After South Korea visit, Pence insists ‘no daylight’ on approach to North
February 12, 2018 by admin
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Vice President Mike Pence’s efforts to keep North Korea from stealing the show at the Winter Olympics proved short-lived, drowned out by images of the two Koreas marching and competing as one.
And as the South appeared to look favorably on warming ties on the Korean Peninsula, Pence insisted Saturday “there is no daylight” among the United States and allies South Korea and Japan in intensifying pressure on the North over its nuclear and missile programs.
Pence spent the days leading up to the PyeongChang Olympics warning that the North was trying to “hijack the message and imagery” of the event with its “propaganda.”
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But the North was welcomed with open arms to what South Korean President Moon Jae-in called the “Olympic games of peace.”
It was the U.S. that appeared to be the one left in the cold, especially after the sister of the North Korean dictator extended an invitation from her brother for Moon to visit the North.
That was the clearest sign yet of an expanding diplomatic opening opposed by the Trump administration.
Pence said Moon updated him about the meeting he had with North Korean officials and “both of us reiterated to each other tonight that we will continue to stand strong and work in a coordinated way to bring maximum economic and diplomatic pressure to bear on North Korea.”
Pence said Friday that the U.S. would oppose talks between the two Koreas until the North agreed to open negotiations on ending its nuclear program.
On his flight to Alaska on Saturday, the vice president said he left Asia “encouraged that we will continue to work very closely to continue and intensify the maximum pressure campaign” against North Korea.
He said war had forged “the core of the bond” between the U.S. and South Korea and that helps explains “why there is no daylight and there will be no daylight” between the two.
At the opening ceremonies Friday, Pence sat stone-faced in his seat as Moon and North Korean officials stood together with much of the stadium to applaud their joint team of athletes.
White House officials stressed that Pence had applauded only for the American team, but Asia experts said the vice president’s refusal to stand could be seen as disrespectful to the hosts.
U.S. officials have been urging South Korea to be cautious in its rapprochement with the North. But North Korea’s record on human rights and the growing threat from its nuclear weapons program appeared out of mind.
At a Friday VIP reception for delegation leaders, Pence arrived late and stayed for just five minutes — and did not interact with the delegation from the North.
“The Koreans will think it’s a mood kill,” said Frank Jannuzi, an expert on East Asia at the Mansfield Foundation in Washington. He criticized the Trump administration for straining too hard to signal disgust of Kim Jong Un’s government.
“The grievances that the world has about North Korea are very legitimate. But the Olympic moment that President Moon is trying to generate here is not a time to nurse those grievances,” Jannuzi said. “It’s a time to focus on messages of reconciliation and peace.”
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Kelly under pressure to defend handling of Porter abuse allegations
February 12, 2018 by admin
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In any other universe, Monday would be a big day in Washington.
The White House is slated to simultaneously unveil its latest budget blueprint and deliver a long-delayed plan to repair the country’s aging infrastructure, President Donald Trump’s signature policy proposal for 2018.
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But the firestorm surrounding chief of staff John Kelly has overshadowed what would otherwise be a banner day for the administration, frustrating Republicans and putting new pressure on Kelly to restore confidence in his leadership.
People close to the president have been grumbling privately for days about Kelly’s handling of allegations that White House staff secretary Rob Porter verbally and physically abused his two ex-wives. The White House said Porter decided to resign after the claims became public, but officials’ description of the timeline has shifted since the news first broke on Tuesday. Questions remain about when Kelly learned of the women’s accusations and how much he knew — and even some Republicans are calling on him to explain his actions.
“I think, in the end, we’ve got to hear from John Kelly as to what he knew,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “And we haven’t heard that directly from him yet. And I think the president needs to hear that before he can make an evaluation of competence.”
Kelly has told White House staffers that he secured Porter’s immediate resignation within 40 minutes of fully understanding the severity of the allegations against his former colleague. But multiple administration officials told POLITICO that Kelly had been aware of the broad strokes of the allegations against Porter for months. Others in the administration, including White House counsel Don McGahn, were also made aware of the allegations months prior to the explosive story in the Daily Mail, according to people familiar with the issue.
Kelly issued a pair of statements, including one Wednesday night saying he was “shocked” by the allegations. He has also spoken to staff privately about the issue and briefly talked to a few reporters who caught up with him at the White House. But while he has occasionally addressed the White House press corps in the past, he has not appeared in public to discuss the Porter debacle.
Pressed about the reports that Kelly knew about the allegations, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, deferred to him on Sunday.
“Gen. Kelly has said otherwise, and you would have to ask him the question squarely,” she said on “This Week.”
A White House spokesman did not respond to questions about whether Kelly will publicly weigh in on what he knew about Porter.
“I think that the general is being very clear about what happened, and I think he ought to continue to be,” Matt Schlapp, chairman of the lobbying group American Conservative Union, told POLITICO. Schlapp’s wife works in the White House. “Sunshine in all these cases is always a helpful thing.”
Republicans are increasingly fed up with the personality-focused West Wing drama that dominates cable news even as the GOP tries to sell the tax reform law and focus on other policy issues like infrastructure ahead of the November midterms.
“The president is more interested in promoting what he considers star casting than competent people,” said one prominent Republican with close ties to the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill. “This chases the competent people out (or keeps them away) and empowers the people who look good on paper or in front of a camera.”
White House aides acknowledged that the Porter scandal is all-consuming, even for an administration that is used to bouncing from crisis to crisis.
But one senior administration official expressed confidence that Trump can recapture control of the narrative, noting that the Senate will begin debating immigration legislation this week — an issue that the president is likely to focus on in public comments and on Twitter.
“We have an uncanny ability to change news cycles,” the official told POLITICO. “I think he’ll be able to shift it to what he wants.”
The official added that he doesn’t think there’s internal pressure on Kelly to publicly address the timeline of what he knew about Porter.
Schlapp said the White House has navigated pushing a policy agenda despite media attention to internal drama before and can do so again. “This is not exactly a brand-new dynamic for them,” he said.
Trump expressed frustration on Sunday afternoon with the nonstop coverage of the fallout from the Porter resignation.
“So many positive things going on for the U.S.A. and the Fake News Media just doesn’t want to go there. Same negative stories over and over again!” he wrote on Twitter.
But Trump himself has done little to extinguish the firestorm. He has repeatedly expressed sympathy for Porter and has yet to publicly acknowledge the women who were allegedly abused.
The White House is planning a slew of infrastructure-related events this week in a bid to refocus on its policy agenda, including a meeting between Trump and state and local officials on Monday. An administration official also told POLITICO that Trump will talk about infrastructure during a speech on Friday in Orlando, Florida.
But if the Sunday talk shows were any indication, the Porter saga isn’t going away anytime soon.
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short didn’t get a single question about Trump’s upcoming fiscal year 2019 budget request to Congress during an appearance on “Meet the Press.” Instead, he was forced to defend Kelly and bat down reports that Kelly’s job is in danger.
“John Kelly knows that he serves at the pleasure of the president,” Short said. “And he will step aside anytime the president doesn’t want him to be there. But John Kelly has not offered his resignation. John Kelly is doing an outstanding job.”