controversial reactions because they re facing tough re-elections come 2020. notably i think that we re now seeing some republicans stepping away from the party line when it comes specifically to opposing trump s emergency declaration because while it may be legal, it is not necessarily constitutional and i think that we are seeing a proper amount of push back. i mean, trump s straw man of never trumperism i think is salacious. people that are never trump in 2016 are now trump skeptics calling balls and strikes. the house caucus turning a blind eye to what trump is doing, they will be apoplectic. that is the most disappointing and hackish routine in congress now. what do you think? what is the record now? i think that republicans had already been urging trump not to declare a national emergency and
a word that trump uses. and they are a threat to peace. well, they re not a threat to peace. they re a way to reinforce it. do you think it could be a good faith first step in trying to secure a third summit? we don t need a third summit until there s real serious negotiations on the core question of denuclearizatiodenu. what kim is trying to get is a situation where there is step by step supposed confidence building measures where he takes out a few nuclear facilities, sanctions are lifted maybe entirely or greatly, and we keep going ahead with that kind of process. at the end of the day, he ll create a situation where sanctions have been mostly lifted, his economy is able to prosper more than it has prospered but not the way trump talks about it, but he keeps the nuclear weapons. it s a fairly obvious scenario
free speech. it was an effective moment, one that i think legal mientsds wnd have to see if it s an abuse of power depending on what he touches. the one thing that trump has always done successfully is keep one finger on the pulse of the base s anger and the campus free speech issue is a big one. it is one where if taxpayers are funding these universities, then there should be some expectation that the principles of the first amendment are being followed. that being said, is this something going through congress versus the president, that remains to be seen. what did you find most striking? i think it was his contention that when he asked russia to find 30,000 missing hillary clinton e-mails that it was a joke and his kind of disbelief at the fact that commentators and investigators would see that as a significant statement. he just seemed like he didn t really understand why people would be would be focusing on
republican party is essentially thought by some to be now the party of trump? i don t think it s good for americans writ large that a man is leading our country and leading the republican party who doesn t have any idealistic or ideological center, but it does certainly make a more difficult field of play for republicans to defend in 2020. i think a lot of us looked at 2018 and said, hey, is this a repudiation of the president or is this just the wind behind the sails of democrats? in 2020, there will be no mistaking it. president trump will share a ballot with a number of his supporters. they will be made to answer for the decisions he s made and the votes they ve taken. justin, going back to that washington post article, to quote mike simpson, a republican, publicly acknowledged what many republicans say privately, the gop is wholeheartedly accepting behavior and policies from trump that would spark outrage from a democratic president, particularly trump s attempt to use execut
leaders thought they could get something out of that. trump imagined foolishly that with almost no preparation he could go in and get a deal on the strength of his personality and kim jong-un thought he could take advantage of trump this time around the way he did in singapore. both of those leaders found that those assumptions were wrong. now we may have a better situation because now maybe both sides will decide to let the real professionals at the negotiating level figure out how to move forward with this process. it s not going to be done in summitry, it s got to be done by people who know the details and can work things out. i want to ask you about some fallout. the president made headlines in regards to culpability in the death of otto warmbier. the president said his words were misinterpreted. that reminded me of the helsinki summit. he didn t see why it would be russia that interfered and then he came home and said he was