Rodman gets emotional over N. Korea talks
SINGAPORE — Former NBA star Dennis Rodman openly wept on television in a live interview from Singapore on Tuesday as President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un met for the first time. He told The Associated Press that he hopes to soon visit the White House.
Rodman is one of the few Westerners to have spent time with Kim during multiple visits to Pyongyang. The two struck up an unlikely friendship over their shared love of basketball. Rodman also goes back years with Trump and appeared on his “Celebrity Apprentice” show.
In an emotional and sometimes hard-to-follow interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Rodman, wearing sunglasses and a “Make America Great Again” hat, said he had received a call from the White House ahead of Trump’s historic meeting with Kim — the first between a sitting president and a North Korean leader.
Rodman later told the AP in a phone interview that the call had come from White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “She sent her best wishes and said that Donald Trump is really proud of you. He’s happy you’re having some type of part of this whole situation,” Rodman recalled her saying. “He’s very happy to carry out the things I’ve been saying.”
Sanders did not immediately respond to questions about the call.
Rodman suggested he helped lay at least the groundwork for the summit, joking to the AP that he “should be pushing for the Nobel Peace Prize. At least give me a piece of it, something like that. An honorable mention.”
In his CNN interview, Rodman grew emotional as he recalled former President Barack Obama failing to take him seriously when he returned from Pyongyang with a message from Kim after one of his trips. Rodman said Obama brushed him off and that he received death threats and went into hiding as a result.