good evening friends we start tonight with north korea and the president of the united states doubling down on his threat to the asian nation in a press conference today the president said fire in fury might not have been tough enough. there were no big surprise as i heard it i mean to be honest general mattis may have taken a step beyond what i said there was no mixed messages and rex was just you know stating to the news that look is the view i said yesterday i don't have to say it again and i'll tell you this it may be tougher than i said it not less it be very well be tougher than i said. later the same afternoon the president delivered what was perhaps his clearest set of remarks on a number of issues his administration is addressing president trump made it clear how he would deal with north korea versus the policy of the three previous

administrations the message was clear kim jong un won't be pulling any fast ones on the current administration and with me he's not get nowhere with this he got away with it for a long time between him and his family he's not getting away with this is a whole new ball game and he's not going to be saying those things and he's certainly not going to be doing those things i read about where to go by august fifteenth let's see what he does with. he does something in guam it will be an event the likes of which nobody seen before what will happen in north korea. meanwhile the united states territory of guam is reacting to the unprecedented threat from north korea any bozza calvo governor of guam issued a public statement combing the two hundred thousand inhabitants of the marianas islands one is a u.s. territory and an attack on the island is an attack on america i've reached out to the white house this morning. an attack or threat on guam is

a threat or attack on the united states they have said that america will be defended and i also want to remind the national media that guam is american soil and we have two hundred thousand americans in guam and the marianas we are not just a military installation. for more on all of this let's turn to former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. bill richardson bill nice to have you with us tonight seems like every time you and i have a conversation the rhetoric just continues to get hotter and hotter your thoughts on what the president is doing is this supposed to be some type of deterrent that we've never seen before what do you make of it well i'm i'm not very. happy with it i'm very concerned the level of rhetoric the intensity of the rhetoric from both sides the north korean side and the president our side has never

been so tense and this is not healthy because it scares people you heard the effect on guam you heard the effect on south korea on japan on our allies on the american troops there twenty five million people living in seoul south korea right within range of the d.m.z. the danger ed is how will kim june react to his rhetoric will you act precipitous slee he's unpredictable that's the worry that i have it's not a healthy let foreign policy be done by the state department defense department negotiations diplomacy let's see if the sanctions work these tough new sanctions but you know just insulting each other and then these huge threat seems nuclear threats are not helpful. well i found it interesting that russia and china have not responded to what the president has said what does that mean if

anything do we really know what their reaction in their response would be if the truck goes all out on north korea well it would be a very negative response right now russia and china by not vetoing that resolution at the united nations where the sanctions on north korea are tough they affect their coal exports they affect their food stuffs their fisheries it affects north korean workers eighty percent of commerce goes into north korea from china eighty percent this sanctions affect a third of their yearly revenue you know north korea can really be strangled by china and china wants to so if china and russia feel that you know we're going at it alone that is not going to help our policy there to try to control north korea

so i don't see the plus in these threats were we getting something in return from these president's threats i don't see it. what about defusing this situation what's the remedy at this point and what would you consider a last ditch effort to retrieve this. i think that secretary tillerson put out something in variation that might work he basically said all right north korea let's talk let's have a dialogue which we've not offered north korea before but in return you've got to halt your missile activity maybe for a short period of time let's see if there's common ground and then we proceed in the heavier negotiations i think that is a way out for both sides. the worry that i've had with past administrations and by the way bush clinton and obama i think had sensible policies the problem is the

north korean side did not accept and especially clinton he had nine years where north korea did not develop a nuclear weapon with the agreed framework he cut with north korea in the ninety's so i think this is tillerson zakaria diplomacy you know it's not the national security adviser shouldn't be the department of defense this is diplomacy this is a state department let him try to make some kind of diplomatic arrangement it's going to be tough but i think that's our best hope to defuse a situation as you just asked it in the meantime the president is not ruling out a preemptive strike and that brings me to this issue of the involvement of the congress what it what are your thoughts on the silence other the it seems like there's more comments on president trump than there are on the actual situation of what's going on with north korea to diffuse this what do you see their role can he

do a preemptive strike without them weighing in on it. well i think legally the president can do it although whether it falls under the war powers act the thing with north korea is that we're already at war with them under the armistice so i think the president has that flexibility the problem with the congress being out of session and the deafening silence coming out of the congress except for senator mccain makes it easier for the president to maneuver and say these things you know they're all in recess they're all in campaigning and i see that the president is now fighting the majority leader mitch mcconnell you know so he's at war with everybody war of words and i just don't see where we get anything in return where that helps the country. i just i'm at a loss in my life time i've never heard a president talk like this i've never experienced another country responding like

this and i'm just not confident as an american citizen that we know the world's reaction if we do get in it with north korea and i just i'm astounded that the senate leadership on both sides house leadership is dreadfully silent in all of this never seen anything like this. no i never have and i mention that they're in recess but you know they're they've got the megaphone the congress does and the fact that they're in recess is not a healthy fall and that this crisis is happening right now i've never seen that tension so high in the korean peninsula i'm extremely concerned i hope the president's advisors rein him in general kelly you know the new chief of staff he's got to tell the president you can't conduct foreign policy the way you're doing with words with fiery words exchanges stooping to the level of kim june in the

north koreans who generate this rhetoric almost every day but this rhetoric has gotten a lot more intense also from the north korean side. bill richardson always a pleasure to have you on the news with ed thank you so much i appreciate it. there may be trouble on the horizon with china china is now claiming the united states is violating its sovereignty by sailing destroyers into chinese territory china's foreign ministry issued a statement citing that they are very displeased and will take the issue up with washington china of course is a key partner in reining in the north korean threat while the mainstream media focuses on north korea's nuclear capabilities there was another more conventional cause for concern manila chan joins us tonight for more on that manila that is very well put add thirty seconds that's the number i want everyone to pay attention to that's all it will take for the d.p. r. k.

to hit seoul with conventional arms and the nearly thirty five thousand american troops stationed in the area now while most people are discussing the publicly made threat from the camera game on the u.s. territory of qual the more immediate threat might actually be an attack with shells over the d.m.z. so i spoke earlier with the pentagon former pentagon official michael maloof about that very threat. that's why indications and warnings are going to be so important at this point and and if all of a sudden we had a real surprise attack which i would tend to doubt that would mean the the troops filtered through tunnels that been there probably for years we don't know the full extent of the tunnel layout that they have one of the ground but we do know that they have masses of artillery just strings of artillery they can go into the mountain and be brought back out and fired with at seoul and other

strategic cities and so would be hit within seconds you know like thirty forty seconds. and just what is at stake if the north does launch artillery shells over the line we've got fifteen military bases across the area near seoul those are home to more than thirty four thousand eight hundred five u.s. service members and their families seoul is actually the third largest host in the world to the u.s. military and the population of seoul itself is hovering at just under ten million people in seoul alone to put that into perspective tokyo has just over nine million people new york city has just over eight and a half million people so seoul is actually one of the most densely populated cities in the entire world so even if north korea chose to lob just one shell over the d.m.z. there would absolutely be mass casualty in the thousands and maloof says that the u.s. must pay closer attention to these conventional methods of warfare rather than the

nukes. unless the president decided that things were so critical that he would do a preemptive strike. and that's that's in the kurds it's not ruled out knowing that that artillery is there because i think the most immediate threat would be from from that artillery just north of the d.m.z. so ed mr maloof says that the north has a vast network of under mountain tunnels that can put them within meters of the d.m.z. and that unless carefully monitored this could make the south vulnerable to an invasion of tens of thousands of k.p.a. soldiers so while most are paying attention to the nuclear threats experts such as maloof and his cohort of retired d.o.d. men and women they say conventional old school methods should not be underestimated . no doubt about it thank you manila mainstream media is not paying attention to these very critical numbers thanks for more on all of this what's turn to our political panel tonight conservative talk show host heidi harris's weather rob top

democratic strategist is here and also chris nigh whim republican strategist great to have all of you with us chris i'll go to you first you know what do these statements from the president of the united states do what do you see the upside of all of this rhetoric coming from the president these threats from the united states president well it sets a tone as to what north korea can expect i think that the president's trying to communicate directly to the leader about what u.s. war powers capable of doing and what they will do i agree earlier with the ambassador richardson about laird diplomacy i think using this sort of aggression in words could be useful if the u.s. diplomats can earn their money and start to leverage that during their negotiations last night on this program i had former congressman alan grayson i asked him the question about can the president legally do this here's his response no he's the

commander in chief and congress has the authority to declare war but in his case he doesn't seem to understand the basic principles of the constitution there is a madman on the loose with nuclear weapons and in addition to that kim jong il also has them mad men is our president i don't think the president would think twice about using nuclear weapons against north korea rob todd why does it take a former congressman to say that whereas the debate on the authority to hit north korea. well let's look at history for a second and go back to the cuban missile crisis it was kind of a flip flop we had a more level headed president with john f. kennedy but we had curtis lemay on the joint chiefs of staff who wanted to bomb russia he wanted to bomb cuba we had henry kissinger who wanted to have a limited nuclear war not not too early before all that in europe so there is always going to be differing opinions i think yes trump is the president but there are a lot of level heads on the joint chiefs of staff on his chief of staff his national

security adviser and i think we're all being a little too alarmist right now is not walking around with well wait a minute. now rob rob several minutes double death. i know that i know you are defending trump but the fact is that mattis backed up what the president said yesterday. a couple of days ago heidi your thoughts on that i mean are they speaking with one voice well i don't think our troops declare war on anybody he's just saying if you started with us you started with our territories we're going to come back at you that's all he's saying it doesn't need to go to congress for that and general mattis made a great point and i'm paraphrasing he basically said if north korea wants to put their people in danger you know that's what they're going to do and it's nice to hear some tough talk for a change john kerry never said anything like that we're not threatening north korea we're just saying hey don't start it we can defend ourselves and it's kind of refreshing i got to be honest with you nobody wants war with north korea nobody

wants that but at least we're willing to stand up and do something about it if they start it with us. tonight is the president saying about today go ahead go ahead go ahead i just it's funny to me because look i think trump is incredibly bombastic with this but conversely when obama dealt with foreign policy in any situation like this almost eighty percent of the press both sides called him feckless so what do we want. oh well president obama that we have. well that is certainly are you able. i guess and look at this chris. the president came out today did he help himself this was really the first give and take he said with the media since february why did he do it with his poll numbers falling that everything do with it why do you think that the president is his communication style something that i really i can't explain and i do think that there's some benefit to being

a little bit more calibrated about the way you go about some of these things but the fact is you know having served in a war in iraq you know i think we need to be careful and cautious which we've been but there's nothing's really changed jeremy north korea is a problem and the alan grayson comment it's kind of like well first of all there's already a war resolution there's already we're going on whenever you have these partisan people coming out there they hate donald trump more than they hate our enemies so we have to discredit that but i do think that my takeaway here today is allowing the tough talk of the president having our diplomats leverage that to say look he means business let's get some negotiations going on let's make some concessions and don't mention guam again well i thought today the president gave more clarity than he's given in a number of months on a number of different issues so he's not going to fire mauler he's not upset was sessions anyone see investigations to get over heidi did the falling poll numbers have something to do with the president all of a sudden go on give and take with the media well i think when you look at the poll numbers seventy six percent of the people who voted him in still love him and all

the people i talk to her republicans are still happy with him and when something doesn't get done they don't blame him they blame congress i think what donald trump does as a communicator is he takes his message to the people and it drives the press crazy when he had these press conferences or does anything that reaches out to people rallies twitter all that kind of stuff because they're used to being able to control the message and they can't but whenever donald charcoals write to the people and talk directly to them and it's on edited that's when he's at his best. ok well look here's what he said about collusion with russia today he brought that up here it is everybody said there's no collusion you look at the councils they come in we have a senate hearing we have judiciary we have intelligence that we have a house hearing and everybody walks out even the enemies they said oh well there's no collusion there's no collusion so they're investigating something that never happened there was no collusion between us and russia rob tabi got the last word did he help himself today. you know it's hard to say what

trump is doing when he gives these press conferences because it was beneficial for him to get out in front of the press and in front of the country and and address issues but then he always shoots himself in the foot at one point with the comments about russia he shouldn't mention certain things but that's like saying the sun shouldn't come out it's these things are going to happen so i think it's best that he did come forth and give himself some exposure because he was still under walk me on twitter so something good is happening. at any heiress rob chris de wayne great to have you with us tonight thanks so much thank the president picked up another fight with a top congressional leader today this time senate majority leader mitch mcconnell came under the president's twitter crosshairs president trump urged mitch mcconnell to get back to work and pass the repeal and replace of obamacare alongside tax cuts

and it infrastructure bill the president called mcconnell's future leadership of the senate g.o.p. into question if he failed to pass the legislation but he said to me get to work and let's get it done they should have had this last one done it was by one vote for a thing like that to happen is a disgrace and frankly if it should to happen i'll tell you what if he doesn't get it repealed and replaced on it if he doesn't get taxes done really cuts and reforms and if he does he get a very easy would to get done infrastructure he doesn't get them done you could this be the equation. there it is basically that means is this place. john mccain unveiled a new strategy for american forces in afghanistan today the senator said i'm eric in strategy was adrift and criticize what the president called what president obama's don't lose strategy is what he termed it as. jane advocated increasing u.s.

troop numbers but left out exactly how many additional soldiers would be needed the plan also calls for afghanistan military to be benchmarks to ensure american military assistance in removing restrictions on targeting the taliban and other terrorist groups mccain will bring his plan as an amendment to the annual defense policy bill meanwhile the president addressed why the administration has been dragging its feet on a revamped afghanistan policy it's a very big decision for me i took over a mess and we're going to. make it a lot less messy but that has been a place seventeen years a long discourse i read in one of your columns and frankly. it's going to be a decision that's going to be made versa and. a pentagon audit accuses a british contractor in afghanistan of wasting millions of dollars and taxpayers'

money artie's on a stasi a churkin has more. this was revealed by a latest audit however somehow no no questions were asked on this case previously and now of course this is going to be unraveling and more are going to be demanded now some of the questionable items are quote really quite fascinating they include seven luxury cars from up porsches to all for males to a bentley to an aston martin and a lender over new century consulting was unable to provide adequate documentation to neither justified a need for a luxury item of bills nor verified to use was in accordance with contract regulations as an example and c.c. admitted to using the cars during non-working hours without keeping out of good records of didn't work use now also highlighted by this audit the approximately four hundred twenty thousand dollars each in salaries to was being described as

significant others for working as executive assistants however not providing any kind of details in terms of what this work was exactly also the audit brings into the light about fifteen hundred dollars spent on alcohol forty two thousand dollars spent on automatic weapons as well as personal travel expenses now the british contractor in question has said to media outlets that these assessments are unfair and inaccurate we've also reached out for more detail for commentary obviously we'll update if we hear back now we have to keep in mind that this particular audit focuses on the years from two thousand and eight to twenty they're seen and all of this has come out into the spotlight but we do know that there is more auditing going on in terms of what in terms of the years that followed so certainly more is expected to be revealed then and we have to of course keep in mind that this is far from the first time when the issue of contractor spending as well as the fish and seat of those training afghan forces on the ground comes into the spotlight to prove graham remain troubled just last month special inspector general for

reconstruction who pretty because of a lack of performance metrics it. almost impossible to assess why there are to hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the mentoring and training programs were effective while all of this is now being highlighted when of course the trumpet ministration is considering its steps in afghanistan moving further so really it seems that there is quite a little bit to reconsider. and finally tonight artie's on your part until sat down with pink floyd front man roger waters this week waters spoke on everything politics to the mainstream media to president donald trump but in fact that is where we're living now where propaganda is more important than fact it's far more a book and is a huge news story about this whole thing about fake news is that people have understood. the truth facts philosophy knowledge history

education none of these things for him poor in order to retain a position of power you need to be really good propaganda you need to be really good at telling big lies often and loud and the last thing that you will in the mainstream major is anybody shining actual real light on anything so people who who who actually care about the predicament of the human race or about the future of this more vulnerable planet or about their fellow human beings and if they're being oppressed to kill do it or any i already think it's best to keep them out of the way because they may. the fear with. the white house is. oh the function of government which now seems to be to print. the. very very very wealthy. and the corporations who profit from the.

by the congress and paid for by. the. by the supreme court. which is one of the most regressive pieces. of. found its way into this. since the. roger waters here on our t.v. with and that is our news tonight. on the facebook page we got. the newsroom have a great weekend. i do not know if the russian state. but i do know barack

obama's director of national intelligence has not provided. the support his claims . i also know he. provided by. the n.s.a. was carrying out. the hyperventilating. has once again proved to be a. government claim that. you would have thought they would have learned something after serving as george w. bush's useful idiots in the lead up to invade iraq. the press remains rooted in a fact based universe especially. when truth and fiction. are becoming indistinguishable.

called the feeling the freedom in. every the world should experience freedom and you'll get it on the open will. go according to just. come along for the raw. data. about your sudden passing i phone lee just learned you were a south and taken your last wrong turn. caught up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry. so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each. but then my feelings started to change you talked about more like it was again still some marshawn to feel those that didn't like to question our arc and i

secretly promised to never be like it's sad one does not leave a funeral in the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with this one quite different i speak to you now because there are no other takers. to claim that mainstream media has met its maker. standoff between the united states and north korea all we had the brink if not who begs down a state govt on this edition of. government politics going on larry king by now you're well aware of the rising tensions and rhetoric between us president donald trump and north korea is this president rome's first international trial now as the handling it let's talk about this and more with former u.s. representative david jolley report.