Elizabeth Warren Praises Communist China Over North Korean Strategy
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts criticized President Donald Trump’s handing of North Korea by contrasting his actions unfavorably to China, which she argued has a long-term strategy.
“CBS This Morning” host John Dickerson asked Warren on Tuesday about some positive developments in relation to North Korea, including the release of three American hostages and the engagement in talks aimed at the possible dismantling of the country’s nuclear weapons program.
“There is a North Korean official apparently coming to America,” Dickerson said. “You said the president doesn’t look like he has a strategy, but it looks like his calling off the summit last week seems to have lit a fire under the North Koreans. Three hostages have been released, so maybe there is a strategy?”
Warren responded, “You know, look. North Korea is a bad actor, we understand that, and the president had already promised that they could have a meeting with the President of the United States, something that (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un’s father and grandfather had long, long sought.
“Then it’s been back and it’s been forth. I want this to work, I want this to work to reduce the threat to South Korea, to Japan, to our allies in the region, to the United States of America, to the entire world, but it really takes a strategy and I look at the comparison with China.”
The Massachusetts senator said “China’s got the long term arc and it’s playing everybody,” including South Korea and the United States, “because it has a long-time whole-of-government strategy that keeps driving towards an end.”
Later in her interview, Warren reiterated, “I’m serious about this comparison with a country like China.”
By contrast, she argued that Trump has no goal and no strategy regarding North Korea.
Host Gayle King pressed Warren, saying it appeared there may be a method to Trump’s madness in light of some of North Korea’s actions to date.
“You can’t take a bunch of disconnected dots and draw a line and say that must have been a strategy,” Warren said.
“What it takes for a strategy is that you really have a goal and build up a team to work on that goal,” she added. “Diplomacy is a long and difficult task and it takes people who know what they’re doing.”
Trump sent Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to North Korea twice in recent months to speak directly with the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, and other administraiton officials have also been in talks with their North Korean counterparts.
Prior to being confirmed as secretary of state in April, Pompeo served as CIA director and on the House Intelligence Committee as a member of Congress.
Pompeo and Trump have both stated the administration’s goal is the denuclearization of the Korea Peninsula.
Warren is considered a contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
In an appearance Tuesday on “The View,” Warren said she is not ready to impeach Trump yet, but anticipated Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report will reveal whether such a move is warranted.
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