North Korea Released US Prisoners

[seer]

This must be fake news, after all we know that Trump has no idea what he is doing!

Trump: Secretary of State Pompeo heading back from North Korea with 3 released prisoners

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that three American prisoners released from North Korea were headed home.

It is a sign of potential good will ahead of Trump's planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump said he would greet the three men when they arrive at Andrews Air Force Base in the early hours of the morning.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/09/trum...prisoners.html

[Mountain Man]

I suspect that the timing of this and Trump ending Obama's illegal treaty with Iran is not a coincidence.

[One Bad Pig]

I suspect that the timing of this and Trump ending Obama's illegal treaty with Iran is not a coincidence.

Perhaps. It seems to be a logical progression in the lead-up to a meeting, though - and if you believe the narrative that this makes the US not trustworthy, it's the opposite of what one would expect.

[Mountain Man]

It's just that after Trump extricated us from Obama's Iran mess, liberal pundits were crowing about how it will hurt our negotiations with North Korea, and then seemingly right on cue, they release our prisoners. If it was a coincidence, the timing couldn't have been better.

[rogue06]

The media is none too happy about this. Unable to celebrate the release of 3 American hostages they were too busy being consumed by their Trump Derangement Syndrome

John Vause of CNN International seemed upset that this might distract attention away from important things like, well, Stormy Daniels and the like: "Donald Trump believes that this success in the foreign policy field might be enough, you know, to distract attention away from the Robert Mueller investigation into Russia, the criminal investigation of his own personal attorney, you know, the Stormy Daniels affair."

Meanwhile the network's obsession with Daniels and her lawyer apparently has resulted in a drop of 20% in viewers over the past month or so.

Later CNN brought in one of the Clinton Administration's advisors on North Korea (who also was a staffer on Bill Clinton's Presidential campaigns as well as those of Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis) Philip Yun to complain that this will result in positive publicity for Trump (not if CNN has anything to say about it). And then back to Vause and Senior White house Correspondent Jeff Zeleny who added their concerns that this was a win for the Trump Administration and how Trump might "exploit" it.

How dare a president "exploit" the release of some prisoners

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That's only allowed if they're a Democrat and the person being released is a traitor.


Over at MSNBC the hosts of Morning Joe took Trump to task for saying it was "nice" that Kim had released them prior to their upcoming meeting before a bitter Joe Scarborough grumbled that he just knows (hopes?) the summit will be a failure. Then guest Katty Kay of BBC America channeled CNN and seethed about the political optics of Trump greeting the prisoners and groused that "he's clearly very keen to get a win out of this."

Kay also expressed concern that Trump now "might go into the negotiations with too much desire to get a win, and paradoxically, that might box him into a corner." Funny how the media wasn't concerned about this when Obama cut his deal with the Iranians since that was exactly what happened. Or maybe they understand this (but dare not ever admit it) and are afraid it'll happen again. But then unlike Obama, Trump does have decades of experience making deals so I'll give him better odds.

Later in the day at MSNBC on Deadline: White House hosted by Nicolle Wallace you would have thought that the release of the prisoners was another 9/11 given the grim demeanors showcased there as they put their spin on the story which of course was that Trump cares nothing about the hostages but is only concerned that this was a major positive publicity win for him.

Steve Schmidt, a panelist on the program darn near snarled as he proclaimed that Trump "has a complete incapacity for human empathy" after which another panelist, Washington Post White House bureau chief Philip Rucker, continued in this vein stating that Trump only views North Korea "as a political opportunity in the mid-terms" and that it's only a ploy to delay his inevitable impeachment.

And speaking of Rucker, he wrote a story in the Post called "Can Trump’s efforts at foreign policy breakthroughs erase damage of scandals at home?"

With three Americans freed from prison in North Korea set to touch down at Joint Base *Andrews outside Washington around 2 a.m. Thursday, President Trump knew he wanted to be on the moonlit tarmac to greet them, with the full White House press corps in tow.

It would be a cinematic homecoming produced by a president impatient to trumpet a foreign *policy triumph — and a prelude to the most anticipated tête-à-tête in years: Trump’s planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

By making brash and risky moves on the world stage — from shredding the Iran nuclear deal to negotiating nuclear disarmament with the North Koreans to imposing tariffs on Chinese imports — Trump has a chance to change the way voters evaluate his presidency.

Trump is trying to convince Americans that they have good reasons — not only foreign policy advances but also a growing economy — to protect his presidency from the threats posed by the Russia investigation, not to mention impeachment charges that Democrats might file next year should they retake control of the House in the midterm elections.

For Trump, each bold stroke is like a spritz of Febreze on his narrative of domestic scandal, momentarily masking the expanding Russia probe of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

Or the federal criminal investigation into his longtime attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen.

Or his reimbursement of the $130,000 hush-money payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

Or his support for Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt despite an avalanche of ethical lapses.

He probably should have credited the DNC for writing the piece for him on to which he just slapped his name on it

[Mountain Man]

Looks like their Trump Derangement Syndrome had a nasty flare-up.