Sarah Sanders comments on North Korea’s threats to cancel the planned summit with South Korea. Below are some of her comments from this morning.
Fox News
I really think we have a really good spirit. We’ll see what happens. The president Sony very optimistic about what’s going to happen with North Korea and his summit in the middle of June. Let’s talk to White House press secretary Sara Sanders she joins us from the North Lawn. Sir good morning to you. Morning morning. Great to be with you. What’s going on with North Korea. Look as the president has said time and time again we’re ready to meet it if it happens. That’s great. And if it does it we’ll see what happens. We’re still hopeful that that meeting will take place and we’ll continue down that path. But at the same time we know that these are we’ve been prepared that these could be tough negotiations. The president is ready if the meeting takes place and if it doesn’t we’ll continue the maximum pressure campaign that’s been ongoing.
How would you characterize the president’s reaction to this back step mocking making up some problems with military exercises that have been on the books coming up with comments about John Bolton that’s been said back in 2003. What was the president’s reaction when some of this stuff started coming out. Well the president’s the toughest negotiator around he’s prepared to go through this process. His team is prepared to go through this process and this is not something that is out of the ordinary in these types of operations and the president’s fully prepared and fully ready to carry on in these conversations both leading up to and if the meeting takes place. He’ll be there and he’ll be ready.
NBC
This is something that we fully expected. The president is very used and ready for tough negotiations. And if they want to meet we’ll be ready. And if they don’t that’s OK to continue with the campaign of maximum pressure if that’s the case. But like I said if they want to meet the president will certainly be ready and we will be prepared but if not that’s OK. We know that this is kind of a I guess a standard function that can often happen. And you know we’re not surprised by it but we’re going to continue moving forward. This is the president Trump model. He’s going to run this the way he sees fit. We’re 100 percent confident as we’ve said many times before and as we all know that you’re aware he’s the best negotiator and we’re very confident in that for us
AP
Your reaction to the latest threat from North Korea saying that they’re not going to Boston. Look this is something that we fully expected. The president is very used and ready for tough negotiations. And if they want to meet we’ll be ready and if they don’t that’s OK to continue with the campaign of maximum pressure if that’s the case. But like I just said if they want to meet the president will certainly be ready and we will be prepared. But if not that’s ok. Or we just a nuclear option. Again these are ongoing conversations. Beyond that I don’t have a lot to say other than what we’ve already laid out what our priorities are when it comes to these conversations. Would you say that we’re going to be prepared if they take flight which is here this summit is just as likely to happen as it was yesterday or less likely. Look we’re still hopeful that it takes place. We think the same thing we thought yesterday that it’s an important conversation to have and it’s something that we’re again we’re hopeful that it service going to take place. Again we’re hopeful that it takes place and we’re going to continue planning forward on that. We’re still very aware various sizes things that happened on only exercises with the South as sort of a good faith effort to ensure that the talks go on as planned. Again we’re going to continue moving forward and don’t have any announcements on making changes made as to directly to U.S. officials. I’m sorry the North Korean comments and communiques are not going to get into those.
I’m not going to get into it. Let’s not talk about this. You said this. This was fully expected. Did you believe that they would sort of pull back at some point. We know that this is kind of a I guess a standard function that can often happen. And you know we’re not surprised by it but we’re going to continue moving forward. Is there any way to avoid that leverage less to do with your own do and think more than has hasn’t said that only John Bolton I haven’t seen that as part of any discussions. I’m not aware that that’s that’s a model that we’re using. I don’t I haven’t seen that that’s like a specific thing. I know that that comment was made but I don’t think we’re going off of there’s not a cookie cutter model on how this works. Look again this is the president Trump model. He’s going to run this the way he sees fit. We’re 100 percent confident as we’ve said many times before and as we all know that you’re aware he’s the best negotiator and we’re very confident in that process.
