and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. thank you for joining us this hour. even though the weekend is coming up. even though the weekend is coming up. even though it's a holiday weekend for many because of easter, it is still likely to be a very busy few days in the news coming up even through the weekend and into the beginning of next week. sort of an unusually forward-looking friday night. usually at a time like this we'd be looking back over what happened last week. now we're on the precipice of a whole bunch of news that's about to happen. tomorrow in washington, d.c., as joy and other people have been reporting tonight, in d.c. and in dozens of cities around the country, there are going to be tax marches tomorrow.

marches in more than 100 cities on tax day to call on president donald trump to finally release his tax returns. he is the only president in the modern era to do that. we don't expect those marches tomorrow to be as big as the marchers that took place right after the inauguration, the women's marches. i don't know that any american protests will ever be that big ever again. but still, what happens tomorrow might be theiggest anti-trump protests that have happened since the women's marches. we shall see. also expect over the course of this weekend an increasing pace of legal pressure and media attention and political pressure. maybe protests as well focusing on the state of arkansas because on monday night, arkansas is due to start this remarkable series of doubleheader executions.

we talked about this last night. you probably heard about this in the news. arkansas has scheduled eight executions. they plan to kill eight prisoners over the course of ten days. their plan is to kill two men a night on four different nights over a ten-day period starting on monday. so far the courts have blocked two of the eight planned killings, including one of the executions that was planned to be on monday night. no state has done a mass execution like this since capital punishment was reinstated in the 1970s. arkansas has not executed anybody in 12 years. arkansas has never executed anybody ever with one of the drugs they are trying to rush to kill all these guys with. the idea of a doubleheader execution, even just one doubleheader execution, let alone four in a week and a half, that is something that other states with more experience in capital punishment, they have warned against doing that. they say trying to do two in one

night makes it much, much harder on the execution staff and on the medical teams particularly if they are inexperienced. again, that execution spree in arkansas is supposed to start on monday night. you'll likely see a bunch of headlines about it late tonight, tomorrow and through the weekend. just tonight, just as i was coming down to the makeup room and into the studio, just within the last few minutes, a court put in place a temporary restraining order that blocks the use of one of the three drugs the sta was planning to use for these lethal injections. the court has just blocked this drug that is not even the most controversial of the three drugs they were planning using. so, that ruling was just tonight. just happened within the last hour. the state says they are apparently going to appeal that ruling. so, we'll see. right now its a temporary restraining order that says the state can't use for any of those executions one of the drugs it was planning on. expect the legal wrangling and

the appeals and the political pressure and the media attention to stay heavy and to increase over the course of the weekend. again, arkansas wanted to start killing those guys on monday. right now it's not clear they'll be allowed to kill any of them. on top of all that, there's also going to be a lot of electoral politics news over the next few days because on tuesday of next week there's that big congressional election in georgia where democrats are trying their darnedest to take a congressional seat that has been red for decades. this is health secretary tom price's old seat. democrats have coalesced around a young georgia democrat jon ossoff. republicans say democrats have no chance. we'll find out soon, though. early voting in that race ended today and elections day itself will be on tuesday. you should expect a lot of attention to that over the weekend.

this is has already been a very busy week in the news. early next week is stacked up with a bunch of really big things in the news. but before we even get to that stuff early next week, we do have to make it through tonight and this weekend. part of the new uncertainty around that, the reason lots of people in the news business canceled plans because this weekend is the birthday of kim il-sung, who's the founding president of north korea. of course, it's a birthday. happens every year. this year it's happening while we, too, in our country have a new president and our new president has just had a particularly balmy week. bomby as in bombs away. not as balmy as nice weather in mar-a-lago. last night the new president abandoned his long-held public, emphatic insistence the united states should not launch attacks on syria even if syria used

chemical weapons. last week he threw that long-standing public -- threw out that long-standing public opinion, what we believed to be the policy of the united states of america since he had campaigned on it and he's commander in chief. he threw that policy out the window. changed 180 degrees. a week ago last night launched 59 tomahawk missiles as a syrian air base. now, this did not represent, apparently, some sort of deliberate change in u.s. policy towards syria. it now seems clear that missile strike was, if anything, an abandonment of what had been stated policy in u.s. it has been followed by a week of confused, contradictory, all over the map statements from the administration about what that missile strike was for, why the united states did it, what it means about what we're trying get done in syria in a larger

sense since we started shooting missiles at their air bases. i will say from a white house perspective it seems they're less concerned about the criticism of their incoherence on this matter and more excited about how that missile strike got the president the first good round of press he has had in his entire presidency. i mean, there do remain these questionings like what was that for? what is the united states trying to do in a? what are 1,000 u.s. service members risking their lives for tonight in syria? what is the u.s. mission in syria? there also remains an interesting question how that decision was made to launch that strike. the leadership showed this make-shift situation room photo from the night it was launched to a big change in course military. there are some unexpected staffers in the situation room

participating in that decision. there is the economic economic adviser to the president, steve mnuchin, goldman sachs guy, commerce sect wilbur ross sitting right next to the president. the president's 36-year-old son-in-law was there. also spicy's there back in the corner, white house spokesman. why is he there? the guy from breitbart is there. whoa do not see the direct her of national intelligence, cia director, any military personnel other than the uniformed gentleman at the standing door. the reason the director of central intelligence, mike pompeo was not in that room, in fact, he was not in on the decision to launch that strike to syria, because he was giving a speech to a private equity group so he didn't participate in the decision. the central intelligence agency director wasn't in on it, didn't participate, but meanwhile,

don't worry, steve mnuchin was there helping make the decision to bomb syria. so the banking world got to have its cake and eat it, too? that was the start of this literally explosive week for this young presidency. then yesterday bombs away again. the new president has yeto talk about afghanistan since he's been president. he has yet to articulate any policy or any general inclination toward that 15-year-old war. the bake idea in terms of what most americans think we're doing there is thousands of u.s. troops are still in afghanistan because the u.s. military is trying to create a security environment in which the afghan government can stand up u.s. troops are there in support of afghan security forces so they don't fall again to the taliban like they did before 9/11. i think that's the basic idea as to what we're doing in

afghanistan. into the middle of that fight yesterday, the new administration decided to roll out a gigantic super bomb that had never been used before in combat. the united states has had these mega bomb ub-43b ppz had the mother of all bombs, they cost $16 million each. no other commander in chief has ever seen the need to use one before now. yet they decided to roll one out in afghanistan. why not? for context here the united states does not have an ambassador in afghanistan. the president has not spoken on afghanistan. he has not said what he wants to do in that country. but militarily he's just done something that's never been do there or anywhere. for some reason on just used the most unimaginably giant bomb the u.s. military has short of a nuclear weapon and he he used it

to kill, reportedly, about 36 isis-affiliated fighters. about a half million dollars per guy. here's a very strange development on that story that's just broken tonight. last night on that story, the hill newspaper published a story about that bomb, the use of that bo bomb, and "the hill" published someone as they described as a centcom spokesman and described as unnamed but apparently official centcom spokesman, the centcom is military central command, the part of the military for which their area of responsibility is the middle east, and so they're quoting this centcom spokesman, military spokesman, but the quotes are a little weird for a military spokesman. i'll show you what i mean.

asked by the hill about what else was in the area that was hit by that giant bomb other than these isis fighters. the spokesman said, quote, i can guarantee there's nothing in the area. it's pure enemy. it's pure enemy? military spokesmen in the united states don't talk like this. but then there's this. asked about why they used this bomb, the spokesman said this, quote, we mean business. president trump said prior that once he gets in, he's going to kick the beep out of the enemy. that was his promise, and that's exactly what we're doing. this is a u.s. military spokesman? seriously? actually, no. turns out not. centcom just tonight put up a follow-up press release. look at this. this is actually from centcom and it's got a named person on it. for immediate release, u.s.

central command media advisory. subject, statements attributed to unauthorized centcom spokesman. they were made by an individual unauthorized to speak on behalf of united states central command, and those statements do not reflect the professionalism of centcom, said major josh jacque, here today. these statements fail to portray the values of 80,000 service members of the u.s. military currently serving in the centcom area of military. quote, our media engagement mission is to provide accurate, impartial information to the public and media representatives worldwide. those inappropriate statements don't reflect the official views of centcom or its leadership. the named spokesman added that the unofficial statements undermine the confidence of the public who expect more responsible and thoughtful insight. wow. who's the fake spokesman?

who was telling "the hill" newspaper that they were centcom spokesman and they spoke on behalf of centcom and they gave all their quotes and it wasn't actually a centcom spokesman? is this -- is this something we have to worry about now, fake spokesmen? so, i mean, in terms of real, take it to the bank information, we don't know much about why they used that giant bomb in afghanistan. but when a supposed military spokesman says it's because donald trump wants to kick the bleep out of the enemy, turns out that wasn't a military spokesman and centcom has now apologized. that in iflgts is very strange. there's that. so, no one's quite sure how or why the call to use that particular weapon was made. we're not sure who to trust when we get an explanation about it. but regardless of all that, one thing the use of that bomb definitely did here at home was it produced another day of very

excited, slightly confused, but nevertheless overwhelmingly positive good press for only the second time in this young presidency. first time was the missile strike. second time was the mother of all bombs. so he's had two full days of good press. and both of them were for this young president, this new president deciding unilaterally to blow some stuff up, arguably without consideration for how strategically would fit into any larger american interest or any larger american military project. so, that is the week that we are just coming out of. now we have a weekend. today air china canceled their regularly scheduled three times a week round-trip flights between beijing and pyongyang in north korea. china's been vague as to why they canceled those flights, but it's not the first time. whether it's done for commercial reasons or political reasons or security reasons, we cannot say for sure.

but what it means in practical terms is the air route as of it tonight is only served by one air carrier. it's served only by air koyro. among other things, they are internationally famous for its food. there's one foodstuff you are served as a passenger on air kyorio. the choice is, do you want it or don't you? the only thing they offer you is their burger. if arrives at your seat wrapped up in a little cartoony wrapper that says hamburg on it. a little character sliding something very small into something that looks like nilla way wafers. the burger is reportedly served ice cold. when you unfold its cartoony wrapper what you find is, ta-da! behold, that is the burger. we have a number of pictures of

the burger because it seems like anybody who has ever felony on air koryo, anybody who has evaded the no picture rule, everyone has taken a picture of the burger and posted it online. feast your eyes on this that's the food. that's the burger. there's air koyiro, the only officially government run flight of north korea. they fly inside north korea. it's hard to sell. the website has been down today so i haven't been able to tell. they are reported to have a handful of international routes. they fly to beijing and two other cities in china. they also fly to slad volunteer stock in russia. russia was an ally in good standing of the old communist soviet union, follow the through-line, air koyiro flies

soviet made planes. i don't mean then soviet union now russian planes. i mean, they fly soviet-made planes, made bit soviet union when it was the soviet union. that's their air fleet. north korea is trying at least a little to attract international plane geek tourism from people who want to fly the friendly north korea skies in planes that have cockpits that look like this where they serve you ice cold mystery beige burgers that leak thin, red, watery sauce that doesn't seem like blood but no one can quite place it. incidentally my favorite detail about air koyiyo, where they chill the burgers is in refrigerators that look like this that they tuck into the galley on these old soviet planes. north korea is preserved in amber in a lot of way. they're economically and idealogically constrained by their government in a way that makes them unlike anything on

earth. we've seen piktsd of the korean peninsula from space where demilitarized zone looks like the sea, maybe the ocean because there are no lights. they have so little electricity. but north korea they do have air koryo, they do have an internationally well-regarded corps of military hackers. remember the sony hack by the north koreans? north korea may not have done much from its people but they do have nuclear weapons and they do have a million man army and an increasingly full range of ballistic missiles and a huge amount of powerful conventional artillery they have put on their southern border, pointing in south korea, in the direction of seoul where about 20 million people liv. this weekend is kim il-sung's birthday which is often occasion for the north korean government to show off new weapons technology. this year, first of all, what's that likely to be and when will we know?

also, do we expect our own new president to make excellent, well thought-out decisions for the right reasons, working from all the best information with a full appreciation of the delicate strategic sensibilities surrounding this paranoid, slightly insane armed to the teeth country? whether or not it makes you feel better or worse about that prospect, i should tell you our new president spent today at his resort in south florida apparently golfing. meanwhile, what appears to be a massive north korean military parade appears to be taking shape. we'll be right back. stay with us. i was a doer. i was active. then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. my doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. she also prescribed lyrica. fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. woman: for some, lyrica can significantly relieve fibromyalgia pain and improve function, so i feel better. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions

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it is evening on the east coast of the united states. it is morning now on the korean peninsula. and specifically in north korea, it is the morning of the birthday of kim il-sung who is the founding president of north korea. and that means pyongyang looks like this right now. these are live images. these are the first images we're getting in of what appears to be a very large commemoration. we're expecting this to be a large military parade that they will hold in pyongyang to celebrate that birthday. they do something along these lines, at least something big every year on kim il-sung's birthday. but this year, north korea has also reportedly been on the brink of possibly testing some new weapon, maybe a new nuclear device, maybe a new long-range missile that could conceivably transport a device far around the globe. the united states has sent what the president described an armada to the waters off the

korean peninsula. i'm not sure that's the word he meant, but there is an aircraft carrier group there. and this is a president who's been getting a lot of good press for shooting bom and missiles without notice. could be quite a weekend. joining us is suemy terry. former senior analyst on korean issues at the cia. dr. terry, it's going to to have a you here. >> pleasure. >> those images we just saw from pyongyang, that typical in terms of the holiday? >> yes, and they will have a big parade. we'll see them showcase all their missiles. whatever they want to showcase. >> is that important -- in terms of those parades, they're putting on what they want to display. are they conveying threats with those parades? do they roll out things we didn't know they had? >> sure. for example, they can roll out an icbm to show the world they have intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach the united states.

>> in terms of missile capacity already, they he have two and three stage icbms they say they've already developed. >> right. >> what's the state of the u.s. view of that missile capacity? do we believe they have operational icbm capacity? >> because they haven't tested the icbm that could reach mainland united states successfully, we don't know that but i think they're close. already our territories in the pacific including guam and japan and south korea are all under threat. but they have not yet tested icbm that could reach mainland united states. >> in terms of this weekend, this holiday, this parade which seems to be taking shape right now in pyongyang, and the previous reporting that we've had that there was unusual activity viewed by satellite around some launch test facilities, as somebody who worked at the cia on these issues, what do you think they are planning on doing? how much of an escalation, if any, do you expect from them?

>> they are preparing for six nuclear tests. because the whole worlds planning on six nuclear tests. they might not do it this weend. north korea is the one that likes to surprise the rest of the world. and they said they will test when they want to other there are other holidays coming up korean military anniversary on the 28th. they don't have to test the six nuclear weapons this particular weekend. but there are other things they can do, normal missile tests, they can showcase an icbm and other things they can do. >> there is an aircraft carrier -- u.s. aircraft carrier that's been directed there. we have a new president who we don't fully understand either. he has gotten -- it's weird to bring this up, but it's a factor here. he's gotten the first two days of good press of his new presidency by doing military -- taking military action against the syrian government for the first time, taking military

action against afghanistan using a weapon that's never been used before. if this president is weighing for whatever reason some type of novel, newly aggressive military action toward north korea, what are the options and what are the likely consequences? >> he could weigh an option of intercepting a missile or an option of striking a nuclear test site. but i honestly don't think it's going to follow through with this. this is a problem with that brinkmanship policy because you're putting yourself in a bind. either you have to back down and sort of lose your credibility or you have to -- now you're stuck on a ledge and risk a military option, which is very, very risky. north korea is not syria or afghanistan. it's going to have devastating consequences. north korea will retaliate at any kind of military option. >> they will retaliate against south korea. >> absolutely. north korea has 70% of its

ground forces and some 50% of its air and nafl forces are deployed within 10kilomers from the dmz, demilitarized zone, separating t two koreas. that's 60 miles. and you said, there's 20 million people in seoul. there's 28,500 american soldiers in korea. there's some 150,000 u.s. expats in seoul. this is -- this is why i just don't think this kind of brinkmanship policy is not a smart idea. it's gross miscalculation. >> even without a novel -- novel missile capacity, even without nuclear weapons,there are millions of people who are soft targets within easy reach of the north korean military if they choose to take that action? >> absolutely. >> former cia analyst on north korean matters, nice to have you here. >> thank you. appreciate it up next, i mentioned a little bit about this at the top, but we do have another breaking news story we are covering tonight.

seems like friday night stuff takes place late. god doesn't want anybody to have fridays off this year. we're both stuck in this cube farm and you're about to hit 'send all' on some embarrassing gas. hey, you bought gas-x®!

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so late this evening just as we were getting on the air, we got this news. a arkansas judge has block the state of arkansas from using one of the lett appear injection drugs that the state was planning to use in the execution spree due to start on sunday

night. that state wants to kill two men a night on four separate nights for a total of eight executions in the span of ten days. nothing like that has happened since capital punishment was reinstated by the supreme court in the 1970s. we're not used to mass executions in this country. that was kroefrsal enough. as of this afternoon, two of the eight executions had already gotten themselves blocked by the courts. and now tonight a judge has just issued a temporary restraining order that apparently will block arkansas from using one of the three drugs they were planning on using to kill these men. it will block them from using a drug called vecuronium bromide. the company that makes it has asked the court to step in. the company is basically not consenting to the use of their drug for this purpose. for these executions. the company said when they realized what the state was planning to do with their drug,

they objected and asked for their drug back. theyay the state told them they would get the drug back. the drug would be returned to the company, but then apparently they renegged. and arkansas still planned on using their drug. so, the company has gone to the courts and tonight the court has issued a restraining order in their favor. it remains to be seen what will happen in arkansas. that execution spree in arkansas was supposed to start monday night. tonight those killings remain in question given the last-minute ruling from the arkansas judge and the two prisoners' cases that have been ruled on separately and blocked as executions in separate cases. joining us now over the phone is scott braden, the attorney for one of the eight men in arkansas who was slated for execution oefrt next two weeks. his client was actually granted a stay by the courts tonight. mr. braden, thanks for joining us. i know it's a short-notice booking for you. thank you. >> thank you. >> let me make sure i have this right.

two court rulings tonight. there's a restraining order apparently blocking all the executions by blocking the use of one of the drugs. but before that tonight there was a separate order that blocked the execution of your client, bruce ward. do i have that right in terms of the separate cases here? >> yes, that's correct. the arkansas supreme court granted our emergency stay of execution tonight so that they can ensure they're still breathing and full consideration bit court of the important constitutional issue in mr. ward's case and that is whether he's competent to be executed under the eighth amendment. >> so that emergency stay of execution, what sort of time does that buy you in terms of litigating that issue of concern for your client? how long do you expect this stay to be in effect? >> well, i expect the arkansas supreme court will consider this matter with the gravity that they do in these issues and that they've always done, and i

suspt that the stay that they've entered here is to allow full consideration of this issue, which would contemplate 40 days' worth of briefing, at least, and probably an oral argument. i think if they meant to do otherwise, they would have set a schedule out in the order they issued this afternoon. >> okay. can i also ask you what your understanding is of the legal fight right now over the use of these specific drugs? the state is planning on using a three-drug protocol. one of those drugs, midazolam is what led to the rush use of the state. they wanted to have all these excuse because midazolam was due to expire. but the drug that was the subject of this restraining order was not the midazolam. it was another drug that the drug company said they didn't consent to it being used in this way. they wanted it back from the state.

can you give us any of your understanding in terms of the legal fight over the drugs themselves? >> well, honestly, i don't know much more about it than you do. i don't represent any of the parties in that action and we're not not involved in that. but inc. that's right. i think the arguments that they've made. i do know we've spent four days in federal court this week putting on a case, showing that midazolam is certainly going to cause a problematic and painful execution and will violate the eighth amendment. >> scott braden, attorney for one of the eight men in arkansas. bruce ward, who was slated for execution on monday. mr. braden was able to get his client an emergency stay of execution tonight in the arkansas state supreme court. mr. braden, i know this is an incredibly tense time for you and your client. thanks for letting us know what's going on. stay in touch with us over the weekend as this continues to unfold. >> thank you for your interest in this. >> tnkyou. appreciate it.

again, arkansas made a remarkable decision to do a mass execution, they want to kill eight men in ten days. two executions are off because of the individual circumstances in those cases but it looks like because of this ruling tonight that all of those executions may be off, at least temporarily if the state is not able to successfully appeal this restraining order on the use of one of these drugs that they are planning to use to kill all of these men. fascinating and bizarre story out of arkansas. stay with us. managing blood sugar is not a marathon

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do you worry? do you have anxiety about the world, maybe late at night? do the words syria, russia, north or korea keep you up at night? my friends, it is time to stop being afraid. >> whatever you look at, it's got problems, so many problems. and ultimately i believe that we are going to get rid of most of those problems, and there won't be fear of anybody. >> we're going to get rid of the problems. okay? the president was inaugurated with a speech about american carnage, you will remember. but now not only will most of the problems be gotten rid of, they're also, quote, won't be fear of anybody anymore. after promising multiple times during the campaign that he would label china a currency

manipulator on day one, this week the president told "the wall street journal," quote, they resident currency manipulators. after he said the export-import bank was unnecessary, he said, actually, its a very good thing. during the campaign the president said, quote, the problem with nato, it's obsolete. this week the president said, nato is no longer obsolete. after the health care debacle last month, the president said he was moving on, leaving health reform behind, moving on to tax reform. he said, tax reform, quote, that will be next. then this week, nope, we're going to have a phenomenal tax reform, but i have to do health care first. also this week, it became time to bomb syria because they used chemical weapons. despite the president insisting for years that under no circumstances should the u.s. bomb syria, particularly if they

used chemical weapons. inside the beltway, these many reversals are being read hopefully as some kind of reboot. but in the words of the great dan rather today, quote, there is a big difference between evolution and confusion. dan rather joins us on that next. stay with us. i want you to stay this bright blue forever, that's why you'll stay in this drawer forever. i can't live without you, and that's why i'll never ever wash you. protect your clothes from stretching, fading and fuzz with downy fabric conditioner. fading and fuzz with downy fabric conditioner. it smooths and strengthens fibers to protect clothes from the damage of the wash. so your favorite clothes stay your favorite clothes. downy fabric conditioner. testinhuh?sting! is this thing on? come on! your turn! where do pencils go on vacation? pennsylvania! (laughter)

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joining us tonight for the interview is dan rather.

he's the host of "the big interview" on access tv. mr. rather, it's great to have you here. >> always good to be with you. >> good to see you. i want to talk about donald trump and the new presidency and these sord of abandonments of previous policies that everybody's sort of calling flip-flops and u-turns here. i actually want to talk to you about some of this news that's been breaking tonight since we've been on the air. >> right. >> this remarkable story out of arkansas. they're planning on executing eight men in four doubleheader executions over the course of ten days. >> right. >> it seems to be falling apart now. two of the eight have now had stays. and maybe all of them have been stayed by this court blocking the use of one of these drugs. have to ask, of all the years you spent covering capital punishment, all the politics arouand everything, have you seen anything like? >> never seen anything like this. my understanding is arkansas hasn't had an execution in a long time. >> about 12 years. >> so they have nobody experienced with this.

remember, i come from texas where they had a lot of electrocutions, other death penalties. probably lead the nation, i don't know if they still do, but probably do. but in sorry. i'll be interesting to see how many, if any of these death penalty situations actually result in it being done. >> ask if it does get blocked or if some of them do go through the legal bas on which that will happen, they're fighting about the technocratic parts of it, whether this drug will be used, whether the drug company gets a say in whether or not it's used, whether the protocols for a contingency plan is in place. it's a fascinating story. but the main thing i wanted to talk to you about tonight, dan, is what we're seeing from the new administration in terms of them abandoning previously held

policies. you described thats as there being a big difference between evolution and confusion. do you feel like people are misreading these flip-flops as evolution? >> well, i think some people may be misreading it. but look, donald trump sold himself, one reason he got elected was he presumesed to be a person he doesn't back down, he doesn't back up, he doesn't turn around. since he's been in office, that's the main thing he has done. back up, back down, the turn around, everything from chinese, money manipulation to his opinion of nato and the federal reserve. i mean, the list is longer than my arm. he's jumping around like grease on a hot skillet. unpredictable can be an important part of leadership. but being erratic and coming across as confused and mott knowing not only what you believe and where you want to go, for example, it is one thing to drop all these tomahawks on

syria. well, to what purpose? what is the strategy? what is the overarching strategy this syria? >> and does that missile launch make achieving the strategic goals easier or harder? >> exactly. north korea, this is a powder keg with short fuse and the fuse is burning. i think it's just now begin to go sink in to the american people as a whole, we're talking about the possibility of war. now, there's only a slight difference beten blankmanship and apiecement. as i understand it, donald trump is trying to go that line with north korea, but the north korean regime is unstable. their leader is unstable. and feeling vulnerable. and we know the history of what happens when you have that kind of situation.

but one can only pray that donald trump is reading up quickly on the korean war in the 1950s, maybe "the coldest winter" would be good reading for him. because many of the steps that we're going through now of brinksmanship, getting up close and saying, okay, we're going to engage and we're going to engage in strength hasekos of what happened in korea in the 1950s. >> let me bring those two strands of thoughts together, t too. obviously the most influential nation on north korea is china. a third of their cash comes from selling coal to china. so whatever happens in north korea is going to have to go through china in some way. then you look at the sway that china is viewing donald trump right thou. they did just have this visit by president xi, but in terms of trump's stance on chiep, he said he was going to label them a currency manipulator on day one.

not only did he not do that, he's fought going to do that at all. he also said the one china policy, okay, we're going to the abide by the one china policy ask i don't need anything for it. the chinese headlines about donald trump are humiliating, they're talk about him being a paper tiger, him being a laughing stock, with the chinese government-controlled press, when those headlines come out, you know that's what the china owes government thinks about. how do thoselay together with china seeing him as somody they don't need to much worry about and us neegd china on north korea? >> well, there are no good solutions to our u.s. polgz position in north korea and this is one of the reasons. the chinese, they could end the situation in north korea. i wouldn't say overnight, but very shortly if they choose to do so. they haven't chosen to do so. they didn't do it with president bush. they didn't do it with president obama. we'll see whether they do it with president trump. but here is the situation.

putin loves this, what's happened with us and north korea. he is filing like a deacon with four aces. overstretched possibility of a land war in asia, possibly -- >> and possible brinkmanship where there's no way out that makes us look good. >> and the chinese have to like where they are because president trump is saying i need you so badly, i'll give you something on the trade side if you can help. the chinese says, well, we'll be in touch with you about that and they've made a couple of moves. but here, what concerns me and i think concerns a lot of people, rachel, is that by these two bombings, the syria tomahawks and the afghanistan bombings, we make clear as one off military operations, i have no argument with that. but the -- what i'll call the beltway class in washington .some other people

around the country are cheering the president's military posturing. you might want to call it positioning. now, we know that it's a fact that president trump more than somewhat at least basked in adoration. that raises the question, since he's been get something pretty good press about dropping these bombs in place webs a concern that he'll base his decisions, his war and peace decisions about north korea on the places on the fact that, you know what? i've been getting pretty good press for the last now takes. >> for the first time in my presidency. dan rather, thank you so much. it's great to see you. >> always great to see you. >> always an honor to have you here, my friend. sthoo

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. your taxes are not due tomorrow. because tax day falls on a weekend this career, your taxes are due at the beginning of next week. monday or tuesday depending on what state you live in. but tax day april 15th is still tomorrow. tomorrow on msnbc, we will be covering the tax day marches happening in washington, d.c. and around the country and indeed around the globe a little

bit. marches to try to convince the new president of the united states that he should release his tax returns. those are going to.happen tomorrow, again, d.c. .around the country. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again next week. msnbc live is next. good morning, everyone. flexing its military muscle, north korea puts on a spectacular display and makes threats about an all-out war. president trump's new aggressive approach to military action. does it risk dragging the u.s. into a bigger conflict? new reaction this morning. the president has apparently flip-flopped on a number of issues. and visitors logged at the white house, what has been made public in recent years will now be kept secret so no one will know who is paying a visit to the president. all