>> good morning, everyone, i'm alex witt here. at the half hour, here's what we are watching for you. we begin with breaking news, new reaction from north korea amid rising tensions with its neighbors and the u.s. the associated press citing state-run news in north korea saying the trump administration quote had better talk and act properly if it did not want the american empire to meet its tragic doom. this statement comes after president trump said he is

taking steps to reassure south korea and japan. here's what he told reporters at his new jersey golf resort last night. >> they probably feel as reassured as they can feel. certainly they feel more reassured with me than other presidents from the past because nobody has really done their job they are supposed to be doing, that's why we're at this horrible situation right now. and it is a very bad situation. it's a very dangerous situation and it will not continue. that i can tell you. so i think south korea is very happy and you don't mention japan, but i think japan is very happy with the job we are doing. i think they are very impressed with the job we are doing. let's see how it turns out. >> we will be focusing on this and get more marks on north korea all day long. meanwhile the governor of guam says he has never felt as confident about u.s. support as he does under president trump. he called the governor yesterday to assure him after north korea

threatened that u.s. territory. miguel almaguer is in guam. despite assurances the government is preparing for the worst, right? >> reporter: alex, the local government is here, trying to walk a fine line, reassuring the public they are safe, releasing the two-page fact sheet on what to do if a missile strike were to happen here. it's not exactly beach reading. >> reporter: today guam's governor is speaking to president trump, reassuring phone call from some 8,000 miles away. >> we are with you a thousand percent. are you safe. >> reporter: but on the beaches of this small island, the 15,000 tourists who are here every day likely never thought they'd see anything like this. with north korea threatening to blast four ballistic missiles towards this tiny island this striking warning from the local government, should an attack be launched. do not look at the flash or

fireball. it can blind you. take cover under a concrete structure or below ground and if caught outside, shower with lots of soap and shampoo to help remove radioactive contamination. >> of course, it's alarming. >> reporter: even for locals, a jolt of reality. >> the threat, you live your daily lives. if it happened, it happens. >> reporter: north korea and the united states are already in a war of words. north korea says to strike fear in the u.s., they could send ballistic missiles 20 miles off the coast within days. 20 miles out at sea is a long zavenlts those on shore may never even see the attack. but they would feel the impact. if the missiles took 14 minutes to arrive, as the government says, these safety sirens would relay the threat, a signal to move to higher ground, a flashback to the days of the

cold war when horns would player and the drill was duck and cover. still, officials here insist the island is secure. with tourist season in full swing and most hotels sold out, many are trying to figure out what does this all mean? as for those who live here, they have no other choice but the sit and wait. alex. >> all right. let's go right now to kerm jack jacob, ms nbc daily analyst and author of nuclear showdown, north korea takes on the world. gentleman, welcome to you in this tense time here. colonel, we we heard miguel say it would take 14 minutes to leave north korea and get to guam. you we heard the sirens would immediately be put into place and launched. how about the u.s., how long would it take for us to know something had been launched in qualm's direction? >> we might know almost

immediately, we are monitoring everything inside north korea. until recently, we had a great deal of notice, because they didn't have mobile launchers. now they have mobile launchers, as a result we have less warning, but we'll know immediately even before its launch and have some warning. but you got to say, it's unlikely that a nuclear weapon is going to be launched at guam, because although they say they have miniaturized weapons, the fact of the matter is we don't know if they are capable of putting it on a missile and whether or not the warhead would be able to survive coming back into the atmosphere. still, it's a very difficult situation. >> absolutely. gordon, in spite of our president's tough talk, we are learning about back channel diplomacy. >> that led to the release of

oughtto wa ought otto warmbeir. >> i think part of the problem is kim jong-un right now is presiding over a very unstable regem. we saw in january and february, a number of instances, which indicated turbulence at the top of pyongyang, such as, for instance the assassination of kim john an, also more important a number of officials in the state security and the demotion of the minister of state security. >> that really indicates something is wrong there. i think when the regime is so fluid, it's hard for anyone really to talk to the united states or anybody else, for that matter, in a way that would lead to a productive result. >> so, gordon, we are also hearing ab these back channel talks. why is that happening now? and does this help or potentially hurt any scenario to make a deal? >> well, certainly it will help.

but at this particular point, these talks have been going on since the beginning of the trump administration and you know they have been talking being and forth on a number of issues, including as you mentioned oughtto warmbeir. at this point both sides are amping up the rhetoric. it's unhelp. . it's inflammatory. the thing that's fascinating about all of this, i lalex, is there is no movement along the demilitarized zone, although there has been tweets, there has been no realignment of american forces in the pacific. at this point you hear a lot of rhetoric, i'm not so sure we are on the brink of war as we were, for instance, if 1994 when we were just within dis of launching an attack. so in a sense, i'm concerned about the rhetoric and the flare-up. but at least the military forces are fought moving. >> so, colonel, there was that 2016 report by the union of

concerned scientists, which found the grand base mid-core defense system would be unable to protect the u.s. public. is it up to the job of protecting its sicitizens. >> we have terminal launches, a variety of ways we can attempt to use to shoot down missiles, but none of them works perfectly. we don't have enough of them in any case. >> okay. so that means what? how does that make you feel thinking we don't have what people assume, oh, we launch a missile, it proceeds that out of the sky? >> well, north korea is not heavily motivated to onch an attack on the united states, they know retaliation will be devastating. indeed the chinese just warned a up can him days ago, warned -- both the united nations and north korea, the united states do not do a first strike on north korea because if you do,

you will have us to deal with. north korea, do not launch a first strike on the united states, if you do, are you on your own. i think gordon's observation about the situation isco ge cog. we have no realignment of forces, we're not totally safe. but at the moment, i think there's nothing particular to worry about. the bombbast is almost always behind closed doors. >> colonel, the military, how do they strue comments and generals how much say do they have in the i guess developments of u.s. policy? >> well, at the end of the day the generals can say yempblt they do not find the public announcements the bombbasts the

hyperbole difficult at all. what they find the most turmoil is the white house which gains is not coming from the white house so that mid-term and long term strategic policy can be developed. that's where our big problem is, and they don't see any difference, any change in the near future until things settle down inside the white house and that doesn't seem to be happening any time soon either. >> gentleman, thank you so much. appreciate your insights. coming your way, we will tell you what donald trump's golf game tells us about hit character. a senior writer from "sports illustrated" will be here. the white house count sim will tell us how they think whether the current president is in legal peril. can a toothpaste do everything well?

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escalating tensions, escalating

words this morning, north korea a short time ago firing off an initiative,ed a monishing the white house, the associated press citing state run news in north korea saying the trump administration had better act and talk prorply if it did not want the american empire to meet its tragic doom. the late st reaction after president trump declared the u.s. locked and loaded and ready to respond if north korea takes military action. >> we're dealing with probably the most serious crisis involving a professional nuclear war since the cuban missile crisis. we need a president to speak in a steady and calm and stable and responsible way. because the rhetoric that's going on is simply fueling this situation. >> let's bring in joe watkins, former white house aide to george hw bush and former

director of the progressive media campaign for the clintons. them under the circumstances first, how do you respond to the secretary? is it an overstatement to say north korean business the as serious as anything we have seen in the past 50 years? >> no, it's not an overstatement. this is serious business. i have friends in guam very, very worried for their safety and the safety of friends and family and others. so this is a very serious threat and americans on the mainland, of course, take it very seriously. i believe as well restraint is best in a situation like this. not to, not to say what you think and to be bellicose, i don't think that's the best way to go, going forward. i understand what president trump is doing. he is certainly staying consistent with his character. by being tough, by talking to you. i like what secretary rex tillerson is doing, i think his words are more restrained. he chooses his words more carefully. i think they got to work hard to

use the back channels to calm this whole situation down. >> selena, as the opposition party here in effect, do democrats have a responsibility to step in and try to speak out and diffuse the tension? or is it better there be a single voice in those not necessarily a single voice as you approach the administration at this point? >> i think democrats in congress certainly are going to be the check and balance to this administration, if there the a need, unfortunately to go forward with any type of military action. but i do agree with joe, that we need to tone things down a bit in terms of the rhetoric. president trump is tweeting and talking in the extremes and when you are talking about locked and loaded, that itself in language that the north korean leader certainly uses and understands, that's not helpful in deescalating a situation. we're really in a tinderbox right now. i am very concerned i will wake up one day this week and donald

trump will have escalated this further through his tweet, which is completely insane, if you are thinking about the way these things normally go within have you responsible people and diplomats trying to diffuse these sixes. >> yeah. rick, the u.s. reportedly has been engaged in back channel discussions with north korea for months now, given what both your colleagues have said, it's time to tone it down, duping all those back channel negotiations could be if jeopardy thanks, to the president and his rhetoric? >> yeah, possibly. look, i think it's -- the situation is dangerous, but it's been dangerous for a long time. in a sense it seems like all systems normal, but loudly. and i think the rhetoric by the president is unnecessary. we don't need a president who sounds like a third world murderous dictator. we need a president that sounds like an american leader. i think where things are going to get done is in the back channels, the negotiation. the united states doesn't need to put out empty threats.

we now have three of them. we have threatened venezuela with military action. the president has twice said to kim jong-un he will not tolerate threats. so he is in a sense drawn these red lines. the dangerous part now, ouren my sees this, they see the united states' action when we return threats and do nothing. i think that's the most dangerous part of this. >> now, conversely, yesterday, a former cia official chad tweet explained to my colleague why he thinks the president has the right idea. here's a piece of that. >> i think he is doing a lot to send the right signals in terms of peace through strength. you got to be strong. the koreans under strength. he has a strong team of general mattis, general mcmaster, general kelly and behind the scenes, they're often doing diplomatic work. it is his job in a sense to be the bad cop while they're the good cop. >> give us your position on rex

tillerson and his machinations, is this a good cop/bad cop in that seems to be the approach here, that i are working together on the same side? >> let's hope and pray that's what it is and it works, obviously, we want this to work, if, indeed, rex tillerson is playing the good cop to president trump's bad cop. let's hope and pray this is what north korea hears and understands and moves them to negotiate with us so we don't have this continued war of the word. but in a perfect world, i agree with both selena and rick the president of the united states is somebody that speaks in strong by measured tones the united states doesn't immediately draw a line in the sand, their opponents that cross it. i just think that strength through measured words is, speaks more clearly and better suits the american people. >> okay. rick, stay with us. coming up, why a member of the trump administration received a

heated response from a panel of black journalists.

i know mr. manafort, i haven't spoken to him for a long time but i know him. he was with the campaign for a very short period of time. i've always found him to be a very decent man. he's probably like a lot of other people who make consultant fees from all over the place. >> let's bring back our panel. rick, it kind of sounds like the president is rtrying to distanc himself from manafort. do you think people are going to buy that? >> he's definitely distancing himself. paul manafort had a no-knock search warrant issued on him. it's usually issued on drug

dealers. it's to prevent people from hiding evidence. it was the same day that the president sent out the tweet on his transgender policy change. they're following every trail. it may have something to do with all the leaks coming out of intelligence and that they are not happy with the trump administration and they're looking aggressively for anything they can find. >> let's say that manafort did have illegal contacts or business dealings with foreign entities, does that necessarily mean the president did, too? is it really fair to lump them together? >> no, it's not fair to lump them together. i think this investigation is going to unfold and sen folks who had those meetings with russians or russian intelligence officials, mueller will get to the bottom of that. if trump want involved in any of those conversations or involved

in those meetings, i don't think it's right to lump them together. as more information comes out, i think we're going to find that like rick just said, there's going to be some tweeting going on in relation to moments in the investigation where it's ramping up. so we've already seen that the day of the manafort raid was the day he was treating about the transgender ban in the military and also about jeff sessions and he was attacking the deputy attorney general in the justice department, andrew mccabe. i think that donald trump clearly is telling us that he's very concerned about this investigation as it continues and i think that it's very serious. >> to that point, joe, a 30-year veteran of the trump organization, his long-time personal secretary, word is investigators want to talk with her. does that, do you think, make the president very worried as this is striking so close to home? >> of course. i think everybody's concerned and the president's concerned, too. he has to be when the people

around him are being questioned, obviously they're looking to be very thorough in this investigation. and the move on manafort, the no-new york move on manafort is meant to send a very strong and definitive signal that they mean business. if i was the president, i'd be concerned about this. >> last night at the annual convention of the national association of black journalists in new orleans. president's assistant onmarosa n the panel was involved in discussions that got very heated. >> zerlina, you were there in

the room because she is there representing the administration. >> yes, but i think it was the wro wrong setting for her to come into. you had fernando castillo's mother on earlier and the room was very emotional and very intense once she arrived and she arrived talking about her own experiences with violence, her father and her brother were both killed but they were not killed by police. so i think it was a mismatch of the topic and amarosa's presence. it's important not to conflate gun violence with police killings.

those are two separate issues. >> coming up in the next hour, a former special assistant to president obama be will here to point out the signs of a preemptive strike against north korea. discover card. hey. what can you tell me about your new social security alerts? oh! we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one of thousands of risky sites, so you'll be in the know. ooh. sushi. ugh. being in the know is a good thing. sign up online for free. discover social security alerts.

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