Last week, during President Trump’s highly anticipated Vietnam summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, the president’s former lawyer was testifying to Congress about his many alleged crimes. Not long after, Trump and Kim suddenly walked out of the summit. Now, the president has a new theory as to why.
On Sunday night, Trump tweeted angrily about Cohen’s performance in Congress, and suggested that the testimony contributed to his and Kim’s decision to walk away from negotiations.
This is a pretty incredible thing to say! First of all, Trump seems to suggest it’s normal for former associates of the president to testify to Congress about their crimes, but that Cohen really shouldn’t have done it when he was overseas. Uh, ok.
Furthermore, the insinuation that Cohen’s testimony was part of the reason why negotiations failed is baffling. Does Trump mean that he was so mad about Cohen that he walked out of the summit? Or that Kim was somehow distracted by Cohen’s testimony, and decided to postpone the crucial negotiations in which he was participating? Who knows.
Trump wasn’t the only one trying to spin the fallout of the summit today. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told USA Today that things are totally fine in the wake of the failed summit, he isn’t mad about it, and actually, he’s laughing.
After the USA Today reporter asked Pompeo about a statement from North Korea foreign minister in which he said that North Korea’s offer was final, Pompeo had a mini-meltdown.
“That’s not what the North Koreans said,” Pompeo told USA Today. “Don’t say things that aren’t true... Show me the quote from the North Koreans that said this was their one and only offer. Where’d you get that?”
The reporter then showed Pompeo the quote from Ri Yong Ho, in which he said that his country’s offer “will never be changed.”
From USA Today:
Pompeo fell silent for about six seconds. Then he countered, “What they said is they’re prepared to continue conversations with us and that’s what we intend to do.”
Things are going great, folks!!!