and i can report that not only is darrel clinton in the hospital expected to make a full recovery, but those two homes are still standing. >> regardless, that must have been terrifying for them. thank you so much. and no end in sight for everyone there. thank you so much for joining us. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thank you. and welcome to inside politics. i'm john king. a busy hour ahead includes high stakes, oval office diplomacy. south korea's president here trying to keep the planned u.s./north korea summit on track amid growing white house skepticism. plus, chaos among house republicans. speaker ryan this morning urging his colleagues to take a deep breath and seek unity. but big disagreements with farm policy, immigration, and rooyan leadership causing discords.

and the president's allies in congress want a second special counsel, they allege even top trump appointees at the department of justice and the fbi are now plotting against the president. >> rod rosenstein and the department of justice on a number of occasions when they could tell the truth remain silent. now perhaps he is not silent when it comes to spinning his narrative. even today we continue to see leaks come out of the department of justice and fbi spinning a narrative that quite frankly is not supported by the facts. >> more on that remarkable event, but first an important meeting this hour. moon jae-in arrives any minute now to talk strategy for next month's big summit between president trump and the north korean dictator kim jung-un. there are those on team trump who view president moon about way too optimistic about kim jung-un's willingness to give up

husba his nuclear program. and the south koreans are worried that the administration is causing problems, this yesterday a warning that if kim isn't ready to deal, he will end up like moammar gadhafi, depo d deposed, dead. >> there was some talk about the libyan model last week. and you know, as the president made clear, this will only end like the libyan model ended if kim jung-un doesn't make a deal. >> some people saw that as a threat. >> well, i think it is more of a fact. >> more on that meeting and the summit planning in a moment. we'll take you to the white house when we see the south korean president. first though, new demands from house republicans. the president wanted a big justice department investigation. instead, he got an expanded inspector general inquiry. looking at if the obama justice department inappropriately somehow had surveillance on the trump campaign. now conservative republicans on

capitol hill say that is not enough, they are pressing for a resolution on the house floor. the goal of the resolution? to force the appointment of a second special counsel. >> we're supposed to believe that the department of justice can handle this? that's what they tell us. don't worry, we can investigate ourselves, we can handle this, trust us, we'll be just fine. really? >> we need a special prosecutor to investigate the special prosecutor, to investigate rosenstein. >> you see the president of the united states right here waiting. let's watch these pictures, the president waiting for the south korean president to arrive. we'll keep an eye on this event and then we'll come back to these other stories. but there you see president moon arriving. live pictures there outside of the west wing. the two leaders will head into the oval office, they will have discussions and they also have a working lunch planned again three weeks until the planned singapore summit between president trump and kim jung-un, so we'll keep going back to the white house as events warrant.

let's come back to know what we just heard, those house republicans and the president agrees with them alleging essentially a grand conspiracy. they don't trust the trump justice department to investigate its own people. important to note that the house conservatives making a stink do not have the blessing listen here of their own republican leadership. >> having the ig report is very important. and gettiiving the ig latitude take the investigation where it is go. it is important that we just let the truth come out on all these thing. >> with me today to share insights, alian in a johnson, olivia knox and catherine lucy. thank you for being here. we'll bounce around a bit going back to the white house as the events warrant. but let's start here, these allies of the press and on capitol hill clearly annoying their own leadership in the process calling for another special counsel and correct me if i'm wrong, they are essentially saying that they think that the obama administration somehow had

entires within the trump campaign. number two, that jeff sessions appointed by donald trump, rod rosenstein, number three at the justice department, head of the criminal division are now part of this grand conspiracy to hide evidence from the american people that the special counsel has gone rogue and that everything has gone awry. that's what they are alleging? >> it didn't really hold water, but part of an attempt to create a counternarrative. you saw it with the wiretap claim, with the release the memo campaign and unmasking controversy of trump officials, there was a secret society claim which turned out to be a joke. this is the latest in that series to create a counternarrative to plant the seeds of doubt about the investigation to delegitimize it in the minds of people. it hasn't forced the justice department to back down. but it has planted doubts in the minds of many voters. >> but the party that calls itself the party of

constitutional conservative, there is a process for this. number one, the ig is looking into it and a lot of republicans say they trust that ig to take a good look at it. but that is not what the president wants, but at least you have a reputable person at the justice department looking into this, you can also go to court. you can ask a judge. so the republican party which is the law and order party wants us to blow up the process of law and order. >> on the one hand, you have republicans who say we need a special counsel to look into this. on the other hand, you have democrats who essentially say there is nothing to see here. and in the middle you have jeff sessions who is taking heat from both sides who is actually a striking middle ground by saying i'm going to refer this to the inspector general. that does seem to me actually to be the appropriate thing to do and the inspector general who president trump has called a tool of barack obama, a pointed by barack obama, he actually delivered what was a pretty hard hitting report on the deputy

directorcabe. so he seems to have been doing his job pretty well and to be a fair arbiter of wrongdoing on bothcabe, but i think he can be trusted to come his job from what we've seen thus far. >> but this handful of trump allies on capitol hill, again, they are not in the leadership, but they are vocal allies and they get a lot of attention whether fox news, breitbart, et cetera saying don't trust the process and don't trust the people including five or six or seven very serious people appointed by this president. >> and some are those who talk to the president. they have his ear. and you are seeing the president's rhetoric on this pick up as the investigation intensifies. and so we are hearing him make these calls for an investigation, we're hearing him -- we probably will continue to hear more from him. he could escalate as well. >> is it solely -- we'll get to the law in a minute. sometimes i think investigations

are usually about the laws or the process than the system. but is it solely as you listen here, is it a political argument, essentially we expect the pace of the special counsel to pick up over the summer, trials will begin of the people charged, and here is representative ron desantis essentially saying you can't trust any people, not the special counsel and again not the long time republican prosecutor appointed to the number two job at the justice department by donald trump. can't trust him either. >> robert mueller, he is a doj employee basically. he is not an independent, not supposed to be. he is a special counsel supposedly supervised by rod rosenstein. i think the reason why this investigation has become unruly is because rosenstein never identified a crime to be investigated at the outset and he has not done anything to keep mueller on target. i think basically mueller tells rosenstein what to do. >> ron desantis wasn't around

back in the day, but i don't remember any republicans telling ken starr, you know, you started here and you ended up over there, how did that happen. >> yeah, that is an eerily parallel. look, it does recall one of the most sentences in american politics was that one line in rod rosenstein's appointment of mueller, okay, you will look into russian meddling not 16 election and any other matters that a rise out of your investigation. as bob mueller has proceeded, it certainly looks like his investigation has expanded well beyond that and that stoked some of the unease. but i think the broader point is that they are trying to discredit the ultimate outcome, trying to discredit whatever the findings are, however bad they are. they are trying to discredit this against the back grop of the drop of the looming midterm elections. >> and i think the president has stopped listening to chris christie, but he was a federal prosecutor. he knows bob mueller.

he knows how investigations play out and how they take time. and he knows the rules and the process. here is chris christie telling the president you think you are helping yourself by making all these political arguments, but i disagree, sir. >> i told him many times that there is no way to make an investigation like this shorter, but lots of ways to make it longer. and he has executed on a number of those ways to make it longer. bob mueller himself is not part son. he is a hard working guy, he is smart. and you can't argue that the investigation hasn't been effective so far. a number of guilty pleas, a couple of indictments. in a year, pretty good work. and so i've said all along i don't yes bob mueller's honesty, never have. and having on worked with him for seven years, i still wouldn't. >> it hurt -- jumping back one second, it occurs that constitutional conservatives oppose special counsels because they result in these sort of

never ending probes. and i think you've heard from them, but you've also heard from some democrats who is he had this is why we opposed the ken starr investigation. we heard from mark penn say that. but i think what christie said is trump has not helped himself in this case. he's done many things to expand, you know,s things that mueller is looking into. and that certainly dangerous for the president, but the criticism you hear from congress is that there really wasn't sort of a lawful charter that rosenstein put on mueller and a that has been the problem that conservatives have had with this for a long time. the solution isn't as we heard from ron desantis to assign another special counsel. conservatives aren't supposed to like that. >> and a lot of the people saying this don't know anything, right? they don't have access to the rosenstein memo that lays out -- we've seen two paragraphs in public. a judge in virginia again there is a way to do this, you can question the authority of the special counsel as one of those charged, paul manafort has done

and the special counsel has had to file documents with the judge in virginia saying here is my charge, here is my evidence, you tell me judge, continue or not. there is a process called the constitution in the way the system is set up. silly to talk about. but those saying this, do they have secret information that none of us have about bob mueller's charge? >> this remains the riddle here in terms of we don't know all the things that mueller knows. we don't know where the investigation has gone completely or where it is going. and this issen wou se sen one os that drives critics crazy. >> and the underlying theory is that the fbi under president obama was in the tank for hillary clinton. that didn't wash with the evidence where you saw the fbi break protocol a couple times and the do on j break 3r0protoc to discuss the investigation. which clearly hurt hillary clinton.on j break protocol to discuss the investigation. which clearly hurt hillary clinton.n j break protocol to discuss the investigation. which clearly hurt hillary clinton. j break protocol to discuss the investigation. which clearly hurt hillary clinton.j break protocol to discuss the investigation.

which clearly hurt hillary clinton. >> at some point i'll find out how many of you are cooperating with the deep state. up next, three weeks away from the planned summit. and just moments ago, duke duke duchess of sussex making their first public appearance since their wedding. right there, crowds loving that. they are attending the 70 th birthday celebration for prince charles. if you have medicare

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fthere's flonase sensimist.tchy and watery near pollen. it relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. we're expecting to hear from president trump and president moon. they are meeting in the oval office. they will share a working lunch also. we will take you to show you the tape of the comments in the oval office asap. president moon's trip comes as trump administration aides growing skeptical of the planned summit between president trump and kim jung-un. for now officials say the president is committed to moving forward. the treasury secretary steve mnuchin for example going as far

as to say this president doesn't get cold feet. if you need anymore assurance than that, look no further than this, the coin. yes, the white house military office has already minted commemorative coins for the event. kim jung-un is referred to as the supreme leader, that a concession to the north koreans. can't cancel it now that you have the coin, right? we're making light of this, but there are a number of people saying wait a minute, he is still a dictator who starves his children, who has a nuclear program that the world calls illegal, who launches missiles over japan and why would you give him his face on a coin and call him the supreme leader. >> for the same reason that you put the face and the title and name of leaders of countries like china and russia and elsewhere. you might think this is a goofy tradition and waste of taxpayer money, but there are coins minted for basically every overseas trip by the president and they are given out

frequently to local police escorts or local deny liplomati staff. position they a also they are the saisame heighe coin, but that is also not accurate. but you almost never see them -- i think i have a couple somewhere, but this is not a diplomatic statement. >> so let's get back to the substance. just a few headlines that have come out, the president expects good news on trade with south korea, he thinks kim jung-un is serious about denuclearization, says they will move forward with the summit. this meeting happens, south koreans are a bit nervous. they see john bolton and the clip we played from the vice president and they see evidence that in their view that conservatives, skrept skieptics trying to poison the well.

is that fair? >> i think that is right. pence has call himself the skunk at the garden party. you know, he i think wouldn't have favored trump doing this and i think that is true of john kelly and hr mcmaster. john bolton has said, you know, in his book that he wrote when he left u.n. ambassador that he doesn't think north korea can be talked out of giving up nuclear weapons. but i think that the president if we talk about whether this is going to happen, his leverage has been that he will walk away if he doesn't think kim is serious about this. so it is interesting to see white house officials quoted on the record saying that they are positive this is going to happen because they are giving up the leverage that the press has said which is that he will walk away at any moment if he doesn't think kim is 3r5i9ing in good faith. >> but you write a lengthy a article where you write that it is a risk that this his new the historic nature be allowed to overh shashadow the deliverable.

biggest is the commitment to fully and verifiably denuclearization which of course everybody is quite skeptical. >> yeah, it is a commitment but then also how you do that, how you verify it, what kind of steps you take, do they come out of this with some sort of broad consensus but not -- and then work out the details later. but one thing that we heard as we reported that piece was just that the president really does want to do this, he is very committed to the meeting, but he is not a detail guy. he has not dug deeply into brief going books. he is focused on the pageant friday and the show of this. he enjoyed the surprise announcement, he has enjoyed all the excitement around it, he certainly you know tlaterred, intrigued, however you want to put it by the nobel peace prize talk. so he is interested in a lot of the show around it as well as the substance. >> all right. we'll put the pause on the conversation. again the president of the united states and president of

the south korea taking questions in the oval office. up next, home land security secretary says that she is unfamiliar with a very critical part of u.s. intelligence, very critical part of her doing her job. picking the right style takes time. one picky customer shouldn't take all your time. need something printed? the business advisors at office depot can assist with exactly what your business needs to grow. get your coupon for 20% off services, technology and more at office depot and officedepot.com. metastatic breast cancer is relentless, but i'm relentless too.

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want to remind you the president of the united states and president of south korea in an extended conversation with reporters in the oval office talking about a number of subjects including trade negotiations and the president apparently casting some doubt that his planned summit with kim jung-un will go ahead on schedule. the president saying at one point it could be delayed. we'll see if june happens. we'll get you that tape as soon as we can. in the meantime, a startling admission this morning from the homeland security secretary, she says she is unfamiliar with the intelligence community assessment that concluded russia meddled in the 2016 election with the goal of tilting the

election towards donald trump. or at least the part that has to do with vladimir putin's preference. listen. >> i think the president's been very clear that he agrees with the intel community that the russians did attempt to hack or otherwise through cyber means influence our election. and he remains xhil s committede sure that his administration is doing everything we can to address that. >> to that point, do you have any reason to doubt that the january 2017 intelligence community assessment who said that it was vladimir putin who tried to medal in the electidle to help donald trump to win? >> i don't on think ththink tha seen the conclusion that the specific incent was to help donald trump win, but i have no reason doubt any intelligence asse assessment. >> manu raju is live with us. did she clarify that at all?

>> reporter: she came back to me afterwards and tried to say that, well, that russia tried to sow discord on both sides. and i said do you believe that russia tried to help donald trump win the presidency and she would not answer directly. >> what we have seen the russians do is attempt to manipulate public confidence on both sides, right? we've seen them encourage people to go to a protest on one side, we've seen them simultaneously go to the same protest on the other side. so i think what they are trying to do in my opinion and i defer to the intel community is to disrupt our own understanding of what is happening. it is an integrity issue of who is saying what and why. and how that may or may not affect an american's behavior in what they believe. >> but it did say that putin tried to -- orchestrated a cyber campaign with the intention of helping donald trump. do you have any disagreement

with that? >> i do believe that russia did and will continue to try to manipulate america's perspective on a whole variety of issues. >> reporter: afterwards they put out a statement saying that she does believe the intelligence community assessment and claimed that the question did not reflect the specific language in the assessment. but from the intelligence community assessment, it says clearly that the russian government they believe developed a clear preference for president trump, they said they had high confidence in those judgments that the russian government aspired to help trump by discrediting secretary clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to donald trump. so that language unambiguous from the intelligence community. some republicans on the house intelligence community has poured water on that approach. it is unclear exactly where the secretary stands after being asked directly about that specific finding. of course the president seems to have some concerns about it as well. >> manu raju, thanks for that

reporting. so is this just a slip up by the homeland security secretary? she doesn't want to anger the boss again. so my point first i guess, if the transportation secretary said this, we would say okay. this is the secretary of homeland security. her job in part, she is up on capitol hill, is to talk about election security, to try to prevent this from happening again. she says i do not believe that i have seen that conclusion that the specific intent was to help president trump win. i'm not aware of that. if she is not aware of that, what is she doing? >> that is bizarre to think that she would be unaware of that even if she hasn't read the report which you would expect her to do to an intel assessment. >> would kind of be required reading. >> it should be. but even if you didn't read that, you would know what the conclusion is. it's been one of the biggest issue we've been discussing. she knows if she does accept their assessment, she will draw the ire of donald trump. if she doesn't accept it, then

she will be in hot water with everyone else. >> but i think to a certain extent i think this is like sort of a silly exercise in that i think there have really not been questions about secretary nielsen's competence. and so we know that she is good at the job, she is the type of person that we want serving in government and i think there is an unsaid agreement that, yes, we know that she knows that these are the conclusions and yet she is forced to say this publicly. reporters put her into hot water with the president. i'm sort of uncomfortable with the whole exercise of pushing these people who i think we want serving in government to get in trouble with the president. >> i both get it and i don't. she is known as a competent person. but she is the cabinet secretary of the department that oversees the election of the president. and whether you are democrat, republican, you should be concerned about a foreign government interfering in our elections. she should be concerned about

communicating as clearly as possible about that. so i agree you want competent people in government and they have to understand their boss' volatility, but i'm not aware, i don't believe i've seen that conclusion? ignore the question. don't say that. >> how about i've seen evidence that would lead me to contradict the findings about the 2016 election. there are ways of doing that. >> but the backdrop is that this is never going to be not a tab would you subjebowould you tabo trump white house. nikki haley and tom bossert, recently removed homeland security adviser who has actually laid things at vladimir putin's doorstep in public on camera. but this will never not be a taboo subject because the trump white house sees it as a dagger

at their legitimacy. >> and there is this audience of one aspect to it where however many people you are speaking to, at the end of the day, you are speaking to the president. >> country first. interesting proposition. we'll see. up next, two democrats in georgia look to shatter the glass ceiling at the governor's mansion. after today, only one will get a crack at it. littlest baby ninja, her did you finish your dinner? so in honor of military appreciation month... active duty and veterans get half off select samsung galaxy phones.

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>> i'm also pleased that attorney general sessions, secretary azar and secretary nielsen join me on the federal commission on school safety. we are seeking input from students, parents, teachers, school safety personnel, administrators, law enforcement officials, mental health professionals, school counselors, anyone who is focused on identifying and elevating practical solutions. >> four states are voting this tuesday. primaries in kentucky, georgia and arkansas plus runoff day in texas. in georgia, two democrats with the same first name each trying to become that state's first female governor. stacey evans thinks she can peel away moderates in the suburbs and stacey abrams going after rural voters. >> we're in trump country. do you think that you can win here? >> here is the thing. i have to win georgia, so i have to turn out more democrats

everywhere. >> i think we should take our progressive message to persuade those that are living in suburban communities that maybe have tended to vote republican, that there is something for them on the democratic side that will make their lives better. >> an important race and a great example of i would call it tension, debate, call it just across the democratic party primaries where you make a play for republican voters in the suburbs or do you make a play going into the hurl arerural ar have to find base voters everywhere. >> right, a very real conversation happening inside the democratic party right now. the progress suffive wing is ve energized wanting to dweets par defeat party favorites. we'll see a sign of that today in texas in the runoff. many examples of this coming up.

the cook political report just today moved four race ratings on the house side toward republicans. i think that is the first time they have done that. highly unusual in a democratic year and two of them are in southern california where there are open seats that could split the vote, could send two republicans to the general election in winnable races for democrats. that would be an extra ordinary suicidal move. >> let's listen to hillary clinton. >> a yale he had indicated attorney, abrams is the only candidate with bold new plansin attorney, abrams is the only candidate with bold new plans to ensure georgiians have access to good jobs, quality public schools, affordable child care and higher education. so on may 22, vote for my friend, stacey abrams, that is abrams with an a. >> tsometimes you see a candidae get pushed aside, but you

wouldn't do that unless you thought it could help. >> yeah, there is certainly still people out there who want to hear from hillary clinton. but i think also what we're seeing in these races is the legacy of the 2016 elections. these deep divisions in the party that have not been resolved. and it will continue to play out into '20. >> some fine tuning on the messaging which is interesting because there is a bit of a gap between the national rhetoric and the house race rhetoric. house rate is focused on jobs, potholes, that kind of stuff. if you you listen to the national stuff especially no offense on cable television, you are getting questions about things that a lot of voters have either tuned out or have already reached a conclusion on like the russia investigation. >> not a motivating factor, you're right. up next for us, chaos and talk of a possible coup in the republican party and some advice in the middle of all that from the man in the middle of all that paul ryan.

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of the united states and president of south korea having an extended session in the oval office. they have talked everything from the justice department and the fbi and the president's into the so happy view about them to china trade talks to the plans to maybe delmaybe delay the sum. and republicans gathered for their weekly meeting amid chaos and even talk of an election year coup. the question came amid reports that ryan's number two met with mick mulvaney on sunday and that there were discussions of maybe kevin mccarthy trying to force ryan out before the november elections. >> i think we all agree that the best thing for us is to complete our agenda and not wedge into the middle of the completion of our agenda divisive leadership

elections. >> the report is not true. if you look at what we're doing this week, dodd-frank, right to tribe, ndaa, prison reform, it is a clear example that none of that is true. >> not so sure about that. but in addition, house republicans last week failed to pass a farm bill and another election year -- other election year disagreements including a nasty internal immigration fight. fill ma phil mattingly is on capitol hill. interesting job today. >> reporter: no question about it. this is clearlyibrated distraction. look, this is exactly what you expected to happen when speaker paul ryan announced that he was going to retire. why a lot of donors were uneasy about it because they knew what it would start. despite the united front and the

speaker saying kevin mccarthy had his endorsement, independent will t behind the scenes things happen. it is into the rarity that the farm bill went down. not a rarity that the house freedom caucus would sink a bill. that seems to happen on a weekly basis. but the problem is that it compounds when you have groups trying to figure out how to position themselves for a potential leadership race and you have members who are uneasy about the entire process, same members looking towards november. and you talk about immigration specifically when it comes to that. obviously you have already 20 moderate republicans who are bucking leadership trying to push this petition to force a daca vote, guys that are allege in the pocket of leadership saying that they are there to take tough votes for leaders, saying if the speaker asks me to do it, i will say yes. they are saying no. is it because speaker ryan is lea leaving? not entirely.

but you add it together and this is why you have the intrigue. here is the reality. speaker ryan is not going anywhere. there is no actionable effort to have a coup. kevin mccarthy while he's had discussions with people is not moving to try to bounce the speaker. but this is something that will continue for the months ahead. this is the reality for the house republican conference the rest of 2018. >> free ticket to the circus every day. phil mattingly, you're a lucky guy. i mean that. let's bring it into the room. we're still waiting to hear from the president. look at these headlines in the past week. house gone in chaos. ryan facing growing doubts. has paul ryan already lost control of the house. really? that is just what you want in an election year in which your hold on the majority is at stake. >> i'm surprised that republicans are tearing each other apart over him graimmigra again. this has been going on for 15

years. this is a continuation of a very, very primal and powerful debate that has been happening. as for paul ryan, this holding pattern underneath him, i'm not convinced that it will hold into january. one thing that harry reid did differently is pick the successor, stamped out any leadership battle. there is a difference going on. >> and to that point, here is what the weekly standard says, kevin mccarthy meets with mick mulvaney, they talked about mccarthy being speaker some day, they are debating about what the day was. mccarthy is denying something mulvaney admitted on the record. they have spoken or they haven't. one isn't telling the truth. will the truth teller please stand up. >> yeah, i think it is getting increasingly difficult for kevin mccarthy and his allies to deny that they have at least had conversations about what they i think view as an untenable

situation with paul ryan. the argument i think that you are hearing is that it is going to be difficult as the november elections approach for paul ryan to raise money for republican candidates, and as we're already seeing for him to be a functional leader in the republican party. and i think ryan allies are saying, no, that he has proved position to be a really excellent fundraiser, but also that you don't want to have a leadership election in the months leading -- what would be a divisive leadership election in the months leading up to the election. >> and what they have now is not divisive at all, right? if the election would make things messy, so let's be divided and have things messy i guess. in this meeting today, speaker said everybody take a breath, let's get our -- together and try to come up with an a immigration plan. really? let's try again. listen to mark meadows saying the speaker xaf gave us our mis. >> the speaker made a challenge to all of us to come together

and find some real solutions and i think that we're capable of rising to that challenge and certainly will do on so in the coming days. >>can levitate. >> house republicans did not suddenly become an ungovernable source. >> he is a symptom of the -- >> look at the last ten years. the idea that this triggered everything. i mean i understand why it feeds into it, but they didn't start having trouble with immigration just now. they didn't start having trouble with spending bills just now. that is not what happened. i'm mostly interested in something that you raised about the question of paof paul ryan' fundraising clout. that is clearly sort of the cornerstone of his clout in the midterm election. >> we'll go straight to the president in the oval office. a number of questions. listen to this. >> thank you very much.

it is a great honor to have president moon of south korea with us. we've become great friends over the years and it is now -- we've now known each other for quite some time. we're working on many things. obviously north korea is the big one no matter how big trade is, north korea in this case is the big one. and a we'll be discussing that. we'll also be discussing trade. we have a very big trade arrangement that we're renegotiating right now with south korea. they have been excellent people to work with for the trump administration. and we will have pretty good news i think on trade and we'll be discussing other things. but the big topic will be singapore and the meeting. see what happens. whether or not it happens. if it does, it will be great. it would be a great thing for north korea. if it didn't, thit doesn't, tha. whatever it is. but i look forward to spending a

quite a bit of time with the president and in-a l think a lo good things will happen. i want to thank everybody for being here. mr. president, a great honor. thank you. [ reporter speaking foreign language ]

[ speaking foreign language ]

>> translator: i'd like to thank you mr. president for your warm hospitality. i know you have a busy domestic calendar as well as the all important u.s./north korea summit approaching. i heard the trangic news of the texas high school shooting.

so i'd like to convey my condolences to you and the american people. on a brighter note, i'd like to could ngratulate you for the sa return of the american citizens from north korea. thanks to your vision of achieving peace through strength as well as your strong leadership, we are looking forward to the first ever u.s./north korea summit and we find ourselves standing one step closer to the dream of achieving complete denuclearization on the co korean peninsula and world peace. all this was possible because of you mr. president and i have no doubt that you will be able to complete -- accomplish a hayes tore rick feat that no one has been able to achieve in the decades past. i have to say that the fate and future of the korean peninsula hinge on this and as such i will spend effort to the effort to support the success of the upcoming summit and stand with you all along the way, mr. president. >> thank you very much. thank you.

[ inaudible question ] >> i do think he is serious. i think that he would like to see it happen. at the same time, he is going into a future that is different from what they have had, but i think he is absolutely very serious, yes. >> can you give us an update where things stand with the summit? president moon's national security adviser on the way here seemed to think that things are on track and that this will indeed happen. >> we're moving along and we'll see what happens. there are certain conditions that we want. and i think we'll get those condition. and if we don't, we don't have the meeting. frankly, it has a chance to be a great, great meeting for north korea. and a great meeting for the world. if it doesn't happen, maybe it will happen later. maybe it will happen at a different time. but we will see. but we are talking. the meeting is scheduled as you know on june 12th in singapore. and whether or not it happens,

you will be knowing pretty soon. but we're talking right now. >> tune how denuclearization would take place? >> i have a very strong idea how it takes place and it must take place. that is what we're talking about. but i have a very strong idea and i have very strong opinions on the subject. i also have very strong opinions that north korea has a chance to be a great country. and it can't be a great country under the circumstances that they are living right now. but north korea has a chance really to be a great country and i think they should seize the opportunity. and we'll soon find out whether or not they want to do it. >> have you spoken to kim jung-un? >> i don't want to say that. i don't want to. there is no reason to discuss that. i can say this, that for a short period of time, we've been dealing with north korea and it has been a, you know, good experience. we have three hostages back. they are home, living with their families. they are very, very happy. and so i can only speak for a

very short period of time. but it's been a relationship that seems to be working and we'll see how long it continues to work. hopefully it will work for a long time. >>unrelated, you can tell us more about your meeting with rod rosenstein and director wray? >> it was a routine meeting. the congress would like to see documents opened up, a lot of people are saying that they had spies in my campaign. if they had spies in my campaign, that would be a disgrace to this country. that would be one of the biggest insults that anyone has ever seen. it would be very illegal aside from everything else. it would make probably every political event ever look like small potatoes. so we want to make sure that there weren't. i hope there weren't frankly. but some man got paid based on what i read in the newspapers and on what you reported, some person got paid a lot of money. that is not a normal situation. the kind of money you are talking about. so