our air last hour, jim. you heard, though, the voices that he is hearing in support of this policy behind the scenes talking about it in public, that they believe mexico is just benefiting, benefiting, benefiting from this imbalance on both polishes and that this being tough, being trumpian and doing something that would be perceived as downright crazy by anybody else is the only way to approach this. by the way, politically it may really pay off for him. he may go through with this, even though it s bad for the economy. because it s bad for the economy, the fed may cut rates, which is exactly what he wanted. he can sell his political message that i did it, america first. oh, and i got a rate cut and that s going to prop up the economy. the mexicans, though, the foreign minister and the pompeo meeting, important meetings to see if they can stave this off. he said he believes there s an 80% chance of reaching a deal. maybe there is.
appreciate that. reaction from senator jeff merkley. thanks for being with us. the new narrative of allegedly what happened in this pompeo meeting, supposedly the smiles ended at the end of the photo op, do you believe that, especially given the tone of the administration thus far? not at all. the fact that the message to the world was that they discussed many things, bilateral relations, security in the gulf and got around to say that a thorough investigation would be nice, that kind of attitude certainly doesn t show the u.s. demanding answers on the murder of an american resident, murder of an american columnist for the washington post. we need to send a powerful message here, not one that basically tries to create space for some sort of spin or cover story to develop. it s been pointed out a number of times for people in the administration that jamal khashoggi was not an american citizen. should that matter in terms of
reaction from senator jeff merkley. thanks for being with us. the new narrative of allegedly what happened in this pompeo meeting, supposedly the smiles ended at the end of the photo op, do you believe that, especially given the tone of the administration thus far? not at all. the fact that the message to the world was that they discussed many things, bilateral relations, security in the gulf and got around to say that a thorough investigation would be nice, that kind of attitude certainly doesn t show the u.s. demanding answers on the murder of an american resident, murder of an american columnist for the washington post. we need to send a powerful message here, not one that basically tries to create space for some sort of spin or cover story to develop. it s been pinted out a number of times for people in the administration that jamal khashoggi was not an american citizen. should that matter in terms of the u.s. response?
demilitarized zone yesterday, scheduled for yesterday, did not go ahead because the north koreans did not show up. that meeting has been postponed. it will take place on sunday we understand at this stage. what they are talking about is the return of remains of u.s. service members who were killed in the korean war. what the department of defense thinks is that north koreans have the remains of 200 service people of the 5,000 that perished in the korean war. it is politically important and symbolic gesture to bring those people back to the united states. that is the next step. we have to wait and see how it plays out on sunday. optics have been bad since the signing of the summit agreement back in june. the pompeo meeting in pyongyang was widely regarded as a failure. very little to show for it as far as movement on denuclearization. as you point out, dave, that letter from kim jong-un still
letter. that was the takeaway from the pompeo meeting is that the north koreans have not yet made a decision they are still contemplating but they are not quite there yet on whether or not they want to make a fundamental strategic change. what mattis will do is when he meets with his counter-parts tomorrow and throughout the weekend he will likely provide a status report of just where negotiations are. as we heard from pompeo, those talks are proceeding. in general, what mattis likes to do is employ the diplomats the opportunity to negotiate and to preserve the negotiating space for the president of the united states in which every direction president trump tries to go. mattis jealously guards that he is not going to try to box this the president in any way in terms of military options although that is the backdrop here. the u.s. has a lot of assets in the western pacific. the maximum pressure campaign continues. if these talks do fail mattis could provide an update what have could c