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SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including the abrupt announcement that President Trump intends to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the tariffs imposed on imported steel and aluminum and a lawsuit against the President by actress Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the name of Stormy Daniels.
Judy Woodruff (NewsHour): And now to the analysis of Shields and Parker. That’s syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker. David Brooks is away this week.
And welcome to both of you. Happy Friday.
Mark, two bold strokes by the President this week.
Let’s start with the one that we led the program with tonight, North Korea. Surprised, I think, a lot of people by saying he will meet, as long as North Korea meets certain conditions. Was this the right move?
Mark Shields, syndicated columnist: We will find out if it was the right move, Judy. It was a bold move. Make no mistake about it. And it disarmed his critics who had accused him of being — bellicose language, which was provable, and that he was risking the brink of war almost, and especially gratuitously belittling the North Korean leadership.
Judy Woodruff: Little rocket man.
Mark Shields: Little rocket man.
And then, miraculously, the North Korean — seemingly miraculously — said, I’m willing to negotiate and consider the possibility of removing my nuclear capability, which I think nobody above the I.Q. of room temperature believes.
But, at the same time, the problem with North Korea in the past has not been their willingness to meet or to negotiate or to agree. It’s just that North Korea has never kept its word. But the President certainly has taken a bold act. And it’s brought us back from the brink of war. And I think there’s an audible sigh of relief.
Judy Woodruff: Smart move, Kathleen?
Kathleen Parker, Washington Post: I just see it as very, very risky.
And it’s risky because, on the one hand, he’s giving Kim Jong-un this legitimacy that he has for so long wanted. You know, when the President of the United States says something, it’s always important, everybody listens, and when he does something, it’s always important. The markets go up and down when he opens his mouth.
When he — he can cause wars with his words. And when he now says he’s going to meet with North Korea, he is setting himself up for all sorts of problems, potential problems. But he’s also, because he’s Donald Trump, has lots of wiggle room to pull out of it at the last minute if he decides the circumstances aren’t right.
We don’t know exactly what those are. And it’s all been just odd, I think, to have had these — his messaging about what North Korea’s willing to do came from the South Koreans, who then also were the ones to present…
Judy Woodruff: They’re the ones who announced it.
Kathleen Parker: Who announced it in front of the White House.
And I was taken aback by that. I thought, well, is he out? Did he have a dinner date, so that somebody else had to talk about it? And at what point is Trump going to talk to the country about this very, very important and significant move?
Judy Woodruff: And, in fact, Mark, it was announced abruptly. The South Korean official who was at the White House was there.
He was going to meet with President Trump today. Yesterday, the President, we are told, it’s been reported that he heard he was in the White House, went to see him. The President stuck his head into the press room and said, we’re going to have an announcement about — that you will want to pay attention to.
So the way it was announced, the way it was handled raises some questions.
Mark Shields: It does raise questions, Judy. But the questions have been raised and continue to be raised.
As one Republican explained to me, you have to understand that every day is a new reality show. And there’s no continuity to this Presidency. And it’s winning the day. It’s changing the conversation. He’s changed the conversation.
What was the conversation? Gary Cohn, his economic adviser, was quitting because of his trade policy. What was the conversation? Stormy Daniels, the porn actress with whom the President allegedly had — or at least President’s people paid $130,000 to just before the election, was going to go public.
The disarray in the White House, that — you name it, Republican civil war, if not — civil war is strong, but at least Republican strife over his trade policy. This knocked it all off the front pages.
I did notice the South Korean National Security Adviser had mastered one of the great secrets of dealing with Donald Trump was, he began, continued and ended the entire conversation by praising President Trump for the meeting, that it was all due to his leadership, his strong, principled positions.
And so, you know, this worked for Donald Trump. It got the other bad stories away for at least 24 hours.
Judy Woodruff: Kathleen, how much attention should we be paying to the theatrics of this, the orchestration of it? How much do we learn by looking at that?
Kathleen Parker: Well, I don’t know that we learn anything from the theatrics, because it’s become sort of a template of his.
And you do realize you’re watching a reality show. But there are other troubling aspects of this. And that includes the fact that we really have no representation in that part of the world. We have no ambassador to South Korea.
And our special representative to North Korea has just left the building with mostly, probably, I’m not sure, but I think because of a disagreement with Trump about how he was — about his bellicosity.
But this fellow, Joseph Yun, was tending toward having these talks. And then to add to that we don’t have any real diplomatic involvement. Rex -- Secretary of State Rex Tillerson -- is speaking publicly about how we’re nowhere close to talking to North Korea, and within the same news cycle, the President is making this announcement or accepting this invitation.
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