about. in other words, as the chinese withdraw their economic support for north korea, the russians have been filling in to fill in the vacuum. when i read evan from the new yorker or nicholas kristof from the new york times, your work as well, the issue of misapprehension continues to come up. that president trump might tweet something that might be misinterpreted or something might be misinterpreted by the north korean regime. how big of a concern is that for you at this point? it s always been a concern. it was certainly much more of a concern during the first months of the trump administration. the one thing that the president has done, he s sort of decreased the number of threats that he s been issuing. and also, there s a sort of, you know, we have heard that before mentality that i think is taking over in north korea. but nonetheless, the gap in perceptions between the united states on one side and the chinese, the russians, and the north koreans on the other is very worry
this is a character issue. finally, republicans are seeing the moral standard they have held their leaders to for the past 20, 25 years, especially related to bill clinton, they have to hold republicans to that standard, and they re being called on the carpet for it, and they need to stick to principles as conservatives they have always touted for years and years. last question to you, you left the republican party, became a democrat. what was it that made you decide to do that? is there something the party can do that shows it s willing to engage with some of the things you cared about? what prompted you to make that walk away? it s really silence. it s silence on issues like the statements that roy moore made, before the allegations of sexual miscult came about, the racist, homophobic, zxenophobic comment he made, republicans lined up and endorsed him. climate change and science and facts, republicans continually bury their heads in the sand, ignore them. they don t talk about it
president trump tweeted his support for the latest round of sanctions saying, quote, the world wants peace, not death. tensions between washington and pyongyang have been running high throughout 2017 as north korea carried out a series of tests and fired ballistic missiles that it says could hit the u.s. mainland. joining me now, gordon chang. let s talk about what options remain when it comes to sanctions. we haven t reached the end of the line in your estimation, i gather. what more could be done here diplomatically? well, first of all, the u.n. could actually impose what north korea s talked about, and that is a complete embargo. you know, in their comments from the fourn ministry a few hours ago, they said that this most recent set of u.n. sanctions was a blockade. well no, it s not. there are a lot of exceptions to it. so the u.n. could impose a blockade. it could also authorize countries like the united states to stop north korean shipping on the high seas because the u.n. has
this is what we would like to do and here s where we stand. mcconnell has not been interested in having those conversations so i m pretty skeptical about that being the case, but i think infrastructure would be a place to start. curt, you cut your teeth on capitol hill, and i wonder what you make of the balance of power between the legislative branch and the executive branch at this point. there have been moments here where you have seen the legislative branch move to the forefruchbt. it s calling more of the shots. remember the scene in the rose garden where mitch mcconnell was standing alongside president trump and seemed cowed by the president. how much balance is there between the branches right now? you know, it s interesting because one of the real growing pains for this administration, and for republicans in congress with the majority was wondering as trump became president how involved would he be. on the details, on shaping policy, and we saw in the early parts of the admi
attorney. democrats claim it s an example of republicans rushing to wrap up the investigation and lock democrats out. the committee is also calling o calling on former aides to testify. i m joined by jonathan alter. jay, let me start with you and ask you about these two meetings in new york. rhona graph, help us understand what the committee could be looking to get answers to from her. they are looking to understand the exact nature of trump s correspondence with russians, with any contacts. she s basically gate keeper. she would field any kind of requests, any kind of calls coming in. she goes through his e-mails and say yes or no to any interest this meetings. they would want to know from her who has been approaching him. who wants to talk to hoim. that s important. there s been contacts that have come out from his son, donald