Showing posts with label George Stephanopoulos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Stephanopoulos. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Rodman booted from hotel for ranting about how great Kim Jong Un is

Dennis Rodman, just back from his bizarre trip visiting Kim Jong Un, was escorted out of the Time Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Sunday after spending hours at the restaurant bar loudly telling anyone who would listen what a great guy the North Korean dictator is, reports The New York Post.

"He was at the bar at Serafina for three hours," a spy told The Post.  "He kept saying what a nice guy Kim is, and how Kim just wants to talk to President Obama about basketball.  He was waving around a signed copy of the dictator's huge manifesto, telling everyone they should read it."

"Dennis was making a total jerk of himself. He wouldn’t leave, and he wouldn’t let anyone talk to him about shutting up, or what an oppressive country North Korea is," claims the source. "Eventually he had to leave the bar because the bartender was starting to get [bleep]ed-off."

That kind of behavior in his new buddy's People's Republic would have the former-NBA star shooting hoops in the Bukchang internment camp — but here it amounts to only being eighty-sixed.



Rodman— who is a regular at the hotel — finally left the hotel but staffers say he is a nuisance and are fed up.

"He’s always a problem," said one source. "He is loud and does weird stuff. Like, he’ll come down to the front desk in his bathrobe in the middle of the night and make demands that people have to run to the store for him. He’s belligerent about it. I thought he was just on TV getting sober?"

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Rodman: 'My friend' Kim Jong Un just wants Obama to 'call him'

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman just returned from playing basketball diplomat to North Korea and said the isolated country's leader Kim Jong Un doesn't want war with the United States.  The tattooed and pierced quasi-ambassador said Kim just wants President Barack Obama to give him a call.

Obama and Kim share a love of basketball.  "So let's start there," said Rodman.

Rodman sat down with George Stephanopoulos in the "This Week" studio in New York Sunday morning and relayed the message after spending two days with Kim and the Harlem Globetrotters.

Kim, who has strained ties between the two countries with recent underground nuclear tests, " don't want war — that's one thing he don't want," said Rodman.




Pressed by Stephanopoulos about Kim’s threats to the destroy the United States, and his family’s horrendous record on human rights, Rodman said: “I don’t condone that. I hate the fact that he’s doing that. … I didn’t talk about that. …I saw people respected him, his family. … “[He’s] only 28 — 28. He’s not his dad. He’s not his grandpa. He is 28 years old. … He’s very humble. He’s a very humble man. … He don’t want war – that’s one thing he don’t want. … He loves power. He loves control, because of his father, you know – stuff like that. But he’s just — he’s a great guy. He’s just a great guy. You sit down and talk to him.”

The State Department has distanced itself from Rodman's visit — although the troubled ex-NBA player  —aka "The Worm" — is the highest-profile American to meet with the dictator since he took power after his father's death in December 2011.

Stephanopoulos questioned Rodman on North Korea's political prison camps, to which Rodman replied, "We do the same things here."

"It sounds like you're apologizing for him," said Stephanopoulos.  

"No, I’m not apologizing for him," countered Rodman. "He was a great guy to me. He was my friend. I don’t condone what he does. But as a person to person, he’s my friend. … What I did was history. … He’s a friend to me. That’s about it."

Rodman said he would be returning to Pyongyang to "find out more what's really going on."

"OK, next time you go back, you should bring this report from the Human Rights Watch ... maybe you could ask some questions about that," a stern Stephanopoulos told his guest. "You might learn a lot more and it might press him. But thank you for coming on this morning and sharing your impressions."

"Don't hate me," said Rodman, before slipping out of the ABC studio and skipping his scheduled interview with ESPN.