President Donald Trump's "charm alone" won't get North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons, Sen. Bob Menendez said Wednesday, and he's concerned that Trump's "short attention span" while former attorney Michael Cohen testifies back home will hinder diplomatic efforts.
"The history, including what our intelligence agencies assessed most recently, the Director of National Intelligence is that they will not willingly give up their weapons," the New Jersey Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "If you know that going in, what is it that you do to ultimately change the dynamic of Kim Jong Un's thinking."
Menendez said he is worried that Trump will rely on his "charm" and on the "art of the deal" in the summit with Kim, and "the art of diplomacy a lot harder than the art of the deal."
Further, Menendez said he's concerned that Trump's focus on Cohen's testimony will make it "really dangerous" for him to engage in negotiations with Kim.
Cohen's testimony will be dangerous to Trump, and could damage his crediblity, said Menendez.
"He lied to them as a candidate, he lied to them as president, he lied about the Trump Tower deal in Moscow," said Menendez. "He lied about the hush payments. In essence, there’s a real credibility problem.”
The senator said he does hope that Trump's negotiations with Kim will result in a real definition of what North Korea's denuclearization will mean for the Korean peninsula.
"For us, that means the verifiable elimination of all of North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and an infrastructure that supports that," said Menendez.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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