June 07, 2018 01:40 PM UTC

Trump on North Korea: "It's About Attitude!"

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

CBS4 reported yesterday in a genuflection-heavy story titled “Sen. Gardner Has Clear Vision Of Summit With North Korea” on a very serious meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations East Asia subcommittee, in which a very serious Sen. Cory Gardner outlined his list of very serious priorities he wants to see addressed at the upcoming summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un:

“So far, although it has suspended missile tests, North Korea has not taken concrete or verifiable steps towards denuclearization, so it is my hope that during the summit it will be made clear to the regime that the only goal of our negotiations is denuclearization,” said Gardner.

Gardner says he believes the Trump Administration’s policy of isolating North Korea is working. [Pols emphasis]

Sen. Gardner was highly critical of President Barack Obama’s overtures to North Korea during his administration, calling it “extremely disappointing” that Obama “would talk with North Korea without tough preconditions.” That demand for specific concessions from North Korea before Obama held talks was a natural segue into the right’s boilerplate bluster about Obama’s supposed “weakness” on foreign policy, since after all, “he’s just not an American…”

Oh sorry, that was Mike Coffman. But you get the idea.

Back in the present, Gardner admits that North Korea “has not taken concrete or verifiable steps towards denuclearization,” but supports the upcoming summit–despite the complete absence of the “tough preconditions” he demanded from President Obama.

In fact, as The Hill reports today:

President Trump on Thursday said he does not have to prepare “very much” for his high-stakes summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un because he believes “it’s about attitude.”

“I think I’m very well prepared,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “I don’t think I have to prepare very much. It’s about attitude. [Pols emphasis] It’s about willingness to get things done.”

It seems…unlikely that Trump is reviewing CSPAN footage to hear Gardner’s priorities.

Look, we understand that Trump’s chaotic overtures to North Korea have as much a chance of bearing fruit as anything else that’s been tried and failed in recent years. If this summit results in an agreement that reduces tensions on the Korean peninsula in any way, it will be recorded by history a good thing. With that said, it’s absurd to suggest that Gardner is being in any way consistent in his position on diplomacy with North Korea between his support for Trump today and his bitter denunciations of President Obama.

If Obama had ever once said “I don’t have to prepare very much” for a summit with North Korea, which Obama would never have said because it is ridiculous, Cory Gardner would be calling for resignation or impeachment.

Today, it’s just another turd Gardner has to shine.