one can we expect from the meeting in singapore what will be considered successful mr truong let's talk about that with john negroponte the great american formerly served as the u.s. deputy secretary of state was the first ever director of national. this is by george w. bush he also served as u.s. ambassador to iraq to the u.n. the philippines mexico and honduras the end massive and joins me from washington mr ambassador what's your assessment of the administration's handling of this whole korean situation so far well mercurial is right i mean it's been kind of up and down but it seems to be in a good place right now larry and looks like the meeting is going to go forward i think the president's right to try and manage expectations you can't solve everything overnight but you could have a meeting that gives us a sense of direction where these talks are going to go and course what we want to

see is the denuclearization of the korean peninsula and i think that the real big question is is kim jong un the leader of north korea prepared to give up his nuclear program in exchange for a peace treaty and restoration of an end to the korean war on that peninsula and reintegration with the global economy including trade with the united states japan korea south korea and so forth his it's going to be interesting his getting rid of those three apparent hawks in north korea and going to more in the middle is that encouraging well you know i don't want to read the tea leaves too much because in politics. you never really know but when you sit back for a minute and think about it. you've got to ask yourself nuclear weapons for what

he's gone he's got a capability now of i think he's got seven or eight nuclear weapons he's got this capacity to create fissionable material but what's he want to get for that does he want to be isolated do they want to be the hermit kingdom forever or has he threw partly through his education in europe and then watching what's happening in south korea which is become a real economic powerhouse does he say to himself well we're missing on something here we're missin out and maybe i can trade this nuclear capacity for you know the bent of the economic and material benefit of of my people and my country how do you know when you go to a summit you've been around this a long time how much of that is pre-planned how much do your advisors and their advisors sit down and say this will be on the table this will be on the table here's what we hope to accomplish well usually these things are pretty well

choreographed i mean i went for example with richard nixon and henry kissinger to his summit with loney brezhnev back in one nine hundred seventy two and we'd pretty much choreographed that down to a tee and that's what i've seen happen in other situations but. as you know mr trump believes in is a real believer in spontaneity and intuition and i think it's that smart knew it needed in an intuition that has brought him to this particular place so how scripted it's going to be i don't know but that that's going to be one of the things where are we going to what are we going to get out of this in terms of the direction that these contacts any go because one thing is for certain. nothing it can't be resolved all in one session and the best we can hope for is some positive thrust positive sense a direction of where further contacts may go and follow up teams might

negotiate now we know that mr trump can be off the wall anything can happen in a one on one with him we know that kim jong un we don't what do we know about kim jong il and what do you expect personality wise from these two higher well i mean these are two quite interesting people and i don't i don't think widely understood as we said mr trump has a penchant for spontaneity but i get a sense even though it's just a hunch of my own that that in fact. they might well you know get along with each other and hit it off pretty well and i think mr trump is counting on that one thing i'm pretty sure of i feel pretty confident of is that both of these leaders would like to see these talks succeed i think they want to accomplish something i think

mr. kim jong un for his reasons that we've already discussed and i think mr trump in order to establish himself as a statesman as and as somebody who can negotiate. important deals and important arrangements in the global arena. it's ok he's putting tin june on the world stage though isn't he so it's a plus already for kim jong un yeah if you look at it as sort of a you know tit for tat kind of. game where maybe he's going to make a few concessions in order to get some sanctions relief but why not look at it another way for a moment but if you put a little more optimistic interpretation on it maybe he's made a strategic decision that he no longer that he wants to to basically trade this nuclear weapons capability for

a more solid and healthy and prosperous relationship with the rest of the world and if he's really made that strategic decision i think the two gentlemen are going to find quite a bit to talk about what's china's role in all of this do they want to see north korea denuclearize its weaponry. i think they probably do i think first of all china's role is that they're an immediate neighbor. they are very affected by what happens in north korea for example if there is a famine like there was in past years they get refugees coming across the border north korea's got a certain degree of economic dependence on china for energy products and for food so they're very sensitive to what happens in north korea but but the north koreans on the other hand have the time shown that they're capable of. acting quite independently of china but they they certainly want to be in on the deal and aware of what's kept informed of what's going on and ultimately if if some kind of

agreement is finally reached they are going to be one of the guarantors of whatever arrangements are made because let's not forget that the combatants the parties that were fighting in the korean war were the united states china the south korean forces and north korea so they have a stake in this and a historic historic role we haven't heard much from our allies what do you think they're thinking. well i think wait while we know one thing south korea seems to want this and south korea they're they're in a phase you know they they've tend to go up and down on this issue over the years but this seems to be a south korean administration that wants to come to terms with the north and they're very enthusiastic about this upcoming meeting and the efforts to to come closer to north korea and they themselves have agreed to a series of follow on meetings that are going to take place over the next weeks

over it to discuss different topics so i think that that's that's important the most affected if you will ally is very interested enthusiastic about this process the other country that of course is an ally and has concerns is the country of japan they've always been a bit leery of north korea they've got these abducted japanese people who've been abducted to north korea over the years that's been a real sore point in the bilateral relationship between them and north korea and of course they don't want us to agree to some thing that maybe prevents north korea from having intercontinental ballistic missiles but still enables a north korea to aim bullish stick missiles at them because they're really nearby so they have a real stake in in this situation and where we're obviously taking their concerns

into account we have prime minister abbay who's in town here in washington right now to consult with the president. i'm assuming that it's going to be his their talks are going to be mostly about the situation on the korean peninsula what's russia's role. well another neighbor and so they you can't you can't count them out of a stock is within range of those north korean missiles and of course their role historically goes all the way back to world war two in the korean war and so forth but when we had in the bush administration the george w. bush administration those six party talks they were one of the countries involved along with china north korea south korea japan and ourselves so they're stakeholders i would call them not as immediate stakeholders but you can't you don't want to exclude them from the process either and they certainly need to be

kept informed what do you think of the idea of the proposed summit between putin and trump well sooner or later that that that may happen i think maybe there i really would say that some stuff has to happen in between and some better you know some preparation things are not on such a good footing at the moment between the united states and russia and i think we do want to clarify what it is they're going to talk about and so forth then whatever happens you don't want nothing against summit tree but you don't want to summit meeting to in any way shape or form give the impression that we are ratifying the russian annexation of crimea that would be one of my concerns last month the president did plan we have decimated i said. this is december declaration that the u.s. military is not the hell out of the islamic state have we. well we

don't we've done pretty well i think about it in the spring summer of two thousand and fourteen when isis was captured the city of mosul in iraq and then went rolling down the highway there and captured to create and flew and all those places and now with our help the government of iraq has succeeded in pushing the isis out of there out of all those places and inflicted a lot of casualties on them so i think they're on their back foot you never can count these people out entirely because they they reappear in some other form in some other place but i think their ability to conduct the kind of main force operations which they were doing at one point and to hold on to large pieces of territory or to hold on there was a city like mosul i think those days are behind them so i think it's right to say

that considerable success has been achieved against isis john stay right there we'll have some more moments with john negroponte more politicking after the break .

horrible. events of april twenty eighth one thousand nine hundred six in the historic town of port arthur tasmania for ever changed the course of history here in australia the thirty five foals lost their lives to a gunman's mad massacre with the catalyst for the australian government's win after massive sweeping changes to their laws regarding owner sat by and selling a firearm maybe it's time for the united states to start looking out for help.

about the politicking i'm talking with john negroponte the former deputy secretary of state us on water iraq and the un was also the first ever director of national intelligence and basle negroponte joins me from washington d.c. ok what do you make of our getting out of the iran treaty. well that. first why i'm not surprised there was a lot of resistance to the agreement when it was first negotiated by the obama administration and i think it shows frankly one of the problems that can arise if you have an agreement that has such a thin margin of support i think the founders the founding fathers created the treaty process for a reason as you know the treaty has to be approved by two thirds the two thirds majority of the senate and this agreement was not

a treaty it was an executive agreement and based on a very thin margin so what happens the new team comes in and they khana reopen the question and it doesn't and they're free to do that because the agreement doesn't have the force of a treaty so that's one point second thing is there are some things that could be improved in that agreement one of them is just the terminations date the fact that a it ends after fifteen years or so with respect to iran's nuclear program they can resume it after ten or fifteen year period i think that's problematic and so was the fact that they reduced they didn't impose serious restrictions on the iranian missile program so i understand i think i understand why the administration. predictably it's become an issue between the united states and europe because the

european countries were very much in favor of the agreement and they're now troubled by the fact that where re imposing sanctions in or are probably going to impose these so-called secondary sanctions that will make it hard for european companies to do business with iran would you have supported iran breaking the leaving the agreement. well i you know what i was a little bit agnostic i've i felt we rushed i think we were too eager to get the agreement in in the first place. i'm not sure i would have recommended breaking it just because. it was at least going to last for a decade or so and that there you know that might give time for other developments but i don't think it's shocking and i don't think it's necessarily poor diplomacy at all and i don't think it's going to lead to necessarily lead to conflict i think maybe the europeans and the iranians are going to have to think hard about well

what is it what else is it they could do to make this agreement more acceptable to the united states the united states has recently said it is over and said that we're going to pull out of syria are we. well we've got a couple of thousand troops there. in the eastern part of the country i believe that president trump doesn't want to keep american troops in syria indefinitely and yet the logic of the syrian situation is that as long as we have some troops there we have a voice in the future of the country where counterweight to the presence of the russians and i think we're a little bit of a guarantee for those who are fighting for. get both against isis and for freedom in their country i think if we were to withdraw precipitously this would be taken

as a signal that we were wiping our hands of the syrian problem and that could well assure bush or al assad the ability to reassert his power over the entire country do you think even opening the embassy in jerusalem. not not especially i've always been a i'm a career diplomat i was in that business for a long long time and we always thought of the question of jerusalem as something to be settled and a final negotiation a status negotiation between the palestinians and the israelis on the other hand i think by moving there we're sort of recognizing a reality whenever i went to israel i'd have some meetings in tel aviv but i have to meet the senior government officials i always have to go to jerusalem so clearly

it's been treated as the capital of israel for a long long time and so long as they make some space allow some space in. east jerusalem for a future palestinian capital if they ever get to that point i think well you know that's that's ok john always great talking with you thank you so much for your time today yeah well thanks for having me larry always a pleasure on monday the special counsel filed a motion with the u.s. district court charging that there is probable cause to believe that paul now for violated the law by attempting to tamper witnesses while long pretrial release have these new charges are in mind and for a one way ticket to jail and will not make you more likely to strike a deal with mullen for this we turn to trent copeland criminal defense attorney and legal analyst he joins me in studio ok what do you make of this you know look i think we can assess this on

a couple levels right on the on the first big macro level number one this is an opportunity for the special counsel robert mueller to put the squeeze on man a for a little more right that's a big thing and certainly he's going to do that because are going to be facing what i think will be an almost certain. placement directly in the jail when he goes for that hearing that's a that's a first thing i think we look at this but also what a disastrous decision but paul man afford to when he knows he's under investigation when he knows he's being surveilled by law enforcement when he knows he's on a tight release to then go out and to make efforts to dissuade intimidate or whatever it was he did with these witnesses to coerce them with respect to the testimony to do that suggests to me a hubris and a lack of care for the process which i think it is fascinating if we're presuming is innocence this certainly puts a cloud over that it's absolutely political and on larry remember this is not only

going to be use it to add additional charges because this this isn't another criminal charge this will also be used in his trial so jury will hear that he did this this will be used at his sentence and so a judge sentencing him will consider this and this just raises the possibility that the only way he could have thought to do this and could have done this in a way that he thought i was going away with this is that somewhere along the line he believes he'll never face justice because he believes he'll get a pardon from donald trump and do you believe he will you know look i think it raises the specter clearly and i'm not sure that donald trump is in a position frankly at this point to avoid having to deal with this issue because paul metaphor of paul metaphor is the key linchpin to determining with michael cohen by the way his personal lawyer there the two key linchpins to determine whether don't trump has engaged in some criminal conduct i think don't trump sooner rather than later is going to be faced with the issue of do a pardon him now or do i wait and allow him to sit in jail and think about whether

or not he wants to flip on me. who is bail being revoked i can't imagine how his bill won't be revoked where remember he was on a tight leash to begin with this judge gave him an extraordinarily high bail which he met but this judge indicated that you're on you're going to be under electronic surveillance this is very important that you honor the terms and conditions of your release and he chose not to i can imagine this judge will not put him back put him in jail. where do you stand on this twenty page memo and trump can't get the is subpoenaed he can't pardon him sells that all legal mishmosh well you know look first of all trump thinks that he can pardon self and his has learnt his lawyers went out there on a speaking tour in indicated that they think he can pardon self and there's legal precedence for this article to laurie and larry as a as a constitutional follower and reader of the constitution i've taught it i will tell

you there is nothing in article two that suggest that donald trump in any way or any president has a right to pardon himself so the executive power does not extend in that way but the fact that donald trump is even floating this idea of this remember if you accept the pardon you are admitting and acknowledging guilt and the fact they don't trump is even floating this idea out there for the some of those people who are supporting dollar trump and like him or hate him point of the matter is he would be acknowledging that he engaged in some criminal conduct on some level so i think that's got to get the american public's attention you think leaked that memo. you know i don't know larry but i have to believe that it was certainly someone close to donald trump and his team because i think what they want to do is to increase the public disincentive a day to pardons but remember most presidents don't pardon individuals at this rate and when they do they do so at the end of their term and remember what pardons of four pardons are to vindicate the american values for forgiveness and redemption

and he's using these pardons almost trump is using these pardons to send messages to political allies to send messages to political adversaries to say hey listen i hold the trump card no pun intended i'm the guy with the ultimate power and this seems to me to be a clear abuse of the pardon power and people should understand when you accept the pardon you are admitting your guilt that's right you're admitting your guilt your acknowledging that you were engaged in criminal wrongdoing in the very nature of the president of the united states talking about whether or not he will pardon himself or pardon those people close to him is something that i think is beyond the pale as a difference commuting his sentence that's right and that you are you you're not saying you did it the community that's right and what they're indicating in a commutation is listen we're not going to go to the issue as to whether or not you're guilty or innocent but we are going to do is we're going to reduce your sentence that's a commutation and present trump has engaged in that as well and in addition to that a pardon though separate and apart from coming taishan is listen we're saying you

didn't engage in wrongdoing we're saying the justice department and whoever prosecutor you prosecuted you improperly we're going to end your sentence we're going to in your conviction we're going to race here's holes going to you think mr counsel. well you know i think i thought larry when we were here last time we talked about that raid remember that raid that took place in the offices of the donald trump's personal counsel michael cohen i thought was an inflection point i thought that something was going to happen in this case very major and that the next she was about to drop but i think the real inflection point may be this new charge against paul mann a for for interfering with witnesses because i think for the first time someone extraordinarily close to donald trump someone extraordinarily close to the inside of the workings of that campaign is now going to be facing criminal charges where he may spin an inordinate amount of time in prison while he's awaiting trial and

their dollar trump will be faced with the issue of what do i do do eyes do i die pardon this guy do i sit back and i wait or do i trust the process and trust that he won't flip on me so i think that this case is certainly clearly going to be the inflection point that i thought we would have seen the michael cohen raid i think this case is moving in a direction where the president of the united states will be faced with the issue of do i pardon someone and i will not allow the justice system to run its course and who i pardon him in advance of him going to trial always great talking always good seeing you larry my flesh great guests great lawyer great guy trim toefl and we thank him for joining us on this edition of politicking thank you to never you can join the conversation on our facebook page or tweet me at kings things don't forget use the politicking hash tag and that's all for this edition of politicking .

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the headlines an r.t. protests ahead of the g. seven summit in canada as world leaders join forces against their biggest ally the u.s. over its unilateral policies. maybe the american president doesn't mind being isolated today but we also don't mind being six if need be a kindergarten in massachusetts causes concern after teaching children a nursery rhyme about how to survive a gun rampage and replied to me painting me with the chinese president in beijing to discuss regional security and cooperation as washington brands both countries adverse or us.