[Cooper:] Hours after President Trump called off the summit with North Korea's dictator, a response tonight. And North Korean official says they're still willing to sit face-to-face at in any time, in any way. Earlier today the President said this.
[Donald Trump , President Of The United States:] I believe that this is a tremendous setback for North Korea and, indeed, a setback for the world. I've spoken to General Mattis and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and our military, which is by far the most powerful anywhere in the world and has been greatly enhanced recently, as you all know, is ready if necessary.
[Cooper:] JOINING me is Kimberly Dozier, Jamie Metzl, Robby Mook, Molly Ball and Rich Lowry. Kim, I mean does it surprise you that the summit has been called off, I mean given that it was called on with very little preparation?
[Kimberly Dozier, Cnn Global Affairs Analyst:] Not really, especially because we didn't see much preparation going ahead of this summit. Look, summits start with leap also of faith, but usually there have been behind-the-scenes negotiation and a senior administration official told us this afternoon they hoped to have some of those negotiations in the run-up to the summit but they got stood up. You also had a situation where the national security team was saying different things to different audiences, but the North Koreans were listening. And the adversary gets a vote. So when they're hearing Mike Pence talk about the Libyan option for them, they had to respond.
[Cooper:] Jamie, I mean do you think there's a chance the North Koreans didn't want the summit to take place? I mean for them for Kim Jong-un, isn't it a win?
[Jamie Metzl, Former National Security Staff, Clinton Administration:] This is such a massive win for Kim Jong-un. This whole summit idea was really a sham from the starter. Another way of saying it, the North Koreans won from the beginning. Once the President of the United States agreed to meet with the leader of North Korea, which is something that any past President could have done in an instant because the North Koreans were begging for that kind of legitimacy. So we gave them a lot of what they want in the beginning, and now the situation is that we are walking away from the deal. The reason that we're walking away is that we aren't signing on to the gradual process that North Korea, South Korea and China all support. So now North Korea is much stronger because they have legitimacy that they have wanted. They put a wedge between the United States and South Korea, and there's going to be no way for sanctions to snap back with China and South Korea not on board. So they are North Korea is stronger and, unfortunately, the United States is weaker.
[Cooper:] Rich, do you agree that North Korea won just by the President agreeing to do this, which is something obviously past regimes in North Korea
[Lowry:] I think he never should have agreed to the meeting in the first place, but I don't think it is the worst case. I think the worst case would have been the summit going forward, which I think was very likely to serve North Korea's interest rather than ours. My fear is we have not heard the end of this summit. There are obviously a couple of escape hatches in the President's letter. He underlined them in public remarks, saying it still might happen. What we've heard from the North Koreans so far is quite conciliatory. So it may be that we are still involved in a negotiation over the negotiation over a summit that will still eventually happen.
[Molly Ball, Cnn Political Analyst:] Yes, I mean one of the criticisms of Trump from the beginning of the process was that he was too eager, he wanted this too much. And he got so much positive reaction to this domestically. The American people really liked it. Experts, a lot of them were praising him for doing this bold, unexpected move. There was the sense that he wanted it so much he would giveaway the store. So I do think he deserves some credit for being willing to at least for the moment walk away from it, and I think that may be the North Koreans thought they could keep asking for more and more from an American President who seemed so politically invested in the process. And I think they may have been surprised that he was willing to walk away.
[Cooper:] It is I mean, Robby, do you see this as kind of just a sign of, you know, the President liking a big event, he likes the praise, he likes the headline, but, you know, as Kimberly was saying most sum minutes are done from the bottom up with weeks and months and if year, not years of boring meetings laying the ground work between functionaries?
[Mook:] Well, I think this proves the President's style, which we all know. He's winging it. There is no plan. He is taking it day by day. In fairness, I will say sort of like Molly was just saying, Democratic and Republican administrations have not been able to solve this problem. That usually means it is very hard, and Donald Trump took a gamble here, right, and I think he is still living in this gamble. And it looked like at one point it might pay off. Now who knows? But I think probably what is going to happen is the odds are not good of the gamble paying off. If it does, big reward, right? I actually think in terms of a reelection, in terms of his political standing, this would be a big trophy for him. You know, to say, look, I solved the major or I took a step forward on major foreign policy problem, but I think the likely outcome is it won't work because it has never worked before. And I don't you know, he was probably trying to look strong by pulling back first, but I think the reality was this was probably headed in a bad direction. That's why he did it.
[Cooper:] It is surprised me though that the South Koreans were not informed about this, you know, even a couple of minutes in advance of this. I mean apparently the statement was released and then, you know, Paula Hancocks was saying the South Koreans were given a heads up. A heads up is actually when you are given a heads up before something happens?
[Metzl:] No, no, this whole thing is just preposterous. That is why we, the United States, have put so much on the line for nothing with no strategy. And now the U.S.South Korea alliance is really in danger because President Moon put his credibility on the line. He came to the United States to speak with President Trump, to assure him that there could be a process, and the process was these gradual negotiations with North Korea. And for the United States, if we pushed for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons up front, North Korea was never going to sign on. But if we agreed to a gradual process, that's the same deal that past Presidents have agreed to, which Trump is so critical of.
[Lowry:] And critical of for good reason. It failed and it materially advanced North Korea's interests. So that's why the administration was right to be so insistent that it has to be rapid, immediate, signs of seriousness right from the beginning. And it was bad for Trump to wobble on that a little bit earlier this week, but one of the reasons maybe if the North Koreans don't want this meeting is they realized that there's no way they can actually meet that goal because they're not serious about denuclearization. And they probably never will be.
[Mook:] But that's where I wonder for them how much are they psychoanalyzing Trump and trying to figure out do we actually have an opportunity to leave him at the altar in a really dramatic way? Do we have an opportunity to maybe set the Americans back so that they're going to you know, if there's a future administration, they will be more tenuous about doing anything? I'm not a North Korea expert, but I at this point I would be thinking about that. I would be thinking how I can play this guy because he seems to react.
[Cooper:] Kimberly?
[Dozier:] Just a little bit of history. The Trump administration is not the first one to make a mistake in terms of parts of different parts of the security apparatus making a misstep and throwing it all out the window. Remember, in the Bush administration in 2005 the North Koreans had agreed to denuclearize as part of the six-party talks, but then the very next day the Treasury Department slammed sanctions on Banco Delta Asia in Macao and it was a little too effective. It turned of the top in terms of money going to the North Korea elite. They walked away from the six-party talks until those sanctions were released.
[Cooper:] Interesting. Thanks, everybody. I appreciate it. One quick piece of unrelated breaking news, CNN has just learned that disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein will turn himself into authorities here in New York City tomorrow. According to a source familiar with the investigation he will be charged with raping one woman and forcing another to perform oral sex on him. We'll have details on that coming up. We're also just getting new details on this. Also, coming up, we'll get reaction to the new NFL policy on the national anthem. President Trump saying today, if player who don't stand for the anthem, "maybe they shouldn't be in the country," we'll talk with Seattle Seahawks star player Doug Baldwin who is taking issue with the President's remarks.