14 DAY TRIAL // Communist leader Kim Jong-Un has found an unlikely ally in the United States in eccentric basketball player Dennis Rodman, who went on to defend the dictator in an interview with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, for “New Day.”
Dennis is about to lead a team of former NBA players in a game organized by the North Korean government to celebrate the birthday of their leader. The game has received mixed reactions from the American public and Chris Cuomo was there to give a voice to those concerns. Video of the exchange is embedded below.
When prompted by Cuomo to say if he would use his friendship to Kim in an effort to facilitate the release of fellow American Kenneth Bae, who's held captive in Korea, Rodman erupted in a horse-voiced rant that was difficult to follow.
“Watch this. The one thing about politics, Kenneth Bae did one thing, if you understand — if you understand what Kenneth Bae did, do you understand what he did?” Rodman burst. To which Cuomo calmly responded “What did he do? You tell me.”
Rodman couldn't answer that question and thus went on a tirade, waving his cigar around, shouting obscenities and accusing the reporter he's hiding “behind the mic.” He concluded his rant reminding the public that they were the ones taking a huge responsibility, putting themselves at risk and then “taking the abuse” when they would return to the US.
As the camera zoomed in on his face, Rodman seemed to deliver a rehearsed speech, in what could very well be a scene from an Hollywood inspirational sports movie. His cheesy lines however, could not make up for the lacking logic in his discourse up to this point.
Kim Jong-Un has recently made international headlines when he had his uncle, his former right hand, brutally executed by feeding him to a pack of hungry dogs. “Death by dogs” the media called it, and it was the latest in a line of punitive measures the dictator is taking on people in his entourage.