Beyond a normal statement. And as i said, they will be met with fire, fury, and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before. Fire and fury, like the world has never seen, the president today warned north korea that they best not make any more threats to the United States. It only took the regime a few hours to respond with another threat, saying their military was examining Operational Plans to strike the u. S. Territory of guam with ballistic missiles. If all of this sounds to you scary and uncertain, youre not alone. Well hear from a wide range of military experts tonight. The only language to President Trump is what president truman said to japan 72 years ago after dropping an atomic bomb. He said if they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the likes of which has never been seen on this earth. The japanese did not act quickly enough, and three days later the second atomic bomb fell on nagasaki. That is not where we are tonight. The question is, though, did we take a step closer today . We start off with Barbara Starr tonight at the pentagon. So what more are you learning about this threat against guam . Reporter well, what we know is the north Korean State News Agency issued this statement earlier today. It appears to have come maybe, were not positive, after President Trump spoke. But the north korean agencies saying theyre examining their Operational Plan to strike areas around guam using ballistic missiles. Now, how realistic is it . The North Koreans do have missiles that could theoretically strike guam. But they have some challenges in being able to have the real capacity to target that far away with precision. Some 1800 miles perhaps, but nobody wants to take that bet, do they . Guam does have a u. S. Missile Defense System on the island. There are about 160,000 americans there, two u. S. Military bases. And heres the real problem tonight. This is the direct challenge to what President Trump said. He said another threat will be met by fire and fury. They made the threat. Now what happens, anderson . Before we move on, i want to be clear. It is not clear, because it was several hours after the president made the remark that the North Koreans made the remarks. Are you saying we dont know for a fact that this comment about guam was made after the president s remarks . Reporter i dont think we know exactly when it was published at this point. In terms of the nuclear development, if north korea does have this capability, it would be obviously very serious move forward for their nuclear program. Reporter heres where we are on that. The u. S. Intelligence assessment is that they most likely have, in fact, produced a warhead. The important word there being produced. Is it deployable, can it be put on an operational missile . Could you fire the missile or hit a target . There are a lot of challenges ahead. But again, the key point here is north korea continues its march on. They are making progress, making rapid progress in their Missile Program in their warhead program. The big challenge for them on warheads right now, if theyre going to fire these longer range ballistic missiles, can the warhead reenter the earth, withstand the heat and pressure, stay in tact and still hit a target . Its what they still have to achieve. But again, we come back to the question, is anybody really willing to take the bet at this point that they cant do it . And this is if they do have that capability, miniaturizing, it would have been faster than many people had predicted, no . Reporter you know, it would have been faster than you would have thought. Lets say roughly a couple years ago. But over the last two years, you have increasingly heard u. S. Military commanders and intelligence Officials Say they are worried about the rapid progress that north korea has been making. And for the last several months, we heard top pentagon Officials Say that their working assumption is that the North Koreans have the whole package, that they can put it all together, that the u. S. Military has to plan against that worst Case Scenario against that worst case assumption. You have to plan like they have it in hand. Barbarastarr, appreciate that. Sarah, what more are we learning more about the president s comments today . Reporter we know that the president has been agonizing for months about what to do about the threats posed by north korea. Obviously today we saw very fiery rhetoric from trump. Its the kind of rhetoric that raised alarm bells, even some members of congress. But it wasnt a surprise to people who know the president well, who recognize this is his style. This is his tone. Of course, the question tonight is whether this was just tough political talk or whether the administration is ready to take some sort of action. Right. And do we know, and we may not, was this a planned response . Was that phrase scripted that he used, the fire and fury, the likes of which the world has never seen, or power which the world has never seen, was that planned out or something that he said off the top of his head . Reporter we dont know exactly whether that was a scripted response. We knew he was having this opioid event today. We expected he would be asked about the situation in north korea and if this is something the president would be prepared to respond to. Members of his staff had received a number of requests about how the white house is going to navigate the situation. But this is the kind of talk weve heard from the president before, his signature style how he expresses himself and why people are reacting to such shock. Its not the kind of tone or wording we are used to seeing from previous president s. But as we said time and time again on this show, anderson, President Trump is not like previous president s. In terms of retaliatory options the white house is considering, do you know . Reporter well, they didnt lay out a list of options in response to this latest revelation in terms of how theyre going to deal with north korea. But we do know the president has spent quite a bit of time huddled with some senior u. S. Officials talking about the situation in north korea. One thing that Top Administration officials have made clear is they look at north korea as a problem with every option on the table. That includes the military option. Sarah murray, appreciate that. More reaction to tone and content. Heres what senator john mccain told a local Radio Station late today. I take exception to the president s comments, because youve got to be sure that you can do what you say youre going to do. In other words, the old walk softly by carry a big stick. Democrat Dianne Feinstein said eat lating the nor she continued, in my view, diplomacy is the only sound path forward. I want to get perspective now from former director of National Intelligence james clapper. General clapper, this latest news that north korea is quote, in their records examining the Operational Plan to strike areas and guam, how do you see how drastic that would escalate the conflict or how dangerous the situation is right now . First, anderson, thanks for having me. Although i am reminded of the line ascribed to Elizabeth Taylors eighth husband, when he said i know what im supposed to do but how do i make it different after listening to all the commentary about this all day long . To be serious, the rhetoric itself is quite serious. And what is bothersome to me is, for decades, weve heard this kind of rhetoric coming out of north korea. Typically we ignore it. Certainly at a president ial level we ignore it. So the rhetoric itself is not helpful. And i am in agreement with senator feinsteins comments about the way ahead here is diplomacy. Certainly the North Koreans are going to convey the image of a capability which we cannot confirm they have. My old agency came out with an assessment ascribing the capability to miniaturize a weapon in a warhead. Well, weve anticipated that for years. And its only logical that as they aggressively pursued their missile technology, so would they a weapon to go with it. But in truth, neither they or we know that these weapons will actually work. So im of a mind to im sort of in the secretary of state tillerson camp of more moderate rhetoric. And i would also appeal to those in the media to tone down the rhetoric, as well. Because the rhetoric itself now is becoming quite incendiary. And i dont think its very productive to engage in this duelling banjo rhetoric back and forth, which is quite provocative. Did it surprise you that President Trump targeted the threats from north korea, i dont know if he meant verbal threats or obviously military threats, or verbal threats about military threats, but saying dont threaten the u. S. Anymore or else theres going to be this response. Thats targeting it seems like one way to interpret it is targeting the rhetoric that you are concerned about and the u. S. Has always chosen to ignore. Exactly. The issue with coming out with that kind of rhetoric from the president ial level raises the ante. And what we have always done in the past is take the rhetoric emanating from north korea with a grain of salt. When we take it seriously like this and threaten, as the president did, thats a heavy message. And when he says speaks of the fire and fury, this is very reminiscent of the rhetoric that north korea uses about transforming seoul into a sea of fire. And i believe they would if they were attacked, if all that artillery and rocketry they have lined up along that dmz. That rhetoric jeopardizes millions of people in south korea, not to mention the regional implications. You mentioned secretary tillerson. I want to read what secretary tillerson said about north korea the other day. Because it seems like hes trying to deescalate tensions, which you spoke to. He said, we do not seek a regime change. We do not seek a collapse of the regime. We do not seek an accelerated unification of the peninsula. We do not seek an excuse to send our military north. Were trying to convey were not your enemy, were not your threat, but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us and we have to respond. That seems in stark contrast to what the president said today. It absolutely does. And, again, that doesnt help either have this inconsistent voices coming out of the leadership of this country. I think secretary tillerson is exactly right. We need to tone down the rhetoric about regime change and all this, as desirable as that might be, that all that does is amp up the paranoia and the siege mentality that prevails in pyongyang, which i observed when i visited there three years ago. You flew there to secure the release of two americans. In Political Science 101 class, we learn about rational actors, some states are considered rational actors, others are not considered rational actors. Do you think north korea is a rational actor . On their scale, they are ration rational. If youre sitting in pyongyang looking out, all you see are enemies. Particularly when they look to the south, they realized the armed forces of south korea buttressed by the United States, they are no match for that and they understand that. And thats why this Nuclear Capability is their ticket to survival. Its the only thing they have that merits recognition by the rest of the world. So theyre not going to give up those Nuclear Weapons. I think we need to talk to them and we need to have dialogue with them but accept the fact that they are a nuclear power. Do you think its time for direct talks with north korea, which is something that past administrations have avoided, they tried to make it a number of countries, not giving north korea the one on one discussions . I absolutely do. Ive been an advocate for establishing an intersection in pyongyang, much like we had in decades, we had in havana for decades, and to deal with the government of cuba that we didnt recognize. This is not a reward for bad behavior. Its to have a diplomatic presence there, and also to gain greater insight into north korea, and one of the reasons its such a problem for us is because were not there. And third, to serve as a conduit as information to north korea. I dont think their demands to at least talk about a peace treaty, because all weve had is a ceasefire for 64 years on the korean peninsula. As the North Koreans look at it, they see that the south koreans are on a hague trir trigger rea invade them to conquer their country. Its also interesting when you look at things from chinas perspective. They did vote this weekend for more sanctions, but from their vantage point, its interesting to realize their concerns are a, about instability on their border and if theres military conflict, obviously theres instability. But also just the idea of a unified korea that has u. S. Troops and is oriented towards the United States, that is a concern for china, as well. Exactly. The chinese dont like kim jonguns behavior. They dont like the missile tests and the underground nuclear tests. But what they dislike more is the thought of exactly what you suggest. That is a reunified korea forcefully reunified by the way, and violently imploding north korea with millions of north Korean Refugees pouring into china and having the republic of korea buttressed by the United States right on their border, that is even more unacceptable to the chinese. Just as the chinese voted for the u. N. Security council resolution, they voted for this one. Both of which have sanctions. The issue is, will they enforce them . Their enforcement of Security Council resolution 2270 was, shall i say, uneven. So it would be a real test now to see whether the chinese enforce this most recent Security Council resolution. Just finally, im sure youve looked at this and seen the war games and how this all plays out, again, not to ratchet up rhetoric or scare tactics in any way, but just you mentioned it a little bit. I mean, seoul, south korea is quite close to the north. Just the impact of a regional conflict, military conflict, using whatever weapons that north korea has to south korea, to japan, what are we talking about in terms of youre talking about incomprehensible death and destruction. It would be a violent and just a terrible tragedy that would mean death and destruction, both in the north and south, and perhaps regionally. So it would be apocalyptic. And obviously with 30,000 u. S. Troops there, they are also not to mention the dependence of those servicemen and the hundreds of thousands of dual koreanu. S. Citizens who are there, as well as of course, millions of republic of korea citizens, whose lives would be at risk. General clapper, i appreciate you being on tonight. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. When we come back, well dig deeper into what the military picture would look like for dealing with north korea, as well as the terrible cost that general clapper was mentioning involving nearly every one of the options. Coming up at a time when Everyone Needs to trust in the president , new polling shows not many people do in this country. Well see whether that extends to some die hard Trump Supporters as we continue. Dj hey siri, remind me to csiri okay, ill remind you. [door crashing] [reminder ding] dj already on it. [siri ding] Award Winning interface. Award winning design. Award winning engine. The volvo xc90. The most awarded luxury suv of the century. This august visit your local volvo dealer to receive sommar savings of up to 4,500. This august visit your local volvo dealer its just a burst pipe, i co laugh it. No. With claim rateguard your rates wont go up just because of a claim. I totally couldve no switching to allstate is worth it. With a stunning 4k displaydow and graphics thates. Bring them to life. Peter you still with us . The Dell Inspiron 15 7000 gaming. Dell, as real as it gets. Restlessness. Extreme anxiety. Pacing. A constant urge to move. If someone you know is suffering from schizophrenia they may also be struggling with akathisia a common side effect of some schizophrenia medications. Learn more at myakathisia. Com. Get your ancestrydna kit. Here. Spit. Mail it in. Learn about you and the people and places that led to you. Go explore your roots. Take a walk through the past. Meet new relatives and see how a place and its people are all a part of you. Ancestrydna. Save 30 through august 15th at ancestrydna. Com. The unpredictability of a flaree may weigh on your mind. Thinking about what to avoid, where to go, and how to work around your uc. Thats how i thought it had to be. But then i talked to my doctor about humira, and learned humira can help get and keep uc under control. When certain medications havent worked well enough. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Raise your expectations and ask your gastroenterologist if humira may be right for you. With humira, control is possible. Whaef you think should be done about a Nuclear Armed north korea, it is safe to say the president s remarks has moved the country rhetorically closer to milita