U.S. and North Korea Calm Divisive Rhetoric
NEWTON: The European Union says it will Britain's plans for a Customs arrangement after Brexit. The U.K. government has suggested temporary Customs Union between itself and the E.U. that continued free trade for about two years after it leaves the union. But Britain wants to be able at the same time to negotiate trade deals with other countries. Walmart CEO, Doug McMillon, says President Trump, quote, missed a critical opportunity to bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of White supremacists. It's still not clear whether McMillon will stay on Mr. Trump's economic council, but four of his fellow business leaders have walked away because of the President's response to Charlottesville. Now the disaster unfolding in Sierra Leone is expected unfortunately to get worse. Now, the disaster unfolding in Sierra Leone is expected, unfortunately, to get worse. The Red Cross spokesperson says 245 people are confirmed dead now, and he expects that number to rise. Heavy rains triggered a massive mudslide outside Freetown and hundreds of people are still reported missing. President Trump seems to be on a mission to change the subject. We expect him to take the mic very soon. Yesterday, he remained largely focused on the economy. Today, it will be infrastructure improvement. Problem is, the U.S. seems interested in one thing: Charlottesville. White nationalist rallies and ensuing violence have thrown America's simmering racial tension to the forefront. CNN White House Reporter Stephen Collinson is covering this very closely. And, you know, people would say, with good reason, that the spotlight remains on Charlottesville. I mean, you have written and I think, in terms of reading yesterday -- writing yesterday, that remains the same. This is a man who never wants to say that he is wrong.</s>STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's correct. What was very interesting about Donald Trump's statement on Charlottesville Monday, though, was it was one of the first times we've seen a tangible political effect to what might be called a misstep by the President. There was this conceit about Donald Trump ever since he was running for election that the normal rules don't apply to him, that apply to other politicians don't apply for him. When he makes a blunder, he appears to get away with it. But I think what we're seeing -- both in the public reaction to his initial statement on Charlottesville where he didn't call out White supremacists and as you just talked about, the growing number of CEOs for now that have left various White House advisory councils over this -- is that Donald Trump is paying a tangible political price for one of his own blunders. And that's something new, Paula, which hadn't seen so far during his presidency.</s>NEWTON: Do you think he believes that, though? I mean, at the end of the day, and we have seen this before, it doesn't affect him. He seems to the Teflon Man and that's how he surprised everyone and won the election.</s>COLLINSON: I think he doesn't necessarily believe he made a misstep, but it was interesting that he thought he had to come out on Monday amid sort of intense political pressure and to change his position. He appears to have made that judgment at least. The thing with Donald Trump is, though, he can have these set piece events, like the speech on Monday, like this infrastructure event you were talking about, but he doesn't stay on the message his White House aides want him to stay on. As soon as that speech was over yesterday, he started tweeting that the media, hammering him for not saying exactly what they want him to say on race. He's gone off to these CEOs very strongly for leaving his advisory council, saying that they're grandstanding. So a lot of what he does instinctively on Twitter detracts from the more set piece elements of his presidency. So whether he believes it or not, I think it's clear that it's starting to do him some political damage. Whether the political ground is shifting significantly under the feet of his administration, though, I think we're going to have to wait until Congress comes back and to see whether the president still has the authority of the White House to wield as he tries to enact his agenda.</s>NEWTON: Yes. And thanks for that. Let me remind everyone that fairly shortly, within about a half an hour, we do expect to hear again from the President on that infrastructure announcement. That is live pictures you're looking at now at Trump Tower. Yes, he is only a few blocks from us right here in New York and says that he will have an announcement about that all-important infrastructure program. Stephen, thanks again. And right now, though, we do want to return to one of the key things on President Trump's agenda now, this threat from North Korea. We want to take a closer look at the efforts to resolve the standoff by using diplomacy. Now, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joins me now from here in New York where he's the president of the Asia Society. I want to get one thing clear from, though, and understand where you fall on this. Things have quieted down. President Trump, he hasn't taken credit for it yet, but I'm sure that he would say that, look, we were tough, we were strong, and that is why it seems that North Korea is backing down. What do you think?</s>KEVIN RUDD, FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Well, anyone who predicts the mind of the North Korean leadership between one day and the next, frankly, I think, has got rocks in their head, because nobody can. This is not an entirely rational international actor. But the two things have changed in the last few days. One's really significant, and that's this very clear statement from the President of South Korea, President Moon, saying that there can and should be no attack by the United States against the North without the prior approval of South Korea. Now, he hasn't said that up until now. This is a big warning shot across the bows of the administration and particularly for the South Koreans to make that public. And then semi-simultaneously, you have Kim Jong-un, the Supreme Leader in North Korea, saying, well, we'll think about the Guam option for little while longer yet. So these are two dynamics. I think, if we read into Kim Jong-un's view, however, to some extent, the analysts would say it's because the language hasn't continued to escalate. It does result in a net de-escalation compared with where we were three or four days ago.</s>NEWTON: You know, in the interest of, you know, that great cliche, never waste a good crisis, what can happen here? And I know you have been looking at this from many different angles for many years and many different positions. What are the dynamics that can change here to actually get to a resolution?</s>RUDD: Well, once you start to get towards the brink -- and I read something just a few days ago describing it is sleepwalking to crisis, sleepwalking the war -- hopefully, it creates a dynamic in capitals which says, for God's sake, we don't want to land ourselves in this mire. How do we, therefore, think about this creatively and afresh? Look, the fundamentals of the North Korean problem remain as they have been for the last decade. But the new diplomatic opportunity, I still believe, lies in this: for United States to be sufficiently persuasive of Beijing to cause the Chinese to conclude that if the Chinese don't help the American solve this problem, then the Americans may well act unilaterally despite what the South Koreans say. Secondly, to then to have a conversation with China about how does a fix on the nuclear problem deal with China's underlying strategic concerns about not agreeing to an American strategy, which creates, ineffectively, a pro- American state on China's borders. And there are elements to that, which are fairly clearly known. If you get agreement and very close diplomacy between Beijing and Washington on that, the magic lies in a joint diplomatic initiative to Beijing. That's where, I think, the work should be going.</s>NEWTON: Let's take this further down the road. And I don't have to remind you of the grand bargain that Pakistan made, and I think that they are quite happy with the way things turned out in terms of their nuclear arsenal. North Korea is staring us in the face right now. What is it going to take in order to make them back down, and what leverage does China have? Because you obviously pointed out that China does not want a united Korea and does not want a friendly, you know, friendly counterpoint, strategic counterpoint, to the U.S. military presence in Asia there.</s>RUDD: Well, if you look at those questions in sequence, one, the big difference between North Korea and Pakistan is the Pakistanis have never sought to develop an ICBM. The North Koreans have. Pakistan's nuclear program relates to India. This one relates across the Pacific, to the United States and, frankly, to other U.S. allies in the region. It's on a scale beyond the Pakistan problem. But secondly --</s>NEWTON: For their national interests, Pakistan would tell you, it's worked. Why isn't Kim Jong-un saying the same thing to himself --</s>RUDD: Yes.</s>NEWTON: -- this has worked spectacularly well for him?</s>RUDD: Yes, I was going to go to this question of Kim Jong-un's intrinsic national interests, which is regime survival. That's not a lot of -- I was about to say, rocket science in that. This regime wants to survive. We would regard it as a brutal authoritarian dictatorship. They, however, believe that, after 70 years or so running the country, that they've got a right to do continue into the long-term future. So if that's the interest and his conclusion is, the only way to guarantee it is to have your own independent nuclear deterrent against Washington, the creative diplomacy lies in what other security guarantees are credible to North Korea, which would provide him with regime stability for the long term? And that's where you get into this discussion about a three-way security guarantee by the Chinese, by the United States, and possibly by the Russians guaranteeing, through international agreement, the future security of North Korea and its regime as part of a broader package, including the denuclearization of the north.</s>NEWTON: Which many would argue would still mean that Kim Jong-un did, in fact, gained a lot from his grand bargain here. Before I let you go, and very quickly, you have warned the Trump administration not to underestimate Xi Jinping. Why do you say that?</s>RUDD: Well, Xi Jinping is also in election year. Xi Jinping faces a not independent Congress and all the internal party meetings to determine the future shape of the leadership of China over the next five years are basically underway right now, either at Beidaihe on the beach or in Beijing itself. Therefore, there are no ready advantages to be had for Xi Jinping by appearing to be soft on the North Korean question right now. We, therefore, need to be working against Chinese domestic political timetable on the one hand, which reaches its conclusion on October, November. But, secondly, as I said, the key objective here must be, this combined diplomacy between China and the US, where you've got a grand strategic bargain, which deals with those China's long-term strategic interests and America's, as well as those of the South and the North.</s>NEWTON: Prime Minister Rudd, always a pleasure to speak to you about this and other issues, and we appreciate your time.</s>RUDD: Thank you.</s>NEWTON: Now, this is THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. Controversial scenes of hate- fueled protests. What do these groups actually want? A conversation about hate in America, next.