>> good, i like that, i like where you're going. >> you can see more of these and other interviews we conducted on our website at recode.net and stay tuned for exciting news on the revolution special. i'm cara swisher. thanks for watching. see you next time. ♪ ♪ welcome to "kasie d.c." i'm kasie hunt. we are live every sunday from washington from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. tonight is actually tomorrow. president trump is waking up in singapore ahead of an historic summit with north korean leader kim jong-un. after a dramatic several days of will they or won't they, it looks like they will ieed meet. will trump's intuition help him close the deal? plus, fallout from the president's performance at the g7 summit. basically up ending years of global diplomacy with, you

guessed it, a single tweet. and the debate rages on over presidential pardon power. a special counsel robert mueller files new charges against paul manafort. i'll ask connecticut senator richard blumenthal about that when he joins me live. but first,sa picture is worth a thousand words. and as with everything in the trump administration, that may be an understatement. of course, there is this photo from the g7 tweeted out by a spokesman for angela merkel showing the german chancellor with her hands planted staring down at her american counterpart. there is also this one showing a white imprint on president trump's right hand following yet another hard handshake with french president emmanuel macron. and then there is this one of imf managing director and chairman christine lagarde with a withering look as the president shows up late for a breakfast focused on gender equality. of course, they will all be

overshadowed in about 24 hours by the image of a sitting american president meeting with the leader of north korea for the first time ever. the question now is what, if anything, will that meeting amount to beyond just that photo op? with that i want to women come in my panel. joining me on set from political acts uotsuri, jonathan swan. msnbc national security analyst evelyn farkas. political reporter ken vogel. and joining us all the way from singapore and pulitzer prize winning white house bureau chief for the washington post philip rucker. phil, i want to start with you since you are on scene, the site of all of the action. i'm been enjougiying all the instagram photos from jw marriott. you write, and i thought this was a really on point frame. one, is a septegenarian

president, the other a millennial president. they mix taunts and tributes to keep the other off balance. thin skinned alphas, both men are wed to a go it alone leadership style, have a penchant for bomb past and project dominance when they finally meet. so, at what -- what is your sense of how things are unfolding there on the ground in singapore so far? and what do you think these two personalities -- how is the president going to end up handling this? >> yeah, kasie, they both arrived here in singapore last night. it is now morning, monday morning. president trump is scheduled to be meeting with the prime minister of singapore later today and then of course on tuesday with kim jong-un. and they have been sizing each other up for months, really for years. kim jong-un and the north korean delegation have been studying donald trump, the history about him, the art of the deal, sort of understanding his personality. trump is doing the same about kim. i think trump sees this very much as a clash of personalities

as an opportunity to size up the north korean dictator, something no american president has been able to do face to face. and as he said the other day, he'll know within a minute or two whether there is something here, whether kim can come to the table and have a deal. now, if you start looking at the substance of what that deal could be, it gets very messy because that's not worked out. unclear what sort of deliverables they could walk away from this meeting with, but trump is very eager at least have the meeting and try to make friends with the dictator. >> phil, is there a view that there may be any risk for the president in simply having this photo op? what is the thinking, what has been told about whether he should smile, how he should present himself in what we know is going to be an instantly iconic picture? >> well, it's an iconic picture that the north koreans very much want. for them this is, this is an achievement in and of itself, getting an audience with the president, putting kim jong-un

on equal footing with the american commander in chief and it will be used in propaganda back home by the north koreans to show kim asarneng respe around the world. so the danger for trump is he's giving kim something by simply shaking his hand and meeting him. we'll have to see what the body language looks like. i think it will be really striking, for example, if trump is kinder to kim jong-un than he was to justin trudeau in canada and some of the other european allies he was with the at the g7 in quebec the other day. the body language from the photos that you showed at the beginning of the show was so striking and we'll have to see if trump is more relaxed and frankly more enjoying himself when he's face to face with the north korean leader. >> so, as you reference a minute ago, the president did say it won't take long for him to tell if kim jong-un is serious about ma making a deal. >> i think within the first

minute i'll know. >> how? >> my touch, my feel. that's what i do. if i think it won't happen, i'm not going to waste my time. i don't want to waste his time. >> jonathan swan, your take on that. philip rucker mentioned this is a clash of personalities. you have reporting about that. >> the president has been in his briefings fixated on kim jong-un's personality, wanting to know everything he can about him. he's been asking mike pompeo who has met with him, the only one of his top aides. the allied agencies have compiled a detailed study, profile of kim jong-un largely taken from interviews with some of his former class made when he attended an elite swiss school in his adolescence. >> interesting. >> the profile, we got this from someone who studied it carefully, the classified binder. it bears a striking resemblance to the kim jong-un you see today. he described him as the young kim jong-un from these

interviews, almost sick. would be prone to fits of anger and outbursts of violence. apparently there were young children he hit during this. he was an inattentive student. didn't attend class very much, and demanded slaveish loyalty from his classmates. >> slaveish loyalty. evelyn farkas, what does this tell you if you're preparing the president to meet with this man? >> first of all, it's not surprising because this is the guy who had his brother killed and his uncle killed. so, anyone who would be any kind of threat to him and his power has been eliminated. we understand he's a pretty ruthless guy. although he's said it's not military force, his father had military first. he's saying economy first after we get our -- >> he wants a mcdonald's. >> yes, i know. and that he has in common with the president, with our president, of course, because our president loves hamburgers and i guess he likes mcdonald's. i can't remember if that was -- >> he does. >> fillet of fish.

sometimes without the bread. >> i think if he's smart, le study our president, kim jong-un, and just butter it up, he has one minute to butter him up. >> it's impressive that they're doing this level of preparation. certainly one of the concerns is there was no preparation and it would be nice if that preparation was also on the policy side and not just on the personality side. you know, famously george w. bush, when he was meeting with vladimir putin said that he could assess -- and he was someone who was deste libal sort of stereotypes of him, was actually someone who did prepare on the policy side as well as the personality side and said that he looked putin in the eye, could see into his soul and found him trustworthy and straightforward. came to regret -- >> that was incorrect. >> there's only so far the personality goes. policy is the key here. >> that was because he looked at the dossier that he had on putin, looked at the dossier on bush, knew he was religious.

he referenced he had a cross and he talked about this cross and the meaning for him. so, in part -- >> so he played bush. philip rucker, i want to go to you on this. we talked so much about how the president prepares or doesn't prepare for all kinds of meetings, but none with stakes as high as this one. if, in fact, american authorities, they do have this binder jonathan swan is now reporting on, it still see as though this president is absorbing that information only by having verbal conversations with people who have read it. is that your sense? >> i think that's right, kasie. this is a president, donald trump, who does not read his daily intelligence report that's written out for him. instead he participate in more oral briefings. the cia director will come into the oval office and show him graphics, videos, pictures, maps, charts, anything that can help him visually understand the intelligence because we know he doesn't like to sit down and pour over the written word. i assume that's the case now as

he's preparing to meet with kim jong-un. trump has said he doesn't require much preparation for this meeting. that's not quite right. according to mike pompeo, the secretary of state who said he's been having very extensive briefings with president trump for several weeks now, months really, trying to prepare him for this, trying to get him to understand sort of the history of u.s./korea relations, the history of north and south korea relations, sort of the details that are at stake. even if he's not an expert in the technicality of nuclear arms, he at least can understand the sort of broader geopolitical dynamic at play with north korea as he prepares for the meeting. >> let's turn now to all of the drama that preceded this evening, the g7 summit. just a few hours after the president called his relationship with g7 allies a 10, he pulled the u.s. out of the g7 joint communique as a result of what he called justin trudeau's, quote, false statements. he went on to tweet, quote, pm,

justin trudeau of canada acted so meek and mild during our g7 meetings only to give a news conference after i left saying that about u.s. tariffs. >> he stabbed us in the back. he really, actually, you know what, he did a great disservice to the whole g7. he betrayed -- >> trudeau did? >> yes, he did. we were very close to making a deal with canada on nta, bilaterally, perhaps, and then we leave, and trudeau pulls this sophomoric political stunt for domestic consumption. you juston't behave that way, okay. it's a betrayal. essentially double crossing. not just double crossing president trump, but the other members of the g7 who were working together and pulling together this communique. >> there is a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy

with president donald j. trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door. that's what bad faith justin trudeau did with that bad stunt press conference. and that comes right from air force one. >> after those comments, senator jeff flake tweeting, quote, fellow republicans, this is not who we are. this cannot be our p. once again, flake pretty lonely so far in his condemnation of the president. kin vogel, how much self-awareness is there? >> the tweets from trump minutes after leaving the setting, calling out another world leader for being like meek in person and then saying something negative after the fact and then also false statements, trump has actually bragged about bluffing justin trudeau on the trade deficit using false statements. so, it's pretty rich to see him accusing this foreign leader of

doing the same thing that we've seen him do himself. >> jonathan swan, i mean, this -- we knew that the president had already caused all sorts of potentially irreversible problems with the canadian government after making this announcement on tariffs. but the way that the -- this g7 summit concluded, i mean, is it possible -- we've seen some tweets from john mccain, for example, that suggest that some day america's allies will see the americans who are actually on their side. is that possible at this point? >> well, we've been talking to european officials who are having the same problems with the president, particularly, you know, when you look at germany, even france after they got to a better place. that's been reversed. the u.k. what they're trying to do is have this long-range view that this is a president for this moment, but move beyond that. but they still have the military ties and they lean on that. they look for positives where they can. the reality is transatlantic

relations haven't been this bad. >> we're not talking about transatlantic. here on the continent. >> canada, too, but the european relationship has been profoundly damaged in the last few months over trade as well. >> shinzo abe was standing there as well. when it comes to economic issues, this is global. and this is serious. and i think what was interesting to me, i think we need more reporting on this, but it appears reading between the lines in the way the post covered it today, that the europeans actually staged an intervention. so that photo may have been that intervention where they said, okay, mr. president trump, these are the facts. 70% of the foreign direct investment in the united states of america comes from european countries. and by the way, a lot of that goes to southern states that voted for trump. >> we should point out, that interview, particularly knnovar, that's an extreme i've seen from

an official to say there is a special place in hell for him and give him labels like weak and dishonest. that is taking rhetoric to a level i honestly haven't seen and i've been covering trump for almost three years now. >> and the level of silence from most republicans in washington feels deafening. >> i guess they have so many things to be outraged about that they sort of pick their moments, but their moments are pretty rare, aren't they? >> phil rucker, can i get you to weigh in on this, how this all unfolded? seems like a classic case of the president making one decision in the room and then either watching justin trudeau's press conference, being briefed on it and making very abrupt decision and kind of reversing himself entirely. what are the consequence here? are these relationships reparable? >> well, the consequence are quite severe for the relationship as the panel has been discussing. but the pattern is familiar for trump. i mean, he's someone who when

he's in the room with you, whether it's, you know, a fellow foreign leader or even just a journalist for an interview, he wants you to like him. he wants to try to create a level of warmth there. he wants to -- he doesn't usually confront people face to face. and then the meeting is over and he goes off on twitter as he did aboard air force one from canada en route to singapore. i mean, this is just a familiar pattern for donald trump and he bullies sometimes, but he likes to bully with a distance. he doesn't like to do it face to face with the people he's trying to bully. >> you mentioned at the top of the show, too, looking at that picture of angela merkel and the other lead erdos surrounding the president, that sort of dark, almost angry look on his face and how that could potentially differ from -- it certainly already differs from him receiving the letter from the north koreans, you remember in the oval office where he was smiling and holding that giant envelope. we talked about this a lot, i know, whether he has an affinity

for dictators. what is it that explains why he's so hostile in a room of people that have been allies of the united states for decades and seems so warm and open to these other people who have been our enemies? >> well, he's so open to kim jong-un in part because it's his bid for history. you know, trump, it stuck with him for the first time he sat down with president barack obama after the election and before trump was inaugurated, obama told him, look, north korea is the biggest challenge you're going to face in sort of a national security sense around the world. and this was a problem that obama couldn't fix. the nuclear development in north korea. and so that stuck with trump and it's been a motivating factor ever since. he wants to outdo obama. he wants to solve the problem his predecessors couldn't. because of that he's in ultimate salesman mode now. he wants the north koreans to like him. he wants the north koreans to come to the negotiating table with him. he wants them to agree to a deal

so he's willing to flatter kim jong-un. he's willing to, you know, pose to for that picture with the envelope in the oval office with the big smile on his face because he feels like this is his opportunity to do something truly historic as president. >> ken, you want to have the last word before we go? >> to your point about the warmness towards adversaries and coolness towards traditional allies, you know who is loving this tension at the g7 is vladimir putin. his whole goal was to drive wedges between the traditional western alliances and he's got that. >> he's meeting with the chinese and other officials at the shanghai cooperation organization annual meeting. >> good points, all. we're going to have more discussion on that in particular later in the show. philip rucker, thank you so much. have a great morning in singapore. thanks for getting up early for us. i really appreciate it. that summit is just about 12 hours away. we're going to have much more on the face-to-face meeting throughout our show. still to come, though, fighting with canada, legitimatizing

russia. where is the president's party? as my colleague chuck todd put it, is the stunned silence from most of the gop really their comment? i' ask a republican member of congress when he joins the panel next. "kasie d.c." back after this. >> we must stop dirty language from getting to our children's ears. what is the source? >>hat's easy. >> times have changed. our kids are getting worse. they won't obey their parents. >> should we blame the government. >> owe blame owe site. >> or should we blame the images on tv. >> no, blame canada. blame canada. for their beady little eyes. blame canada. dad? hi! i had a very minor fender bender tonight in an unreasonably narrow fast food drive thru lane. but what a powerful life lesson. and don't worry i have everything handled.

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here's the question for my democrat colleagues. if diplomacy fails, would you support my efforts to use military force as a last resort to convince north korean and china things are going to be different? we'll find out in a year if this is going to work. i have an amf i hope i never have to use it. if you want to convince things are different with china and trump, we have to have his back. >> that was lindsey graham saying military force against north korea shouldn't be off the table.

joining us is congressman francis rooney. i want to start with senator graham was talking about there which is the potential for an authorization of use of military force against north korea. is that something that you feel like maybe necessary in the near future, or does it seema los angeles ramsist? >> -- seem alarmist? >> we have the president negotiating with north korea right now in singapore in historic point. why be talking about military force? let's see where things go. >> and what's your assessment of how the president has handled this so far? he essentially says he's going to know in just a few moments whether kim jong-un is serious. >> i don't know about that, but i think he's actually his unique style has done better to bring china and north korea to the table than any of his three p d predecessors. that doesn't mean it's going to work out well. they're at the table. >> he left the g7 summit early.

flies to singapore. when he leaves there's an impression there is a communique the g7 is signing onto, but he starts tweeting. i think we have the trump tweet we can show you about this communique, saying, no, actually, justin trudeau of canada acted so meek and mild during our g7 meetings only to give a news conference after i left saying the tariffs were kind of insulting and he will not be pushed around. he called his dishonest and weak. our tariffs are in response to -- he talks about dairy tariffs there. one of his advisors were on the tv morning shows this morning and said there is a special place in hell for people like that. your take. >> those are pretty strong words, but there is no such thing as really -- >> is canada not our ally? >> canada is our ally. >> is that how we should be treating our friends? >> no, we shouldn't be talking about them like that. the washington post had an article talking about percentage of products with 15% plus tariffs. canada is over 7%. the united states is less than 3. they're no better than anybody

else in terms of protecting their particular sacred cows. everybody has their sacred cows in trade. >> is this worth throwing away, decades of a relationship with an ally over something like this? >> i think we should continue to discuss how to reform nafta, and keep our hemispheric relationship intact. the treasury department of mexico in a bipartisan dinner monday night to talk about that very thing. >> do you think the president is acting correctly towards kevin trudeau or not? >> he's boisterous and irritated things didn't go his way. at the end of the day, canada is our ally, strong ally. the not going to go anywhere. we're not going to go anywhere. >> do you think the damage is irreversible? >> no, i think words come and go. i think canada is going to be there and we're going to be there. we have a 240-year history with canada and this will work its way out. >> okay. jonathan swan.

>> congressman, do you believe america's relationships with its allies are better or worse under donald trump? >> i think that there are some -- there have been a lot of things said that might be better off not have said and i think there's a lot of tension right now, especially in the world -- in the area of trade and the whole tariff thing. i basically feel the w.t.o. system has provided a lot of good to the world, to the united states and to the world and so i'm a little worried about upsetting that. >> but you do a cost benefit analysis of this unique style you describe where a year and a half in, are the positives out weighing the negatives? >> are we better off today? >> let's see 23 we'if we're betf with north korea. we might be better off with north korea but not better off in trade. >> what are the risks of engaging with kim jong-un?

>> let' hope mr. trump doesn't want to make a deal too much where his predecessors have willing to giveaway the farm. if he's willing to walk away, willing to be tough and stand firm, maybe we can actually break the back and make some headway. >> what does that look like? what is success? >> success i think would be a stopping -- it would be along the lines of iran, the iran agreement. but with better verification, thorough verification and no short time line. it would be a permanent deal where they would stop nuclearization. we would be able to inspect everything they're doing. and basically bring the community of nations -- them into the community of nations. can we offer them enough to give up their nuke s? >> i'm not sure. >> i'm not sure we can. >> i want to pull the conversation where we were. we have a tweet from senator john mccain. if we can put that up on the screen. he says, quote, to our allies, bipartisan of majority of

americans are supportive of alliance based on 70 years of shared values. americans stand with you even if our president doesn't. do you stand with john mccain or president trump? >> well, i think that all the language is a little strident. senator mccain's language has its own personal bias because he has it in for the president. the president's language is strong. at the end of the day, the w.t.o. system, even though it's been exploited by china, china is the enemy, not europe. >> do you think americans are on the side of the president? lindsey graham talked about this on the sunday shows. while i'm with john mccain and our allies, he's not sure the rest are with them on trade policies. >> i don'tw the average person in america understands what we're talking about here. at the end of the day, technology has had a lot of influence on what happened to jobs, not just outsourcing to mexico and places like that. and we're in a different era now with service economy and we need to adjust our economy to deal with it.

and so that's one thing, is retuning our employment base to deal with the jobs that are there today. the other thing, of course, is the need to make sure that we trade with the world and we continue to have the supply chains that we have to keep our products cheap, to build our service -- doesn't sound like you're a huge fan of the president's trade policy. >> no, i'm not. like i said, i had the ambassador from mexico and the people from the hacienda up this week in a bipartisan dinner to talk about how we really feel nafta needs to be reformed a little bit, but kept in place. >> but kept in place. okay. that does seem at odds with where the president is. congressman rooney, thank you for being here tonight. appreciate it. the president's former campaign chairman paul manafort. we'll dig into the mueller investigation. "kasie d.c." back after this.

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i haven't even, i haven't even thought about it. i haven't even thought -- i haven't thought about any of it. it certainly is far too early to be thinking about that. >> mr. president -- >> they haven't been convicted of anything. there's nothing to pardon.

>> president trump speaking about his former campaign chairman paul manafort on friday just hours before manafort was slapped with new charges from special counsel robert mueller. the new indictment claims fort and a russian associate attempted to contact and influence two witnesses against manafort between february and april. ken vogel, you've been reporting on this latest indictment even before it was unsealed on friday. can you walk us through exactly what is going on here? and what are the chances -- there was some discussion that prosecutors wanted manafort behind bars and not under house arrest. >> there are a couple things behind it. that's certainly one. this idea they're looking for a way to put more pressure on him possibly by revoking his pretrial release and saying that he did so by working with this guy constantine kalemnik, an associate, in order to essentially coach -- >> who is this -- explain who this guy is. >> the other thing, the other piece of significance is this guy konstantin kilimnik.

he worked with paul manafort in ukraine from 2005 through 2016 through the presidential election and he is assessed, as the mueller team used, assessed to have ties to russian intelligence. so, the significance of this, even if paul manafort does not end up having his pretrial release revoked and does not end up going to jail and even if constantine kilimnik -- >> charge ans and trial aside. >> right. they're saying this long-time associate of paul manafort has ties to russian intelligence. the big -- >> so, the right hand guy of donald trump's campaign chairman is potentially a russian agent. >> that's exactly right. and it comes at a time when manafort, manafort's lawyers, donald trump and his allies are making this case that the special counsel has extended far beyond his remit of investigating russian meddling

into the presidential election by looking at manafort and other allies and what they did years ago. well, here is mueller saying, actually, these two things do kind of connect. >> right. we have a quote from your story here. quote, mr. manafort remained in contact with mr. kilmnik throughout the presidential campaign when he traveled to the united states to meet with manafort. the men also traded e-mails in which they appeared to discuss ways to use mr. manafort's position on the campaign for financial gain. evelyn farkas, how problematic is that? >> may i say -- i'm not a journalist so i don't have to source all this. i already said months ago i suspect manafort is actually a russian agent because he's refusing to cave. and the only reason you would refuse to cave or one good reason would be that you actually are a russian agent and vladimir putin will get you and so maybe jail is a better alternative. >> better than being in a federal prison. >> based on this information he would not have been able to get

a security clearance in a transition administration, much less in a regular trump administration. he shouldn't have been working for the campaign. >> jonathan swan, let's analyze what the president had to say just there and kind of in the context of he's issued several pardons recently, but he seems -- and frankly his defense there, saying he hasn't been charged with or convicted of anything yet. you could, in theory -- and he, for example, pardoned joe arpaio earlier in the process than he might have. certainly something he could potentially do and yet he isn't. >> well, i thought actually the most striking thing about the comments there was what he didn't say and he didn't rule it out. he has kept this open, this idea open. he has never said he's never closed it off. he's never definitively said he won't do this. the audience, all these people cooperating with mueller, you still have in your head maybe the big guy will pardon me in the end. i think that's actually the most significant thing. >> and manafort seems to be acting as though that might be a possibility, right, in holding

out. >> i don't know because i don't have insight into how he's thinking off feeling or the motivations behind his behavior. so, i wouldn't want to speculate. >> ken vogel -- >> i can tell you he's increasingly isolated because there are a succession of people who flipped on him including his son-in-law, rick gates, his long-time deputy, these two other folks who were allegedly -- >> the two people he tried to tamper with. >> exactly. he and this guy constantine kilimnik essentially we want to get our stories straight. they went straight to mueller. these guys are trying to tamper with us. one of the guys allegedly told an fbi agent filed in the declaration manafort was trying to suborn perjury. this shows people turning on manafort and the increasing pressure that that is amounting to that is allowing mueller to

wield against him. >> let's talk for a second about the broader investigation where they stand. the president tweeted as he was on his way -- all of the events of the past couple of days have sort of melded together so i'm not sure if this tweet came when he was going to canada or singapore -- yeah, canada. i'm heading to canada and the g7, then singapore and north korea. won't be talking about the russian witch hunt hoax for a while. >> that lasted for 20 minutes, right? i think he tweeted like half an hour later witch hunt or something. >> certainly yes, possible. not likely. >> i think this week we had -- i think it was this week, every week blurs into one. there was this truly bizar 48-hour news cycle which i called the debate club news cycle. and nothing actually happened. there was no new event. there was -- at the end of it there was the manafort, the new claim against manafort. but nothing actually happened. instead we were spending all our time with constitutional law experts debating whether it was

possible for a president to pardon himself, whether the president could commit obstruction of justice. >> parsing that llc opinion, counsel opinion. >> this is the storm rudy giuliani is whipping up. he's not doing any substantive legal work. it's the husband and wife team doing the work. rudy is on tv busy really actually doing what the main objective is which is to make this a red and bluish yu. that's the whole ball game. it's when mueller puts out his report, absent some unforeseen scandal that we don't know about that is just, you know, impeachable on its face, absent that, they are trying to make this a red and bluish yu. >> it's working. >> and it's working. republicans are rallying around trump. that's what happens, it's excellent for trump, fantastic for trub. >> one thing in this debate club intriguing me, they're using the bill clinton strategy around impeachment.

>> they want to have that fight where it could potentially become problematic is in the mid terms if democrats take both the house and the senate and you probably don't want to have the impeachment fight any more for donald trump. but additionally, there are polls that show even republicans want the mueller investigation to continue. certainly at the elite level, republican policy makers, members of congress do. and so it's yet another place where you have sort of the tension between trump and his party that could play itself out. maybe not in 2018, but certainly if democrats take the house and maybe the senate, between 2018 and the 2020 reelect. >> there are many, many more risks for this president that exist right now. coming up we're going to dig into a brand-new report about west wing aides looking at the exits. plus, it was an amazing week for d.c. sports fans, and an even more amazing week for the players. where and with whom the stanley cup champions celebrated their historic win. "kasie d.c." back after this. y, who's already won three cars, two motorcycles, a boat, and an r.v. i would not want to pay that insurance bill.

[ ding ] -oh, i have progressive, so i just bundled everything with my home insurance. saved me a ton of money. -love you, gary! -you don't have to buzz in. it's not a question, gary. on march 1, 1810 -- [ ding ] -frédéric chopin. -collapsing in 226 -- [ ding ] -the colossus of rhodes. -[ sighs ] louise dustmann -- [ ding ] -brahms' "lullaby," or "wiegenlied." -when will it end? [ ding ] -not today, ron. -when will it end? [ ding ] you finished preparing overhim for college.rs, in 24 hours, you'll send him off thinking you've done everything for his well-being. but meningitis b progresses quickly and can be fatal, sometimes within 24 hours. while meningitis b is uncommon, about 1 in 10 infected will die. like millions of others, your teen may not be vaccinated against meningitis b. meningitis b strikes quickly. be quick to talk to your teen's doctor about a meningitis b vaccine.

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hey blue. i brought you something. okay. we're getting out of here. you're welcome. run! holy! this is gonna be awesome. rated pg-13. welcome back to "kasie d.c." we would be very much remiss if we did not mention the fact that the nation's capital is enjoying its first major sports championship since 1992. and it is safe to say that the celebration has been commensurate with the wait. here are the capitals and the stanley cup at the nationals game yesterday. a rare moment in the past few days which the cup did not appear to be filled with some sort of alcoholic beverage. no one was doing a keg stand out of it at that point.

also take a look at this photo, ivanka trump and jared kushner were reportedly out to eat last night in georgetown when ovechkin strolled in with some teammates. however, it is still unclear which party that is shown here requested this particular picture. i will say i have been enjoying this, it's the first time since i've lived in d.c. for over ten years, we've never had a sports championship. i've been impressed with the crowds in the street. they seem to be more careful. >> as a philadelphia sports fan, super bowl vicry to this, you have to wonder if maybe people are being a little more tame because so many people here have security clearances and don't want to get caught on video doing something outrageous. >> that's very true. coming up, john kelly reportedly called the white house, quote, a miserable place to work. that's next.

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welcome back. with president trump overseas "the new york times" is reporting back here at home he has left behind, quote, burned out aides who are eyeing the exits, including his own chief of staff, john kelly. kelly telling a group of

senators the white house is, quote, a miserable place to work. a potential turnover doesn't seem to worry the president according to those close to him. jonathan swann, that's quite a thing to say about the white house, that it's a miserable place to work. you and i have had this conversation about john kelly on the set more times than i can remember, but is he on his way out? >> he has been complaining for months back to last year. i mean, he has threatened to quit on a number of occasions, trump said you never told me she was a george w. bush appointee, and he threatened to quit and has a number of times, and he

has resigned to the fact that the job he thought he could do he cannot do, and he is trying to control what he can, and he has goods and bad days and people keep speculating on the end days, and it's like the mcmaster situation, it's how long can this be sustainable. >> the inevitable. >> it drags on. >> way off into the future. >> and finding the leakers has turned toxic. >> yeah, there are people that are planting false stories in the white house rumor mill to see if they leak to different media outlets to trace where the leak is coming from, and this was a technique used by karl rove in the george bush white house and was effective, and there are so many leaks coming

from some different portions of it it would be tough to trace any given leak. >> and scott pruitt, president trump has dismissed called to fire pruitt over the misuse of his thoertd and the new ethics questi questions surrounding him. the two speak frequently and the president enjoys discussing his negative view of jeff sessions, the attorney general, with the embattled epa leader. jonathan swann, is this why scott pruitt still has a job? >> seems like one of the reasons, which is amusing as well. >> i have to tell you, this is from the -- this is the body lotion from the ritz. >> that smells so good. i googled it once.

>> yeah, he drove around to multiple rit >> who among us? >> we have seen several cabinet officials who have been fired for far less egregious instances of mismanagement, and yet pruitt remains part of it, and they have this repoor, and part of it is republican donors love this guy. >> just because of the policies themselves. >> can i say something, though? business people must be watching this like oh, my god, management 101. you don't basically talk trash to another vice president in your company if you are the svp or ceo, and you are pitting one person against another? >> i am stuck back to pruitt

specifically, i am stuck on he wanted a use mattress from the trump hotel -- >> what do you want me to say? a comment? that's weird, man. >> the condo he was renting from a lobbyist, maybe it was insufficiently sa insufficiently soft or too firm, and he had a staffer to try and dispatch to try and arrange this. >> i can't even. >> truly weird. >> thank you both. thank you for your conutions toght. when we continue, the latest from singapore where president trump and kim jong-un are preparing to meet for the historic summit. and then senator blumenthal will join us, and then the quirks of the vice president

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something that has never happened before. >> before president trump travelled to asia, he slammed justin trudeau on twitter, and announcing the u.s. will not sign a joint statement. >> a dramatic break with our oldest allies. >> bad faith, justin trudeau,

weak and dishonest justin trudeau. then he tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door. >> he gets up in the airplane and leaves. >> the president is barely out of there -- >> as soon as the plane took off from canadian airspace, trudeau starts blasting him in a news conference, that's a double cross. >> the name calling, never heard anything like that. >> very worry some and destruction. >> he will not so any sign of weakness on the trip to negotiate with north korea. >> so this was about north korea? >> in large part. >> a sitting american president face-to-face with the leader of north korea. >> i think he's very much ready. >> i think we are dealing with a man we probably have underestimated and he's going to

be well prepared. >> the president has gone into a high wire act without a safety net. >> it's not going to be one and done. >> the outcome is anybody's guess. >> there's only two options, peace or war. >> welcome to the second hour of kasie dc. >> welcome back back. we have the former ambassador to soh korea and msnbc contributor, mr. hill. i want to start with your take on what we saw there. it has been a truly stunning 4 hours with the way the president has positioned himself vis-a-vis our long time allies as he heads into the historic summit and in that sound bite we just played, the dvr, we showed kudlow showing what the president did

vis-a-vis justin trudeau was not showing any signs of weakness in the face of the north korea summit? >> i don't think that's fair. just to set the picture, the g7, these are the most open countries in the world, average tariff rates of two to 3%, and the president goes in there swinging on the dairy products in canada, and it's an extremely sensitive thing for trudeau's party, and you try to tee it up ahead of time, and you say i need to mention the dairy issues and trudeau would say i understand that and i have to push back, and you try to do a little working this out ahead of time. instead of president barrels in there, and kinds of cuts loose on him and leaves. trudeau, who has his own political problems had to respond. does it make it look good for

the president's summit to singapore? frankly, i just got off a plane from china. it's a long way away there. i wouldn't worry too much about this. i think we need to focus really on whether the president is any better prepared with the north koreans than he was with the g7 summit. >> can i ask you also, we were talking earlier about there's new reports about the binder they put together to prepare, you know, the president for understanding who kim jong-un, the person is, looking at his time at a swiss school, talking about his pensions for violence and tendency towards anger and then you have the president saying i can walk in there and just in a few minutes i can size him up and know whether this is going anywhere. you have been behind the scenes in so many of tse types of negotiations, is this the right way to go about this? >> well, first of all, people do go through a lot of

preparations. these bioreports are things people take seriously, and they information.s of different i think it behooves you to read them and then we behooves you not to go in and put too much into it. you need to size it up yourself. often these reports are being done by people who never actually met the person in question, and they are doing their best and it's worth reading but you need to have a sense yourself of how you size them up, and maybe that's what the president was trying to explain. >> quickly before i want to open this up to the panel here in washington as well, but there's also reporting that the president might be open to an embassy in pyongyang.

>> when i was doing it the chinese suggests we open interests sections, the arrat we had with china in the '70s before we opened actual embassies, and i ran that up the flagpole in washington, and i came back to the north koreans and i said i have good news, and they said, no, we don't want that but diplomatic relations, and so maybe the president is going aheadith diplomatic relations. we always told the north koreans no diplomatic relations until you denuke lurize. we don't have much of an inkling to how far they would go to get

rid of the nuclearization. >> this has been the subject of discussion in the working groups, in the dmz, singapore and new york. they have discussed opening -- establishing a relationship that involves an empbassy in pyongyang. >> what does that look like? >> they all have this ideal of -- if you listen to john bolton on tv, it's every last bit of nuclear tv or anything that looks like nuclear tv shipped out of north korea, and i don't know whenrump or pompeo's head is in on that, but what we have been told is they are playing down expectations, and there will be a shared statement of principles at the end of this, and maybe some teasing at a process going

forward, but it's going to be the first of a number of meetings. >> it does seem as though republicans and to a certain the lesser extent, democrats are giving president trump a little bit of the benefit of the doubt on go into the summit. i think there's a feeling they wanted to succeed, and they feel there is a potential for a break through here, and that's much different than the tone towards many of the other actions this president takes? >> yeah, i don't know if they feel like there's a potential for a break through, but anytime your commander and chief goes to a nuclear rogue state with the intent of trying to bring about peace or denouclearization, that's something he hopes succeeds. to jonathan's point, there's not a lot of prospect for tangible results, but it's not something you want to throw pot shots at. i think there's a connection between his behavior at the g7 and what is going on in korea,

because his isolation of the u.s. is actually weakening the countr that's taking away that sort of global superpower role or diminishing it, and those are the sorts of things you use as leverage with a rogue state. >> i think president trump's policy is driven by blowing up multi-lateral deals as we saw with the g7. you are absolutely right, i am struck by how he is literally leaving one deal he is out of for this weekend at least, and going on the world stage trying to forge one of the most difficult multi-lateral deals in the world. >> yeah, he's trying to do it himself. speaking of the g7, the president's call for russia to be readmitted to the group. lindsay graham expressed very different feelings about how to approach the kremlin.

>> i agree expanding t g7 to the g8 now a mistake, and you have to deal with russia and they are out there in syria, and there's no way i would agree to give them that legitimacy. the evil it represents is alive and well in russia. he's dismembering democracies everywhere, and he's trying to do so in our own backyard. i would stay tough on putin. it would be a mistake to try and get him back in the g8. >> jonathan swann, of all the things for the president to say at theg g7, why this? >> i have been trying to find out and frankly i don't know why. what i have been told, it was not part of any grand preparation or talk points or anything like that, so it took people by surprise.

>> yeah, and ambassador hill, can i get you to weigh in on this. this does not -- it just seems so far out of left field. >> you know, beats the heck out of me. it's not the u.s. position that we considered and thought maybe it's better to have them in the 10th, and they have been out of the 10th the last couple of years, and it doesn't seem to have been anything like that, and it seems to be something that the president kind of blurted out. when you talk about leadership, when you talk about the capacity to sort of command the room, command the organizations, to kind of blurt something out that people kind of look back at you and say, where did that come from is not a way to show leadership. again, he's in singapore now, quebec is going to seem a long way away, but certainly the totality of this is that of a

president who doesn't seem to have any concept of a staff, and it's interesting to look at john bolton, who doesn't seem to have any connectivity with anybody else there, and perhaps including the president. i mean, there are a lot of problems right now, and i think this is basically how it's going to look like for the rest of his 29 months in his first term. >> jonathan swann, quickly. >> i was talking last week to a source that spent hours upon hours with trump in these kinds of meetings and conversations, and he actually -- this source is sayg he thinks he is at his best when he's doesn't prepare, he thinks he can improvise and read the room and when he is flying by the seat of his pants, they described him as a day trader, day-to-day, moment to moment, what do i need to win the moment, conquer the news cycle. the future is this concept he

doesn't really think about a whole lot. >> as well as the past. >> yes. >> as the president was extending this olive branch to the kremlin, his own director of national intelligence, dan coats, was saying exactly the opposite with a warning about continued russian interference at conference in normandy, he said, quote, russian actions are purposeful, premedicated and represent an all-out assault by vladimir putin on the rule of law. western ideals and democratic norms. coats went on to say, quote, the russians are actively seeking to divide our alliance and we must not allow that to happen. on one hand the president is saying it's fine they annexed crimea, that's fine, that's in the past. >> it seemed as the whole panel seems to agree, in the spur of the moment where it looks like

he wanted to particular oly tic off the leaders, and he didn't want to go to canada and get yelled at by justin trudeau, and boarding the plane to go over there, he says the one thing before i am going to tariff aluminum and steel, that would upset them even more. >> seemed like an in-the-moment decision to just upset somebody. >> to your point about history, when you think about this broadly, he does want to go and make history in north korea. that seems to be something that is very much deeply motivating him, this idea it's going to be a historic mark, but he doesn't seem to regard the history between our allies as something worth preserving. >> i would love to know jonathan's thought on whether the president wants to make good history or good television?

i don't know how much of a sense he has of history. he does have a great sense for good television, but, you know, he clearly sees the trance atlantic alliance that has existed since world war ii as outmoded, and to the extent of any history, maybe there's a resentment how europe has benefitted from our military strength and not had to spend money to the military. how would you answer that question? >> i have not discussed it so i don't know, but my sense is he likes to create monuments to himself, and to the extent that we can discuss history erecting a towel with his name on it, he may want to make good television and put his name donald trump in the history books. >> i want to get your sense of what the president should or

shouldn't do in this? we have no idea what is going to come of the summit from a policy perspective. we do know there will be a photograph, the two of these men meeting together. bill clinton approached a photo-op when there was an exchange in a specific way, and he was not smiling in the photograph. what are the risks here the president should be speaking about around that specific moment? >> well, i think certainly i have never been a proponent of the don't smile idea. i get it because you want to look tough back in the -- back at home, but i think you also look scared when you kind of stand there, you know, looking with this grim look on your face like you are about to be executed or something. i think it's much better to look self confident and smile when it's appropriate, and be very clear that, you know, what we are looking to get out of this, the president said on many occasions he wants north korea to give up their nuclear weapons, and he's indicated he

is not expecting all that to happen in singapore this time around, but i think he needs to be very clear with the north koreans. i don't think he needs to go overboard with this idea of how great they are, because frankly they are not, and the idea that he is now going to invite kim jong-un to the white house, i would hold off on printing those invitations. i think he needs to be very clear why this is a problem for the u.s., and why the u.s. has options to deal with it, but we don't have the option to walk away from it. we will have to get movement on this, mr. kim, and if he does that, clearly, self confidently, i think it's the right approach. i don't know if it's going to work but it's better than some of the crazy ideas about air strikes a few months ago. >> ambassador hill with great advice for president trump tonight. appreciate it. still to come here on kasie

dc. >> do you think you are above the law? >> no, i'm not above the law, but the pardons are a positive thing for the president, and i think you see the way i am using them, and i have the absolute right to pardon myself. >> senator richard blumenthal standing by with reaction to that comment from president trump. we're back after this. he's looking at me right now, isn't he? yup. (butch barks at man) butch is like an old soul that just hates my guts. (laughs) (vo) you can never have too many faithful companions. that's why i got a subaru crosstrek. love is out there. find it in a subaru crosstrek.

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does the president have the power to pardon himself? >> i don't have any comment on that issue. >> mr. speaker, do you believe the president has the power to pardon himself? >> i don't know the technical answer to that question, but i think obviously the answer is he shouldn't and nobody is above the law. >> it's hard to believe at one point last week presidential pardons were dominating the conversation, and that was senate majority leader mcconnells and speaker ryan answering the questions in different ways. let's start on the pardon question, it has kind of fallen back in the wake of the news of the g7, but this question still is hanging out there to a certain extent, the president, as he left, did not rule out pardoning paul manafort and still is privately wondering about whether he can pardon

himself. what is your view, and do you agree with this assessment from many republicans have essentially said it would be politically disastrous if he did, is that the case? >> it would be politically catastrophic to pardon himself, but in legal terms he has no power to pardon himself, and that was settled when rich near nixon -- >> that's a one-page memo. are you concerned there might be some pressure on that office to make a different judgment in this case? >> well, it's a little bit more than a one-page memo, but more important kasie, and your question is very well taken, these opinions do change but in this instant, the basic principle, no person can be a judge in his own case is rooted

in constitutional principle. the courts would almost certainly reject a pardon, and more important it would be disastrous from a political standpoint. but i think there's a larger issue, which is the whole pardon power and the way the president is showing utter contempt for the rule of law in sending a dog whistle to his political cohorts and cronies and that dog whistle is they should avoid cooperating with the special counsel and they are in line of a pardon if they do not cooperate, and he's obstructing justice. >> and coming this week the department of justice has said that they are going to finely show documents to the gang of eight about this fbi informant, obviously devin nunes, the house republican chairman has pushed

hard for this and republicans are frustrated at what they feel is a delay, and it this cuts tray gaudy, who has been in many ways behind the scenes a voice of reason for the democrats, and will not be able to access the documents. do you think the doj showing the documents to the gang of eight is appropriate and what do you hope your democratic colleagues will learn from them? >> first i really think there are serious questions about the propriety of showing documents that are part of an ongoing public investigation into public officials, and the history of showing documents to the members of congress, very often they are leaked or disclosed, and that raises serious risks to the special counsel investigation. second, i hope these members of congress will safeguard whatever they see in the documents,

because if they make it available publicly, they can only help potential targets of the special counsel investigation into collusion with the russians and obstruction of justice, and i hope my democratic colleagues and my republican colleagues will show the backbone and integrity that this kind of situation demands, but it's a dangerous precedent. i understand rosenstein may be under a great pressure but it's a risky and perilous step. >> i want to show you something paul ryan said earlier, and he did in some ways break with the president that he saw no evidence of a spy being placed in the trump campaign, and he did also say there was no solution. >> let me say one more point, in all of this, in any of this, there has been no evidence that there is any collusion between the trump campaign and the president of russia, and let's

make that clear. there's no evidence of collusion. >> the republicans have been repeating that over and over and over again. do you think democrats -- first of all, i should get you to say whether or not you belief there is evidence of collusion, and do you think democrats are pushing a message on this front strong enough? >> there is evidence of collusion, kasie. just take the meeting at trump tower involving the president's son and son-in-law and campaign manager who were there on the promise with the expectation they would receive dirt from hillary clinton from a russian agent, so there is evidence of collusion in that meeting, in the guilty plea document involving george papadopoulos, and in various other very specific and public evidence,

and there's no doubt what the special counsel has because we only know what a part of what he has. >> do you believe the americans will believe that if the president has said over and over and over again that there is no collusion. >> there have been four guilty pleas, 13 indictments involving russian companies, and the manafort trial, which will involve not just technical violations of the foreign registration act, but now as a result of most recent superseding indictment involving paul manafort and konstantin, a former russian intelligence official, and more evidence of potenti

potential collusion. there's still a lot to be developed. we're not in a role of pushing or advocating or prosecuting this kind of crime. that's going to be done by the special counsel. >> senator blumenthal, let's talk about the foreign picy that have unfolded over the last two days or so the president at the g7 essentially walking away from a commune kay, and his advisers going on television to provide further negative comments about the prime minister of canada. take a look and then we will talk about it. >> there's a special place in hell in any foreign leader that engaged in bad faith diplomacy with donald trump, and then tries to stab him on the back on the way out the door, and that's what trudeau did with the press conference, and that comes right

from air force one. >> that's a lot of name calling for a country has been an ally of the united states for decades. >> a strong ally, kasie, along with other members of the g7. what an ironic and tragic way to begin talks with one of the countries in the world that deserves to be an adversary, north korea is headed by somebody that really deserves to be called a war hero, and here the president is pushing awaken trees that have shed blood, sacrificed lives, spent resources at our side on the battlefields of normandy, iraq in afghanistan and in korea itself, and he is punishing our allies and rewarding our adversary. that kind of behavior is

baffling and bizarre to the alliances we have worked hard to forge, and we have our disagreements, and the dairy farmers of canada and the united states deserve fair treatment, and our dairy farmers, we can correct that unfairness and we need to bargain hard, but to tell our allies in effect to go to hell is really the wrong way to conduct diplomacy. >> senator richard blumenthal, thank you for your time tonight. appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, how influential was melania trump in deciding who would be her husband's running make? a book shining light on that, and the author joins me when we come back.

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welcome back. take a look at this interesting moment we witnessed this week, president trump removes the water bottle from the table and then for whatever reason, the vice president, there it is, does the same thing. naturally the internet loved it. the video was viewed millions of

times. and then vice president taking another cue from his boss, this time on the topic of north korea. >> i have been preparing all my life. you know these one-week preparations, they don't work, just ask hillary what happened to her in the debates. i have been preparing for this all my life. >> as president trump says this week he approaches this summit with confidence. the truth is he has been preparing for this his whole life. >> the relationships between presidents and their vice presidents are all unique. this one between trump and pence more so it seems. and this book "first in line," the author, kate, with us. congratulations on your latest book. the sort of very first few pages of the book, very interesting, you report that it actually -- this is another topic that you also worked on in your career,

that first lady melania trump had an outside influence on pushing her husband to select mike pence as the vice president? >> yeah, i was really surprised by that, that she was in the room for this final decisive meeting that the elder trump children were gathered to discuss who would be their father's running mate and she said we need somebody clean, were her words, somebody that does not have any messy, financial entanglements and no affairs, and this shows a political savviness that we don't asubscribe to her, and she was smarter than her husband who still had michael flynn and newt gingrich and chris christie -- >> problems waiting to happen, shall we say? what is the difference in the research you have done between how a president relates to a vice president versus -- a first lady is a close counselor and adviser, but the vice president is possible a rival but somebody

they are burying? >> yeah, it's a very fraught relationship, which is why i wanted to do the book, which starts with nixon and eisenhower and goes through prepped day, and biden and obama are two that really grew over the time together, and it was not a bromance from the beginning, and having covered obama i thought they loved each other from the beginning, but biden was a little put off first like having to clear things through obama, like his replacement in the senate. he had been in the senate almost 40 years. he thought he deserved the job. i think with pence and trump, pence would possibly not have won as the governor of indiana, and he's grateful of trump and some fear in there a little bit,

and he said trump reminds him of his father, and he would beat him with his belt. >> you have found evidence of any moment in which pence has challenged trump on anything? >> no. no. i also haven't found a lot of evidence of a real friendship either. all of his aides will always say they are close, but had i ask for examples of this they can never provide anything. they do the weekly lunches between presidents and vice presidents, and those are sh chaperoned, and they have the chief of staff and john kelly sitting in and steering the conversation, which to me indicates not the closest relationship. >> and i just think it's the most interesting question, kind of in washington, is there ever

a look of scheming or has anybody cracked that facade, is it a facade -- >> is p actually loyal? >> i think he is because he knows he has to be, right? if he does anything to upset the president, and i interviewed more than 200 people, and he kept saying, we will do it, and then there was a last-minute pullout, and if you make us look good trump will be furious, and if you make us look bad, it's bad to us. they did not talk to michael wolff for his book, and they are very smart. nick arias, his chief of staff is going to run for office. >> yeah, that seems spot on. >> i want to ask you because you

have written in theasut first ladies and we have a clip of rudy guiliani talking about melania and stormy daniels? >> she's not stepping up -- >> i can'tpeak for melania. >> but you are a personal friend? >> i am. she believes in her husband. she knows it's not true. i don't think there's a slight suspicion that it's true. excuse me, when you look at stormy daniels, i know donald trump, and look at his three wives, right? beautiful classy women, and women of great substance, and stormy daniels? >> wow, essentially suggesting that -- wow, anyway. >> wasn't enough. >> classy enough. >> yikes, she writes, i asked a

spokes women about believing stormy daniels. this first lady is unlike any first lady we have ever incountered, and just the story line here, what's? >> she only has ten people working for her, and usually the staffs are 25 to 30 people, so i don't think she's very insulated. i think that that tweet, you know, if i had to guess what coming from her. >> yeah, they hardly ever say anything, and the fact that she send this kind of dart i thought was remarkable. >> i think she says things when she thinks people are speaking for her. she sued the "daily mail" in the piece that wrote about her, and

how did rudy guiliani speaks about her, and it leaves open she does think maybe it happened. i loved it because it was so honest. no east wing is honest like that. >> amber, weigh in here. >> in some sense, and i have no idea if it was intentional, but this is a clap back to a man on trump's team that is using the president's playbook when he feels threatened by a woman to use gendered insults, and we saw that with mika, and carly fiorina, where he said look at her face, and it's a thing they do. rudy guiliani did that and i thought it was interesting to have those comments undercut, maybe intentionally or not, by melania trump. >> thank you so much for your time. the book is "first in

line:presidents, vice presidents and the pursuit of power." coming up, president trump finally set to meet face-to-face with kim jong-un. we're live in singapore with a full preview. you are watching "kasie dc." insurance that won't replace the full value of your new car? you're better off throwing your money right into the harbor. i'm gonna regret that. with new car replacement, if your brand new car gets totaled, liberty mutual will pay the entire value plus depreciation. liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance.

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theverything's changed. we're not on an island anymore. genetic power has now been unleashed. we've entered a new era. welcome to jurassic world. [ scream ] rated pg-13. this highly anticipated high stakes summit between president trump and kim jong-un will finally take place in just about

24 hours. both leaders are in singapore as final preparations for the meeting is underway. joining us now is our white house correspondent, kelly o'donnell. it's already monday in singapore, and can you set the stage for us. an incredibly tumultuous weekend for the president ahead of his landing there. >> reporter: good to be with you, kasie. greetings from the future monday morning from singapore, the president left behind a lot of baggage from his time in canada with tense relationships with some of the biggest and long-time allies of the united states and now here he has had several hours of down time which was a good break from the tension in canada, and in just a matter of a few hours begins his schedule here in singapore. the first is with the prime minister of singapore to

acknowledge the host country here, and then on tuesday the big main event. what we really don't know, kasie s. what will the end game look like? the president has been telegraphing this is an initial meeting and he wants to size up kim jong-un and there will need to be other meetings in the president president's estimation, and so what gets accomplished here where we see these two leaders greet each other on tuesday morning local time, and begin the conversation. behind the scenes there have been teams from north korea and the united states that have been working on the nitty gritty of the nuclear conversation and things that could be brought to the table for the leaders to discuss. so much of this will be about the historic stage craft of it all and the most important things on substance will happen out of the view of cameras. we don't have a clear schedule of what the president's time will look like, and we don't know how much he will be willing to engage with reporters or how

close the reporters will get. imagine if you are kim jong-un from that repressive regime, and he doesn't have a press corps and he is meeting leaders and hasbefore. a very disorienting experience for him. all of the history of deception from north korea coming in with president trump who has a lot riding on this as well. both have a lot to gain, plenty to lose. we will see it unfold. we don't know how it ends. >> certainly historic moment. kelly o'donnell in singapore for us. thank you. don't miss "headliners, kim jong-un," a special hour unraveling the mystery of the leader. we're back in a moment. kyle: mom! mom! kyle, we talked about this. there's no monsters. but you said they'd be watching us all the time. no, no. no, honey, we meant that progressive would be protecting us 24/7. we just bundled home and auto and saved money. that's nothing to be afraid of. -but -- -good night, kyle.

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♪ ♪ welcome back. i wanted to make sure we didn't forget about this tragic story out of texas. a honduran man jailed after trying to cross the southern border died by suicide while in a jail cell. he was apprehended by border patrol agents on may 11th. he allegedly became disruptive and disruptive so he was

transferred to the jail as a result. he suffered a breakd after he was separated from his wife and his 3-year-old son at the border. this is just one of what are many unfolding tragic stories about children being separated from their parents in the wake of this trump administration crackdown. when we return, what to watch for in the week ahead. liberty mutual stood with me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?!

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before we go, let's talk about what our reporters are watching in the week ahead.

sfwl i >> i'm going to maine tomorrow. the first state to rank their candidates for governor rather than just choose one. >> you will get a ballot and rank them in order? >> in order. >> what are you watching? >> i will follow her coverage. i was going to talk about the same thing. i talked about that issue on my podcast which will be out tuesday morning. >> what are you watching? >> on tuesday, according to the great paul cane, mitch mcconnell is the longest serving leader in senate history. 11 years, five months and ten days. >> wow. >> outlasted them all. >> i will say, i'm -- >> i'm going to listen to john's podcast on tuesday. >> don't forget the summit. i'm interested in what the department of justice is going to tell the gang of eight behind closed doors. we have to go. my thanks to jonathan, john and

amber. listen to john's podcast. we will be back next week from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. for now, good night from washington. a ruthless leader rules with fear and brute force. >> kim jong-un has total control. >> americans should be afraid of kim jong-un. he is a very credible thread t the security of the american people. >> a terrifying war of words. >> rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself. >> between a brash american president and a reclusive north korean ruler. >> translator: the u.s. main lamainland is in the range of our strike. >> we will have no choice but to