koreans are getting a little bit of reassurance potentially from general mcmaster, the National Security chief speaking with his counterpart in south korea over the phone in the past 24 hours or so. South korea government came out with a statement after that saying the two sides have agreed to Work Together to continue to cooperate on this north korea threat and also suggesting that south korea would be consulted in advance before any strike on north korea. But nevertheless, you are seeing that sense of rising anxiety here. Some anecdotal reports of people going out and buying more emergency meals, theres a big Civil Defense drill in south in seoul that has been expanded reportedly later this month. And also, really interestingly guys, for the first time talk of south korea actually developing its own Nuclear Weapons program. Ali and steph. And seoul is half of the population, metro area is half of the population of all south korea and youre only 35 miles from the demilitarized zone. One of the issues of people in seoul, nuclear is something thats interesting to other allies and the United States but seoul has been under artillery and normal threat in the past. So the folks in seoul are at high level of stress. Thanks, kelly, well stay on top of this with you. Talking with reporters on thursday, President Trump sounded very much like his former businessman self. The biggest problem this world has is nuclear proliferation. Nuclear to me, number one, i would like to denuke the world. But between those then and now he sounds a bit different. Can you tell the middle east were not using a Nuclear Weapon . I would never say that. Never take any cards off the table. How about in europe . Im not going to take it off the table for anybody. In europe . No, i dont think so. I am not taking cards off the table. That just a few days after he told the New York Times in a phone call, maybe its not so bad if japan had Nuclear Weapons. Ali, im so taken by this tip sheet that guam, the government sent to its people just fyi, get ready with these kind of things kelly went over. Its serious. Lets talk about the idea. Does donald trump want to denuke the world or more people to have Nuclear Missiles. Lets look what we know about the world and Nuclear Missiles and start with this is what we believe to be the total inventory of Nuclear Weapons. The United States, russia and United Kingdom and pakistan and india and since 2006 north korea. These inventories range from 7,000 roughly for the United States and russia. By treaty supposed to be the same number. Some of them are old and we replace them but they drop down to the hundreds for the rest of the list and down to 84 israel and about 10 and 20 for south korea. These are by the way just midpoint estimates, israel may have more, north korea may have less. How do we get rid of Nuclear Weaponry . The strategic arms reduction treaty start was signed by the United States and what was then the ussr in 1991. It reduced the number of warheads but by the way those are signs by president s bush and gorbachev, aimed to lower the number of nukz over ten years. They hit the target and signed two other things. Lets go to the next screen. They signed two other decades long treaties but thats ultimately where we are now. The latest one being the imaginatively named new start streetty, that was president obama and medvedev at the time. Thats reducing, not getting rid of the arms. That was the treaty on nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Every country has signed except for india, pakistan, israel, south sudan and north korea withdrew from this in 2003. If most of those countries sound familiar thats because they make up about half of the list of Nuclear Armed nations, its pretty difficult to denuke the world when half of the countries that have nukes wont agree to a treaty. On guam, as stephanie just said, they are being warned what to do and not do if theres a strike. Do not look at the flash or fire ball, it can blind you. Take cover behind anything that might offer protection. Little vague for my taste and lie flat on the ground and cover your head. It could take 30 seconds or more for the blast wave to hit. The remember the south korean threat is to drop a bomb about 25 miles off the coast of guam. They are not suggesting they are hitting guam. This is a bit of a change from the governor for the last couple of days has been saying nothing to see here, go about your business which you and i both mentioned on the show felt strange given they were threaten the by north korea. The Associated Press reports the Trump Administration has been quietly engaged in back channel diplomacy with north korea for several months. Joining us now, peter brooks, now the heritage foundations senior fellow of National Security affairs and served as d Deputy Assistant director of affairs for george bush. This back Channel Communication line diplomacy between the white house and north korea, should we take this as a positive sign . Thus far it didnt seem there was much diplomacy anywhere . Theres always diplomacy going on. North korea doesnt have an embassy in the United States. We dont have one in pyongyang but theres a channel in new york at the United Nations and theres a lot of contact between u. S. Officials there and North Koreans. Theres opportunities to meet with North Koreans in china. Theres talks going on all the time. Doesnt mean theres any progress but theres exchanges of views. Im not surprised. Also others are getting into this. They are supposedly i havent seen it yet but supposedly the russian and chinese are proposing some things. The chinese have come out an unofficial mouthpiece, a newspaper that also expresses the views always expresses the views of the governments but tells the North Koreans, if you pick a fight with the United States were not going to back you and sent a message to the United States, if you pick a fight with north korea well get involved. Theres a lot going on and a lot of it may be not be above the surface. Its being done quietly and that is a good thing. One interesting thing i was talking about Nuclear Weapons everybody has got. My first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. Now far stronger and more powerful than ever before. Hopefully we never have to use this power but there will never be a time were not the most powerful nation in the world. You know every president has to reup the agreement that renovates the nuclear arsenal. Thats not a donald trump thing, it was a thing he did wont take effect until 2018. Weve been modernizing our Nuclear Weaponry every year since the new start treaty. I disagree a little bit. I think it fell by the wayside under president obama and so did Missile Defense which is strategic defense as opposed to strategic offense. Its important that we have this credible threat we live in a dangerous world, never want to use these weapons but remember, deterrence is in the mind of the person youre trying to deter. Its important we have this capability and i think its important on the part of the president or one of the senior cabinet officials such as defense secretary or secretary of state to let North Koreans understand that if they start a fight with the United States its not a fight you want, if you start it just a second, this will end badly for them. No issue there but theres nothing President Trump has done about Nuclear Weapons that would result in his statement it is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before. Anything President Trump did will not happen in january of 2018 when it comes toed modernization six months from now, only been in office for six months. As an expert, i want to clear up. I cant say im a Nuclear Expert on this issue, right. Fair enough. Your further point, stephanie and i have been talking about this, china getting involved. It has said interesting back channel mixed messages to say to north korea were not necessarily going to have your back if you do this. But what should america be reading from the other side of that message that if you start a war with north korea, well get involved. What do you think that means . Its very clear. Its very clear. Its a very clear declare tri policy which benefits us to understand. Theres a lot of Communications Going on between us and china, here in washington, in beijing other places. Theres a lot of talk going on because this involves both of us. I think we knew that. This is nothing really new. They are allies. They are troubled they have a troubled alliance i would say but north korea remember 1950, who backed north korea when they invaded the south, it was china which changed the course of the war. China will back them. They have different interests on the Korean Peninsula than the United States. They dont want to see a unified korea that might be prou. S. , they dont want to see a civil war in north korea and see the regime implode where they would see large refugee flows, china has fundamentally different interests. China cant pick up and walk away from being attached with north korea. They have tremendous interest and thats why people have been pressuring china to say look, your interests are greater than ours in north korea. You really ought to do something since youre the largest ben factor to modify their behavior. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Peter brooks of the heritage foundation. The russia investigation is heating up. President Trumps Campaign manager under the gun and trump thanks Vladimir Putin . Find out why coming up. Here were keeping up with voters around the country to see how they think President Trump is doing thus far. Here are a few responses from easton, pennsylvania, near bethlehem not quite sure where hes going to go, especially with the north korea threat. Dont take any crap. Getting in his own way. I do not approve of the job our president is doing so far. I think hes doing a hell of a job, just wish people would leave him alone. But as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. Thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. The secret is an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. This inot this john smith. Smith. Or this john smith. Or any of the other hundreds of john smiths that are humana Medicare Advantage members. No, its this john smith. Who we paired with a humana team member to help address his own specific health needs. At humana, we take a personal approach to your health, to provide care thats just as unique as you are. No matter what your name is. Welcome back to velshi ruhle. Were not joking with this one. President trump thanking russian president Vladimir Putin for kicking american diplomats out of russia. Do you have any response to the russian president expelling 755 workers from our embassy . No, i want to thank him because were trying to cut down on payroll. As far as im concerned, im thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll. Well save a lot of money. No, sir, we wont. Those diplomats are paid qulornt they are stationed in russia. In terms of fact checking, youre wrong. Thanking Vladimir Putin might seem odd given trump and his campaign remain under investigation by fbi and other agencies in connection with russias assault on the u. S. Election system. I dont know why was he joking . Listen, President Trumps team im going to assume will say he was joking, it was dead pan, tongue in cheek except the situation is deadly serious. Thats what makes it so not funny. Special Counsel Robert Mueller upped the investigation ante former former Campaign ManagerPaul Manafort whose alexandria Virginia Party was raided by fbi agents. President trump said he was surprised by the raid. Was it appropriate for the fbi to raid the home of Paul Manafort. I thought it w