White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday defended President Trump pulling out of denuclearization talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, citing former President Obama’s Iran deal as a counterexample.
“President Obama refused to walk away from a bad deal with Iran,” she tweeted. “President @realDonaldTrump refuses to make the same mistake with Iran, North Korea, or anybody else. President Trump will always put the safety of the American people above politics.”
{mosads}Trump on Thursday defended his decision to end negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam, saying that “sometimes you have to walk.”
“It was about the sanctions,” Trump said at a news conference. “Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that. They were willing to denuke a large portion of the areas we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that.”
“Sometimes you have to walk,” he added, “This was one of those times.”
Trump pulled the U.S. out of a denuclearization deal with Iran that was established under Obama in May. Under the deal, Iran agreed put limits on its nuclear program if foreign sanctions were lessened.