President Trump Says Talking to North Korea Not the Answer
BERMAN: The president heads to Missouri shortly to talk about tax cuts. But he is phasing escalating tensions abroad, namely with North Korea. The president has a pretty sharp criticism this morning for the situation. Let's go to the Pentagon right now. Barbara Starr is there with the details -- Barbara.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning. Well, the North Koreans taking another step by putting out for the first time now publicly the video, the images of this latest ballistic missile launch by North Korea that flew over northern Japan. That of course a major concern for a key U.S. ally, that this missile flew right over Japanese territory. The president of the United States tweeting again this morning after all of this. I want to read you what that tweet said. The president saying, "The U.S. has been talking to North Korea and paying them extortion money for 25 years. Talking is not the answer." "Talking is not the answer" from the president of the United States, raising a lot of questions about what could he possibly mean? Because if you're not talking, you're doing something else. He said just the other day, all options remain on the table. So a short time ago, here at the Pentagon, reporters asked Secretary of Defense James Mattis if the time was up for diplomatic options because the Pentagon and the State Department have very much been focusing on diplomacy rather than the fire and fury remarks of President Trump. And we'll bring you that sound later. But what Secretary Mattis told reporters was, and I quote, "No, we are never out of diplomatic solutions. We continue to work together." So the secretary of Defense perhaps very much still on the diplomatic page, while the president is talking about the time is up for talking. All of this coming as also overnight the U.S. sent a bit of a message, conducting a very long planned ballistic missile defense test at sea. It was long planned, but it sent a message that the U.S. is still working on its systems to be able to shoot down North Korean missiles -- John.</s>BERMAN: All right. Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon, thank you very much. Want to go back to Houston right now if we can. Just getting word that our Brian Todd is out right now with a rescue team. Brian, focusing on some stranded animals. What can you tell us?</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. John, we just pulled a family of three and three dogs out of this house here in this neighborhood just west of Houston. And the family is here with us. These are the rescuers. Mark</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perfect.</s>TODD: OK.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Down.</s>TODD: Trying to calm the dogs down. Dennis, tell us what happened. So this is about, what, waist high water? And this did not happen until like today?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 1:00 this morning. After we had our hurricane party and moved all our stuff back down. We thought it was all over. And we were all blessed that both here and our homes in Galveston were spared. And then at 1:00, I woke everyone up. I said, we have water. And had started coming in. We had a fire drill trying to bring everything back up. And then we got so tired, we went to bed.</s>TODD: And then -- so basically what did you tell your family at that point? Did you make a plan for them to get out? Or were you just trying to assess it?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first plan was to talk ourselves into getting out of the bed upstairs. And where the dogs were with us. And then we made a plan and said, let's find some clothes, put them in a bag. I don't know if we are going to leave or not. But probably it would be a good idea. And so -- and then we finished a few things to bring upstairs. And started watching the helicopters. And we saw our neighbors one by one leaving. And a couple of them called us and said, when you get right out there for</s>TODD: You think this is from the Buffalo Bayou and the Addicks reservoir over Port Arthur?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Brays Bayou. It's the smaller one. But yes, all of this is letting out that extra water that obviously they need to do.</s>TODD: OK. Thanks, Dennis.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You bet.</s>TODD: So, John, yes, this is kind of a surprise for these people in this neighborhood. These waters were not as high yesterday and the day before when it was really pouring down rain. They think this some of the residual from the Buffalo Bayou overflowing. So you can tell, you can see some of the scenes over here, that this -- a lot of these neighborhoods are really still heavily flood and not out of the woods yet -- John.</s>BERMAN: No. An important lesson, Brian. They thought they had seen the worst of it. Then the water started to rise overnight even after the rain had stopped. Brian Todd for us in Houston, give our best to that family. We'll be right back.