Protesters March Toward White House On Trump's 100th Day.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The newest member of the United States Supreme Court.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm humbled by the trust placed in me.</s>PRESIDENT TRUMP: And I got it done in the first 100 days.</s>FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome. This is our special coverage of the president's 100th day in office. I'm Fredricka Whitfield live in Washington. We begin this hour with North Korea and the defiant missile launch that ratchets up international tensions and it comes just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson chaired a special meeting at the United Nations and called for increased pressure on the regime. CNN's Will Ripley is in Pyongyang, the only western television journalist in the North Korean capital -- Will.</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, tensions here on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest levels in years. In fact, it's gotten so bad this has become the most pressing global security concern right now for the Trump administration. And in President Trump's first 100 days in office, North Korea's supreme leader, Kim Jong-un has ordered at least nine missile launches. Not all of them have been successful including the latest launch in the early morning hours here. U.S. and South Korean analysts believed the missile traveled just 22 miles before exploding over North Korean territory. They had initially thought it traveled much further, possibly flying for 15 minutes and exploding in the waters near the Japanese coast. That was enough to issue a nationwide alert, a missile alert, in Japan that halted subway and rail service in the country for a full ten minutes. This goes to show how tense the situation is here in this region. The kind of missile that North Korea tested was a modified scud that we saw unveiled in this country's large military parade earlier this month and that's significant that they would test this particular kind of missile on the very same day that we confirmed the "USS Carl Vinson" aircraft carrier strike group has arrived in the waters off the Korean Peninsula and is now conducting joint naval drills with the South Korean Navy. North Korea clearly trying to send a message to the United States that they will continue to test weapons that they view as essential to protect their national sovereignty and protect against what they believe is hostility and aggression on the part of the United States. They're watching very closely not only the words from President Trump, saying that a major, major conflict from North Korea is very possible, but they also listen to Secretary Tillerson at the U.N. Security Council urging the world to put more diplomatic isolation and economic pressure on this country. The North Korean response that will not stop them from testing missiles and nuclear weapons -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Will Ripley, thanks so much in North Korea. So President Trump had some rather strong words about the failed launch, saying on Twitter yesterday, "North Korea disrespected the wishes of China and its highly respected president when it launched though unsuccessfully a missile today. Bad." As the president marks his 100th day he will sign an executive order on trade this evening. He posted this moments ago on Twitter, "Looking forward to rally in the great state of Pennsylvania tonight at 7:30. Big crowd, big energy." And you can catch that rally right here on CNN later on. So shortly after news broke on yet another North Korean missile test, CNN spoke with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Secretary Kelly believes it will be up to President Trump to stop the North Koreans before that country has a missile that can reach the U.S.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is the development of the ability to launch such a missile in itself a red line? Is it -- if it becomes a certainty that they have that technology, would the U.S., without question, strike to prevent it from happening?</s>JOHN KELLY, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Well, I don't have too much insight, actually, into the intelligence of how they're doing other than to know when I was on active duty they were doing very well and I don't -- I believe they will have the technology. Unfortunately, for Mr. Trump, all of the attempts of previous administrations to somehow get them to be more responsible, that is to say to stop their technology missile technology development and the atomic development, they've tried to do it and they essentially failed. I don't criticize them. They did try. Mr. Obama, Mr. Bush, probably Mr. Clinton, but it has fallen on this president that they will, in my opinion, have a workable missile, ICBM-type missile that can certainly hit the United States, not all of the United States, but hit the United States, and they're working hard to develop a weapon to put on that missile.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk more about this with CNN military and diplomatic analyst, Rear Admiral John Kirby, CNN contributor, Salena Zito, CNN White House reporter, Stephen Collinson, and CNN political commentators, Ana Navarro, David Urban, and Symone Sanders. All right, good to see all of you. Welcome to the table. So Admiral, let me begin with you. Because the message from the White House is, there could be a major conflict. What is North Korea -- what is the message it is sending by the failed test missile?</s>JOHN KIRBY, CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: They're giving us the finger. They're giving China the finger, the United Nations a finger. This is the Kim Jong-un one finger salute, no doubt about it. It's -- he's sending a very clear message for all of the pressure you think you're going to bear on me, whether it's military, diplomatic or economic, I'm not going to stop. These weapons are key to my survival. And this is a young man that wants regime survival above all else and he sees nuclear weapon technology and ballistic missile technology as the key to do that. He can ratchet up the escalation very quickly and very high and he knows that the west and the rest of the international community won't be inclined to want to go there. So he's sending a very clear message. There is no doubt in my mind that the timing of this missile launch was to go with the U.N. meeting as well as some of the comments that China has made.</s>WHITFIELD: Salena, you recently spoke with the president, what did he have to say about North Korean's leader?</s>SALENA ZITO, CNN COMMENTATOR: You know, he takes it very seriously. He talked a lot about during the interview about the importance of diplomacy and that that's the way he wants to resolve this. And he did put pressure on the president of China and said that that relationship is building and that's important to getting this resolved. He said ultimately there's going to be a point where it will get too bad and I will have deal with that when that happens.</s>WHITFIELD: Is this an issue of style of diplomacy, Stephen? Because most presidents will say the first instinct is diplomacy. Last instinct would be military conflict, even though the president is using the word major conflict. Is this diplomacy at its best?</s>STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Well, in many ways, the White House is following the classic strategy that previous administrations had when confronted with North Korea, which is basically you put pressure on China, try to further isolate Kim Jong- un and the North Koreans and try to isolate them diplomatically. We talk about more sanctions. The difference here is the rhetorical piece. On the one hand, you have the White House issuing terse one sentence statements saying we're aware of the missile test. The president has been briefed. And then two hours later, you get a tweet from the president basically escalating the rhetoric over this. The thing we don't know is whether upping the rhetoric in this way is going to be productive. Is it going to get the North Koreans to a place where they haven't been and they haven't sort of (inaudible) the pressure of previous administrations or does it get you into a cycle of escalation which you don't want to be in at this point. And then there's the question of the pressure on China. It's been very public. I'm not clear right now whether you can keep that pressure on publically because the president of China Xi Jinping doesn't necessarily want to be seen publicly in China to be bowing to pressure from President Trump in a personal way.</s>WHITFIELD: I'm wondering how is this incentivizing China?</s>ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, that's a very hard question because if we've seen in the last 100 days is that President Trump's foreign policy and the way he deals with foreign leaders is all over the map, right. He's had his challenges in the last 100 days with the prime minister of Canada, president of Mexico certainly, with Angela Merkel. The problem is, all of those folks are sane, relatively rationale normal human beings. Little boy Kim Jong-un is a manic, crazy person with a potential nuke that could hit the United States.</s>WHITFIELD: Trying to make a point on the world stage.</s>NAVARRO: How you deal with him is frankly a question more for psychiatrists I think than for military because this guy is not normal.</s>WHITFIELD: So David, do you believe it or is it realistic do you think when the Secretary Tillerson says potentially, hinting at some sort of face-to-face meeting with the North Korean leader? You know, do you see that that is embarking on some real potential change since every administration who has tried ends up unsuccessful in trying to?</s>DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Every administration has tried what we're seeing right now. The difference is this president doesn't have the luxury to wait for eight years. From what I read in --</s>WHITFIELD: If it's the greatest threat right now, the Obama administration told him that.</s>URBAN: Not just to the United States but to the globe. They're on the verge of miniaturization of a nuclear warhead and capable to deliver it to the west coast of the United States. No other president had to face that. That's within the next 12, 16, 18 months. Other administrations had a great deal of luxury of trying to go it with, you know, with sanctions, with the Chinese. We've seen reports from the U.N. saying that some of the failed rockets have Chinese parts in them. So I'm not so sure we're going to get through that. This president number one responsibility is to protect the homeland, protect the American people, and I have a great deal of confidence he'll do what's needed in that case.</s>WHITFIELD: Symone, this foreign policy is as you go. We've seen with the administration particularly since the pledge was America first, but now, this administration finds itself, you know, in the throes of formulating its foreign policy really on the fly.</s>SYMONE SANDERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: On the fly, yes. It's kind of we wake up and we'll see what our foreign policy is today. What is the president tweeting. It's important to note here that president cannot unilaterally lead us into war. And when we talk about escalating the situation, when we talk about like that's what this is, if there's a military action we could potentially be going to war. There are real live implications, national security implication, and international implications what we're talking about. That's why it's so important that the president gets his bearings and his administration gets some type of uniform foreign policy. We don't know what -- there's one thing coming from the White House, another thing from the press secretary's podium, something else from Nikki Haley at the U.N. and something else coming from Tillerson. So this White House has to get on the same page. There's real implications for the world if we don't.</s>WHITFIELD: So David, why do you disagree?</s>URBAN: I think the White House has been singularly focused on this since the president took office. I mean, just because people are -- have different opinions and may be speaking in different terms they're singularly focused in first of all achieving a diplomatic resolution to this crisis. Nobody wants to see a shooting war on the Korean Peninsula.</s>WHITFIELD: Except when Ambassador Nikki Haley does say we're not trying to pick a fight, is the perception that the Trump administration is trying to provoke by using this language of, you know, there could be a major conflict? Is that kind of picking a fight?</s>URBAN: At some point when your intelligence community tells you that North Koreans have the ability to deliver a nuclear warhead to your soil, you have to make the decision. The president will make the decision by himself.</s>SANDERS: He will need to go to Congress.</s>URBAN: Surrounded by his --</s>SANDERS: He will need to go to Congress.</s>URBAN: I'm not so sure.</s>SANDERS: People don't understand how foreign policy works. You cannot just -- the president cannot unilaterally decide to take us into war. We do not have a dictatorship. This is the United States of America.</s>URBAN: I understand. The president --</s>SANDERS: The Congress has the say in what goes on here.</s>URBAN: The president's sole job is to keep Americans safe. Foreign and domestic threats, this is an existential threat to the American people.</s>SANDERS: It is.</s>URBAN: The president will act unilaterally if he needs to take out whatever weapon system --</s>SANDERS: We cannot sensationalize.</s>URBAN: It's not sensationalizing.</s>SANDERS: It is. We need to bring down the rhetoric.</s>WHITFIELD: Separation of powers. This isn't a dictatorship. Ana, I mean --</s>NAVARRO: There's a lot of things the president can do unilaterally at a given moment when they want to and then they go and ask for permission. There is a reason why he had the field trip with the 100 senators to the White House this week. They want some Congressional buy-in --</s>WHITFIELD: And there were many members of senators who said it was underwhelming.</s>NAVARRO: Action towards North Korea would get some support, particularly from Republicans who are in charge of Congress right now.</s>URBAN: I would say part of that tour may have been not necessarily for the consumers or senators but for foreign audience to demonstrate how serious our government is.</s>WHITFIELD: So tonight, the White House Correspondents Dinner, you'll be there. You know, Salena, the president will not be there. He will be holding this rally this evening.</s>ZITO: In my home state.</s>WHITFIELD: OK, of Pennsylvania. The message being sent by the president it's very important for him to be in a crowd, to get that kind of, you know, positive reinforcement. What's the statement the president is making to this rallying base in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, this evening?</s>ZITO: Well, I believe that he is overriding the press, without the filter of the press, going into the areas where he won, historical win, first since 1988 for a Republican. He's going to a tool and die maker I believe. He's going to be signing an executive order. He's going to be meeting with some of the people from Pennsylvania that voted for him and a lot of them are Democrats, and then he's going to go out and he's going to talk and he's going to enjoy his 100 days the way he sees fit.</s>WHITFIELD: It's interesting, Stephen, he's not going to be at the dinner this evening. He has been there before whether it be as a, you know, celebrity or as someone who was thinking about, you know, being president and running. Is it his message that he is dismissing the journalists who will be in attendance, is this, you know, an under whelming moment and he doesn't need to be there? I mean what is he saying by this?</s>COLLINSON: Donald Trump is a showman. He's setting up a split screen moment, setting up Donald Trump with his base, the people that sent him to Washington, he's going back to his anti-establishment roots and everyone in Washington, what he would say, are the purveyors of fake news, the people of the swamp are wallowing in their dinner jackets at this big Washington establishment dinner. The message is very obvious and clear.</s>NAVARRO: I actually think he's doing us a great favor.</s>WHITFIELD: We've all been to that dinner.</s>NAVARRO: He ain't funny. I mean, his comedic timing ain't -- is not exactly the best. You know, it's something that frankly Hillary Clinton would have been great at --</s>WHITFIELD: Isn't this a missed opportunity, isn't it a missed opportunity because most presidents get an opportunity to say --</s>WHITFIELD: -- self-deprecating, they can be humorous.</s>NAVARRO: People have complained about the chumminess between the Washington press and the president. I think the benefit of this happening is that the focus goes back on journalism. This dinner raises funds for journalism scholarships. CNN will have their tables filled with guests who are journalism students so let put the focus back on journalism because God knows we need journalism now more than ever.</s>URBAN: To put a fine point on what Steve is saying about the split screen. The president going to the farm show complex --</s>WHITFIELD: Yes.</s>URBAN: -- in Harrisburg where they have 4h festivals and agriculture affairs.</s>ZITO: Rodeos.</s>URBAN: It is Middle America and he's taking his message directly to the people as he did throughout the campaign and that's how he got there.</s>WHITFIELD: We'll see it all unfold this evening. Thanks to everybody. Appreciate it. All right, still ahead, activists protesting the Trump administration's stance on climate change. They're all about to march to the White House right now.