of typical bombast that you hear from north korea, that the u.s. will go up in a sea of fire, it s kind of the things that we hear all the time. so, i m not trying to make light of the fact that it s a very serious situation. there is a chance for miscalculation here, but i do think that this kind of serious threat of force, kim jong un is cowering a bit, and you know, look, the masters of the brinksmanship, kim jong un, may have met their match in donald trump and he seems to be cowering a bit. the u.s. s good friend in germany, and the chancellor saying that there is no military solution. tom, going to you and your years there in foggy bottom, like, you know, the president was essentially saying, we ll let merkel speak for germany, certainly she s not speaking for the u.s. what did you make of that? i think that chancellor merkel s statement was pretty clear that there is not a military solution that the
wonderful statement. they re only doing it. but i will tell you, we have tens of millions of people in this country that are so happy with what i m saying, because they re saying, finally, we have a president that s stick uing u for our nation and frankly sticking up for our friends and allies. and this man will not get away with what he s doing, believe me. and if he utters one threat in the form of an overt threat, which, by the way, he has been uttering for years, and his family has been uttering for years, or if he does anything with respect to guam or any place else that s an american territory or an american ally, he will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast. thank you all very much. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. gloria borger, tom countryman, elise labott, he will regret it.
why do you think, then, that president trump will never, ever criticize vladimir putin? i think it s apparent that he believes rosie o donnell to be a bigger threat to the security of the united states than vladimir putin, just based on the amount of time that he devotes to criticism. it s a very difficult question to answer. i want to see a better relationship with the russian federation, and i believe we can work on that. but you can t work on it if you are determined to turn a blind eye to every outrageous action undertaken by the kremlin. and that s what our president is doing. i have a feeling rosie o donnell would like it the other way around. tom, stand by. i want to bring in lisa with some new reporting on north korea. elise, what are you learning? reporter: brooke, i think even though there s all this
holder of the doning-kruger effect, the phenomenon of which the incompetent person is not able to see his own incompetence. he is perpetually surprised because reality does not comport with his fantasies. joining me is tom countryman, former state department official fired shortly after the inauguration and chris cillizza. tom, what s your take on the president s behavior here and his ability to do this in the future? ze h well, clearly he has the ability to declassify information but the way he did it raises concerns.
here. throughout the crises he called himself throughout the campaign, he won. and so i think there s a concern to, you know, are we going to run away from and then the base is going to hate us in addition to the issues that we have with independents and democrats. just on your point, tom, do you think that is waiting a little too late? i think the republicans are not doing themselves any service by being completely unable to disagree with some of the outrageous steps the president has taken. now, the bigger question to me is, are they going to stand up for the constitution whether the issue is fbi leadership or russia investigation or careless handling of intelligence. that s what they should be focusing on for the sake of the country but i agree, as much as i understand the republican leadership, until they start to