Posted on 05/04/2019 8:45:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the early front-runners in the 2020 Democratic presidential field, said Saturday that President Donald Trump’s handling of North Korea is one area where he doesn’t “fault” the current commander-in-chief.
Speaking to ABC News’ Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl in an exclusive interview for “This Week,” the Vermont senator said that Trump meeting face-to-face with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “is the right thing to do.”
Karl asked Sanders how he would respond as president to the apparent launch of unidentified short-range projectiles by North Korea into the Sea of Japan Friday night.
“You know, this is one area, actually, where I do not fault Trump. I think the idea of sitting down with Kim Jong Un is the right thing to do. It is very, very difficult, but clearly they are a threat to the planet,” Sanders said. “They are isolated. They’re demagogic, and we have just got to do everything we can to have China and the people in the Pacific Rim put as much pressure on North Korea and make it clear that they cannot continue to act this way.
“It is not an easy situation,” he added.
The 2020 hopeful said he believes the United States needs to “put all of the pressure that we can” on North Korea, both economically and politically.
In a tweet Saturday morning after the projectile launches, Trump still appeared optimistic about U.S.-North Korea relations.
“Anything in this very interesting world is possible,” the president tweeted. “But I believe that Kim Jong Un fully realizes the great economic potential of North Korea, & will do nothing to interfere or end it. He also knows that I am with him & does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen!”
but Bernie did honeymoon in the USSR in 1988
Interesting. Most Democrats would say that Trump is a threat to the planet, and Bernie may "clarify" this tomorrow.
Imagine Bernie meeting with them... no thanks.
They might nuke themselves if they had to listen to him drone on and on.
LOL
I’m just shocked to read about something he said that doesn’t sound insane.
Even so, reading it is the only way.
If you had to hear him say it you’d be out on the Brooklyn Bridge right now! lol
Wouldn’t be the first time lol.
When you get fired in Manhattan there’s that bridge 20 minutes away by subway, cab or just walking, depending on which building you got escorted out of!! :)
I got let go in my early 20s a few times for good reason.
In one investment bank, they had four security guards escort me out.
Talk about overkill!!
Shaped up by mid 20s :)
OK. I'm counting on you to stay seated and keep your hands inside the car until it gets across the bridge from now on. heh heh
Boy I haven’t driven with my arm out the window in YEARS.
I guess it’s a getting older thing.
Gonna be 51 in 8 days. :(
What can ya do?
Ciao!
Bernie is realizing he can’t afford to alienate Trump supporters. His biggest enemy is not Trump, it’s the Democrat party.
One fact dominates all else, North Korea has the bomb so there is no prospect of military intervention in North Korea by the United States absent an attack on the south by the North, therefore, diplomatic and economic levers are all that's left. This implies that our trade relations with China should be made dependent on their observing the sanctions and curbing North Korea. We must also accept the possibility that the Chinese want a fractious North Korea to obstruct Trump's trade objectives. Double games are no doubt being played everywhere.
The fact that North Korea gains a measure of immunity by virtue of its possession of the bomb raises issues concerning Iran and Venezuela. Once these two countries acquire the bomb, the calculus radically changes. The threat of American military intervention begins to sound hollow. I think that is precisely why Trump properly took the United States out of the misbegotten Iran deal. I think the window for affecting the situation in Venezuela will close the day the Russians or the Chinese permit the Iranians or some other third-party actor to install the bomb in Venezuela.
It might be of academic interest to debate whether Korea, Iran or Venezuela present a greater threat to the United States but it might be more profitable to consider where the United States has any real prospect of protecting its national security interests and for how long that prospect will remain viable. I believe that the Iraq war was a disaster on its own terms but also because it made it impossible for the United States to bring military force against Iran and rather left the door open for Iran to work mischief militarily in Iraq, Syria and Yemen and in the process further destabilize the oil-rich Gulf region.
As disastrous as I believe the intervention in Iraq has proved, I believe we have to keep our thinking clear about acting when we can do so cheaply and decisively in Venezuela and perhaps in Iraq while the options (pre-bomb) remain open. No military operation should be undertaken lightly, that is adventurism, and the slippery road to the fall of the American Empire. We must conserve our strength, avoid military operations, but discriminate between that which is desirable and that which is necessary for the fundamental national security of the United States.
When we give our enemies an eight-year interregnum under Obama and when we handcuff ourselves by imprudent adventures in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, we may leave ourselves toothless in places like Venezuela. On the other hand, if we intervene in Venezuela we might find ourselves in another quagmire which saps our strength and leads to our fiscal and moral decline.
Finally, we ought not to forget that the fundamental justification for the disastrous invasion of Iraq was the colossal mistake that Iraq was building or buying a bomb.
the justification was offered up by our intel svcs. To a Rep president. In light of the powder keg investigation into Russia-Russia-Russia, one has to wonder just how far did obstructing republican presidents go back? It's hard to believe the detailed op against Trump was a maiden run (you forgot to mention Libya btw - another Dem clown show)
Well, obviously someone released the Kraken and the Heroic North Koreans are trying to kill the beast.
You will note that the word Communist did not come out of his mouth here.
“Please don’t smack me around anymore, Mr. President.” -Bernie Sanders
Why isn’t Bernie a “Democrat” in the Senate? He is running for Dem Pres nom and signed “loyalty pledge” . /s
GREAT post.
In essence, before Trump we had at the LEAST 24 years of inept presidents when it came to foreign policy.
At least Bush I push Iraq out of Kuwait.
bush was just as big a disaster as obama.
Not enough troops to stop Iranians from getting into Iraq and now they are best buddies.
And you’re right. Once a country has the bomb, everything changes.
I hope we are putting a lot of money into missile defense.
I don’t know if Israel’s Iron Dome would be as effective against speed of sound nuke missiles as it is against the rockets sent from Gaza, but I hope they and we are on their/our way to it.
Or have it already.
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