FOREIGN POLICY/NORTH KOREA/PHILIPPINES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday defended President Donald Trump’s kind words for totalitarian leaders, saying the president is protecting the American people and U.S. allies through his seemingly warm relations with such men.
In an interview with CBS’ John Dickerson, Trump said North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is ‘a pretty smart cookie.’ The president also invited Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte to the White House. Duterte has been accused of human rights abuses, including thousands of extrajudicial killings in his war against drugs.
But Spicer on Monday defended Trump’s overtures, arguing that the president’s embrace is keeping Americans safe (Trump told Fox News’ Eric Bolling regarding North Korea, ‘Nobody’s safe,’ according to an excerpt of the interview released earlier Monday).
‘Obviously, there’s a human rights component that goes into all of this and so it’s a balance. We wanna make sure that our country, our people are protected,’ Spicer told reporters. ‘This isn’t a simple yes-or-no kinda situation.’
Echoing Trump, Spicer praised Kim from his lectern inside the White House briefing room for leading North Korea ‘forward.’ “
-Nolan D. McCaskill, “Spicer defends Trump’s warm words for totalitarian leaders,” Politico, May 1, 2017 3:08pm