Joe Scarborough asked Andrea Mitchell to talk about how the big North Korea "meeting" came together --and how haphazard it really was.
"The New York Times has a lot of these details," Mitchell said. "The fact that the president was not supposed to meet the South Korean delegation, the foreign minister, Chung, until Friday, but he heard that the delegation was briefing national security officials in the West Wing and wanted to talk to them, too. And so, none of the preparation of calling Prime Minister Abe, the Japanese are very nervous about this, calling the South Koreans, and he proposed going ahead with it right away.
"Chung was not prepared and said, I've got to talk with President Moon. They got Moon on the phone and he signed off on it because he's been pushing forward. And so, they announced it while Rex Tillerson was asleep in Africa."
"While Rex Tillerson was asleep, Mika, again. I mean, Willie, it really does underline what we've been saying about the president was desperate to change the headlines. He has succeeded. But it wasn't even a regularly scheduled meeting. He heard that others were talking to South Korean officials and he rushed in and basically played Monty Hall and said let's make a deal," Scarborough said.
"By the way, the end of all that was the president of the United States popping his head into the briefing room, the White House briefing room, which most reporters think it was the first time they'd seen him in there, and basically saying to people like Hallie Jackson in the briefing room, 7:00, big announcement, be there or be square, out in the driveway," Willie Geist said.
"And that's the way it all came to be. And the fact that the State Department -- the State department! -- was cut out of this, we can't forgot how extraordinary that is and how it's unprecedented for a decision this big."
"Yeah, the State Department, our closest allies... I'm sure people on the Hill, nobody knew about this. Donald Trump just decided to play reality TV-show president to change the headlines," Scarborough said.
"This is how he rolls. This is how he ran the Trump Organization," Steve Rattner said. "He has no concept of how you run a diplomatic operation in an enterprise as large as the government. He thinks you just kind of drop into a meeting, say, okay, I'll do that, and you do it."
"Everyone thinks this is actually going to happen now, that this decision, or this movement, which may have happened like the New York Times outlines it, will be happening," Heidi Przybyla said.
"They will be meeting. What they get out of it will be another question," Mitchell said.
"Again, there will be be a meeting because that's easy. That's easy for him to do," Scarborough said. "Just like the meeting with Dianne Feinstein on guns was easy to do, just like the meeting with Democrats on immigration was easy to do. He always can do the easy things.
"This is the king of deflection, and he was very disturbed yesterday. And he does not want his family seeing the porn star on the front pages of the papers. It causes deep distress to him to have details of that being revealed by his press secretary, and it it seems that this was, this was his point, was to deflect," Mika Brzezinski said.
"Just look at what happens. He makes a big announcement on guns, nothing comes on it. He makes a big announcement on dreamers, nothing comes of it," Scarborough said.
"Makes a big announcement on immigration, on transgender, nothing comes of it. He talks about the wall, nothing comes of it. That's what he does. He just distracts. He's a day trader. So, yes, I agree with Andrea, a meeting will take place. I'll be shocked if anything came from it. What's next?"
