*By Alisha Haridasani*
Kim Jung-un's willingness to tone down his rhetoric and reconsider a meeting with President Trump is a result of the president's “good negotiating,” a Republican spokesperson said.
A day after Trump [cancelled](https://cheddar.com/videos/trump-cancels-north-korea-summit-leaving-its-fate-in-kim-jong-uns-hands) his planned summit with the North Korean leader, Kim said Friday he was ready to come back to the table “at any time.”
Trump applauded Kim’s openness, and the president told reporters that U.S. officials were still talking with the North Koreans.
“That’s what good negotiating looks like,” said the Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany. “President Trump knows when to walk away.”
Trump’s decided to cancel the June meeting in Singapore after North Korean officials threatened to pull the plug on the meeting themselves in response to seemingly threatening comments from Vice President Mike Pence about regime change.
North Korea's unpredictability is not new, but the recent changes of directions are different, McEnany said, noting there have been tangible results from talks with Pyongyang. The North Koreans appear willing to still consider talks, they released three American hostages, and they destroyed their nuclear test site on Thursday.
“These are acts of good will, indications of seriousness,” she said.
“In the least, we are going to walk out of this with three free Americans,” said McEnany. “That’s a very good thing and more than past presidents have gotten.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/rnc-stands-by-michael-cohen-despite-ongoing-investigation).
The National Emergencies Act of 1976 was passed in an attempt to regulate the president's ability to declare open-ended national emergencies. The point of the law, commentators said at the time, was to give Congress the power of oversight on matters of national urgency. It is perhaps ironic then that President Trump announced he will, under the provisions of that law, declare a national emergency as a way to circumvent Congress and build a border wall.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Feb, 15, 2019.
Amazon's decision to pull its new HQ2 out of New York City is very bad for the city ー and a sign that the home of Wall Street is falling victim to anti-business attitudes, according to former CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder. "I think it's a hit to the New York economy. New York is a big city, it's a strong city, but it used to be the home to capitalism. Now it's coming under some of these socialist policies and it's going to lose companies like Amazon ($AMZN)," Puzder told Cheddar on Thursday.
Amazon has backed out of its plan to build a second headquarters in Queens, New York. The abrupt decision shocked even those who opposed Amazon's planned expansion in Long Island City. Cheddar spoke with Jimmy Van Bramer, deputy leader of the New York City Council.
A day before the anniversary of the Parkland shooting, a massacre that re-framed the debate over gun control as a defining cause of Gen Z, Congress advanced its first piece of gun legislation in decades. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a newly elected Democrat from a Parkland-adjacent district who sits on that committee, discussed the victory with Cheddar.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019.
Catching a ride in New York just got more expensive, and passengers aren't the only ones complaining. "It's a problem for the drivers," Aleksey Medvedovskiy, the president of NYC Taxi Group, told Cheddar Wednesday. "It's a problem for the general public."
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday Feb. 13, 2019.
The daunting task of paying back astronomical student loans may soon be less taxing, California Congressman Scott Peters tells told Cheddar Tuesday. Rep. Peters (D-Calif.) has received 99 co-sponsors on his bipartisan Employer Participation in Repayment Act, which would allow employers to contribute to their employees' student loan payments, tax-free.
The shocking rise in teen vaping is a public health crisis that the FDA has been slow to address, according to a nationally recognized cardiologist. Dr. Kevin Campbell, who is also CEO of Pace Mate, a digital cardiac monitoring service, said the recent study from the CDC that linked vaping to a spike in teen tobacco use shows that more serious steps need to be take. The first step? Get rid of the flavored nicotine "pods," which Campbell said are acting as a gateway for teenage beginner vapers to get hooked on nicotine.
