holy. [ laughs ] get the fastest internet and the best in-home wi-fi from xfinity. and stream on speeds so fast you can catch up on the fast saga before the fate of the furious hits theaters april 14. xfinity. the future of awesome. to our viewers around the united states and around the world, welcome to "inside politics." thanks for spending your easter sunday. new north korean provocation is testing the trump administration's patience but also exposing trouble in the her mitt regime's missile program. pyongyang test fired a medium range missile but it exploded just seconds into the launch. that an embarrassment to kim jong-un on a weekend the leader

used as a show of military might. staging the sun parade with an emphasis on new missiles and missile launchers. >> an awful lot of american intelligence looking over parade footage for a long time to try to determine what may or may not be the status of these missile programs in north korea. >> with the u.s. naval carrier group near the korean peninsula, china warns of storm clouds gathering and urges washington and pyongyang to avoid a dangerous misical clags. >> i think we've got to be careful here. we shouldn't engage in any precipitous action. there's a reason no u.s. president in recent history has pulled the trigger on north korea. >> all this as the new president shows no hesitation in using american military power, getting the world's attention with missile strikes first in syria and the first-time use of a massive bomb against an isis camp in afghanistan.

>> if you look at what's happened over the last eight weeks and compare that really to what's happened over the last eight years, you'll see there's a tremendous difference, tremendous difference, so we have incredible leaders in the military, and we have incredible military, and we are very proud of them and this was another very, very successful mission. >> with us this sunday to share their reporting and insights, julie pace of the associated press, cnn's manu raju, jonathan martin of the "new york times" and abbie of the new york post. president trump is spending his weekend in mar-a-lago. vice president mike pence vis visiting u.s. troops in south korea this morning. >> this is a challenging time all over the world but especially here in the asia-pacific, but let me assure you, under president trump's leadership, our resolve has never been stronger.

our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of south korea has never been stronger, and with your help, and with god's help, freedom will ever prevail on this peninsula. >> cnn's dana bash, the only network correspondent traveling with the vice president, joins us live. >> reporter: you just heard a bit of what the vice president said. the only thing he has said since landing here in south korea and it's almost as if it's a different administration from what we have seen and heard from his boss, president trump, in the last week or so. the tough talk and tweets, vis-a-vis north korea, that was not on display at all as the vice president landed here. he also said just vaguely that the provocation that we saw this morning, not even mentioning north korea by name, is a reminder that the troops, the u.s. troops who are stationed

here, are at risk. now, just by way of background and color, the vice president was briefed on this failed missile test within the hour, after we on air force two, took off after refueling in alaska, and short while later one of the aides traveling with him, a white house policy adviser came back and made it clear right away that the administration was going to try to play this one pretty low key, saying first of all, they didn't, this is not a surprise, that it wasn't a matter of if but when the north koreans would try to put something provocative out there. it was this missile test that failed and the fact that it failed according to this adviser after only four or five seconds in the air was one of the reasons why they weren't going to jump at reacting or maybe overreacting. the other, this adviser noted, is because it wasn't a nuclear

test, and the source said that if it had been, the u.s. actions would be quite different. but there's no question that the administration, the vice president and his staff knew very well coming to this peninsula now when the region is very tense but also given the fact that it is just hours after the north koreans celebrated their very important day, the day in the sun that will ripley has been reporting on. they knew the chances were very, very high that something was going to happen that was going to test the americans' resolve and how they were going to react. >> we wait for that reaction, databash with the vice president in asia, we'll keep track of that and how the north korean regime responds to this failure is a big question. intelligence agencies believe north korea was considering a new nuclear test before this missile launch. will ripley live in pyongyang. state tv made no mention of the failed missile launch? >> reporter: and they won't,

john. north korea doesn't publicize failures but if this missile launch had been a success we'd probably see photos and video of the north korean leader kim jong-un presiding over a successful event. i've been in the country a couple times before and it's a surreal experience. the rest of the world is talking about this and pretty much everybody in north korea is unaware. i met with officials today who were aware of the reports but no comment expected from the country. i can tell you the sense i get, there will be more missile launches and i wouldn't rule out the possibility of this sixth nuclear test. the pungye nouk clear test is primed and ready according to intelligence analysts in the government and private sector. because there was a failed launch it may be more motivation for kim jong-un to try something more provocative to show strength to the international community after unveiling saturday all of these new missiles on display.

>> will we'll keep in touch with you as the day progresses. back in washington, what is president trump's next move after a show of u.s. power did not dissuade north korea from trying that missile test. >> we are sending an armada, very powerful. we have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier. that i can tell you, and we have the best military people on earth, and i will say this, he is doing the wrong thing. he's making a big mistake. >> the president said he's making a big mistake. obviously the missile launch failed. everyone waits to see if they launch again or go to the nuclear test. the president's rhetoric has been pretty out there. essentially they don't comment on the specific launches but the idea you keep provoking us, we will feel the pressure, if not the promise to respond. >> that would be a huge exchange

in u.s. policy. previous administrations focused on diplomatic negotiations trying to bring china in to have talks with the north. that doesn't seem that's the trump administration's policy. trump put this out there. he has made clear he is willing to take action in north korea. and i think the shift that you saw in pence's rhetoric standing in front of u.s. troops who are stationed in south korea, very close to the north, shows that when you're on the ground there, this is a much different situation than when you're talking about this back in washington. there are americans and a strong u.s. ally that are right in the danger zone. >> acting president in south korea right now, so a dicey political situation. if you've ever been to the dmz it is the most surreal place on earth. the cold war exists, the fencing, the mines. if you go too far out the weapons come out. >> it shows the difference between pence and president trump. pence being very careful not to engage north korea, discuss north korea. donald trump not afraid to go

after north korea and kim jong-un. going after them militarily is a huge risk, because south korea is next door. there are missiles and arms pointed at south korea from the north. they could stand to lose a lot if they do retaliate, as they are threatening to do, if they are provoked. so having a military option on the table as the president is suggesting is a huge risk. they may have to go through the diplomatic way to force china to intensify some of those, help with those sanctions, but it is interesting to see how pence is taking a more diplomatic approach overseas at a sensitive time. >> trump is all for the big stick and also walking loudly here. he's not a teddy roosevelt type. he's doing his own thing with the presidency and obviously pence is much more of a conventional politician. in south korea you speak in a certain language and you don't

say certain things. you don't, you know, rattle sabers over there. it's just a matter of time before the president speaks about this. i was struck last night by the comment from jim mattis the defense secretary, the president will have no further comment on this north korean missile test. good luck with that. >> the secretary of state was in asia and north korea, they said the same thing. they believe kim jong-un wants attention, in a running conversation with the president of the united states because he believes that elevates him on the world stage and not going to give him that conversation. key question how long the president can resist when kim jong-un says mr. president send your naval carrier group, i will still, and it failed, which is embarrassing for the regime, the test. the secretary spoke with the chinese state counselor. the administration has been counting as past administrations have counted to try to get the chinese to exercise some leverage. china took some modest economic sanctions or steps back from

north korea last week but again the regime tried this missile launch so it would tell you in the short term that hasn't work. >> it hasn't worked for quite some time because there's only so much that china can do to sort of curtail kim jong-un who is more bellicose than prior north korean leaders. you're dealing with someone who is a little more erratic than what we're used to on the world stage. this is not an easy problem and what's interesting is seeing trump learn that day by day this is not just something that a prior american president has just not taken the options that were on the table. if there were really good options to deal with north korea as leon panetta said in your intro, we would have used them. the problem is there are real risks not just to us, but also to our ally in south korea and the president is realizing after talking with the chinese and

talking with his advisers that it's not just -- there is no magic pill to really get rid of north korea as a problem on the world stage. >> the united states could, from those submarines or aircraft carrier group take out missile launchers, perhaps take out a nuclear site. however the response from north korea could be just a rain of traditional missiles just miles to the south, where you have thousands of u.s. troops and thousands of south korean troops but millions of people who live in seoul and in the suburbs around it. that has been the fear for 50-plus years but the president's rhetoric has been strong. he was cycled the other day you launched missile strikes in syria, you dropped the mother of all bombs in afghanistan, this weapon never used before. is that a message to pyongyang? >> reporter: does this send a message to north korea in:? >> i don't know if this sends a message. doesn't make any difference if it does or not. north korea is a problem. the problem will be taken care of. >> it's the certainty there and you want a president to voice confidence but if you talk to japanese or south korean or

australian diplomats, they worry kim jong-un is perhaps the most unpredictable leader on the planet and the president of the united states is also unpredictable and they're not sure what he's going to do. >> it's telling that trump has been told how sensitive this matter is by his own staff and by other foreign countries because his reaction there initially was untrump-like, where he said it doesn't matter. >> then he couldn't hold it. >> but the old trump would have said you're damned right it send a message. >> the strike with searia, i was in mar-a-lago when the strikes were called and in the immediate aftermath trump advisers were saying this sends a message. this is of course in the middle of the summit he's having with the chinese president and we know from trump himself during the course those of conversations, he learned a bit more how complicated the north korea situation is. when you talk about the other allies in the region, they like the strength from the u.s., they like the idea this is a president focused on the problem who believes this is a problem the u.s. could solve but they would like a few more details

about how this might go, because the impact of this regionally would really be enormous. >> and the president has drawn a line. we have our vice president there, will ripley in pyongyang. ahead, promises kept and promises tossed aside as the 100-day mark approaches. now, draw the line with high-intensity color. lasting drama gel pencil from maybelline new york. ultra-smooth gel pencil in bold shades. glides on for up to 16 hour impact. waterproof. maybelline's lasting drama gel pencil. make it happen maybelline new york no, i'm scheduling time to go oto the bank to get a mortgage. ugh, you're using a vacation day to go to the bank? i know, right? just go to lendingtree.com. get up to five loan offers to compare side by side for free. wow, that's great. wait, how did you get in my kitchen? oh, i followed a raccoon in through your doggie door. [chittering] [gasps] get a better mortgage on your schedule. not the bank's. lendingtree.

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last week they dropped the largest bomb in the arsenal. candidate was critical of military operations overseas and promised an america first foreign policy. >> we're not going into syria. there were some questions, nikki haley is doing a great job, rex is doing a fantastic job our secretary of state, general mcmaster fantastic. if they take every little word oh they're different. >> we talked about the many questions. it's hard because he was asked a question about syria and what's your next commitment. are you going to put troops on the ground, are you going to increase the number of special operations forces, are you going to create no fly zones and safe zones, which would require talking to the american people, talking to congress, c, more boots on the ground and the president gives a quick answer we're not going in and segues to talking about his staff, good that he's proud of his staff, his team, but -- >> rex. >> it's funny but it's not in

the sense that what is the strategic imperative. start with syria. >> in syria he says we're not going in. we are. we have a small footprint but we have a footprint that started under the obama administration and you keep hearing mixed messages from the administration, you hear on the one hand that this strike was an isolated strike, that on the other hand you hear the u.s. is prepared to do more if there are no provocations from assad. and this is one of the commonalities between assad and between the regime and north korea. you have leaders that really don't have a lot to lose right now. yes, they hear tough talk from the administration but it's not as though they have, they're going to be scared off from this because they are in really vulnerable situations on their own. provoking the united states isn't something they might shy away from. . >> the north korean leader tested and failed, he didn't back down, after rex tillerson was in moscow the russian foreign minister came out with the foreign ministers of syria and iran saying we are united against united states aggress n

aggression. >> president trump talking about how great his staff is, because he can relying so heavily on his staff to carry out his foreign policy and his military mission as well, as you expect a commander in chief would but perhaps more so than past commanders in chief. in the aftermath of the mother of all bombs dropped in afghanistan the white house and president trump would not say if he himself authorized that, saying instead we given total authorization to the military to carry out these strikes so i think that's one reason why we really don't know where president trump stands because he relies so heavily on his advisers and a lot of them may have different views. >> we don't know where he's going but so far he has been more traditional republican hawk, that you could see marco rubio if he had won the election doing what we've seen so far. the question, where does it go from there. i mentioned the syria question, his national security adviser is in afghanistan, 16 years after 9/11 still a military presence there from the united states and nato and the question is how

long do you keep it? do you beef it up or pull it back. this president will have to make that decision. >> this is the challenge with trump, he doesn't have a sort of underlying architecture for his views on foreign policy so it's hard to predict where he's going to go next. we don't know what his philosophy is about the use of force. we don't know what it means when he says we're not going into syria, we're not going in here or there and that makes it challenging for us but hard for the world to interpret how to respond to him, even our adversaries have to make their decisions about what they do based on what they think we're going to do, there's really no way for them to know what trump is going to do, and trump has put that out there as kind of a badge of honor. i'm not going to tell you what i'm going to do but on some level clear signaling is really important on the global stage. even while unpredictability can have its avalue, you have to be, have a certain amount of clarity so people can know where to go. >> especially your allies who

are part of the moving parts, they have moving pieces, people on the ground, making diplomatic decisions. as we sit here and speak the president of the united states just tweeted spending easter sunday "why would i label china a currently manipulator when they're trying to help the united states in north korea" that is a snapshot we try to figure out the trump doctrine. on this issue it was transactional. the president of the united states during the campaign repeatedly said i will label china a currency manipulator. experts say they stopped doing that some time ago so he couldn't make a factual case now, but listen to the president. essentially saying as commander in chief i'm going to make a deal. i'll take a security issue and economicish eye and i'm going to make a deal. >> china which has been ripping us off, the greatest abuser in the history of this country. president xi wants to do the right thing. we had a very good bonding. i think we had a very good chemistry together. i think he wants to help us with

north korea. we talked trade. we talked a lot of things and i said the way you're going to make a good trade deal is to help us with north korea. >> we don't know where this goes but i think it gets lost in so many important moving parts the significance of the current relationship with china, in the sense that in the old days even just in the last administration, when u.s. missile strikes hit syria, china would have condemned them. the security council when they were voting about syrian chemical use of chemical weapons, china abstained as opposed to voting no against the united states position. that is a big deal. we don't know where it's going. >> i think it's worth asking whether that decision on the chinese part was influenced or directly coordinated with the trump administration based on the conversations that they had at mar-a-lago. it is fascinating to look at how trump views the world. he does see this as an opportunity to make deals so he will be willing to combine trade

with china, currency with china and north korea. will the chinese bend on that? maybe. it's a worthwhile strategy on trump's part. >> he is responding in that tweet to sharp critiques from his opponents, namely chuck schumer, a strong believer the chinese are manipulating currency. >> the way to get back some of the blue collar workers. trump promised you and now being weak. up next two weeks to the 100-day mark. the president said he's keeping big promises but he's also tossing quite a few into the waist basket. let it sink in. shouldn't we say we have the lowest price? nope, badda book. badda boom. have you ever stayed with choice hotels? like at a comfort inn? yep. free waffles, can't go wrong. i like it. promote that guy. get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed. when you book direct at choicehotels.com. book now.

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welcome back.

when politicians break promises and change positions they prefer evolution to flip-flop. mark week 13 of the trump presidency as downright evolutionary. in days he did an about-face on fed chairman janet yellen, labeling china the currency manipulator and relevance of the nato alliance. >> i complained about that a long time and they made a change and fight terrorism. i said it was obsolete. it's no longer obsolete. >> whip lash is the term used often this past week as the president tossed campaign promises out to the scrap heap. his explanation? he's flexible. whether you're mad or happy at all the shifts you can't say he didn't warn us. >> i've never seen a successful person who wasn't flexible, who didn't have a certain degree of flexibility. you have to have a certain degree of flexibility.

you have to show a degree of flexibility. if you're going to be one way and you think it's wrong, does that mean the rest of your life you have to go in the wrong direction because you don't want to change? >> he told us. >> admirable. yes. it's just funny to watch the clip about nato, that suddenly nato is fighting terrorism, when they've been fighting terrorism for quite some time now is really an extraordinary statement for the president of the united states to say, but you know, trump is, when you talk to people who know what's going on behind the scenes, what they're saying really is that trump is actually just learning about some of this stuff. during the campaign he didn't have to do aton ton of researc come up with policy positions. he gained them on the stump, he'd road test them and see how the crowd responded and they weren't necessarily subjected to rigorous policy analysis. now that he's doing that as president, and he has people around him, he's getting daily

intelligence briefings, he has a whole team of economic staff. people are giving him more and more information that is in some cases changing his mind. >> the world was more complicated than it was on the campaign trail especially when you're governing -- >> and your twitter feed. >> exactly, labeling china a currency manipulator would have major economic and diplomatic consequences. that's one reason he backed off. the question is what do his core voters think? do they view it as he said this he'll be flexible or the fact that he said he promised to clamp down on china, go after them and bring back jobs in the rust belt states and a lot of us concerned about china and chinese trade practices, how do they feel by his about-face. >> as they do, jump in, you've been traveling quite a bit. the president said getting big things done, jobs are returning, illegal immigration is plummeting, law and order and justice is being restored. we are truly making america

great again. look at some of the big campaign promises, repeal and replace obamacare, that failed. take china to task, the president set that aside, a reset with russia is a giant question mark. so far that one is not moving in that direction. nato no longer obsolete and the wall he'll get some, unlike a massive wall and it's certain mexico is not going to pay for it. >> two observations watching that clip from the debate is extraordinary. it's a reminder of what we thought was the moment of purity on the right, the market for conservative purity the republican party nominated the least pure candidate in the bunch and somebody who made a show of saying he was not ideological so this is where the gop is right now. they aren't really a doctrinal party at this point anymore and that gives trump some flexiblity to veer left and right. his voters know, and secondly we've become somewhat unnerved to trump because we're mar

marinating in this day in day out. the list is extraordinary. conventional president, democrat or republican had come into office and abandoned a half a dozen issues in the first 100 days it would be a roast. >> neil gorsuch is on the supreme court which conservatives love and the question is what is the mood out in country. we can show you video some tax day protests yesterday, organized by liberal groups on the left, trying to say mr. president we want to you release your taxes, something he's refused to do. there we go. >> shame on you! >> this is one of the town halls, this is "shame on you" to jeff flake in arizona. we have the combination of these things, you see the tax protests there. the question is, is this a protest? is this people venting or are the democrats and other progressive groups getting legs underneath them to do something when it comes to the ballot box? we won't get the big test until next year. this is the virginia's govern race and house special

elections. is this venting or an anti-trump movement coming up? >> i think democrats are hoping they can turn some of the venting and resistance movement into success at the ballot box. that's why the special elections are kind of mined for signs of what is happening but this is going to be democrats' challenge through 2018 is, one, trying to keep this up. this t is hard to get people to keep coming out to protest and then get them to actually show up in a midterm election so trying to keep up this enthusiasm for an anti-trump movement and then turn it into success in 2018. >> the real challenge is also for the republicans, making sure their base is energized the way they have in the past, if they do not do those things that trump promised. >> let me jump in on this point. if democratic expensity up and republican morale is low that's the recipe for success. you interviewed a voter in georgia a trump voter said the vote seems to matter less and less. nothing can be done just like

repealing obamacare, an i.t. worker from atlanta. the republicans promised this but are not doing it. >> the real fear is, if we don't do this, how do they go back to their base, give us more voters, well we couldn't do what we promised and we had all the powers in government. >> mid terms are about which party is more engaged and motivated and which party wants to go to the polls and send a message. right now it's clearly the democrats, the left, which is more engaged than republicans and you saw in that quote more frustrated about the inaction they see from leaders in washington. >> you watch the intensity and the levers as the pears work this out. >> which is a bigger headache the jobs president trump has yet to fill or the infighting among those he has hired?

steve. standing before me are my two top advisers. but i only have one photo in my hand.

that's right, tonight is elimination night. there's been a lot of drama in the house and that's okay, but one of you must go. the person who will stay on as my top adviser is -- jared! >> seth night life having fun with infighting in the trump administration, this now day 87 of the trump presidency. staffing issues have been an issue each and every one of them. steve bannon and jared kushner, and the glacial pace of filling important administration positions. these are the jobs in the government if you look down here, see who has been nominated and the cabinet secretaries come in, confirmed, you get the green around them here. could be net level pretty good progress. i'll show you numbers in a minute. look down here all the jobs in the government, see all these jobs in the government? they are still unfilled. let's look at the numbers of the cabinet level positions, 19

confirmed, three still awaiting, confirmation. the broader job of filling the undersecretaries, day-to-day people who run the government 508 open positions, 21 awaiting confirmation, three jobs confirmed. of this 508, the president says why won't the senate confirm them? of the 508 he's named people for 33 positions but they haven't sent the paperwork up to the senate, they can't act on it. the administration naming people doing the paperwork sending it up to the senate. the president has a different view. >> i am waiting right now for so many people. >> you're understaffed. >> hundreds and hundreds of people and they'll say why can't trump doing this faster. you can't do it faster because they're obstructionists so i have people, hundreds of people that we're trying to get through, i mean you see the backlog. can't get them through. >> that would be not true. >> not true. >> that would be not true.

the fact checker is sometimes a gray area. that is not true. they haven't named people. when they name people are the democrats stalling on a lot of them, sure they are. there's not a lot of people to stall on because the administration has been so slow to do its basic job. >> part of the problem is that trump wants to be involved in a lot of the zig decision-making proelse ises for the nominations for you saw the visual was so striking, there are so many jobs that need to be filled. the idea that the president of the you state would need to have signoff for each one is telling about how he runs his administration. there isn't a general message sent to agencies about the type of person they'd want to have, the ideology they'd want to have for the jobs so they get frozen until trump signs off on an actual name. >> there's been this ideological purity test put in place early in this administration that have blocked some people who would otherwise be very qualified from being nominated to these positions, and you have to wonder whether they're giving some second thought to whether they can continue with that because you cannot fill 500-some

positions by ensuring that every single human being who goes into the government has never said a cross word about the president. that's a really hard test to have and it's contributed to this problem that we're seeing. >> with so many vacancies it adds pressure and stress on those who are hired. with so many vacancies it adds pressure on the white house. "saturday night live" making fun of something that's in the news just about every day, infighting in the president's senior staff. listen here, roger stone who is an agitator shall we say, friend of the president, i'm being polite, and chris christie who ran the trump transition, they booted him out and he can agitate on occasion. here is their take on steve bannon the architect of america first who came in with the president, viewed as the rising force and strongest force in the trump white house and now seems to be on the outs. >> i think steve made an error not spending any of his political capital to bring other

trumpites and nonglobalists into the white house circle. now he's alone and he's surrounded. >> steve is a very bright guy. i go to the work with him during the campaign. i think he was a big help to the president during the campaign and everything that i saw him involved in, but staff are there to serve the principal. >> i think that was translating don't criticize the son-in-law. but this is great drama, great theater. gives us things to talk about here but it matters in terms of the administration. >> absolutely. >> of what are we going to do in syria, tax reform, health care. >> what kind of president is he going to be? is he governing as a trumpist type nationalist figure who steve bannon would like to see reshape american politics and the gop or is he going to govern basically as a bloomberg style republican who is friendly on wall street, wants to cut taxes but otherwise kind of socially moderate or apathetic. it's pragmatic abroad.

it's not just kind of back stage fun washington drama. it has huge consequences in terms of what kind of president this is going to be but in some case it's being made for him, the choice is being made for him. you showed that long list of folks not being appointed. eventually they have to name folks for jobs and they're going to name conventional free market conservatives because that's who is available. there is no trumpist personnel cabinet available and that's why i think he's going to evolve into a more conventional president because eventually everybody around him and the agencies is going to reflect a more generic brand of pretrump era conservative politics. >> if ban none gets pushed aside which seems to be a responsibility striking last week and two occasions. the president will not give support to his top adviser. he barely knew the guy. >> the guy works for me. >> the thing about trump i think this is fascinating. >> designated driver. roller coasters go up and down.

>> gary cohn, a goldman sachs executive now in the white house doing economic policy but has a wide portfolio is getting a lot of attention. he's giving newspaper profiles written about him, he's on television. >> uh-oh. >> this is the death nail for a lot of advisers when they start getting too big for the president. >> "time" calls fwgary cohn the great manipulator. >> say no. turn them down. >> the delayed reaction for trump. he doesn't respond immediately but somewhere down the road i didn't like that and it will replay in his head. it's a dangerous game for gary cohn to be playing. >> who brings him results? we haven't seen many big results. our reporters share from their notebooks next. could democrats steal a seat in the house? built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on

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we ask our reporters to share a little something from their notebooks and keep you out ahead of the big political news around the corn per. >> we talked about mike pence being in south korea, the first stop of the ten-day trip and traveling to japan, australia and indonesia and when he gets beyond south korea there's going to be a lot of focus in the region about what the trump administration's policy toward asia is beyond this tough talk toward pyongyang. when obama was president he made a pivot to asia, an economic focus on asia, a central part of his foreign policy and we've seen trump take some steps to try to reverse that, notably pulling the u.s. out of the transpacific partnership pact. there's going to be a lot of questions for pence about what the broader u.s. policy is when it comes to economics, get beyond some of this military talk and tell us what you're going to do about the financial situation here. >> it will be interesting to see if he has the answers. manu? >> the north dakota senate race is one of the most important in the country next year, democrat

heidi heitcamp. republican side problems on the recruiting found, namely congressman kevin cramer, the north dakota congressman who represents the whole state. he said a number of things that disturbed republican leaders recently defending sean spicer in the aftermath of the widely criticized comments about hitler and the holocaust and now republican leaders are trying to pivot and look for a new candidate, looking for' waity self-funder state senate, tom campbell, whose political adviser tells me he's building a statewide organization preparing to run for either the house or the senate. i asked kevin cramer about that, he said it's not going to deter him to make a decision on whether to run and criticized washington elites for saying they don't know what north dakotans thinks. >> until he needs their money he'll criticize them. >> i'm talking about this tuesday, the short term, all eyes are on georgia, where the

house special elections to replace tom price the health secretary is taking place. all eyes there are on john ossoff running against a fractured gop field. the question is can ossoff this democrat get 50% of the vote in if he does he wins outright and a runoff that would be in june. that's what democrats are hoping for. he's been polling 40%. last week democrats had a poll in the field had him at 46 so he's inching closer to that magic number but john as you know, in this scenario close doesn't count. if he's not at 50, he's looking at the a two-month runoff where he'll take a lot of artillery from the fwop. democrats want him to 50. he's getting close. we're not sure if he's there and to employ one of the oldest cliches is comes down to turnout. is it more of a democratic field, turnout or more of attritional turnout. >> we'll be up tuesday night

late watching that. >> ivanka trump is headed to germany toward the end of this month on the invitation of german chancellor angela merkel who was in washington not too long ago and didn't have the best meeting with president trump. what we're seeing here from germany and also from otherries like china and japan they are back channeling not just to jared kushner but also to ivanka, and through ivanka and her family, her children as well. this trip is going to be about soft power. it's going to be something that you don't really hear much from jared or rex tillerson who focus very much on american strength. ivanka has an opportunity here to potentially build some bridges in europe and in particular where a lot of world leaders are skeptical of this administration. they want to see this side of america focusing on women, and also on american values. >> all in the family. i'll close with this, a big agenda question the president needs to settle in the near future. some in the white house want to

move to a sweeping tax reform proposal and wait before pushing congress to act on the giant infrastructure investments the president promised in the campaign. others in the white house think combining tax reform and reinfrastructure into a megaish inive is the way to go. beginning it could help win democratic votes even if the tax portion approves items opposed by the left. republicans are well along with their own tax reform proposal eneaser to get it going because it's been a top priority and to help heal some of the wounds of the obamacare repeal effort which wept off the tracks. the choice for the president? stick with the republican agenda as scripted or try to thaek things up. we'll keep an eye on that. that's it for "inside politics." thanks for sharing your sunday morning. catch us weekdays noon eastern. up next, "state of the union" with jake tapper. looking sharp len. who's the lucky lady? i'm going to the bank, to discuss a mortgage. ugh, see, you need a loan, you put on a suit,

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high alert. the world on edge as north korean duck tateor kim jong-un shows off new missiles and warns his nation is ready for all-out war. how will president trump respond? >> north korea's a problem. the problem will be taken care of. >> we have a correspondent live with vice president pence as he touches down inside south korea, and we'll take you inside pyongyang, as tensions ratchet up. plus the biggest non-nuclear bomb in the u.s. arsenal. the pentagon drops a massive bomb on isis fighters in afghanistan, just days after a surprise