force. but leaving north korea with nuclear weapons is very troubling. general dunford the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said last summer in aspen that he was asked isn t it unimaginable we would use force on the peninsula and general dunford replied what s unmanageable to me is that we would leave north korea with a capability of dropping a nuclear weapon on denver. jon: we have the prospect of some kind of an agreement the north koreans can you name an agreement that they have signed that they have lived up to? not one. fred aclay, a former director of the arms control agency, a well known academic once said the north koreans were capable of boundless mendacity, his phrase. that s why i think this conversation doesn t need nine or 12 months of low level diplomatic preparation. i think it is the kind of conversation you can have very directly right at the top. are you ready to do you nuclearize or should we just
president s move right now? the president s in a great mood. he s been in a great mood because we had a successful year. we re very focused on making sure we have seven more. top officials at the white house and pentagon seem to be taken by surprise by the announcement. was this done in a happen hazard way? not at all. this is part of an ongoing campaign that s been going for over a year. just because some of the individuals that they regularly leak to the press weren t involved in the conversation doesn t mean that the appropriate parties that lead those agencies were not in the room and part of that discussion. the president came to the briefing room before reaching out to the president of china. is that appropriate? should he not have reached out to his international partners first? we had ongoing conversations with leaders across the world. the president said there would be an announcement. he had several conversations with world leaders both last night and today.
contact with senior campaign officials and others in trump s circle. jeremy bash, finally on the topic of hope hicks, what does it tell you, if anything, about russian involvement potentially in team trump? look, i think it s clear that the russians were looking for every possible angle to gain intelligence and to influence the inner circle of the trump team. and they knew how important hope hicks was and is. and it doesn t surprise me at all that they would try to target her for collection or for influence operations. can t thank you gentlemen enough for being part of our leadoff team again on another busy friday night in the news business, especially in washington, d.c. jeremy bash, ken dilanian, phil rucker, appreciate it greatly. coming up for us, president trump open the road tonight in florida just over the state line from alabama. he was making a major push to get roy moore elect to the senate despite multiple sexual abuse allegations. and one of our next guests is here to
proposed a civil rights act that lyndon johnson then in the wake of dallas did everything he could to pass. the next night, the next night, june 12th, 1963 in what some people have called the political assassination of the 1960s, medgar evers, the naacp mississippi field director was shot to death in his front yard. the bullet came to rest in his kitchen. the rifle that was used in that murder will be in the museum tomorrow and if president trump is there touring it, he might take a look and think about how close that violence, how tangible the extraordinary story of civil rights is. that people like john lewis and edgar evers and martin luther king and diane nash and so many other people acted out the fundamental story of martyrdom. these were folks who were willing to shed their blood for the redemption of a country. and a lot of us are worried that
we can t afford it, folks, we can t. [ applause ] we can t afford to have a liberal democrat who is completely controlled by nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. we can t do it. can t do it. so get out and vote for roy moore. [ cheers and applause ] do it. do it. before the president wrapped up his speech, roy moore was touting his endorsement. he quoted the president on twitter saying get out and vote for roy moore, president trump. tonight the president also, again, talked about hillary clinton sparking a lock her up chant among members of the crowd. that was followed by this markedly dark view from an american president of our american institutions. look, it s been proven we have a rigged system. doesn t happen so easy, but this