and it was highly negative and then trump came around and it became negative. >> kim jong-un more popular than nancy pelosi which, by the way, what does that tell you about the human beings that answered that question? >> correct. and i think part is an end product of a media ecosystem that has pushed each side to its tribal ends. if you look at survey data, conservatives are for more likely to say they will only tune into fox news as their news source and liberals are far more likely to say they would defriend someone on a social media network because of that person's politics and so we self-select. we listen to one type of conversation and we never challenge ourselves to have a different type of conversation and that bleeds into our politics so the clip you played to lead into this, lamar alexander, if you panned out on that clip it was donald trump with a bunch of white men almost exclusively, probably exclusively republicans. that type of conversation is all well and good but it's a one way conversation usually and if you're talking about crafting immigration reform which lama

korea's kim jong un and yesterday we got new comments about the summit from rudy. >> well somehow north korea after he canceled the summit, because they insulted the vice president, they insulted the, his national security adviser. and also said they were going to go to nuclear war against us. they were going to defeat us in a nuclear war. we said well we're not going to have a summit under those circumstances. well kim jong un got back on his hands and knees and begged us for it. which is exactly the position you want him in. >> jon heilemann, this is a man who wanted to be secretary of state. here we have the real secretary of state and the director of the c.i.a. and the secretary of defense and everybody sitting around their tables trying to figure out how they develop a framework to begin talks to denuclearize the most dangerous country on the planet. and you have rudy giuliani insuting their leader, very touchy leader, by the way, who probably put rudy threw a paper shredder if rudy were in north korea right now. by shooting his mouth off like that, it's not a train wreck that guy

night on social media. he tweeted four times about meeting kim jong un twice thanking him for taking the first bold step to mote and for suspending nuclear tests. trump took aim at domestic critics writing a year ago the pundits and talking heads, people that couldn't do the job before were were begging for conciliation as peace. please meet, don't go to war. now that we meet and have a great relationship with kim jong un, the same haters shout out, you shouldn't meet, do not meet. very almost caveman like. >> have you seen -- it's like fred flintstone running the country. writing things on a stone. not able to do that. >> did you see the clips yesterday from fox news, the same people that were yelling at barack obama about meeting with north korea? and iran without preconditions and saying it was the end. world. now turning around, talking about how this is the most glorious thing ever and he dares to make peace. it's laughable. >> it is. and i think you're giving him too much credit for thinking things out. but i get your point on the approach being about money. joining us f

video shown on state media showing behind-the-sceneses style footage of kim jong-un in singapore and you saw the president there. is he saluting a general? >> he was, returning the salute, yeah. >> joining us now a member of the judiciary and arms services committee democratic senator richard blumenthal of connecticut. that is a good question willie just asked you in the break. where to begin? your response to the ig report and also rudy giuliani's version of it, response to it. >> we're in the beginning of the renewed assault on the special counsel and they're going to use -- >> an aggressive one. >> very, very aggressive and obviously distorting and selective approach those three words, i'll stop it are going to be heard again and again and again and the call by rudy giuliani to imprison peter strzok is part of a concerted campaign which has been continuing to diminish the credibility and legitimacy of the special counsel. but here is one of the most important facts about that report, there is no evidence that whatever that detracts from the critical importance of that special inve

embark on this summit with kim jong-un where getting something that looked like the iran deal would be success and so he's essentially created a crisis around nuclear weapons with iran at the same time he's trying to solve a problem with north korea with a deal that would resumebly try to look very much like the iran deal. >> ben, i'm curious. the first they were just talking off camera a bit about the book came out a few days ago even though it's on sale date today. there was a big "new york times" story that talked about president obama's reaction talk obama's reaction to donald trump's winning. talk about that a little bit, but talk about the reaction to it. i'm not sure how to characterize it but kind of detached and above the fray in a way that she kind of pummelled him for over the weekend. >> actually, what i was conveying, what i described in the book is after the election, president obama went through the same process that a lot of us did in trying to figure out whacwhat happened here. he called me and was just kind of stunned. that happened. how do we pick ourselves up and

the king of saudi arabia, maybe he could really like kim jong-un if this summit goes well. >> it's not clear what exactly is going on. whether it's improvisation whether he is winging it. standing there getting ready to board air force one he made these comments, which is more concerning which shows how hard wired into into his psychy, worldview that he admires strongmen and buys to russia's narrative that basically, america should not have the strength of its allies around it and we should do in febt what russia wants done on the world stage. >> that's exactly what i was going to ask following what jeremy was saying. he brought it up. what does it say that donald trump just naturally leans towards dictators. >> exact three what we think it says. it's not exactly promising for the old world order but in some ways you can say he is doing some part of what he said he was going to do. he said during the campaign that his foreign policy was going to be america first. what his allies are trying to do in canada is convince him that his idea of america first that rely on the strong men pu

schoolyard to face a bully, which is kim jong-un, you would think you would want to kind of gather your friends around you. here was a perfect setup. walk into a summit meeting with the largest economies in the world, all u.s. allies. why not come out of that with a strong sense of community to go face this awful dictator in singapore? so it fails the pragmatic test. and, joe, even worse, kind of the tail end of the whole thing, he goes after nato as a former supreme allied commander. i kind of pick up on that. and i'll tell you, when you so aggressively go after the allies, you drive them away from us. to do it right now at this moment is just bad geopolitics. >> michael, here we are one week after celebrating, remembering what happened, what the united states and what our allies did d day and to see the attacks. again, no strategic purpose for those attacks. in fact, the attacks against trudeau were strangely weirdly personal. i don't quite understand what's going on there with donald trump. i don't know if he is threatened by justin trudeau being younger. i have no idea. but it

time to prepare for it. this is according to reuters that kim jong-un is reportedly departing 2:00 p.m. tuesday afternoon. that means he will literally be there to participate for maybe half a day's worth of meetings. is that serious enough for what is at stake that's trying to be accomplished here? >> it doesn't ounce like it, but we have to make allowances that he's doing some grandstanding himself. just like president trump has said if i don't feel like i'm getting a deal -- this could be kim jong-un's way -- if he feels like he's going to get it around -- >> he came in on a commercial flight. >> he can catch the next one out. i don't think that will be a problem. putting the word out that i'm going to leave at 2:00 could be a bit of grandstanding on his part as well. >> are you surprised he flew on a chinese commercial flight? >> no, north korea doesn't have planes that can rely believe get him to singapore. we knew there was going to be something. >> and the u.s. -- accommodations in singapore? that's a common tactic as well? >> well, we shouldn't. >> so there's a lot going on the

i let you go on north korea. the president said he may call kim jong-un this weekend. let's listen to that. >> i'm going to speak to people in north korea and to my people over in north korea. i have a good relationship with kim jong-un. that's a very important thing. i can now say well, we have a problem. i told him, i gave him a very direct number. he can now call me if he has any difficulty. i can call him. >> how comfortable are you with this new relationship? >> i think it is important that world leaders talk to each other. there's nothing wrong with that. i worry that the president is being naive. dictators like this are used to manipulating or coercing relationships, and the president himself has a tendency to read what he wants to read into things and out of people. and when dealing with international relations, you don't deal on feelings and you don't deal on whether or not you trust each other. you actually create a structure to actually enfce and reauthorize everything that you're doing. that's not what this president is doing. it is a naive manner. he should hand this o

. there is a reason that kim jong-un is the only overweight rson we have ever seen in north korea, and that is because he is the only person in north korea who gets to eat as much as he wants, as often as he wants, eat and drink as much as he wants whenever he wants, whatever he wants, and he starves his people. starves them. masses of north koreans are starving every day and every night, and the president of the united states says the north korean hereditary dictator loves his people. he loves his people so much that donald trump said it twice. domp has never praised another head of state more fully than he praised kim jong-un. president trump has now said stronger words of praise about kim jong-un than he has ever said about even benjamin netanyahu. great personality, funny guy, great negotiator. thos about donald trump.ny of yet donald trump, to say all of that, the only thing kim jong-un had to do was sign a piece of paper that he, quote, commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula. kim didn't have to say what century that would take place in. he didn't

david a day after reversing his decision to cancel his summit with kim jong-un. the president now appearing to concede that it is going to take more than just one meeting with the north korean leader before they come to a final agreement. here's what the president told reporters after meeting with the top aide yesterday. >> i've never said it happens in one meeting. you are talking about years of hostility, years of problems. it's a process. we're not going to sign -- we're not going to go in

, by the way, he's just returning from singapore, that summit with kim jong-un. so president trump trying to redirect the headlines today. but again, lashing out at just about everyone else. those who he perceives to be his political enemies, including hillary clinton and the former president. >> or those who might be liabilities, including his campaign chairman, paul manafort. eli. campaign chairman, paul manafort. there for much longer than the president wants to claim he was there for. there, as you know well, during the most critical time of the campaign. >> right. through the republican national convention where the platform of the rnc was changed regarding russia and crimea. as we reported, manafort continued to stay in contact even after he stepped aside from the campaign through the end of the campaign and into the transition. so the president trying to sort of have it both ways, telling reporters today i don't even know paul manafort, he wasn't really around very often. then in that tweet saying this isn't fair, sort of claiming manafort is on his side and saying if he's g

washington, d.c. and selling the deal he made with kim jong-un. he says everybody should sleep well tonight because there's no longer a nuclear threat from north korea. does he actually believe his own stuff? his hype? i don't know. does he ever believe anything he says? how would we know? this is "hardball" where the action is. stoppable. stoppable. ♪ but mania, such as unusual changes in your mood, activity or energy levels, can leave you on shaky ground. help take control by talking to your doctor. ask about vraylar. vraylar is approved for the acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes of bipolar i disorder in ults. clinical studies showed that vraylar reduced overall manic symptoms. vraylar should not be used in elderly patients with dementia due to increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles, or confusion, which may mean a life-threatening reaction, or uncontrollable muscle movements, which may be permanent. side effects may not appear for several weeks. high cholesterol and weight gain; high blood sugar, which cwhich can be fatal; dedizzin

downplayed kim jong-un's notorious brutality on fox news. >> he's a very smart guy. he's a great negotiator, but i think we understand each other. >> but he's still done some really bad things. >> yeah, but so have a lot of other people done some really bad things. >> reporter: arriving home, the president also tweeting north korea is no longer a nuclear threat. that was news to admiral harry harris, the administration's long awaited nominee to be ambassador to south korea. >> senator, i think we must continue to worry about the nuclear threat. >> reporter: to many observers, all this flattery is alarming. >> does this really send a signal to the world that it's okay to engage now with the north koreans? >> reporter: especially given the failure to win any obvious concessions from kim jong-un on his weapons. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. >>> coming up here, we'll talk about all of this and the president's comments on russia and its takeover of crimea with the former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. that's when we continue. this is your wake-up call. if you have

the republican party, president of the united states basically says kim jong-un is to be believed more than america's free speechless at that and yet not shocked anymore by him. why is this a cult, why is the information loop that the trump followers are following that is allowing this to be -- allowing them to be so easily bam boozeled? >> they believe that trump is going to deliver on the vast majority of thing that he set out to deliver on as a candidate. they look at the tax cuts. they look at -- even on the health care battle they don't fault the leadership on the trump team. they fault the leadership in the congress for that failing. at turn they continue to make the excuse for the president. this is the success and the strength of this president. he's not held accountable for anything he says, does or anything that he tweets. there is no penalty he has had to pay. everyone else has had to pay in response to what he has said, done, and tweeted but not him. i'm not convinced with the november elections coming up that that turns against the president if he loses the house. hon

freelancing with kim jong-un in granting a summit, something no republican or democratic president granted to a north korean leader. he actually, you know, offered and carried out the suspension of military exercises with south korea without prior notification to president moon of south korea or secretary of defense mattis as our correspondents were reporting exclusively last week. so, you know, it's that that is so worrisome about this upcoming putin summit. what is he going to offer about ukraine or crimea or suspending sanctions to putin without coordination of the allies especially since he is going to nato before the putin meeting. that is another opportunity for him to be criticizing america's closest allies in the whole atlantic alliance is at stake n. terms of your direct question, john, there is a lot of evidence that pompeo, at this point, pompeo and the president are pretty much in sync and pompeo is careful not to get on the wrong side or too for out front defending tariffs and the trade war. economists who knew him in congress are surprised, to say the least, that pompeo is no

♪ >>> a letter was given to me by kim jong-un, and that letter was very nice letter. oh, would you like to see what was in that letter? >> tell us what was in the letter? >> how much? how much? >> can you give us a flavor of what the letter was about. >> it's a very interesting letter. at some point it maybe appropriate. i maybe able to give it to. >>> good morning. welcome to "am joy." well, the on again, off again june 12th summit between donald trump and north korean dictator kim jong-un is back on. all it took was a g, fancy letter which trump praised effusively without bothering to read it. >> what was your response to the letter? did you send anything back? >> no, i didn't. i haven't seen the letter yet. i purposefully didn't open the letter. i haven't opened it. i didn't open it in front of the director. i said would you want me to open it? he said you can read it later. i may be in for a big surprise, folks. >> the white house says that the trump has now read that letter and while trump was talking up his burgeoning relationship with north korea and praising chinese leader

-page document for the president and kim jong-un signed. what do you make of what mime pompeo has to accomplish here, certainly -- a country with which we haven't had many dealings. is it a fool ease errand as well, just trying to make sense of what weaponshis regime has? >> i don't think it's a fool's errand, but it's a real challenge. donald trump's meeting was long on the photo opportunity, handshake, pat on the back side, and very short on details. mike pompeo has the key intermediary. this trip after the summit i think is a cleanup tour, going to south korea, to japan, our two key allies, and trying to reestablish some framework going forward. the chinese want to know, okay, if donald trump says there's no more north korean nuclear threat, does that mean we can take off our sanctions on north korea? similarly, the japanese who remain highly concerned about north korean behavior, wasn't to know, you know, is this now america hayes friend in the regi region? trump's tweets i think make this more difficult for mime pompeo, not the way around. >> you talk about him doing that cleanu

the avoiding talking about ending his nuclear program. sixth, don't try to be friends with kim jong-un. he killed his uncle, his half-brother and hundreds of others. he is a despot. those people up in canada, by the way, are our friends. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. msnbc's special coverage of the summit with brian williams and rachel maddow starts right now. >>> two volatile leaders. they have tested each other. >> rocket man should have been handled a long time ago. >> they've taunted each other. >> kim jong-un issued a direct response. i will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged u.s. dotard with fire. >> now, they're moments away from meeting for the first time face-to-face. >> i hope the upcoming meeting in singapore represents a bright new future to the world. >> with the stability of the region and the world on the line -- >> i don't think i have to prepare very much. >> will their summit bring us closer to peace or peril? this is an msnbc special report. the united states/north korea nuclear summit. here now areacow and brian wi >> and good ev

, the historic face to face with kim jong-un. a range of different questions that we have about the follow-up and what has happened since that summit. of course the secretary of state has been in south korea trying to energize allies. but remember, south korea was caught offguard after president trump announced that he was going to be halting military exercises, joint military exercises. a chance to ask her about all of that hopefully when she comes to the podium a few minutes from now. >> one other thing, donald trump said in the past he refuses to settle lawsuits. he refused to settle the trump university lawsuit that the new york ag also brought against him. he would never settle that lawsuit. he settled it for $25 million. >> we will continue to watch this one. we will see if he changes his mind. that's for sure. >> talks a big game on twitter. kristen welker. that does it for me. ali val she picks things up right now. >> wasn't there supposed to be white house press briefing. i thought i would be rolling in here during the briefing. >> it's going to happen during ali's hour. >>

be delivered from kim jong-un directly to president trump. >> i think it will be positive. >> kim said overnight he's reiterating his commitment to denuclearization. >> we've made real progress in the last 72 hours toward setting the conditions. >> all right. president trump is due to speak any time now at an important ceremony for the coast guard. he's scheduled to deliver remarks at the change of command ceremony which just began at head quarters in washington d.c. we'll bring you his speech as soon as it begins. but this morning it is all about the money. the new jobs report is out. and it's a good one. shows another 223,000 jobs were added in may. the unemployment rate study at 3.8%. the lowest that measure has been since april of 2000. here's the issue, though. hourly wages still rising very slowly. only up 2.7% over one year. and in an unprecedented move, the president teased the report in a tweet this morning saying look forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning. this tweet, please know this, is a huge break from the norms since the president and his eco

to washington on friday and a letter is going to be delivered to me from kim jong-un, so i look forward to seeing what's in the letter. >> what will the letter say, sir? >> i don't know. i don't know. i think it will be very positive. i think it will be very positive. >> welcome back to "morning joe." secretary of state mike pompeo sat down for a second round of meetings in new york city yesterday with north korean vice chairman kim young chul. they discussed a timeline for north korean denuclearization and the trump-kim summit which mayor may not still be on, and if it is on, may or may not still be taking place on june 12 in singapore. trump said they have been making real progress during the meetings. joining us now, senior adviser and senior chair dr. victor cha. dr. cha, it's nice to see you. it seems like the central question is still how do both of these sides define denuclearization? the u.s. is saying is that's absolutely what has to happen here, but the north koreans seem to think that means something different than what we think. >> sure, i think that is absolutely ri

president trump says the summit with kim jong-un is back on the books for june 12th. a top deputy to the north korean leader paid a visit to the oval office earlier today. he hand delivered a letter to president trump, a letter the president described as very nice, and very interesting. even though he hadn't read the letter at the time. that followed a not as nice letter president trump wrote to kim last week cancelling the summit. the talks derailed after a north korean official lashed out at vice president pence, calling him a political dummy. but judging by the president today, relations have improved once again. >> went very well. it is really a get to know you kind of a situation. we are going to start a process. and i told him today, take your time. you can go fast. we can go slowly. but i think they would like the see something happen. and if we can work that out that would be good. >> the president competing there with some tweets -- actual tweets from chirping birds which is not the trouble he typically has when it comes to tweets. the president said he is putting on hold new sa

meeting with kim jong-un next week. i'm joined by susan page, mother jones bureau chief and contributor david corn and weekly standard contributor cheryl sykes. well, okay, susan, this is a cartoon. i mean he's always been accused of being in cahoots with russia and he's acting like moscow's guy in quebec this weekend. >> without addressing any of the things that got them kicked out. >> grabbing crimea. wasn't that part of the republican platform as adjusted by the trump people? >> yeah, that was then. this is pretty remarkable. what he's going to now is beak a g-6 summit plus the united states. since they started holding these in 1975, we have never had a situation where we are so at odds with our traditional allies. >> french president macron responded to trump's trade threats say the u.s. is also at risk of being kicked out. the american president may not mind being ice located but neither do we will signing a six-country agreement if need be. as democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut said today, this is the kind of chaos and instability that vladimir putin was ho

was the contents of kim jong-un's letter to the president that he received last week, and what did the president take away from that? is he more encouraged based on receiving that let sfer. >> i'm not going to get into the specs of the letter. as the president said they were interesting and we feel like things are continuing to move forward and good progress has been made and we're continuing to prepare for the president's summit. i can tell you the president has been receiving daily briefings on north korea from his national security team and i can also tell you the schedule for -- tentatively for that first meeting will be on june 12th at 9:00 a.m. singapore time and take place june 11th, 9:00 p.m. east coast time. >> -- vladimir putin has reached out to kim jong-un and wants to meet with him. is that a meeting the president thinks would be constructive to this process? does the president support vladimir putin meeting with kim jong-un, as well? >> our focus isn the president's meeting with kim jong-un and the president will make his views known directly to him when we're in sing

fight with his closest allies and lavish praise on a dictator as he did on kim jong-un. he showed disdain for the transatlantic alliance saying nato is as bad as nafta. it's too costly for the united states. nato allies may have good reason to worry since trump repeated by questioned the commitment to the alliance. in march, the swedish prime minister explained to trump that sweden although not a member of nato partners with the alliance on a case by case analysis. trump responded that the united states should consider that approach. not really being in nato anymore. during the campaign, trump has said unless nato allies paid more for their defense, i was open to crabbing the alliance all together. >> i'll tell you about nato. it's obsolete and we're paying too much money. either they pay up including for past deficiencies or they have to get out. and if it breaks up nato, it breaks up nato. >> let's go to the accounting on this. what could putin do for trump in response for him going over and kissing him in helsinki. if you were a trumpern person, what would you say we're going t

. he embraced the king of saudi arabia. he is talking very friendly towards kim jong-un. certainly very friendly toward xi jinping. >> and he said good things about erdogan and he said good things about other leaders who have not sort of had a wholesome respect for both democracy and the media. what's important here with these trade deals, or even those associations like g7, it is not about tariffs on pork or tomatoes or whatever the case is. these are dispute settling mechanisms. the reason you get into these things, you say we're going to be doing a lot of business together. we're allies. we're going to figure out ways to solve our problems and they are in these deals, the way you solve these problems. go to canada and wherever the g7 meeting is going to be held. deal with issues like syria, the iran deal. donald trump's saying i don't care not for the particular deal, but i don't care about the dispute settling mechanism. you are not important to me because you are an ally. that's the disruption of the world order. the canadian/u.s. alliance. the european/u.s. alliance. these ar

dicta kim jong-un. a special edition of "the 11th hour" as our live coverage continues on a monday night. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. we've been at it all evening. this was day 508 of the trump administration, and these are the images, the historic photo opp being broadcast around the world tonight. we just don't know yet what this all means. it's currently just after 11:00 a.m. in singapore where donald trump and kim jong-un are still meeting. this marks the first ever meeting between a sitting president of the u.s. and a north korean leader. immediately after their initial handshake, president trump, kim jong-un spoke with reporters. >> i feel really great. we'll have a great discussion and, i think, tremendous success. we'll be tremendously successful. and it's my honor. we will have a terrific relationship, i have no doubt. >> translator: well, it was not easy to get here. the old prejudices and practices worked as obstacles on our way forward, but we overcame all of them, and we are here today. >> it's a remarkable event in many way

kim jong un begged on his hands and knees for a summit with president trump. >> well somehow north korea after he cancels the summit, because they insulted the vice president. they insulted his national security adviser. and they also said they were going to go to nuclear war against us. they were going to defeat us in a nuclear war. we said, we're not going to have a summit under those circumstances. well kim jong un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is exactly the position you want to put him in. >> giuliani later said to nbc news that his statement was a quote metaphor. here's how secretary of state mike pompeo responded when asked whether giuliani's comment could jeopardize negotiations with north korea. >> rudy doesn't speak for the administration when it comes to this negotiation and the set of issues. >> yeah. no. also yesterday first lady melania trump pushed back at somewhat against these comments from giuliani on stormy daniels. >> she believes in her husband, she knows it's not true. i don't even think there's a slight suspicion that it's true when

trump hosting a top north korean official at the white house and trump meeting with kim jong un, have replaced photos of trump with france's emmanuel macron. joining us now, national security correspondent for "the new york times" david sanger. his new book entitled "the perfect weapon: war, sabotage and fear in the cyber age" is out today. the pictures in the west wing are fairly symbolic about a lot of what happened at the singapore summit. including the president seeming to be a little obsessed with kim jong un's ability to have influence over his people. i guess with an iron fist. can we not make that deduction, given the things that he said? >> he clearly likes dictators. from duterte to -- >> do you think he would prefer to be one? >> you could certainly deduce that he would like it if everybody fell in line and explained how wonderful everything he did was. >> that would be a dictator. >> could be. or at least somebody who with tendencies of constant approval. you know, as i think you've seen from the reaction on the, in the way the children being separated from parents, you wo

leader kim jong-un. after a dramatic several days of will they or won't they, it looks like they will ieed meet. will trump's intuition help him close the deal? >>> plus, fallout from the president's performance at the g7 summit. basically up ending years of global diplomacy with, you guessed it, a single tweet. and the debate rages on over presidential pardon power. a special counsel robert mueller files new charges against paul manafort. i'll ask connecticut senator richard blumenthal about that when he joins me live. >>> but first,sa picture is worth a thousand words. and as with everything in the trump administration, that may be an understatement. of course, there is this photo from the g7 tweeted out by a spokesman for angela merkel showing the german chancellor with her hands planted staring down at her american counterpart. there is also this one showing a white imprint on president trump's right hand following yet another hard handshake with french president emmanuel macron. and then there is this one of imf managing director and chairman christine lagarde with a withering lo

engaging. >> a letter was given to me by kim jong-un, and that letter was a very nice letter. i haven't seen the letter yet. i purposely didn't open the letter. i haven't opened it. >> what? did you catch that? the president contradicting himself? who does that within the span of a few minutes on friday. we finally have an answer. white house officials saying president trump has opened that letter from north korean leader kim jong-un and there are, quote, no surprises. so he has opened the letter, but there is still a huge amount of work to be done ahead of this summit in singapore just nine days away, the countdown continues. the big question, does the white house have a fully thought-out strategy or is the president just winging it as he seemed to be fielding questions about that letter? joining me is professor from tufts university kim lee. i very much appreciate it. >> i'll start with you, sung yung on this. talk to me about the strategy. do you believe the president has a strategy ahead of this meeting with north korea? >> i think mostly persons previously who have met with kim the

the same thing when asked about kim jong-un and human rights violations. many people do lots of bad things. no other country does things to their people as bad as north korea. brendan, last point. >> we keep talking about immigration policy. i want to make clear what's happening there on the border is not policy. >> thank you. >> it is theater. if we were -- >> whom? >> i don't know. but evidently they seem to know their own voters. >> and what kind of -- >> it's not policy. we need to openly honestly address it in the united states. do we need a guest worker progr program? it's not my preference but we need to talk about it. this is detaining people who are applying for asylum. and their children are being torn from them at the border as they're arrested for what is, by the way, a misdemeanor, crossing the border. >> you say for whom. the voter, the republican voter who elected corey stewart as their nominee and kicked out mark sanford. that's for whom. >> we're going to leave that there. up next, money, power, politics. the interest rate slightly up 2% as they try and return to a

they're on a good rapport. >> john mccain's on my mind a lot. he called kim jong-un a short, fat dictator, murderous thug. he's called vladimir putin similar things, not the short and fat part. he's skinny and often shirt also, but also a murderous thug. how did we fall so far from the sort of moral clarity of republican nominee john mccain, to this guy's summer of love with kim jong-un and vladimir putin? >> you know, it's been -- it's a shocking thing. you don't even have to go back as far as john mccain. mitt romney stood up and was mocked by democrats and president obama but saying russia was our main geopolitical foe. that was where the republican mainstream was from world war ii to trump. it tells you something about the hollowness of the republican party as an apparatus, as an organization. it was a hollow organization waiting to be toppled and laid bare and laid waste to by a figure of the particular kind of charisma, the racist white nationalist. the party was changing at the grassroots even as the elites were still the old republican party. trump came along and in a ver

been thinking the past couple of weeks -- i should say the past week since the summit with kim jong-un and his comment about he'd like his people to stand up and salute. if he had the lack of consequence if he breaks the law -- i believe, this is going to be have extreme. i believe he would be murdering as many enemies as kim jong-un does. that his lack of conscience ais so extreme and inner sense of emptiness, so what he has is a blend of paranoia, which i said in the tweet, paranoia, gran deyosty, and cruelty. cruelty just take the immigrants, who are being -- kids separated from the parents, the cruelty is a way of punishing the people who he perceives as his enemies. so, that blend of qualities make me believe that trump has cast his lot now. i don't know for sure that he would have with less power and less stress, but he's cast his lot with authoritarians and dictators and they behave in predictable ways. >> this is an interview on wednesday about kim jong-un and his sort of admiring comments about him. >> he's the head of a country, and i mean he's the strong head. don't let anyone t

"groundhog day." we saw the president meet with kim jong-un after he bashed our allies in the g-7 and ugh then hugged our adversaries. i feel like he's about to do that again. the president will go to nato and complain that nato is costing too much and not taking care of america's interest, then he'll go meet the prime minister of great britain and that will be difficult. he'll probably have a side meeting with la farce who is a pro brexit tier and then he'll meet with putin possibly in helsinski in a stand alone summit. i'm all for talking to the russians, but a stand-alone summit is a real gift of saying that he is the president's equal and it's not at all clear what we're going to get out of such a summit. >> secretary of state pompeo said today that he's very confident that the president, when he meets with putin, quote, will make clear that meddling in our elections is completely unacceptable. are you as confident? >> i think if he does it, we're going to hear exactly what you just said, it will be one sentence and then he will move on. because putin will say we would never m

touching kim jong un a lot. it's not mutual. >> there's a neil diamond song about that. >> see what i'm saying? there's a lot of gesturing and touching. hand on the back. hand on the arm. a lot of smiling by the president. >> i've heard from three national security officials since we've been on the air who have really grave concerns about what ben described. the idea that all the substance of this meeting will take place in this one-on-one meeting without any foreign policy advisers. and i think as that has seeped in, as it has sunk in that that's sort of it, they don't leave that meeting and have three days that follow to drill down on the different areas. also on the larry kudlow a lot of concern i'm picking up from folks and around the white house around him. he's beloved. he's not been there long but he's beloved. he's beloved by the president. he's beloved by the staff. obviously, he's one of our colleagues, beloved here. >> we should just mention what that's about in case you are just joining us. as the president was heading in his motorcade toward this event, the president --

are willing to give to kim jong-un? does that include reducing military capabilities and just to follow up on your answer -- >> no, we're not reducing anything. at some point i have to be host and i used to say this during my campaign, as you know probably better than most, i want to get our soldiers out and bring our soldiers back home. we have right now 32,000 soldiers in south korea. and i would like to be able to bring them back home. but that's not part of the equation right now at some point i hope it will be, but not right now. we will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should. but we'll be saving a tremendous amount of money. plus i think it's very provocative. >> welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, june 12th. we have all the historic, diplomatic, political and security angles of this moment covered for you this morning. former ambassadors wendy sherman, christopher hill and nick burns, will be our guests. we'll go live to our reporters in singapore and

again off again meeting with north korean leader kim jong-un, less than two weeks away is indeed officially happening this. hour, president trump is heading to camp david, we're told, to prepare for that meeting. just moments ago, the president met for more than an hour with the top aide to kim jong-un, who hand delivered a letter from the north korean leader. >> we are meeting with the chairman on june 12th i think it's probably going to be a very successful -- ultimately a successful process. we'll see. remember what i say. we will see what we will see. >> and that's not the only headline in flux. 24 hours after launching the country into a trade war with its closest trading partners the president broke decades of protocol tweet being a confidential jobs report hours before it was released. looking forward to seeing unemployment numbers at 8:30 this morning. the u.s. added 223,000 jobs in may. the unemployment rate, 3.8%, beating expectations. what's the problem then? well, the government keeps this monthly report closed off from the public until its official release because th

government and dismissing kim jong un's brutal treatment, imprisonment and murder of those who he suspects of opposing his regime. take a look. >> i have a very good relationship with president xi. of china. he's you know, incredible guy. just essentially president for life. that's pretty good. >> chairman kim wants to resolve the problem we have a very, i really say for fairly short-term relationship, because it was unbelievably hostile, the rhetoric, rhetorically it was unbelievably hostile and i think we have a very good relationship. we understand each other. >> you know you call people sometimes killers, he is a killer. he's executing people. >> he's a tough guy. when you take over a country. tough country, with tough people and you take it over from your father, i don't care who you are, what you are, how much of an advantage you have, if you can do that at 27 years old, that's one in 10,000 that can do that. he's a very smart guy. he's a great negotiator. but i think we understand each other. >> he's still done some really bad things. >> yeah, but so have a lot of other peo

. he admires duarte in the philippines for shooting people in the streets. and kim jong-un. my god, kim jong-un. he holds a summit that even people from the american enterprise institute and national review are calling a disaster and he calls un a powerful leader. >> he admires the type of authoritarian power that he feels he should have and doesn't have but richard, turkey, our ally, the fuelling of turkey's military might by the united states government, part of it is focused on turkey's intent to wipe out the kurds along the turkish -- it's a huge border. what do we do about stuff like that? >> as crazy as it sounds, it's not inconceivable to imagine american and turkish forces shooting at one another because the kurds have been our principal ally and partner against isis in places like syria. turkey wants to wipe them out. >> while turkey was providing access to syria for isis, as isis was exploez ingexploezing exploding. >> at some point american foreign policy has to catch up to this reality -- >> coming up democrats are getting a boost from conservative columnist george will

kim jong-un. but his greatest challenge convincing congress and leaders from around the world that it was money just a glamorous photo op. >> i hope we get to the point where he abandons his nuclear weapons. abandons his missiles and takes the country in a different direction. i'm just is not optimistic about it. >> with him or against him, trump congressman mark sanford loses his re-election bid hours after president trump slams him on twitter. >> i think there are trooper think they're hiding under their desk because they're afraid of donald trump and they're afraid of those tweets. >>> and border battles. after late-night negotiations house lergts legislators agree a contentious bill to the house floor. an housing children. here's a question, why? >> they literally never had a chance to say good-bye to their children. some of the child are as young as 6, perhaps younger. it was heartbreaking. >>> we begin today with the hard work still ahead, hey, mike pompeo, when it comes to that nuclear agreement president trump signed alongside kim jong-un. just how accomplished was t summit? w

kim jong-un. >> anita, on the issue of immigration, the president's been playing a little defense last 24 hours, perhaps worried that his base would think he had been too soft on the issue. are we any closer to any clarity on the topic? >> well, you've seen his rhetoric has pretty much been the same. you mentioned the rally tonight where he was sort of talking tough about enforcement like he always does. it's a big topic when he has a political rally. so that was similar. but obviously last week he signed this executive order that says families wouldn't be separated after they crossed the border, parents and children. and then today, as you mentioned, we learned that they are going back on their zero tolerance policy. so they're not going to charge or prosecute adults with children that cross the border. those are two big walkbacks for him, things he said he wouldn't do, the administration has been telling us they would not change on those, and they did. his rhetoric's the same. meanwhile, his administration is changing the policies. >> so, ron, this is where the conversation come

allies. >>> and the nuclear summit countdown. what to expect are the president and kim jong-un as a new day dawns in singapore. this is "mtp daily," and it starts right now. >>> good evening. welcome to "mtp daily." you are looking live right now, in just a moment at singapore, where we are just hours away from that high stakes summit between president trump and kim jong-un coming just one day after the president blew up talks with our closest allies at a summit in canada. in the hours leading up to his meeting with kim, the president met with singapore's prime minister, predicting things would, quote, work out very nicely. and the white house said that mr. trump is planning to leave singapore early because things armong more quickly than expected, which raises the question, what are they expecting? kim meanwhile was seen posing for pictures and selfies, taking a tour through singapore earlier today. the next we will see him will likely be when he meets with the president at 9:00 a.m. local time. that's 9:00 p.m. eastern. guys, we ultimately have no idea what to expect from this meeting

it back about kim jong-un getting on his knees begging and giuliani says, oh, it was a figure of speech. there's mike pompeo, no, that's not how we feel. rudy giuliani seems to continue to have the president's support. peter alexander asked the president about stormy daniels. he said, i'm like-minded with rudy. listen, he was only asking him do you think porn is a respectable business. there's a lot of people out there who could say i don't think it's respectable. but it doesn't mean that person doesn't deserve credibility, don't deserve rights, doesn't mean they are not honest. who is it -- why is it trump continues to stand with rudy when nobody else is? >> i think because giuliani is fulfilling a public role here. there's the public case of -- this will end up in congress, in terms of impeachment. so they're working to be kind of a public relations angle of this. after the mueller investigation is done -- >> and that public role is town clown, court jecster? >> they're playing to the republican party. they're trying to delegitimize the mueller investigation. they're trying to

sunday night on msnbc. "headliners: kim jong-un" airs. up next, "the 11th hour" with brian williams. >>> tonight there are new charges for paul manafort as robert mueller issues a new indictment alleging obstruction of justice, false statements and conspiracy against the united states. >>> plus you don't see this every day. our president with a straight face making an argument for russia joining the g7 after russia hacked our presidential election. as one of our guests tonight says about this moment right now, this is not a drill. >>> and then it's on to singapore and the huge stakes as the president meets with the north korean dictator. "the 11th hour" on a friday night begins now. >>> well, good evening once again from our nbc headquarters here in new york. day 505 of the trump administration, and special counsel robert mueller has filed new charges against the former trump campaign chairman. it is even more clear tonight that paul manafort is in a world of trouble. earlier today manafort was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice for alle

the kim jong un summit and say no more war games. they're very provocative. so you transplant that into a nato/russia context and it's concerning for a lot of these >> jonathan in your reporting today, we're told that john bolton is going to be in moscow, meeting at the kremlin with vladimir putin. john bolton's past attitudes toward russia are somewhat different than donald trump's careening and constantly changing attitudes towards russia. what is going to go on today at the kremlin, acording to your sources what what do you think is going to happen here? >> i found this out about two minutes ago from russian state media. i had no idea that putin was going this meeting. i was on the phone to senior officials last night. so this was news to me, but you know john bolton's record on russia is very, very clear. and well documented. in some ways it doesn't matter. because he's representing a president and nobody speaks for donald trump. and one of the problems that european officing is when they talk to the white house and they try to pin them down on what do you want to achieve from

trump is fryitrying his luck wi one of america's adversaries, kim jong-un in the hope meeting donald trump kim will agree to denuclearize north korea. the complete and verifiable denuclearization of north korea. and here's how long the president is going to give it. >> i think within the first minute i'll know. >> how? >> just my touch, my feel. that's what i do. how long will it take to figure out whether or not they're serious? i said maybe in the first minute. you know, the way they say that you know if you're going to like somebody in the first five seconds, you ever hear that one? well, i think that very quickly i'll know whether or not something good is going to happen. >> five seconds. the president already showing some daylight with his secretary of state on expectations for the summit. >> by the minimum i do believe at least we'll have met each other. we will have seen each other, hopefully we will have liked each other and we'll start that process. i would say that would be the minimal. and the maximum, i think you know the answer to that. but i think that will take

talks with kim jong-un. >> i said i've been preparing all my life. i always believe in preparation. i've been preparing all my life. you know these one week preparations, they doenln't wor. just ask hillary what happened to her in the debates. i've been preparing for this all my life. it's the fake news. if you run, peter, just a little bit longer the clip, you would see i've been preparing all my life. >> while wchina is not at the table, beijing will have a virtual presence. joins me to talk about this michael lighter. welcome both. thank you so much. victor, first to you. is kim jong-un going to be studying? >> oh, yes. he's been preparing for this meeting for, the north koreans for four and a half decades. they have been waiting for a meeting with the u.s. president. he's going to be well prepared and the trap doors for the president to slip into. the president may come out of meeting thinking he's got a victory and not realizing that he just fell into all of north korea's traps. >> if he agrees to suggeomethin suggest wiggle room. >> flst a huge number of complications. other

dictator kim jong-un which last i checked was still on. and just in the last hour sarah huckabee sanders gave new details about the timing of the meeting. >> i can also tell you the schedule for -- tentatively for that first meeting will be on june 12th at 9:00 a.m. singapore time and take place june 11th 9:00 east coast time. >> but some of the logistics haven't been hammered out yet including a major one, who is paying for kim jong-un's hotel room? for more on this that i'm joined by hans nichols live in singapore. why is this an issue, hans? >> because the north koreans might not have the liquid cash to pay for and cover their hotel room. that's according to the "washington post." there have been other people who stepped in and say they are willing to pay. i-can, and the singapore government said they would defray all security costs. whether the hotel room fits into the security costs that's an open question. here's what we her from the singaporians. they are blocking out june 10th to june 12th for what they are calling a special event area. they have drawn a line around downt