Andrea mitchell talking north korea, iran and israel and senator ben cardin will be joining us later in the show with his reaction and following the latest episode in the alleged pay to play scheme. Why Michael Cohen says Stormy Daniels attorney has the wrong guy. We are breaking down the numbers and looking at the final episode out of the pentagon on their investigation into that deadly ambush. Four american soldiers killed back in october. What it says about who is to blame and what will change now. That report coming out in just about two hours from now. I want to start with kelly odonnell. My fellow overnight shifter at the white house. A little brighter in the day. Talk about what is next now that these returnees are home. When will we find out more about their medical condition and when will they be reunited with their families . We are both caffeine fuelled. We know in the seven hours or so since the three men have been back on mainland u. S. Soil and beginning their return to the life that had been left behind we have had very little information. We are not getting specifics. Typically in a situation like this there are a couple of things that take place. A very complete medical evaluation. We know that detainees in north korea have been subject to very harsh conditions, malnutrition, very tough time. We saw the condition when he returned to the United States and passed away a short time later. A full medical workup. They are the best sources of human intelligence the Trump Administration and the United States has right now, the three men who have had interaction day to day in harsh conditions with the North Koreans. This is the first chance to really hear their stories and learn what they may know and find out what their experiences could inform the cia, the government more broadly and in any degree preparation for the summit coming up with President Trump and kim jongun. We have an indication from the families that they are still waiting for their special moment. They were able to see it on tv but not able to experience the embrace just yet. Tony kims family says the family is grateful for the release to know that for the return of the hashtag usa three and for continued support and prayers. They have not yet seen him in person and look forward to the reunion as soon as possible. You get a sense for the whole fullness as well as longing for the moment. We also had an opportunity to hear from the Vice President. Our colleague was able to have a sit down interview and talk about where things stand and the delicate balance of President Trumps communications directed at kim jongun. Here is what the Vice President had to say. Why did the president call him honorable some weeks ago . Is the president praising too much and raising expectations too high . I think what the president was referring to is that in this moment the regime in north korea has been dealing as far as we can see in good faith. They have been responding to the engagement. Andrea, we have no illusions about that. We do believe that the regime in north korea has taken steps that indicate this may be an opportunity for a break through, the kind of break through that has alluded the United States and the World Community for more than 20 years. As we know the president has indicated he expects to announce the location and the date of his summit with kim jongun. Also, always reminding us that it could be something that would not materialize in the u. S. Goal of denuclearization. Today was certainly a hopeful sign, one that the Trump Administration is touting as a Foreign Policy victory and one that is a part of the path towards that summit. Kelly odonnell. Thank you. Stay with msnbc for this show and then after because Andrea Mitchell sat down with the Vice President who had more to say about all of this. That interview airs at noon today. I want to bring in former Deputy Division chief for korea at the cia and our panel for the hour political reporter for the Washington PostAmber Phillips along with anna palmer. Bruce, to you first. The president calling kim jongun nice in letting these detainees go. Really . Nice . Well, it really was removing an impediment to the summit. If they had not released the three americans it could have prevend prevented the summit from occurring. It is a part of initiatives by kim jongun not only traveling to china twice but reaching out for summits with chinese and south korean and u. S. Leaders. He may meet with japanese and russian leaders. Rapid fire initiatives of inviting International Inspectors to see Nuclear Test Site that he vows to close and vowing no more Nuclear Missile tests. What should be on the agenda . We know mike pompeo says they worked out the win and the where. All signs point to singapore in a matter of weeks. But now they are trying to figure out the nittygritty of what the talks will consist of getting to the goal of discussing denuclearization. It has to be front and center. North korea has not made a lot of public statements identifying what they mean by it. But what we have heard cryptically is that they are continuing to have heavy they are not just putting the noose on the table for nothing. Kim in my discussions with North Koreans indicates i think kim will come with a big proposal. It could be denuclearization in return for peace treaty and normalization of relations. Setting aside the geopolitical piece of it lets get to the personal piece of it. I want to see if we can pull up the video of the men walking off the plane for the first time. I was there and it was you could feel the anticipation. Every Single Person was looking towards the door way waiting for the first glimpse of the men. One of them handed mike pompeo a note. This is literally their first step to mainland u. S. Soil and the first step in a metaphorical sense in the journey back to some kind of normalcy. It is going to be a process. I want you to weigh in on the process of reassimilating for the men. Laura ling was held and released in 2009. She talked about this about the process of coming back home. Its not easy. Listen. When they return home it was there was an adjustment period for me when i returned home. There was really an appreciation that i had for the smallest things, things we really take for granted. To hear music on the radio brought me to tears, just being able to take a walk, a stroll in my neighborhood, to look at the stars at night. These were things, luxuries that i didnt have when i was held in north korea. So they became little treasures for me. Bruce, because you would know this, what is happening now with these men and these detainees . They are at walter reed but what is the process moving forward . A lot depends on how they were treated in north korea. A number of North Koreans have been detained and have had wide range of treatment. Others had been severely mistreat skpd had a much tougher time reintegrating back to normal lives. Others were held in isolation in a guest house so that would be an easier assimulation. Think in terms of someone in solitary confinement in a prison it will be hard for them if they werent mistreated to really assim late back. It will be a process. This was a Television Production for donald trump. The flood lights are lighting up 30 by 50 foot American Flag as the plane pulled up. The optics of this are important to donald trump. This is Reality Television at the biggest stage. Talked about the ratings and the largest ratings at 3 00 a. M. That ever existed. We dont know if it is true yet or not. He was excited about it. You can tell it was a real victory and a show. He has been putting on a show for a while now. He welcomed nobel peace price talks. You have mike pence saying talking about the meeti ing tha hasnt happened yet. I want to get to the other major headline that happened. Not just the release of three americans but the u. S. Coming out in support of a military strike against iranian targets in syria after a rock hit israeli positions. A white house statement says in part irans Islamic Revolutionary guard corps bears full responsibility for the consequences of its reckless actions and we call on the irgc to take no further provocative steps. Matt bradley is in the region. This is an escalation between the countries that we havent seen in a really long time. Reporter i would go so far as to say it is unprecedented. I cant think of a time in history when iran and israel have been at each others throats so directly. There has been a long history of israel dealing with iranian proxys in the region like in that statement hezbollah like you suicide. They have constantly been facetoface and trying to attack each other. This is a major issue. We are seeing the first major israeli intervention into syria. That hasnt happened since the early 1970s. We dont know if the escalation is going to go anywhere from here. This is all about messaging. It is kind of symbolism. The regime had a message that they werent going to take the administrations withdrawing the nuclear deal lightly without some kind of response against American Allies in the region. The israelis had to send a message that they werent going to take any aggression and werent going to sit back and watch them build up military power in syria. In the next week we will see the 70th anniversary and there is a very vital moment for that celebration. Matt, thank you for joining us live. With us now from capitol hill is senator ben cardin, a member of the Foreign Relations committee. Thank you very much for being with us. Let me pick up where matt bradley left off. Do you believe what is happening in the middle east with izral and iran is simply messaging or do you believe the middle east is on the brink of war . First, its good to be with you. I think israel will defend itself when it has a perceived real risk. What iran is doing getting closer and closer to the israeli border, israel will not compromise its National Security. So i think what you are seeing here may be more than messaging. We hope it is not a full out conflict. I think israel will continue to take steps to make sure iran does not have capacity to effect security. I want to play you what republican congressman said about what should happen in iran if the temperature is not ratcheted down a little bit. We have to be willing to take military action if it gets to that point. What does military action against iran look like . That would be for generals and ultimately the president to decide. Without question iranian presence in syria is disconcerting. Its unacceptable. When they are firing missiles at our allies it becomes an issue that has to be dealt with very seriously. So senator, he is suggesting military action if tensions arent ratcheted down. Should that happen next . Israel has the full capacity to protect itself. Its not asking for the u. S. s help. I think in this situation lets allow israelis to make the call what they think is necessary. We have found in the middle east that there are very few areas where the military alone will solve a problem. This is not an area where we want to escalate a military conflict. We want to make it clear that israel has a right to defend itself. As we deal with the problems in syria lets not give iran a foothold in that country where they could attack other countries. Let me ask you about north korea and the news overnight what we saw at joint base andrews. What does the release of the detainees say to you . It is good news. Anytime we get americans back home being held for wrong reasons and get americans out of north korea is always good news. It also shows that the communication is more constructive, that we are able to use that means to release three americans. Would you describe it as victory to President Trump . It is a victory to the American People whenever we can get our people back home and we want diplomacy to work in regards to illuminating nuclear threat. That is all very positive and under donald trump. Absolutely. We give him credit but the bottom line is lets make sure we use diplomacy to end this conflict in north korea. And as with the conflict in north korea as the president looks ahead to talks do you believe expectations are getting too high for these talks . You heard the president say it was nice that kim jongun released it and he is taking steps towards discussions coming up in a matter of weeks. Does he need to ratchet down the expectation setting game . Lets be realistic as to what we can achieve. In the short term it would be a major victory that we get a phrase on the north Korean Nuclear program and get inspectors on the ground knowing exactly what is going on and we have Communications Concerning the end of the nuclear program. That would be a major achievement in the short month. Very quickly, where are you on gina haspel . I am going into a classified room to look at the source material concerning here. I will be making a judgment very soon. You are still undecided. Dianne feinstein is a no. I would say im not going to announce a decision until i have looked at all the material. I hope you come back on the show to talk beabout it. The faceoff between michael abonati and Michael Cohen. Cohen is saying you are wrong. What does it all mean for the white house . Dont miss it. Lets get started. Show of hands. Who wants customizable options chains . Ones that make it fast and easy to analyze and take action . How about some of the lowest options fees . Are you raising your hand . Good then its time for power e trade the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. Alright one quick game of rock, paper, scissors. 1, 2, 3, go. E trade. The original place to invest online. When it comes to travel, i sweat the details. Late checkout. Downalternative pillows. And of course, price. Tripadvisor helps you book a. Hotel without breaking a sweat. Because we now instantly. Search over 200 booking sites. To find you the lowest price. On the hotel you want. Dont sweat your booking. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. Im a fighter. Always have been. When i found out i had agerelated macular degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back. My doctor and i came up with a plan. It includes preservision. Only Preservision Areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the National Eye Institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd. Thats why i fight. Because its my vision. Preservision. Try areds 2 multivitamin. Mr. Elliot, whats your wiwifi . Ssword . Wifis ordinary. Basic. Do i look basic . Nope which is why i have xfinity xfi. Its super fast and you can control every device in the house. [ child offscreen ] hey lets basement. And thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here, too. So sophie, i have an xfi password, and its daditude. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Xfinity. The future of awesome. So the lawyer for Stormy Daniels is stepping attacks accusing Michael Cohen of selling access to the white house. Cohen is firing back and through his lawyer filed a complaint calling into question some of the numbers. He was like small potatoes. In the report that we issued we identified about 3,180,530 worth of Financial Transactions. They have taken issue with a whopping 20,5 20,583. So we struck a percentage, our report appears to be 99. 35 accurate which if this was election that would be pretty good for the popular vote. So all of this back and forth comes ahead of a deadline for a special to figure out whether items taken from Michael Cohen in the raid fall under Attorney Client privilege Kristin Welker is at the white house. Talk to us about some of the payments to Michael Cohen here. Reporter first to the argument that Michael Cohen, his attorney are making. They point to the fact that some of the camps that he uses in that document that he revealed earlier this week are related to the wrong Michael Cohen, someone who lives in canada. Avenatti is saying that is not dealing with 99 of what we raise in this document. Here are some of the big ticket payments. One from novartis which paid 1. 2 million to Michael Cohens company for insights into u. S. Health care policy matters. Columbus which paid 500,000 for potential investments in real estate. That company, of course, linked to the Russian Oligarch deposited funds into the same account used to pay Stormy Daniels. Michael avenatti indicating that may have been reimbursement. At t paying at least 200,000. Its important to point out it is not illegal to do that sort of thing, to pay for access, to pay for insights. It could be legally problematic if he failed to disclose those payments properly and politically problematic. This is the president s personal attorney and he promised to drain the swamp. This is the opposite of that. Thank you. I want to bring in former u. S. Attorney and msnbc contributor and back with me Amber Phillips. Joyce to you first. What does it mean as far as where the money may have gone . What questions would you be asking as a prosecutor . That is exactly the question. Where did the nmoney go. Michael avenatti got the documents from a somewhat unusual route. Prosecutors will follow the money and see where it went in the first instance and where it was ultimately funneled. One of the underlying questions is was Michael Cohen freelancing or were there other people who were a part of what was going on . Both say they were interviewed by Robert Mueller and cooperated fully. What should we make of that . Its a very good indication of the thoroughness of the mueller investigation. One of the things prosecutors say is that mueller is five or six steps ahead of the public and the press. Here we see it in action. He will not be limited in the Financial Data that he has access to. I suspect he already knows where the money ended up and who was involved. And then the secondary assessment or really primary assessment is do the Financial Transactions amount to a crime or are they simply distasteful . You talked about what this might mean for the white house. Kristin welker tried to get the press secretary to talk about that a little bit. The president promised to drain the swamp. Does he feel it is appropriate that Michael Cohen, his personal attorney, was selling access to . I will not weigh into this. I havent spoken to the president. Has the president taken action to benefit novart s . Not that i am aware of. I think this is very swampy. Cohens broader Michael Avenattis point here has been made successfully. I think the bigger story here is he is outtrumping trump. He has the drip, drip, drip effect. The Stormy Daniels situation would continue to play out. He has been able to play the press and keep this top of mind through several weeks now. Joyce vance, anna, amber. Thank you. We want to tell you about what is coming up later on in the show. Appreciate you guys. Mission ended with the deaths of four American Service members. That report is set to come out in just about an hour and a half from now. We have a preview coming up after the break. In these turbulent times, do you focus on todays headwinds . Or plan for tomorrow . At kpmg, we believe success requires both. With our broad range of services and industry expertise, kpmg can help you anticipate tomorrow and deliver today. Kpmg. Woman i stay active by staying in rhythm. And to keep up this pace, i drink boost optimum. Boost optimum with 5 in 1 advanced nutrition helps support muscle, energy, bone, normal immune function, and vision. Boost optimum. Be up for life. Boost optimum. Because Antonio Villaraigosa millions got it done. Healthcare he defended womens healthcare, banned militarystyle assault weapons, banned workplace discrimination, and more. Antonio for governor. Only one candidate for governor when students were stuck in failing schools, led the fight to turn them around. As mayor of l. A. , Antonio Villaraigosa invested in classrooms and security. Graduation rates soared. Antonio for governor. So at noon eastern, 9 pacific the pentagon will release the report on the special ops raid. Four americans were killed by isis militants during the mission after their 12person team was ambushed. Nbcs courtney is joining us now. We have a lot of information already based on information from your sources and reporting you have done. What do you know . We put out a story earlier this week. The attack was in october. The investigation was actually completed several months ago and had a long review process about nearly three months of reviewing by Senior Leaders at the pentagon. During the course of that time of course we started to learn more and more details. What we know about the raid right now is that when the Mission First began on october 3 it was to go out and find information and potentially kill or capture a very high value isis leader. But the individuals, young officers filed paperwork saying it was to find information reconnaissance and to meet with local leaders. The intelligence assessment was that it was low likelihood of any kind of enemy contact. From the beginning there were problems in the paperwork. That is not what led to this ambush. The soldiers were out. Their mission changed at least once while they were out there. They went in on their way back to base the next day and were ambushed as they were leaving a small village from where they met with local leaders. So from the very beginning there were questions about the raid. We are starting to see more clarity. We expect to get the executive summary as you mentioned and have what is supposed to be an extensive briefing at noon at the pentagon. I know you will be there and updating us later on this afternoon. Thank you for talking us through that. Joining us now is republican congressman Steve Russell of oklahoma. He is a retired army officer and combat veteran who travelled as part of investigation into the deaths of the soldiers. Thank you for being here. Other lawmakers called the report explosive and say it raises questions about future operations there. Do you agree with that characterization . I dont think we need to overreact. I agree with the findings of the report. I have been following this since the day it happened and have been heavily involved in investigating it myself, even have gone out to the sites in africa to include leaders, defense minister and others. The findings of the report say the single greatest cause of the death of our soldiers was an aggressive opportunistic enemy. Does that mean you dont believe the Mission Approval process needs to be reexamined . I think it has been reexamined. One thing about the report is that it was very thorougthoroug it doesnt cut corners. It is very open and presents all of the facts. It doesnt go into speculation and presents the facts. While you may have had things in the interim or lower levels of the command structure there where they needed to perhaps coordinate better or do those types of things, all of the things that that relates to were accomplished successfully. They went in support of a mission on another team looking to capture a guy. Weather had a factor. They were able to exploit the site successfully at another location where they thought he might have been. After all of that was done which is by the way what all of this hubbub is about a different mission that was all accomplished. When it was over they were coming back and then they were going to a village to get water. Engaged with the population and got ambushed on the way out. Stepping back not just with this incident with our reporting indicates it does talk about misleading mission reports. How rampant is the culture in the department of defense of filing what you might call misleading reports . I dont think it is rampant at all. The group has worked in africa for decades. This is an area they know. They work with these units. Many of them come on repeated tours. They went out armed expecting that there could be danger. That is why they were able to fight to get themselves out of the situation. Thats a story not being covered. We do want to honor their lives and the lives of those lost fighting for the country. Friederiedricka wilson has ques about this. She has concerns that she is raising with a new interview talking about how this is strange. She calls it suspicious and unsettling for herself and for the family. Do you have the same concerns about what happened . I think we have been in some of the same hearings together. She came in for one of the classified hearings. With respect to ms. Wilson i dont think that she has the context or comprehension of military operations. What i will say is he went down fighting. He wasnt captured. He wasnt any of that. All of these speculations. It wasnt like he wasnt trained. He was a by name request as a support to the special forces. They get to pick who they want to support. He was a by name request to repeat and go back with them. Thats what kind of soldier he was. He was very trained and he was a hero that day. Congressman Steve Russell, thank you for coming on and talking us through that. Democrats in the House Intelligence Committee refusing to back off the russia investigation even though their gop colleagues say it is over. Breaking this hour the new evidence dems say they recover with potential ties to russia interfering in the election. Thats next. Since my stroke, he hasnt left my side. With the right steps, 80 of recurrent ischemic strokes could be prevented. A bayer aspirin regimen is one step to help prevent another stroke. So, im doing all i can to stay in his life. Be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. Before you begin an aspirin regimen. So lionel, what does 24 5 mean to you . 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Singapore is an interesting pick. He basically laid out two options. Singapore was one of them. It is a site closer to north korea. It is a fairly neutral site. There is a lot of diplomatic planning that went into the creation of this. What do you make of this announcement . The president had been teeing it up. I think now is the time for the president to deliver on everything he has been talking about for weeks now. You know, i think that he has been sort of trumpeting up what is going to happen here. He has a chance to bring home more people in north korea. No one has gotten north korea to get rid of nukes. May 10. No pressure for mike pompeo. 2 1 2 weeks. This is going to be the high wire act of his tenure. I know your suitcase has been packed for the trip since the president talked about it happening. Looks like we are headed to singapore. Looks like we are heading to singapore june 12 and of course this is a president who relishes in the art of surprise. He has been teasing this, as you point out for some time now. Now we have our answer. There are a lot of unanswered questions, though including what specifically is going to be on the agenda when the president is pressing for denuclearization of the korean peninsula. What are the terms going to be . What other leaders might be there . He has been in very close contact with the leader of south korea, president of china. Will there be any other regional allies who join in. We dont have the answers yet but the stakes could not be higher. The release of the detainees overnight, a show of good faith by north korea. To what extent will they be honest brokers still remains an unanswered question. Thanks for scrambling up developing news. Location confirmed for the talks. We want to continue the conversation. Something else broken. May be thinking house intel shut down its russia investigation. Republicans ended it two months ago. Democrats did not stop investigating. They are not hitting Trump Campaign foes. They are not raising questions of collusion. They are out with a brand new look at just how precise russias propaganda techniques were up. That you have been sifting through documents now. You put this in the context of democrats howling when republicans tried to shut down the investigation. This is an attempt to show we are doing the work that the committee should have been continuing to do when raenz say they wanted to shut it down. With the mid terms a few months away. Democrats are saying we need to understand because we have been told russia is continuing to try to interfere in elections and social media is one of the most effective tools. The documents helped give insight. They are showing 3,519 new ads shown on facebook. These are events, advertisements. It shows the sophistication of russian efforts to try to stir up the political on some of the most hot button issues. The day after the charleston shooting, for instance the ira launched an ad to racial concerns in the u. S. That account they launched turned out to be one of the most common ones encouraging black voters not to support her. What we learned from the mueller indictment they talked about the growing sophistication of that. The last ad that the ira bought in august of 2016 was targeted towards viewers of Fox News Channel and had to do with immigration issues. This is a real insight into how russians played in our elections. And the precision they operated with. Clint msnbc contributor and expert in all things related to this. What is your biggest take away from what we have seen so far in the last 45 minutes or so . I think they tried to create physical events which they could amplify on social media. If you can get americans to show up at protests or rallies or eveb talk about going to physical training you can then write articles and propaganda that says look at the violence and wedges and chaos going on inside the United States. We watched this throughout 2015 and the goal is to infiltrate u. S. Audience through social issues so you can influence them towards the election politically in 2016. When you see people show up at protests those evangelists will be reengaged by russians to do more outreach and more active measures in the u. S. Population. I want to ask you, facebook has rolled out the new rules governing these types of ads. Facebook will require the buyers of ads on issues like race, immigration and guns to verify identity and location. Who is paying for those ads . In the grand scheme of things how effective is that . It works to a certain extent in that it prevents from gaining foothold and gaining traction the way that the russians did in 15 and 16. Overall what we are learning from all of these organizations whether it is the russians or lobbiest or Political Group is they dance within the terms of service of these facebook, social media platforms and then learn how to manipulate it. It is a tough way for facebook to go anyway around without hurting the Business Model or looking like they are picking one side or the other. It becomes very difficult for them to navigate. I love the way you put it into laymans terms dancing around the terms of service. I think this is something that congress has been really thinking through how do we try to legislate this. There is no clear answer. Even if congress did act facebook and people who try to do harm on there will find ways to do it. On the other side you have dems doing this. On the other side you have republicans specifically devon nuneswho is issuing a subpoena to doj for information giving to Robert Mueller. Here is what he had to say. I havent spoken to him about it. So we have not discussed this. We expect the administration to comply with our document requests as a matter of form for the executive branch in our legislative Branch Oversight woompt. We expect the administration to honor our document request. It is such a just xtapositio the accusations that that particular committee has become so partisan. You have two different tracks. The most interesting thing i think is actually slapped on the hand by the chief of staff for the white house in a phone call saying what are you doing . We are all republicans in this together. He is kind of out there by himself. He is not making friends with this administration and it is interesting to see how that plays out. Stepped aside from running the russia investigation last april. What he really focussed his attention on at that point was subpoenaing doj for various documents. This is a Christopher Steele dossier. What democrats see is an attempt to make unreasonable demands of the Justice Department so that the Justice Department when they say no they can and we saw this from the Freedom Caucus encourage the president to perhaps fire rosenstein allowing him to take hold of the mueller probe. Final quick thoughts to you, sir. They are making my head explode. Imagine if you are part of the u. S. Intelligence committee trying to develop sources and in public we see somebody going after intelligence sources and trying to disclose them potentially to the public. It makes your job and the security of the country so much worse and so much harder to do. Its not good for any american to see this going on. Pleasure to have you on set. We have to mention you author of a new book messing with the enemy. Thanks for joining us. Coming up after the break President Trump focussing on Foreign Policy a ton lately and getting some credit for progress as you heard here on this show from democrats. 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Within the last couple of minutes we learned the when and where of the potentially historic talks between President Trump and kim jongun. They will happen june 12th in singapore. The president tweeted it after teasing for 48 hours or so the news would come at any moment. He says well both try to make a special moment for world peace. He calls it a highly anticipated meetings. I would say fact check, zero pinocchios. Phil, you are writing about the president s Foreign Policy moves as hes dealing with other issues at home. Let me start with the breaking news, singapore. Why singapore . Its an interesting pick. Its been rumors for some time. Its a country that trump has been looking at. Its a place where both the u. S. And north korea have diplomatic presence. Its sort of a natural neutral ground, if it were. And then the locations were limited in part because north korea doesnt have jets that can fly long distances. Kim very rarely leaves his country, and so this is a place thats close enough to north korea but with enough distance to be seen as a more neutral ground for this sort of a summit. This had been a question of whether the fleet for north korea could actually make it anywhere far. Exactly. It seems singapore is the pick. Based on our reports, the president wanted the dmz. He likes the idea of going to the dmz, but his National Security team ruled that out pretty early on. Yeah. It would have been a dramatic setting for this meeting. I think trump might have been intrigued by the idea of being able to step foot across the dmz and being the First American president to stand on north korean graund ground, but its worth pointing out Vice President pence on his first trip to south korea visited the dmz and had the photo op there. So trump, i dont think made it there. I think there was a weather problem. He tried to and it was cloudy. We were waiting for that moment and the chopper had to turn around because the weather wasnt good. You have this. You have this upcoming talk, everything happening with what we saw overnight with the release of the freed detainee. The president has controversy over cabinet members here. Can his efforts at Foreign Policy breakthroughs erase damage of scandals at home. Writing for trump, each bold heck of a line, my friend. Unpack it. The president is trying to remind americans he has some big Foreign Policy issues at stake. Hes trying to build a case for why its so important to protect his presidency. He sees this as a way he Foreign Policy as an issue he can campaign on on behalf of republicans in midterm elections and hes hopeful in north korea, if he had a deal, the summit in singapore could go a long way toward helping americans view his presidency differently. Thats a tall order. The polling, hes improved in the polling but hes under water. He has been throughout his presidency. Its worth remembering, i talked to our friend, the president ial historian yesterday about this. Richard nixon tried to do the same thing during water gate. He tried to focus on soviet negotiations and con flick in the middle east and tried to be a commander in chief president. A year later he had to resign under threat of impeachment. The issues dont save a presidency in danger. Amber . Yeah. I think the president , even though his Approval Ratings are going up, theyre historically low. Anything helps at this point. Even though republican political operatives would point out russia doesnt necessarily move people outside the beltway. Sure. I think the north korea issue speaks to people. I think people have an understanding of this issue. I think people know north korea and kim jongun. They know hes a dictator who has been starving his people, this regime the president just months ago at the state of the union railed against as one of the worst in the world, most corrupt in the world, now meeting with him in singapore, we know. Interesting pick, though, because i dont believe the u. S. Has an ambassador to singapore. Mcfarland pulled out. Obviously the secretary of state, pompeo, this is his show. The question i have on this is does he come across as president ial . I think youre right that it will help voters and republicans in some more conservative districts be feel more comfortable with the president when they have issues. We have democrats railing on them for corruption. Democrats are railing on so many issues. Phil, you talk about the optics. We saw overnight, i think, the made for tv president , right . Putting on a show. That is what we could expect to see come mid june. Absolutely. That homecoming last night was cinematic. It was produced by the president. Remember, hes a television producer. He put on a reality tv show, the apprentice. He knows how to create images. He tried to do it last night to have a moment of triumph. It was a feel good story for most americans. It was a good moment, but it only lasted so long. Were still talking about Michael Cohen. Mueller is still investigating obstruction of justice and potential russian collusion, and this stuff is not going to end. Phil, thank you for coming on the show. Its good to see you on. Amber and anna, i appreciate you joining me for the last 59 minutes onset. We end with the big picture. For it, we finish off the friday in a sweet way. Check out this highway crash. Think it sounds terrible . Its not your typical car crash todays thursday . Todays thursday. Were ending it on a sweet note. Point is j truck was full of chocolate. 12 tons of it. Thats chocolate shutting down the freeway. Its actually harder to clear away than snow. And police in the small town here in poland confirming, yes, this is a first. Never happened before as you look at the big picture today. Photo courtesy of tvp via is afp. Would love to hear your thoughts on facebook, twitter, and snapchat. Ive been waiting to see that on tv. How does the ten second rule or it might be the Five Second Rule so cars were look at the tire tracks. Cars were like its just chocolate, keeping going. Get out of the car and start im like hey, dip strawberries. I would get out of the car and just. Hallie thinks its friday because she had a late ending to yesterday. You were at i was there, yeah. When the youre just hoping hallies argument, why she didnt know