The last time most Americans saw Dennis Rodman he was openly weeping on CNN over the handshake photo-op between President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. On Monday, he sat down with Howard Stern to talk about his big trip to Singapore.
Just as Trump has spent much of the week since that “summit” flattering his counterpart and dismissing his heinous human rights violations, Rodman similarly normalized Kim in his interview with Stern.
Going even further than Trump, Rodman falsely argued that Kim Jong Un has not engaged in the type of repressive tactics employed by his father and grandfather. “He didn’t create this bullshit. He just inherited it,” he said at one point.
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According to Rodman’s friend Christopher “Vo” Volo, who also appeared on Stern’s SiriusXM show Monday, the former NBA star criticized Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung to the 34-year-old leader during one of his visits to North Korea. “Your father and grandfather did a lot of fucked up shit,” Rodman supposedly told Kim Jong Un, through a translator, “but you’re trying to change things and that’s a great, great thing.”
Rodman also addressed the phone call he received from Trump’s “secretary,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as he put in on CNN. In video released from that call as part of a Vice News Tonight segment on HBO, Rodman can be seen repeatedly calling the White House press secretary “honey” as she thanked him on behalf of President Trump for “some of the nice things” he said during the process.
“To be honest with you, I didn’t even know who she was,” Rodman admitted with a laugh. “But it was cool that she called and expressed the fact that Donald was very happy that I’m supporting him and have his back,” he added.
And if Trump does somehow win a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on North Korea, Rodman said that all he wants a little recognition for his role in making it happen.
“If you get the Nobel Peace Prize, I want you to do one thing for me,” he said. “I want you to give me a handshake and a hug. That’s all I want. He can have the Nobel Peace Prize, just give me that.”
