Several GOP lawmakers cautioned against trusting the North Korean leader but took care not to criticize Trump directly.
By John Wagner and John Wagner National reporter leading The Post's breaking political news team Email Bio Follow Seung Min Kim Seung Min Kim White House reporter Email Bio Follow February 28 at 3:29 PM President Trump received cautious pushback Thursday from fellow Republicans for saying he believed North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s assertion that he was unaware of the treatment of American college student Otto Warmbier while imprisoned in his country.
“I think it starts at the top,” Portman said. “And I think we have to acknowledge that as we deal with them.”Portman, who was close to Warmbier’s family in Ohio and fought for his release, said, however, that he has long favored engaging with North Korea, as Trump is doing, and that the United States had made “some progress” toward denuclearizing the nation.
“I do not see the leader of North Korea as somebody who’s a friend,” McCarthy said. “We know what happened to Otto. We know what this country has done. I support the president in his effort to denuclearize them, but I do not have a misbelief of who this leader is.” Trump and Kim abruptly cut short their summit Thursday amid contradictory accounts of why they were unable to reach an agreement to dismantle Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons.
Trump said that he spoke to Kim about the death of Warmbier and that Kim “feels badly about it.” He said the North Korean leader knew about the case but learned about it only after the fact because, Trump suggested, “top leadership” might not have been involved. “I can only imagine how it felt for the Warmbier family to have the President defend Kim Jong Un,” Kaine said in a statement. “Why would you not go to bat for an American family of this American student who was so brutalized by the North Korean regime?”
Deutschland Neuesten Nachrichten, Deutschland Schlagzeilen
Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.
Trump on Otto Warmbier's death: Kim Jong Un wasn't to blamePresident Trump, asked about responsibility for American Otto Warmbier's death: 'A lot of people, big country,' and Kim Jong Un 'tells me that he didn’t know about it, and I’ll take him at his word.”
Weiterlesen »
‘He tells me he didn’t know’: Trump defends Kim Jong Un over death of Otto WarmbierThe president condemned the “brutality of the North Korean regime” after the college student died in 2017 but took a softer stance at his summit with Kim in Hanoi.
Weiterlesen »
Trump trusts Kim's 'word' that he was unaware of Otto Warmbier mistreatment"I don't believe that he would have allowed that to happen — it just wasn’t to his advantage to allow that," the president said.
Weiterlesen »
Trump says Kim 'felt very badly' after Otto Warmbier deathPresident Trump says Kim Jong Un 'tells me that he didn’t know about” the treatment of Otto Warmbier, the U.S. college student who died in 2017 after being held in a Pyongyang prison. “And I will take him at his word.”
Weiterlesen »
Trump defends Kim Jong Un in death of American student Otto Warmbier'I don't believe that he would have allowed that to happen.' Pres. Trump defends Kim Jong Un in death of American student Otto Warmbier.
Weiterlesen »
Negotiator agrees with Trump: Kim Jong Un likely didn’t know about Otto Warmbier’s condition“That was an anomaly. Typically our prisoners and hostages and detainees get back more or less in one piece.”
Weiterlesen »
Trump accepts Kim Jong Un’s ‘word’ he had no role in Otto Warmbier’s deathPresident Donald Trump said Thursday he takes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un 'at his word' that Kim was unaware of the alleged mistreatment of an American college student who died after being imprisoned there.
Weiterlesen »
Nikki Haley contradicts Donald Trump, blames Otto Warmbier’s death on “cruelty” of North Korean regimeThe president said he believes Kim Jong Un when he says he was not responsible for American Otto Warmbier’s death, but Haley blamed the North Korean regime’s “cruelty.”
Weiterlesen »
In Otto Warmbier death, Trump once again sides with dictator over U.S. intelligencePresident Trump said Kim Jong Un was not responsible for the horrific injuries sustained by American student Otto Warmbier, who died shortly after being released from 17 months of detention in North Korea. Former UN ambassador Bill Richardson joins Hallie Jackson to discuss how it's impossible that Kim Jong Un did not know.
Weiterlesen »
Analysis | Trump’s reversals on Warmbier and Cohen are pure Trump: What have you done for me lately?Trump long used Otto Warmbier's death to criticize Kim Jong Un. Then Kim became his 'friend.'
Weiterlesen »