Clinton slams Trump’s Twitter diplomacy: ‘That doesn’t work’
Hillary Clinton mocked President Donald Trump’s Twitter diplomacy on Tuesday, warning that it’s ineffective in pressuring North Korea to stop its saber-rattling.
Clinton stressed in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour during a Women For Women International charity luncheon in New York that negotiating is key in getting the North Korean regime under control.
“Negotiations are critical, but they have to be part of a broader strategy, not just thrown out on a tweet some morning that, ‘Hey, let’s together and, you know, see if we can’t get along and maybe we can, you know, come up with some kind of a deal,’” Clinton said. “That doesn’t work.”
Trump praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during an interview broadcast over the weekend with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” remarking to host John Dickerson that Kim is “a pretty smart cookie.” He added Monday during an interview with Bloomberg News that he would be “honored” to meet with the repressive dictator “under the right circumstances.”
Clinton, however, warned against that approach.
“The North Koreans are always interested, not just Kim Jong Un but his father before him, were always interested in trying to get Americans to come to negotiate to elevate their status and their position,” she said. “And we should be very careful about giving that away. You should not offer that in the absence of a broader strategic framework to try to get China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, to put the kind of pressure on the regime that will finally bring them to the negotiating table with some kind of realistic prospect for change.”