GLENN: Okay. So here's what you need to know this about North Korea. Yesterday, after receiving almost daily threats from North Korea's leaders and hearing that they may have developed miniaturized nuclear weapons, President Donald Trump yesterday made what for an American president was unprecedented. A statement that he made. He threatened North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un that if these threats against the United States don't stop...
DONALD: They will be met with fire, fury, and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.
GLENN: He repeated it twice yesterday. Now, as an American who has listened to Donald Trump for years, he's not talking about nuclear war. As a guy who knows that just a few years before he said this, he was talking about the opioid crisis. And this is what he said about that...
DONALD: An opioid overdosed us have nearly quadrupled since 1999. It is a problem the likes of which we have not seen.
(chuckling)
GLENN: Just a few minutes before, he was talking about another crisis, the likes of which the world had never seen before. This is something that President Trump always says. He won with an unprecedented, you know, margin of victory that the world had never seen before. He had put together a grassroots effort the likes of which the world had never seen before. So we as Americans understand this.
I'm not sure that Kim Jong-un understands this. This is why -- when you're the president of the United States, you must speak softly and carry a big stick. That's always been the way of the American president. Know that you have power, but don't boast about that power.
North Korea did exactly what North Korea would be expected to do: They responded. Now, for the average person, when you hear that he says, quote, the KPA strategic force is now carefully examining the operational plan for making enveloping fire at areas around Guam, with medium to long-range strategic ballistic rockets in order to contain the US military bases on Guam, including Anderson Air Force Base.
What is he saying there? Because what the press reported yesterday was, he was going to attack Guam. Which to the average American is like, what? Why -- I mean, why are you throwing Guam into this? Poor people of Guam.
The reason why is because that is a strategic base for the United States. And if we were ever going to launch a strike against North Korea, Guam would be the place where all of our bombers would be hanging out. And so what is he saying?
He is responding to hyperbole with an actual threat and a plan. I know how you're going to do it. If you're going to -- if you're going to actually bomb us, you are going to use Anderson Air Force Base.
And so I just want you to know, right now, look at the rockets. Understand, they're all now pointed to Anderson Air Force Base.
So you're not going to have a base to base your operations from in Guam. He also said that they have plans by the -- that any plans by the US to execute a preemptive strike or to decapitate him would be met with an all-out war, quoting, wiping out all the strongholds and enemies, including the US mainland.
Now, here's the part that I am torn on: One, I am really happy to have a president that is willing to say, it's an evil empire, period. It's an evil empire, and it's not going to stand. That's the way we won the Cold War, by being very clear on what evil looks like.
Kim Jong-un and all of the Kims that have reigned before him are evil. There are not crazy. They are not crazy. They are evil. They are communists that will starve their own people to death. And anyone who stands in their way, it's not you that is thrown in prison: You're executed. And your family is thrown into prison for not one, but three generations.
It's an evil empire. And so I'm really happy to have a president say, "This is evil, and we're not going to stand for it." And then because of Syria, we know that he means it.
However, not all situations are the same. Here's what you really need to know: There is not a consensus within the intelligence community over North Korea's nuclear capability. We're not sure.
We're not sure that they could make good on their threats. But what is crystal clear is the devastating effects of any war. This is why I have been saying for 15 years, North Korea and Iran must never have the capability of nuclear war.
And the world must have harsh sanctions on Iran and North Korea. Because the moment they have missiles, the moment they have a nuclear weapon, you have to take them seriously, and there are no good options left.
How many years have we been saying that? North Korea now, we have run out of time. And instead of talking about what does this actually mean, the media is talking about Donald Trump.
I'm torn. I like a president who is clear on evil. I don't like a president who shoots from the hip and can make things worse because another country doesn't understand exactly what he meant.
When he said this last night, I have to tell you, it chilled me to the bone every time I heard it. Because that's not the words of an American president. Those are the words of people like the people that run Iran. That's the kind of language that they use and they understand. The United States is different. The United States should have believe out last night and said, "Rex Tillerson is on a plane going to China right now, and he will be in Beijing by the morning."
This is a problem that the entire world agrees on. And in an unprecedented move, the United Nations Security Council, including China and Russia, have all said the harshest sanctions are going to be imposed against North Korea. And it's already underway.
The United States is not going to be bullied, and we're not going to be frightened by a tinpan alley HEP dictator.
He's not crazy. He's evil. And evil, the world will not side with. Now, let's get back to work.
That's what the president should have said.
What you must take away from this that no one is giving you is that Seoul, South Korea, is 35 miles away from the 38th parallel. That's the DMZ, the demilitarized zone. It's 35 miles away.
Any attack by the US against North Korea will almost certainly set into motion a series of events that would bring devastation to that nation, along with massive civilian and military casualties, perhaps for sure in the -- the six-figure range. Perhaps in the seven-figure range.
Seoul has 20 million people living in it. It's 35 miles away. Since the 1950s, South Korea, has built armaments and built weapons to do one thing: Destroy South Korea and Seoul, in particular, within 24 hours. We have to be 100 percent accurate for them not to strike Seoul. Or, God forbid, Tokyo.
North Korea now has over 1,000 missiles pointed directly at Seoul. There are 37,000 American troops stationed in South Korea. Not to mention that South Korea's economy is the 11th largest in the world. An all-out attack against North Korea would be a devastating blow to their economy and our economy.
Forget about the deaths of people you've never met on the other side of the planet. This will impact you and your family for a very long time. And we'll all deal with the deaths that we failed to prevent or the deaths that we were part of causing on a march to war later.
The global situation now is tenuous, at best. The domino effect of this is global war. Now, these are the cold, hard facts. There is no good way out of this anymore.
The best option we have is to apply sanctions, hold the rest of the world together, cross our fingers, say a few prayers, and hope this ends like the Cuban missile crisis did. And it passes in the night.
Anything that beats the drum of war in this situation is dangerous. One more thing: Last night, I watched -- I watched the media. And, boy, it was like watching two different worlds. One rah-rah, one totally against. And not totally against because of the facts that I just gave you. Totally against because the president just said these crazy things.
There was a point where I believe that I just -- I just -- I mentally snapped on the media. I'm just totally done with the media. They are not helping us in any way, shape, or form.
By coming out and spending literally two hours last night just talking about the president's language, I had a real hard time taking it from CNN, seeing that I was standing in the news pit. I used to call it the pit of disrepair with all of the angry, disgruntled, and hopeless reporters at CNN, listening to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And hearing him say things like, "They will die in the fiery fury of the Islamic State."
Saying things -- starting a speech before and after, oh, Allah. Give me the strength to hasten the return of the Promised One. Both of those things are end times Scripture for them. It is like -- it's like any crazy person standing up who is a Christian, and saying, "You know what, we've got to start a nuclear war because Jesus is going to come back soon." That's exactly what they're saying.
And after standing in that room and hearing all of them dismiss Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the leaders of Iran and the Kim family for years -- well, they're just saying this. They're just a dictator. They just -- this the way -- they're not really going to do those things.
For them to analyze every movement of our president, who made I think a bad statement, but all of us here in America know that's not what he meant. And for them to -- to scrutinize every word, as if that's exactly what he meant, after two decades of sitting around saying, "No, that's not what the Kim family means. That's not what the leaders of Iran mean," when they are building nuclear weapons -- it is your excuses, Mainstream Media, it is your excuses. Your unwillingness to take dictators and people who will kill people and are currently killing people, just because they're women. Just because they are gay. Just because they're Christian.
Your unwillingness to listen to people who are actual killers is what got us in this situation. And any media source that isn't telling you these things today, you need to abandon and go find one that is telling you the truth.
