Volunteered for duty. And the limits of American Power and prestige around the modern world. President trump who in lieu of a formal easter message, made a few sporadic comments on twitter yesterday, is also learning that words matter. The last time americans fought on the Korean Peninsula over 54,000 fathers, husbands, brothers and sons gave their lives in the war effort. Thousands more came home wounded. That was a different time, of course. The current tension has to do with nuclear weapons. A young unstable leader in a volatile neighborhood. A political novice in the white house, and a high risk of miscalculation. The harshest, darkest rhetoric did not come from the american president or the white house. It came from north koreas representative to the United Nations here in new york. The United States is disturbing the global peace and stability. And insisting on the gangster like logic. It has created a dangerous situation. The Nuclear War May break out at any moment on the peninsula. And poses a serious threat to the world, the peace and security. Thermo nuclear war could break out at any moment. Mike pence who is the son of a korean war combat veteran was in the air enroute to the peninsula during the failed missile test by the north. He visited the dmz, where he repeated the warning to the kim jongun regime. As the president s made very clear, either china will deal with this problem or the United States and our allies will. It was a period of strategic patience. But the era of strategic patience is over. President trump has made it clear that the patience of the United States and our allies in this region has run out. And we want to see change. At this mornings public event. The annual easter egg roll on the white house lawn. The president got close enough to the press corps to here a shouted question about north korea. Better behave. Later in the morning, the president restated his Electoral College win, calling the media fake and attacking the tax return marches this weekend. He went on fox news and was asked about korea. So that meant a chance to take a swing at president obama. I dont want to telegraph what im doing or thinking, im not like other administrations where they say, were going to do this in four weeks. It doesnt work that way. Well see what happens, i hope things work out well. I hope theres going to be peace. But theyve been talking with this gentleman for a long time. You read clintons book, he sa, oh, we made such a great peace deal, and it was a joke. You look at Different Things over the years with president obama, everybodys been outplayed. Theyve all been outplayed by this gentleman. And well see what happens, but i just dont telegraph my moves. Lets bring in tonights panel, shall we. Nicolle wallace joins us from detroit. A former White House Communications director for bush 43 and a senior director of the mccain palin effort. Shes been on the road talking to trump voters across the country for an upcoming series of reports. Jeremy bash and the secretary of defense during the obama administration. And former council of the house intelligence committee. And Michael Crowley is back with us tonight. Good evening to you all, mr. Bash, im going to begin with you, because of your past work in the with the Intelligence Community and in and with the pentagon, where north korea is concerned. What keeps you up at night . North korea is really trying to perfect the element of surprise. For many years, when they would stack those missiles on the launch pad, spy satellites were able to spy at those missiles and we really had the opportunity to shoot them down and ensure they didnt get off the pad in some cases, now what theyre doing, what the north is doing, theyre trying to put them on the back of trucks, make them mobil so they can drive them around. Not just on road but on track vehicles so they can go offroad. Theyre perfecting that solid fuel capability. They dont need to take the time to fuel that liquid propellant. They want to launch these missiles anywhere, any time. Thats what concerns me. Weve seen their tests before, we know their capabilities in that regard. Its the missile launches that make him so unpredictably dangerous. I want to show two elements. All the Security Experts go over this parade video every year, with a fine tooth comb. This years review was some of e missiles appeared to be jostling in their transporters as if hollow or empty. That wouldnt be the first time. This next shot we have one of the appendages on the side of the missile there, on the transporter, all of the nose cones for design sake it appears were bent out. Are curved, which aerodynamically can be very dangerous. Theres also this moment about whether there was any hanky panky going on. Why this launch failed. Did the u. S. Have its fingers on the scale . This is an exchange with the Deputy National security adviser, k. T. Mcfarland on fox yesterday morning. Did the u. S. Sabotage this missile . Now, chris, you know we cant talk about secret intelligence and things that might have been done covert operations that might have happened. So i really have no comment on that. Nor should i. I dont have any particular comment on what happened with the south, with the north Korean Missile. But it was a fizzle. Jeremy, whats going on there . Its hard to know, and i certainly dont know. Im not privy to those details, ive been out of government for some time. Its possible this is bad engineering, its possible there were people who were motivated to do something to make the missile go awry. Its also, it could have been bad luck. Heres the point the most important point, which is, the North Koreans learn from their failures, even more so than they learn from their successes, this is a Missile Program that is now in overdrive. Brian, heres where i think the Trump Administration is on this tonight, they have concluded internal internally, the window for diplomacy has closed. I think internally, they have decided that they will not be able to convince china to put the screws to north korea, they have offered this deal to kim jongun many times. Basically, you can feed your people or have a nuclear weapon, you cant ha bot i think the Trump White House in the next couple weeks is going to be outlining what precisely they want to do militarily, against this regime, and then we are on the brink of war on the peninsula. That is chilling. Nicolle wallace in detroit michigan tonight. The question ive wanted to ask you for so many weeks. What is it we are witnessing in this president and in this west wing largely . Is it too lofty to say that theres a metamorphosis going on . Or is this right now the period we were told, youll be thankful soon that he has professionals on the National Security team . Well, i think what weve been watching for some weeks now, is the rising influence of the generals and the more competent people who know how to govern. The governors not governors of states, but people with the experience of governing, and the declining influence, the bannons, the kelly annes. I think it was always going to be an International Crisis that really elevated the people that advice any president under these circumstances. I talked to a senior white house official involved in the shakeup, and the realignment of power there, who said the last 10 days, and really the way the process worked in the crisis in syria. Where they brought military options to the president. They briefed him on his choices, he made a decision and he saw this team execute his decision with a kind of precision that was applauded across the political island. You can debate whether that was a meaningful strike. That was a model as much for this president to see how its supposed to work, as it was a model for domestic audiences and international audiences. We know theyre studying that action around the world, because it was this new president s First Military action. I think jeremy makes a point that you accurately describe as chilling, in talking about being on the brink of war on the peninsula. I think that this president knew he was going to be tested. He was told by outgoing president barack obama in that very first meeting in the oval office, that he would be tested. I think that between that moment and this moment were watching the education of a president. Michael, this is also something that may be coming to a first here, a nuclear standoff. Not only in the era of social media, but at a time when the Washington Post publishes a piece with 21 sources within the trump west wing. 21 people willing to take on a substantial risk to comment on the boss off the record or on background. So my question to you is this, how are they going to keep the talk sane . Like talk of a preemptive strike by the United States . Well, one interesting question, brian, is whether in this context, a little bit of perceived insanity is actually something the white house wants. Is trying to cultivate. Theres this madman theory of National Security, Richard Nixon tried to play this card, which suggests to your adversary, im just crazy enough, that i might do the thing no one else in my shoes has dared to do before, you really cant predict my behavior, im seeing some of this in the signaling from this administration, some of the rhetor rhetoric. Some of these very incredibly dramatically tearse statements that say we acknowledge the north Korean Missile test today. We have no further comment. The time for talk is over. This sort of western cowboy walking into the bar attitude. Not to mention the flotilla of navy ships that are moving toward the Korean Peninsula. On the one hand, brian, when you have a dangerous standoff, of course you would like to think that within our government we have stability, methodical planning, every step is very calculated. Im not sure we can be certain thats happening in this administration right now. I also would suggest as people watch the way this unfolds, they think about the possibility that trump is actually trying to use this to his advantage, in a way that could be dangerous, i should add. But i definitely see that as part of the strategy here, to kind of psych the North Koreans out, to try to dislodge this status quo, by suggesting were just crazy enough to do the thing that george w. Bush or barack obama would never do. I just dont think it has a high probability of working. I do think thats probably whats working here. Can i jump in here and say, the hallmark of military capability is discipline. Its uniformity. Its why the military wears uniforms, and people who come into the military on their first day, they learn to salute. They have respect for the chain of command. If at the top of the chain of command theres someone whos erratic, it causes the whole chain of command to disintegrate. I think this is a major strategic disadvantage for the United States of america. I would jump in and say hes passed the madman test with flying colors. The actual test hes facing right now, is whether he can sit atop that chain of command and command the respect, not just of his own military and own deputies who respect that sort of order, but of the world, and the world is watching how he faces his first test. Jeremy, true to form and just on schedule, fox news tonight was doing more than one segment on the appeasers, the last couple president s who have allowed this to happen. Having said that, when the president has commented on it, he says something very tearse like, it will get taken care of. Do you think hes putting an inordinate amount of faith, hope and trust in the efforts of, say, china . Well, look, i think the quiet diplomacy with china is productive, i think in some ways the silent treatment that secretary Rex Tillerson gave the North Koreans a secretary mattis gave the North Koreans is the right approach. Im less concerned about the tweets from april 11th and april 13th. If china doesnt take care of this, were going to take care of this this problem ourselves. That to me shows that hes looking for preemptive military options, and i think thats dangerous, that will signal to the North Koreans, they better do something first before we take them out. Fundamentally, kim jongun believes these weapons he has. His missiles are the gaurn tors of his survival. If he thinks his survival is under threat. Hell use those weapons, hell do so prematurely, and well be at war. What are the good options to solve this, to cool it down before a shot can be fired or before, you know, south korea has to go on alert. Brian, i dont see any good options. This is really one of the hardest problems out there, maybe syria is tougher. The choice here is, do you try some kind of extremely risky first strike . You liken this to a hostage situation. The North Koreans are holding seoul, South Carolina hostage with a gun to its head. We dont have a clean shot. If we take a shot, its likely the hostage gets killed or grievously wounded. Tens of hundreds of thousands of people could die. Number two, you pressure china in a way that risks our bilateral relationship with china. Which is hugely important economically, strategically in all kinds of ways. Or you bargain. Mike pence did hold out the possibility that we could have talks with north korea, were going to have to make some grievous concessions if we do that, and set a terrible precedent for all countries that may want to Start Nuclear programs. I dont know what the good option is, its kind of pick your poison. Some nights are more serious than others, and this feels like one of those. To nicolle, to michael, thank you for starting off our conversation tonight. Well take our first break here. Coming up, for a president who loves to talk about his positive polls. Donald trump may want to avoid these latest round of numbers. And tonight, the one question where he went down in every demographic group. Thats all next, when the 11th hour continues. Allergies with nasal congestion . Find fast relief behind the counter with claritind. [ upbeat music ] strut past that aisle for the allergy relief that starts working in as little as 30 minutes and contains the best oral decongestant. Live claritin clear, with claritind. Triple your Storage Space with ziploc space bag. Just pack your items, seal the space bag double zipper, and vacuum out the air through the valve. More space for more stuff. Lets[ whimpers ] dog. Find pingpong. Okay, lets go. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. Thats amazing if you are looking for a silver lining. You can say president trumps Approval Rating is better than it was. Its still under water. Heres the latest from pew rearch 39 approve of the job hes doing. 54 disapprove. 36 think our president is honest and trustworthy. 41 think he can manage the government effectively. And 42 think he cares about the needs of people like you. And then theres been a drop in the number of respondents across the board who believe the president keeps his promises. This is going down among people of all age groups and political leanings. 45 say he does keep his promises, but its a 17 point drop in that number in just two months time. Nicolle wallace remains with us, live from detroit tonight. Joining our conversation from washington. Nicolle, what is the chance to take this more broadly. We come to the end of calendar year 2017, without a single piece of signature legislation. That is, originates in the white house, goes up to the hill. Passed by both houses, comes back for signature. Something to make their health care great. Something to make peoples tax cut great. Something to give people a great new airport. The infrastructure bill, Health Care Bill and tax reform. Im out here talking to the voters who put him over the edge in states like pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin. The thing if its the economy stupid encapsule ated the mission of the clinton air remark its the the Health Care Debacle wasnt a near fatal wound for this white house. His base so desperately wanted to see obama care reversed. That wasnt the case the trump voters are somewhat ambivalent about obama care. They think it has a bad wrap, but they cant tell you what they hate about it. He was going to be different in every way, and that was supposed to include the 5b89 to get things done. They tolerated someone without a set of principles, without a governing philosophy, because they thought he would are so superior to the typical politician when it came to getting deals done. So far, they see him striking out. Eli, thus the argument he needs to put some points on the board. Do you see anyway out . The only place to go from here is up. I mean, as nicole said, donald trump sold himself, he told voters how easy this would be, how great he would be, you just had to elect somebody different and you would see how easy all of this would be. It hasnt been easy. I think whats stunning about all those numbers you flashed up on the screen, is not where he has 45 of the people now who believe he keeps his word. Its that 62 of the people believe he kept his word two months ago. This is a person who has always done whatever works for him in that moment, kind of a goldfish politically with a five second memory. Hes never going to be shamed by pretext, by pointing out past hypocrisies, this is a person even though people believe wanted to believe there were some things that seemed like they were really deeply held beliefs to him, his position on immigration, his talk about china, foreign policy, to see him abandon those positions to say chinas not manipulating its currency now, just because he says so. Or that the jobs numbers are no longer phony, just because hes president. I think its a bit surprising to people because he beat the drum on birtherism for six years and then casually walked away from that. Its not surprising when you step back and see this is how donald trump is behaving, whats shocking to americans is that the country is seeing this ideologicalism coming from the oval office, thats something that i dont think weve seen in decades, if ever. I want to show you both something, i know this has been part of the narrative of the past weekend. To show our seriousness, this is the word of our friends at the hardball staff tonight who aired this earlier this evening. This is Donald Trumps comments on how they have migrated on the subject of his tax returns. Well discuss on the other side. I will absolutely give my returns, but im being audited now for two or three years, so i cant do it until the audit is finished, obviously. My tax returns are very simple. Theyre under a minor audit, routine audit, as theyave been for many years, every year i get audited. At the appropriateime i will release them, right now im under routine audit. You know, the only one who cares about my tax returns are the reporters. You dont think the American Public is concerned . No, i dont think so. I won. I became president. I dont think they care at all. Fast forward to todays briefing, spicer at the podium, there was this moment. Youve been asked about this obviously 1,000 times. Thank you. You always talk about under audit, the president says under audit, is it time to say, once and for all, the president is never going to release his tax returns. Well have to get back to you on that . You want i mean, really . Really. Oh, he may. No, i said id have to get back to you on that. Hes still under audit, the statement still stands. Nicolle wallace, on top of being the motivation to send tens of thousands of people into their city streets on this past easter weekend, heres why this is important. Its important because so many people are going to say, whoa no tax returns . No tax reform. We the customers, we your bosses need to know whats in yours, whats in it for you, if we do a tax deal. So were hearing this from schumer, yes. But also some republicans have kind of reluctantly gotten on this. And this could be the thing that ends up really biting take two at a big legislative achievement. Yeah, and i think it creates a vulnerability for him around what youre talking about, the specific question of tax policy on his efforts on tax reform. I think during the campaign it was mark sanford who wrote an open ed and called for him to release his taxes. Theres always been a Bipartisan Group who thought this was a vulnerability for him. Going back to the last point that we were making, the reversals that go to the heart of his reason for being different are the gravest concerns for this white house. And i would put the sort of phony explanation, i think we can now accept it was a phony explanation. Hes not not releasing them because hes under audit. He doesnt think the public has the right to see them. I would put china in the same category. Reversing himself on china, im out here talking to the working class democrats that voted for him. This is a flashing yellow light, if you will, it could become a flashing red light very soon, if he continues down this road of getting at the very things that he ran on, and china is central to that, and sort of doing what he said he was going to do, or meaning what he said. Was central to his brand. Im hearing from a lot of voters out here, that his new tune on china, where he was going to call them out for being a currency man ipulatomanipulator. The chinese ader is a special man, because he needs the chese to help him with north korea, is really rubbing people the wrong way. If he piles up enough of these things, enough of these wounds with his base, he could be in real trouble when it comes to holding the trump coalition. Eli, the president whos received some attention for not going west of the mississippi since being president. Tomorrow he ventures to wisconsin to the headquarters of a Great American made product, snapon tools. Any preview you can offer us . And what is he going to say to the customers about the road thus far in washington . Well, hes going to exclaim that his first 88 days are a huge success, and theres more to come. Hes there to sign an executive order on buy american and hire american. The biggest fulfillment of the economic nationalist promise hes made. What it really is is to make sure the policies that are already in existence are actually being informed. But hes going to take a hard look at h1b visas and making sure Foreign Workers are not taking high paying jobs away from american workers. Hes going to try to mandate, publicly funded projects, that theyre using American Steel to build. It will sound good. As far as what the voters that nicolle is out there talking to, what theyre going to have to show for it after 100 days of this presidency, i dont know what that is, and that probably goes a long way to explaining some of the president s poll numbers. That and the whiplash when it comes to policy. Our thanks to eli stokols. And nicolle wallace, i happen to know there are a lot of flights from detroit to new york, i take them all the time. Get on one of them. We miss you here in the studio. Im on my way. I know youre out with the constituents. Appreciate you joining us tonight. Well take our next break with thankto both of our guests. Coming up, a member of congress who has more reason than most to be following