President Barack Obama summarily brushed off an attempt by former basketball star Dennis Rodman to broker a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the former basketball star said Monday night.
Breaking down in tears during an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Rodman — known as "The Worm" in his NBA heyday — recalled, "I said the door would open."
Rodman arrived in Singapore around midnight Monday, hours before President Donald Trump was set to meet Kim for an historic summit.
"We sat down for lunch," Rodman said of a face-to-face meeting with Kim five years ago. "And he said, 'Hey, Dennis, I would like to ask you three things. If you tell the President of the United States these three things, that I would be willing to talk to him.'
"'Things like, if they could move the ships back from South Korea, I would do what I have to do to listen. If you can do certain things, I would listen, my ears would be open,'" Rodman said.
"And I tried to do that with Obama. And Obama did not give me the time of day. I asked him, I said I have something to say from North Korea, and he brushed me off. And that didn't deter me. I still kept going back. Kept going back. I showed my loyalty and my trust to this country."
Then, choking up and wiping his eyes, Rodman continued:
"It is amazing, it is amazing . . . when I went back home, I got so many death threats. I got so many death threats. I was protecting everything. And I believe North Korea and when I came home, I couldn't even go home. I couldn't even go home. I had to hide out for 30 days. I couldn't even go home.
"But I kept my head up high, brother. I knew things were going to change. I knew it. I was the only one. I never had no one to hear me. No one to see me. But I took those bullets, I took all of that. Everybody came at me, and I am still standing. And today is a great day for everybody, Singapore, China, a great day."
Rodman said he was "naive when I went over there. And I didn't understand and expect all of the things when I went over there."
"I thought I was doing a charity event," he said. "I didn't know anything about North Korea. I thought I was going to play basketball and meet the people and that was it. And it turned out to be bigger than I thought."
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