Pirate's Cove

Politico writer Nahal Toosi shows exactly why people hate and distrust the media: he takes one minor comment from a week ago, spins it around in a centrifuge, and manages to put his own Trump Derangement Syndrome feelings into an article that isn’t appearing in an opinion article meant to slam Trump

Trump team doesn’t know what it wants from North Korea

It was a quick but telling exchange.

At a House committee hearing earlier this month, Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas was grilling Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the Trump administration’s plans for North Korea. “How do you define the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula?” Castro asked.

“Well, we’ve said ‘complete,'” Pompeo responded. Pressed further, Pompeo cited several components of North Korea’s nuclear program — including missile capability and fissile material production — that he said would have to go.

“Will you leave them with a civilian nuclear program?” Castro asked.

After a long pause, Pompeo replied that “we have said that it won’t be appropriate for them to have the capacity to enrich.” But he quickly modified his answer.

“I can’t answer that question,” Pompeo admitted. “I’m not in a position that I can answer that question for you today.”

The back-and-forth, which took place May 23, illustrated a major challenge for the United States as President Donald Trump prepares for a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: Trump and his top advisers don’t seem to know what they want to get out of it.

It’s like Toosi was sitting around and said “what can I find to slam Trump on today?” It wouldn’t be the first time a “journalist” did this. Leftists did this back during the Bush admin all the time, and many of the BDS infused people back then have become employed by news outlets now. Seriously, an entire story based on one comment which a normal, non-unhinged person would understand as meaning “we want all the nuclear weapons components gone, but, we aren’t sure about non-weapons capable nuclear plants at this time.” And, if North Korea rejoins the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it would be a duty of the nuclear power nations to help NK with their civilian nuclear energy programs if NK wants.

Is the goal of the summit an arms control deal with Pyongyang that includes only nuclear weapons, or will it also cover chemical and biological threats? It is a grand bargain that covers every facet of the U.S.-North Korea relationship? Will it involve a rapid North Korean disarmament or a years-long drawdown? Will the talks address all ballistic missiles, including ones that can strike Japan and South Korea but not the U.S.?

The answers are far from clear. A POLITICO review of public statements from the administration in recent weeks found that Trump and his senior aides have articulated different goals at different times — even on a basic question like the meaning of denuclearization. Officials such as Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton, Vice President Mike Pence and Trump himself have contradicted one another, sometimes raising and lowering expectations within a span of hours.

A review of statements that are not included. We’re just supposed to take Toosi’s word on this. And we can see Toosi moving the goal posts all over the field in a version of wack-a-mole. The end-game is quite clear: getting rid of the nuclear weapons program. Anything after that is a benefit.

It’s almost like the media wants the summit to fail, and, barring that, manufacture a way to say that Trump failed.