testing, but the price for that should be sticking with the deal. merkel comes a few days later, she ll have the same message. if that s enough to keep the president on the straight and narrow remains to be seen. a big moment later this hour. both presidents will be facing reporters at the joint press conference. let s see what president trump says, after this one meeting and many more conversations they re going to be having during this all important state visit. thank you for coming in. i appreciate it. bye, kate. when the president faces reporters, he may face questions about the other major drama unfolding over his handpicked choice to be the next secretary of veterans affairs. the man the president trump nominated to lead that massive agency is dr. ronny jackson. his nomination is now in something of a holding pattern as both democrats and republicans say they want to look into allegations of misconduct that they just became aware of from ronny jackson in the workplace. ryan
reporter: yeah, kate. that s a good way to put it. at this point, ronny jackson s nomination as the secretary of veterans affairs is not dead yet. it is on life support. this after johnny isakson, the chairman of the veteran affairs committee, announced this morning they re going to delay a hearing that was scheduled for wednesday, so that they can look into these allegations that have come up about his past. not only his past in terms of military service his behavior in the workplace, some other pretty serious accusations that have come out in press reports against ronny jackson. listen to what senator isakson had to say about this process this morning. we re going to have a hearing at some time in the future. why not? we need time to get more information. are you concerned that the white house is not doing adequate job of vetting this nominee? i m concerned the press is making up far too many stories that aren t true before we have a chance to have a meeting. mr. jackson
it took one big problem off the table far into the future. the french recognize that. macron said something very powerful in the leadup to this meeting. he said, look, if you want to throw out this deal, tell me, what is your plan b? there is no plan b. let s play that for for our viewers, i wanted to ask you about that. here is emmanuel macron speaking to fox earlier. what do you have? i don t see it. what is a what if scenario? or your plan b? i don t have a plan b for nuclear against iran. so we will discuss that, that s why i just want to say on nuclear, let s preserve the framework because it is better than sort of north korean type. tony, do you think that emmanuel macron is the guy who can convince the president to stay with the deal? two things, kate. one, he s exactly right. there is no plan b. and, you know, heading into this potential negotiation with north
but i think that there are troubling signs that have already emerged. and i think on a bipartisan basis democrats and republicans are saying let s stop, let s learn more, this is too critical an institution, that is already in need of serious help in order to make sure that the veterans of our country received the services they deserve. and that pause is happening as we speak on a bipartisan basis. let s see how that plays out. i want to ask you what we also just heard earlier from president trump. he s meeting with the french president right now. the iran deal was always going to be a very big topic of conversation between the two leaders. but president trump issued a warning to iran during their photo-op when they were having their first having sitting down for their first sit-down meeting. listen to this. we re going to be talking about it. we ll see. people know my views on the iran deal. it was a terrible deal. should have never, ever been
house or state department with him. the meeting with kim over the easter weekend laying the groundwork for a late may or early june summit between the north korean leader and president trump. cnn s will ripley tracking the latest developments live from hong kong. extraordinary developments. no one knows north korea quite like you. let me ask you, we ve always been skeptical of denuclearization on the peninsula. it s written into north korea s constitution. they view it as their means of survival. are you still skeptical? absolutely because kim jong-un s missile program is arguably what got him to this point. to where he is potentially weeks away from something his father and grandfather couldn t do, which is achieve a sit down meeting with the president of the united states, something that the north korean leadership has always craved. they want respect and legitimacy. in short order after president trump agreed to the summit, you have the summit next week with south korea s presiden