White House Now Trying To Moonwalk Back Trump's Summit Goof - By Josh Marshall

[DonViejo]

By Josh Marshall | March 9, 2018 3:16 pm

I don’t think we know that Sarah Sanders either knew what she was talking about in the just concluded press briefing or whether what she says will remain operative through the day or the week. But the upshot of Sanders briefing this afternoon appeared to be to walk back dramatically the announcement last night that President Trump would meet with Kim Jong Un.

A meeting by May at a place to be determined is now replaced with a meeting at some place and at some time. The fixed time before which seems gone. Sanders also spoke of needing to see concrete and verifiable steps toward denuclearization for the summit to happen. But from what we understood last night, nothing like that was promised. What was apparently promised was suspending further nuclear or ballistic missile tests before the meeting and presumably in a subsequent period of negotiation or normalization. There’s no need to verify any of this. The US can tell very easily when a ballistic missile is fired or when there’s a nuclear test.

Again, in the Trump administration, you can’t assume that the Press Secretary knows what she is talking about, that she is speaking for US policy or that US policy won’t change in the following hours or days. But … this briefing strongly suggests that the White House sees what happened yesterday as a major mistake or misstep that they are now trying to moonwalk back as quickly as possible.

That read is strengthened by this report from The New York Times about how last night happened …

Behind the scenes, events unfolded even more haphazardly. Mr. Trump was not scheduled to meet Mr. Chung until Friday, but when he heard that the envoy was in the West Wing seeing other officials, the president summoned him to the Oval Office, according to a senior administration official.

Mr. Trump, the official said, then asked Mr. Chung to tell him about his meeting with Mr. Kim. When Mr. Chung said that the North Korean leader had expressed a desire to meet Mr. Trump, the president immediately said he would do it, and directed Mr. Chung to announce it to the White House press corps.

more
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/white-house-now-trying-to-moonwalk-back-trumps-summit-goof

[gratuitous]

1. President Half Cocked goes off again

Will the popular media, at long last, learn a little lesson about getting too breathless in their reporting the brain farts constantly issuing from the White House?

[Docreed2003]

5. This...no thought, no planning, just impetuous bs

[forgotmylogin]

13. I'd suspect due to his bluster...

it's more like President 1/8th Cocked.

[charliea]

14. Not Half Cocked, Full cuckoo!

It's the new 'best' ever business execution paradigm brought to the White House by the Wotsit (that a British term I found recently) in charge.

Ready, shoot, aim...

Then blame whoever gets hit.

[Angry Dragon]

2. foot----------mouth

[HopeAgain]

3. "Amateurs" doesn't even begin to describe...

But hey, at least people weren't talking about Russia or porn stars for 24 hours.

[First Speaker]

7. Remember when people were saying that Obama wasn't "experienced" enough...?

...whatever his experience level, he learned quickly. I really believe that the person is more important than their experience. Trump is not, and never will be, anything other than an outtake from "Duck Soup".

[AZ8theist]

18. HAIL!! HAIL!! FREEDONIA!!!!!!!

[Kittycow]

4. Chaos per usual..

But nobody had on a tan suit, right?

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. LMAO! So predictable! Big job for the halibut, for sure

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. The whole thing will be swept under the carpet and never mentioned again.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

9. Distraction from Stormy story that is now morphing into possible violation of election laws!

[gibraltar72]

10. Mr. Trump replied. I hear he's been a big fan of mine.

[C_U_L8R]

11. What a hacker. A duffer.

A total amateur.

[erronis]

17. That's what their masters want. Stoopid and react well to implanted signals.

Now we need to figure out who the actual puppeteers are. It may be too facile to blame it all on the USSR/russian empire. Methinks there are some home-situated actors that would like to destroy the government.

[fayhunter]

12. Well

What else is new?

[orangecrush]

15. I knew

this was coming.

A lot of the media were crowing about this, like it meant Trump had finally decided to start acting presidential.

How is it possible they still don't get it?

[Honeycombe8]

16. Once again, he potties out of his mouth, & leaves others to clean it up. nt

[maxrandb]

19. He fucking did it for the ratings

It's all about the fucking ratings with this guy.

That and his toothless voters in Dumbfuckistan 'Murika will fall for the fucking show.

In the meantime...our fucking media who know that all Donnie Short Fingers just did was put fucking Kim on an even par with the President of the fucking United States, won't point that fucking shit out.

Instead they'll have a "serious" discussion about what role Dennis Rodman will have in the negotiations.

If shit doesn't change... this fucking country is dead!

[keithbvadu2]

20. He should send super-diplomat Ivanka... Kim likes blonds.

Would Dotard have the cojones to meet Rocketman face to face?

He should send super-diplomat Ivanka...

Kim likes blonds.

[miyazaki]

21. say what? that bovine still working there? nt

[NCjack]

22. FLOP! by the fake master negotiator. nt

[Kablooie]

23. I'm glad the most powerful country in the world is run by professionals.

I just wish they weren't professional clowns.