President Trump Still Planning Summit Reassures and Warns Kim Jong-un; Man in New York Doesn't Want to Hear Spanish
BERMAN: President Trump says the United States is continuing to prepare for a summit with North Korea's Kim Jong-un despite North Korean threats of pulling out. He talked about it today at the White House. And really did cause some confusion. He said Kim would remain in power if he renounces nuclear weapons. He warned the country could be decimated his word if Kim refuses to strike a deal. And then there was this, speaking about Libya's renunciation of weapons of mass destruction back in 2003, he seemed to conflate that with what happened to Libya and Libya's dictator eight years later.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Libyan model isn't a model that we have at all, when we're thinking of North Korean, in Libya, we decimated that country. That Country was decimated. There was no deal to keep Gaddafi. The Libyan model that was mentioned was a much different deal. This would be with Kim Jong- un, something where he'd be there. He'd be in this country. He'd be running this country. We never said to Gaddafi, oh, we're going to give you protection. We're going to give you military strength. We're going to give you all of these things. We went in and decimated him.</s>BERMAN: All right, the Libyan leader was overthrown and killed in 2011. Back now with our panel. And joining us is Jamie Metzl, senior member of the Atlantic Council, a national security and staff in the Clinton administration. And Jamie you listen to the President there, and it really doesn't seem as if he understood what his national security adviser was talking about with the Libyan model, when Gaddafi gave up whatever nuclear capabilities, all be much more limited than Kim Jong-un has but he gave them up, for basically nothing?</s>JAMIE METZL, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY STAFF, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION: Well, he didn't have much. And he gave it away and he traded it for some kind of economic reform. But we have a President that is entirely ahistorical as if the United States in the world is in many starting from scratch. And without that historical basis, that's why we can say, sure we'll have a meeting with Kim Jong-un, why not? And we're stumbling into this very dangerous situation where the North Korean have no intention of giving up their nuclear weapons. They never said they're going to do it. But because President Trump isn't grounded in any kind of historical realities, he's able to invent new realities as he goes along and so this kind of made history and the realities of the worlds as it functions are very soon going to be crashing into each other. And that's why it's such a dangerous moment.</s>BERMAN: And Shelby, as part of that misunderstanding or maybe even ignorance of what the Libyan model was, he suggested that Kim Jong-un could get protection?</s>HOLLIDAY: Protection, right. That was an interesting --</s>BERMAN: That was a heck of a word when you are dealing with a dictator?</s>HOLLIDAY: Yes, and I'm not sure if that's exactly what he meant. I mean, it would be great to get President Trump out in front of the press. So we can clarify some of these things. But there were two big hurdles that always existed with this meeting. Number one is defining denuclearization. The White House seems to think it's unilateral de-nuclearization. North Korea gets rid of their nukes. That's it. President Trump even said that at a press conference. And the other one is sequencing. Who goes first? We are already seeing problems on the Korean Peninsula, because who is -- are we stopping military exercises first before Kim dismantles the test site? I mean it's always this back and forth between who blinks? And at this point it's hard to see Kim Jong-un willing to do that? At this point he's threatening to pull out of the summit.</s>BERMAN: Yes. On the other hand, Rich, the President did say that North Korea would be decimated like Libya and Gaddafi if in some way Kim Jong-un went back on the deal.</s>LOWRY: Yes, so look the Libyan model for nonproliferation where he just rip all of the stuff up, put it on a plane and ship it to the United States, that should be our goal. The problem is when you talk about the Libyan model, everyone has in their mind that Gaddafi did end up very dead and surely Kim Jong-un is very focused on that fact so -- sure.</s>BERMAN: So should a President about to sit down for negotiations with a leader about this, should he know what the Libyan model is?</s>LOWRY: He should be much clear on this. And this is one of the problems potentially with a one-on-one sit down like this. The North Koreans are easily underestimated because it is a heinous and evil regime that also in many respects ridiculous regime. But they're very good at this because widely the negotiations have been key to their survival for 30 or 40 years. So the President cannot under estimate them, he better be at the top of his game and be fully briefed.</s>STEWART: I'm glad we have Ambassador Bolton there to educate the President on what the Libyan model is and how it was successful in 2003 when they denuclearized, and we lifted sanctions and it worked well. That is important. I'm glad we have Secretary Pompeo in there who is stressing the fact that we don't just need Kim Jong-un's word, that they will denuclearize, but we need complete and definable denuclearization. And I hope between now and the time -- I do expect we have the summit that Bolton and Pompeo will sit down with the President and tell him everything he needs to know. We cannot have another --</s>BERMAN: Karine Jean-Pierre?</s>JEAN-PIERRE: Yes. But here's the thing. That's the problem. He doesn't want to be educated. He is completely ill prepared. He has no desire to learn about the country, to learn about the region, to learn about the how it is that how does Kim Jong-un work? He doesn't want to -- and there is a "Time" magazine report that just came out that actually talks about how he doesn't want to be briefed. And just think about it's being leaked, why is it being leaked? It's being leaked by his own people because they're concerned about this.</s>BERMAN: One second Peter, because there was one other thing though the President did say today. He was talking about this, and Jamie, you know, I like your insider take on this. To me it actually seemed like a careful measured planned response, which, in response to a Kim doing, suggesting all the meeting won't happen unless we get this promise beforehand, the President basically said, look, we're going to see what happens. He left it open intended intentionally. He didn't go too hot. He didn't go too cold. Isn't that a calculated approach?</s>METZL: In a way it's calculated but it's calculated for what? The President is really in a bind because if the United States pushes too hard for denuclearization, the North Koreans are going to walk away because they have no intention of giving up their nukes. But if he e accepts this slow gradual process of confidence building measures then, that's the same deals the past Presidents have made with North Korea. And so he'll be criticized for doing exactly what he said he won't do. So he's in a bind but the North Koreans are betting that Trump needs the dopamine hit of the diplotenement of a summit that is certain to fail so much that Trump is going to push forward.</s>BERMAN: He wants to the meeting, that's for sure, Peter?</s>BEINART: The United States goal should not be denuclearization. There will no deal denuclearization. Kim Jong-un as horrible as a man as he is, has extremely good reason to want a nuclear weapon. Even if a sane decent person were headed that regime they would want nuclear weapons because they've seen what America does to his adversaries when they don't have nuclear weapons. What Donald Trump -- maybe Trump's ignorance will be a blessing in fact. Because the best thing you can get out of this would be some verification of their nuclear weapons that are going to still stay there in a different kinds of relationship which would allow some way for the south to start influence the north and start to open up that regime from commerce and trade, and so we don't have war, the idea though that we're going to -- we need to stop passing that, it's an absolutely fiction.</s>BERMAN: They won't very different goals to be sure. All right we're going to get so much more this hour. Coming up, moderate House Republicans join Democrats to push for a vote on DACA, with growing questions about whether any immigration measure can pass. Also, at least part of the backdrop is this video from New York City that's gone viral. Manhattan lawyer yelling because patrons at a restaurant are speaking Spanish, not English.