prepared he is, on what his agenda is, on what he hopes to get out of it, whether he knows what he wants to get out of it, whether or not he can explain to people why it is that he praises vladimir putin while attacking our allies. their concerns may be heightened even more with comments like we heard from the president last night in fargo, north dakota. last year with the european union and we love the european union. we love the countries of the european union. but the european union, of course, was set up to take advantage of the united states, to attack our piggy bank. sometimes our worst enemies are our so-called friends or allies, right? with us to talk about all of it, andrea mitchell, host of andrea mitchell reports. she s with us from aspen tonight, where she hosted that conversation with secretary kerry. rick stengel is back with us as well, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, also former managing editor of time magazine. andrea,
undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, former managing editor of time magazine, and an msnbc political analyst. rick, this is a theory of go big or go home. we didn t know going into it that reagan and gorbachev were going to consider doing away with nuclear weapons. that came up during the meeting. right. but billing a meeting as being about go big or go home, that s more fraught. well, there s that old business maxim that actually applies to diplomacy as well, which is underpromise and overdeliver. yeah. donald trump does the opposite. he overpromises and underdelivers. i mean he has already set the bar so high. the bar is set at denuclearization of the korean peninsula. that would be an ultimate goal. that s a fantastic goal. i mean i would do you see that happening? i just find it hard to imagine that kim would go all the way with denuclearization. i mean he looks at what happened in libya to gaddafi. he looks at other people who have giv
the release of the three detainees from north korea brought s f effusive praise fro president trump for kim jong-un, who thanked him for the excellent care he d taken of the prisoners, noting his high risk, high reward method of operating here. the a.p. writes, quote, drawn to big moments and bigger headlines, trump views the north korea summit as a legacy-maker for him, believing that the combustible combination of his bombast and charm already has led to warmer relations between north and south. for more, we are joined here by rick stengel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, former managing editor of time magazine, and an msnbc political analyst. rick, this is a theory of go big or go home. we didn t know going into it that reagan and gorbachev were going to consider doing away with nuclear weapons. that came up during the meeting. right. but billing a meeting as
some will condone it. many no doubt will try to look away even if that has become more and more difficult. the questions won t go away. they re part of the fabric of this presidency. well, let s talk about this with our next two guests. eugene robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist for the washington post and rick stengel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs as well as former managing editor of time magazine. both gentlemen are msnbc political analysts. eugene, you and i talked first of all about journalism, about what a tough job the pulitzer judges had this year. congratulations to your newspaper. well, thank you very much. on the number of pulitzers. they re going to need more walls to hang them on. and the new york times as well. yes, absolutely. what a season to have a newspaper war. react, if you don t mind, to those words by your friend, dan balz. right.
south korea also says the north has committed to denuclearization, but a huge note of caution here. the leader of the north has not and most foreign policy professionals believe the idea of the north truly being willing to denuclearize is pure fantasy. as negotiations surrounding the talks start to take shape, axios is reporting it this way today. president trump views the north korean crisis as his great man of history moment. sources close to him say he believes he and he alone can overcome the seemingly intractable disaster on the korean peninsula and that, quote, he thinks just get me in the room with this guy, referring to kim jong-un, and i ll figure it out. well, with us to talk about this, rick stengel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs as well as former editing manager of time magazine. he is an msnbc analyst. bill richardson was in the