Again. kim jong-un did a great service to himself and to his country by doing this. reporter: and today president trump is expected to meet with epa administrator scott pruett who has been under fire for ethics concerns related to his travel. they will meet on fuel efficiency standards. and the president is also meeting with automaker ceos today, chris. abby, thank you. let s bring in john avlon and david gregory. david gregory, bad jokes are made. but in this context with mccain fighting the fight of his life, the white house puts out a statement and doesn t say the wrong thing was said. they basically put out a condolence statement. how do you explain this as anything but in decent. it s crude, in decent, disgusting. it is symptomatic of what s happened to our public political discourse under this president.
today the world is asking what happens next. i m wolf blitzer in washington. we want to welcome our special our viewers through our special coverage of kim jong il s death. we re covering all the angles of this developing story. we have reporters across the world from beijing to the pentagon, to london, to the white house and beyond. instability in the region is a major worry right now. stan grant is in beijing and is joining us now live. stan, just a couple of hours ago we learned north korea test fired a short-range missile. what s the reaction in china, which obviously has the closest of relations with north korea? reporter: no reaction to that report of the short-range missile being fired. we know that north korea has these and has carried out these types of test firings before. out of south korea there have been reports that they don t see this as having been a hostile act towards south korea or anything related to that. however, this once again leads to the uncertai
hauled before congress and impeached. newt gingrich outlines his solution to so-called activists and ignites a huge controversy. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. it s a rogue isolated nation on earth. now the state is in transition now with the death of their leader, kim jong il. a tearful woman announced the news on state television saying kim jong il died suddenly of heart attack at age 69. north korea is built on a cult of personality surrounding the kim dynasty and word of his death sparked near hisser toa on streets with people wailing and weeping openly. kim s death has huge implications. not only for the north and south korea, but for the united states and the entire world. following developments from seoul, south cree korea, what is the latest reaction there, anna? wolf, as you say, a great deal of uncertainty with the death of kim jong il but perhaps of an insight into what he was thinking in the weeks and days leading up to his death. can conf
Now. obviously, as barbara says, the pentagon defense secretary review investigation under way as we speak. now, caitlin, over to the white house aspect of this, the president, he has been talking about gains against isis. he was talking about that just this week. why hasn t the white house then talked about isis being behind this attack? that s really the question on everyone s mind here, kate, is exactly what happened and people are trying to piece together a timeline, especially given the questions about the white house s response to this. what we do know is that in hours after this ambush, an ns official drafted a condolence statement from him and the first lady that would have been published but the statement was never published and instead the next day, on october 5th, the press secretary, sarah sanders, came out here during the briefing and told reporters about the attack, said that thoughts and prayers of the administration were with these fallen service members, and she did