Former NBA star Dennis Rodman had a testy exchange with ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulous over his controversial trip to North Korea and his comment that Kim Jong-Un is his “friend for life.” Rodman downplayed the trip saying he’s not a diplomat. George Stephanopoulous challenged Dennis Rodman (a huge waste of time) on North Korea’s atrocious human rights record, to which he responded:

“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. 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,” said Rodman.

When Stephanopoulos went after Rodman on not talking about North Korean death camps he said, “We do the same things here.” A dumbfounded Stephanopoulos replied, “We have prison camps here in the United States?” Source

Did anyone think Dennis Rodman would ever be the voice of reason in a maddening situation? I think some people had set their expectations of him far too high.

This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.