Undersecretary Level News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Affairs journalist. he's the former world editor for "time" magazine across the street from here. he's also worked in the past with cnn and other publications. and staying up late for us in washington, our friend peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times." bobby, you get to go first. what should prep for a summit with the north korean dictator look like? and set the stakes for us once the president arrives. >> well, this is not just a question of the president being prepared. a summit of this nature, two leaders who have not met, two countries that have not had direc...

And staying up late for us in washington, our friend peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times." bobby, you get to go first. what should prep for a summit with the north korean dictator look like? and set the stakes for us once the president arrives. >> well, this is not just a question of the president being prepared. a summit of this nature, two leaders who have not met, two countries that have not had direct discussions with each other, this should have been months and months and months, bureaucrats at different levels of the state department conversing with each ...

Direct discussions with each other, this should have been months and months and months, bureaucrats at different levels of the state department conversing with each other from sort of undersecretary level all the way up to the secretary of state and the president. months in preparation. lots of paper, lots of e-mail -- well, e-mail may be tricky, but lots of paper going back and forth. lots of intermediaries going back and forth. that's how it's meant to work. if you remember, those of us of a certain age, the summits between reagan and gorbachev, the enormous amount, the industrial quantities...

Himself doesn't have that many military assets left, so i don't imagine he wants to lose more. >> ned price, a lot of people have spoken to the fact that there are very few appointments, no nominations, that the assistant secretary level or the undersecretary level at the pentagon. at the state department, home alone at the state department for sure, just deputy, deputy secretary who -- with no military or diplomatic experience to speak of in play. now, was there a process here that would duplicate what has been the case in all previous administrations of the deputy's committee meeting at the ...

Deputy secretary level, the undersecretary level, the assistant secretary level, so maybe that's part of the explanation. they don't know what to say on trips, and, therefore, they don't want do it. but that means that the policy review process that typically happens at the beginning of administrations, has been a lot slower in the trump era. >> tara, president putin had the face-to-face meeting with germany's chancellor angela merkel today. we also understand that president putin is meeting with turkey's erdogan in sochi tomorrow. are there any concerns inside the white house that the creme l...