Joining Morning Joe Today is Mike Barnicle, Nicholas Confessore, David Ignatius, Bill Neely, Kasie Hunt, Admiral Stavridis, Rep. Will Hurd, Secy. Anthony Foxx, Lawrence O’Donnell, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Stephen Battaglio, Sen. John McCain, Ricky Schroder, Bianna Golodryga, Ronald Nelson, Sara Eisen, Michelle Smith, Robin Ely and more
Why does the train industry and Amtrak wait for disasters to put in safety devices. Regardless of them doing it over and over (Brost Train crash, Westechester Train Crash and now today in Philly (installed over the weekend mind u)) after disaster strikes when the train derails off its tracks, passengers are boarding AmTrak in Philadelphia for the first time since accident. Amtrak trains traveling between Philadelphia and New York are starting up Monday morning for the first time since last Tuesday's deadly derailment.
Service was halted after Tuesday night's Amtrak train 188 derailment that killed eight people.
"The safety of our passengers and crew remains our number one priority. Our infrastructure repairs have been made with the utmost care and emphasis on infrastructure integrity including complete compliance with Federal Railroad Administration directives," said Amtrak President & CEO Joe Boardman.
"Amtrak staff and crew have been working around the clock to repair the infrastructure necessary to restore service for all the passengers who travel along the Northeast Corridor."
Operations will resume with departures from Philadelphia at 5:53 a.m. (Train 110) and New York City at 5:30 a.m. (Train 111).
All Amtrak Acela Express, Northeast Regional and other services resume.
Meanwhile, a system that an NTSB official has said would have prevented Tuesday's Amtrak derailment will now be installed on northbound track in Philadelphia.
Amtrak says it will comply with a federal order to implement that automatic train control system, which is already in place southbound. The system can automatically slow a speeding train.
It was on Philadelphia's northbound rails where a speeding train reached 106 mph, flew off the tracks and crashed.
The system notifies the engineer when a train is above the speed limit and automatically applies the brakes if the engineer doesn't respond.
The agency also ordered Amtrak to analyze curves on the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington and install appropriate technology where approach speed is significantly higher than curve speed.
Amtrak has said it plans to install a next-generation system for the entire corridor by year's end.
National Transportation Safety Board board member Robert Sumwalt said the investigation, which is being assisted by the FBI, will focus on the windshield of the train and the possibility that an object of some type struck the locomotive's windshield.
But during an interview on ABC's "This Week," Sumwalt said that after interviewing dispatchers and reviewing communication from the derailed Amtrak train engineer to the dispatch center - there was no communication to suggest that a projectile had hit the ill-fated train.
He said the information about a projectile came from an assistant conductor, who said she heard Amtrak engineer and the engineer from a nearby Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority regional train talking just before the derailment.
Sumwalt said she recalled hearing the regional train driver say his train had been hit by an object and then Brandon Bostian, the Amtrak engineer, say his train had been struck, too.
The derailment shattered the Amtrak train's windshield. The NTSB said there also was another Amtrak train - this one headed south - that had a window shattered in the same area around the same time.
Sumwalt declined to speculate about the exact significance of a projectile, but the idea raised the possibility that the engineer might have been distracted, panicked or even wounded in the moments before the train left the rails at more than twice the speed limit along a sharp bend.
Bostian told investigators that he does not recall anything after ringing the train's bell as he passed by the North Philadelphia station a couple of minutes before Tuesday night's crash.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority does not yet know what caused the damage to its train that night, said Jerri Williams, a spokeswoman for the agency.
SEPTA trains traveling through the area - including one of the poorest and most violent parts of Philadelphia - have had projectiles thrown at them in the past, whether by vandals or teenagers, she said. It was unusual that the SEPTA train was forced to stop on Tuesday night.
NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said the board was seeking more information about a third report of damage that night, this one involving a different Amtrak train.
Not long before the derailment, two passengers on a southbound Amtrak told The Philadelphia Inquirer that something shattered a window on their train as it passed through the same area. They said Amtrak police boarded the train at 30th Street station in Philadelphia to document the incident.
The NTSB says it has interviewed the engineer of the Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia and found him "extremely cooperative." But it says engineer Brandon Bostian said he couldn't recall what happened in the crash.
Bostian's lawyer said earlier his client suffered a concussion in the wreck and had no recollection of it. He said Bostian hadn't been using his cellphone and hadn't been drinking or using drugs.
The Northeast Regional train from Washington, D.C., to New York City derailed at a curve on Tuesday night, killing eight people. Investigators say the train sped up from 70 mph to more than 100 mph in the minute before it went into the curve.
The last wrecked rail cars from the deadly Amtrak accident were removed Friday as investigators tried to figure out why the train sped up from 70 mph to over 100 mph in the minute before it went into a sharp bend.
Delta Air Lines is honoring existing tickets for previously scheduled Amtrak service in the Northeast Corridor and adding seats to its Shuttle service for travel between New York LaGuardia (LGA) and Boston Logan (BOS) or Washington Reagan National (DCA) airports through Tuesday, May 19, 2015.
Effective immediately and in place through Tuesday, May 19, Delta will:
- Honor existing Amtrak tickets for travel between Washington, D.C., Boston and New York;
- Waive change fees for travel on Shuttle flights booked between DCA, BOS and LGA;
- Increase seat capacity on affected Shuttle markets with a larger aircraft type; and
- Offer one-way fares at or below $300 for new Shuttle tickets booked between DCA, BOS and LGA
Meanwhile, Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman said in a letter on the railroad's blog Thursday that Amtrak "takes full responsibility and deeply apologizes for our role in this tragic event."
The derailment Tuesday night killed eight people and injured more than 200.
"With truly heavy hearts, we mourn those who died. Their loss leaves holes in the lives of their families and communities," Boardman wrote.
He said the railroad's goal is "to fully understand what happened and how we can prevent a similar tragedy from occurring in the future."
The NTSB said that the locomotive's video camera showed that in the last minute or so before the derailment, the Washington-to-New York train accelerated rapidly as it approached a curve where the speed limit is 50 mph.
The engineer applied the emergency brakes seconds before the wreck, but it was too late, investigators have said.
Laura Finamore of Long Island was among the people killed in a deadly Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia on Tuesday, May 12, 2015.
Sumwalt said it is unclear whether the speed was increased manually by the engineer.
So far, investigators have found no problems with the track, the signals or the locomotive, and the train was running on time, Sumwalt said.
Separately, the Philadelphia district attorney's office said it is investigating and will decide whether to bring charges.
One Amtrak worker was injured while clearing the crash scene Friday morning and was taken to the hospital.
Six of the injured remained in critical condition but were expected to pull through.
Bostian, 32, graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a bachelor's degree in business administration and management in 2006. He became an Amtrak engineer in 2010, four years after landing a job as a conductor, according to his LinkedIn profile. He lives in New York City.
Friends said he talked about trains constantly while growing up and wanted to be an engineer or a conductor even back then.
"He would go on vacation and bring back subway maps," Stefanie McGee, a friend in Bostian's hometown of Bartlett, Tennessee, a suburb of Memphis. "He would go places with his family, and he would talk about the trains instead of the places." Will Gust, a college fraternity brother of Bostian's, said he had "nothing but good things to say about Brandon."
"He is a very conscientious person, one of the most upstanding individuals that I know, just a really good-quality person," Gust said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story. It was the nation's deadliest train accident in nearly seven years. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Marco Rubio Struggles With Question on Iraq War. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida struggled on Sunday to give clear answers about whether it was a mistake for the United States to go to war against Iraq in 2003, becoming the latest Republican presidential candidate to trip on the wisdom of the military invasion.
Under a barrage of questions from Chris Wallace of Fox News, Mr. Rubio repeatedly said “it was not a mistake” for President George W. Bush to order the invasion based on the intelligence he had at the time. But Mr. Rubio grew defensive as Mr. Wallace pressed him to say flatly whether he now believed the war was a mistake. Mr. Rubio chose instead to criticize the questions themselves, saying that in “the real world” presidents have to make decisions based on evidence presented to them at the time.
“It’s not a mistake — I still say it was not a mistake because the president was presented with intelligence that said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, it was governed by a man who had committed atrocities in the past with weapons of mass destruction,” Mr. Rubio said on “Fox News Sunday.”
A moment later, as Mr. Wallace tried to pin him down on his view, Mr. Rubio began to reply, “Based on what we know now, I think everyone agrees — — ” but Mr. Wallace cut him off before he finished the thought.
“So was it a mistake now?” Mr. Wallace asked.
“I don’t understand the question you’re asking,” Mr. Rubio said.
At one point Mr. Rubio, in discussing the importance of hindsight on the Iraq war, raised a recent boxing fight to make a point. “Based on what we know, a lot of things — based on what we know now, I wouldn’t have thought Manny Pacquiao was going to beat, uh, in that fight a couple weeks ago — — ” Mr. Rubio said before Mr. Wallace interrupted.
The back-and-forth resulted in a three-minute video clip that Republican opponents could use against Mr. Rubio in the future, given that he came across as a politician used to debating fine points and nuances in the United States Senate — a problem that then-Senator John Kerry faced in his presidential run in 2004 — rather than as a seasoned leader used to giving clear statements. Mr. Rubio’s readiness for the presidency has been questioned among some Republican voters, given than he is a 43-year-old first-term senator, and moments like the boxing reference seemed discordant on a subject like the Iraq war.
Last week, former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida was the one in the hot seat, giving four different answers to whether he thought President Bush, his brother, made a mistake going to war in Iraq. The former governor ultimately said he would not have ordered the invasion in hindsight given that intelligence about Iraq’s chemical weapons turned out to wrong. Mr. Rubio, in his interview on Sunday, chose not to pile on Mr. Bush.
Another Republican presidential candidate, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that it was an “important question” for Mr. Bush and others to say whether “it is a good idea to topple secular dictators, and what happens when we do.”
“I think when Hussein was toppled, we got chaos, and we still have chaos,” Mr. Paul said. He, too, decided not to go after Mr. Bush on his turbulent week of Iraq answers.
A likely Republican candidate, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, offered some words of defense for President Bush on Sunday rather than critiquing the war or taking a shot at Jeb Bush.
“I think any president, regardless of party, probably would have made a similar decision to what President Bush did at the time with the information he had available,” Mr. Walker said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” That said, Mr. Walker added that knowing now that the 2003 weapons intelligence was flawed, “we probably wouldn’t have taken that tack” in invading Iraq.
Mr. Walker, who is boning up on national security issues to address some Republican concerns about his preparedness for the presidency, was also asked on CBS about his past comments that the most important foreign policy decision of his lifetime was Ronald Reagan’s decision to fire air traffic controllers because it sent a message to the Soviet Union about his toughness. Mr. Walker, who returned from Israel on Thursday after a trip to meet leaders there and learn more about the Middle East, chose not to change or calibrate his Reagan answer; instead he said that the firing of the controllers was “peace through strength personified.”
On the Democratic side of the presidential race, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont called on Hillary Rodham Clinton to take a position on the congressional legislation to grant authority to President Obama to accelerate negotiations over a 12-nation trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
“You can’t be on the fence on this one: You’re either for it or against it,” Mr. Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Mr. Sanders opposed the trade authority and has drawn support from liberals for his stances to the left of Mrs. Clinton. “No fence-sitting on this one,” he added.
Mrs. Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination for a second time, has spoken positively about the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the past, but recently declined to endorse or oppose it and instead raised some concerns about the deal.
As for the fate of the trade-negotiating legislation itself, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he was confident that the House would ultimately support it in spite of concerns among many members. “We will have the votes,” Mr. Ryan said.
Abu Sayyaf, key ISIS figure in Syria, killed in U.S. raid. U.S. Special Operations forces killed a key ISIS commander during a daring raid in eastern Syria overnight Friday to Saturday -- securing intelligence on how the terror organization operates, communicates and earns money, U.S. government officials said. The ISIS commander, identified by his nom de guerre Abu Sayyaf, was killed in a heavy firefight after he resisted capture in the raid at al-Omar, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement.
The officials identified Sayyaf's captured wife as Umm Sayyaf, an Iraqi. She is now being held in Iraq. The U.S. government did not release Sayyaf's real name. The ground operation was led by the Army's Delta Force, sources familiar with the mission told CNN. There were about two dozen members of Delta Force involved, sources said.
Delta Force entered the target area on Blackhawk helicopters and V-22 aircraft, a U.S. official familiar with the operation said. ISIS fighters defended the multistory building from inside and outside positions. Abu Sayyaf was killed as he "tried to engage" U.S. troops, the official said. Carter said he had ordered the raid at the direction of President Barack Obama. All the U.S. troops involved returned safely.
National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said Obama had authorized the raid "upon the unanimous recommendation of his national security team" and as soon as the United States was confident all the pieces were in place for the operation to succeed.
"Abu Sayyaf was a senior ISIL leader who, among other things, had a senior role in overseeing ISIL's illicit oil and gas operations -- a key source of revenue that enables the terrorist organization to carry out their brutal tactics and oppress thousands of innocent civilians," she said in a statement. "He was also involved with the group's military operations."
Abu Sayyaf was a Tunisian citizen, a senior administration official said. A U.S. official with direct knowledge of the intelligence and the ground operation said Sayyaf had expertise in oil and gas and had taken an increased role in ISIS operations, planning and communications.
"We now have reams of data on how ISIS operates, communicates and earns its money," the official told CNN, referring to some of the communications elements, such as computers, seized in the raid. A young woman from the Yazidi religious minority was rescued.
"We suspect that Umm Sayyaf is a member of ISIL, played an important role in ISIL's terrorist activities, and may have been complicit in the enslavement of the young woman rescued last night," said Meehan. ISIL is an alternative acronym for ISIS. Meehan said Umm Sayyaf was being debriefed about ISIS operations, including any information she may have on hostages held by the terror group.
Abu Sayyaf and his wife were suspected to be involved in or have deep knowledge of ISIS hostage operations, a U.S. official with knowledge of the operation told CNN. A team from the FBI-led High Value Interrogation Group is expected to interrogate the wife, the source said. They will seek to figure out what she may know about the capture, movement and treatment of hostages.
But Michael Weiss, author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," said Abu Sayyaf was largely unknown to close observers of the organization. Weiss said he's skeptical the United States would risk lives to capture the head of ISIS's oil operations. ISIS hasn't made significant money from captured oil fields since U.S. bombers began striking its infrastructure, he said.
Carter: ISIS raid a 'significant blow' to terror group
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed in February that oil is no longer a main source of revenue for ISIS. But risking American lives to capture Abu Sayyaf makes sense to Derek Harvey, a former U.S. Army colonel, intelligence officer and the director of the Global Initiative for Civil Society and Conflict at the University of South Florida. "The most important thing about the raid is not getting Abu Sayyaf; it's getting his records," Harvey said.
Harvey asserted that Sayyaf was one of ISIS's top financiers, with likely access to the group's contacts with banks, donors, Turkish and Lebanese business interests as well as links to criminal and smuggling networks. Harvey said Sayyaf had undeniable value as a target because ISIS is also a business. "They're meticulous record-keepers," he said.
Meehan's statement added that Obama is "grateful to the brave U.S. personnel who carried out this complex mission as well as the Iraqi authorities for their support of the operation and for the use of their facilities, which contributed to its success." Meehan said the U.S. did not coordinate with nor advise Syria in advance of the operation.
"We have warned the Assad regime not to interfere with our ongoing efforts against ISIL inside of Syria," she said, adding that the "brutal actions of the regime have aided and abetted the rise of ISIL and other extremists in Syria."
The anatomy of ISIS: How the 'Islamic State' is run.
Airdrop, firefight
There is reason to believe that Abu Sayyaf may have been in contact with ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, sources familiar with the operation told CNN.
Although he was not taken alive, U.S. forces did capture some of his communications equipment, the sources said.
More details are starting to emerge of how the overnight raid deep in ISIS-controlled territory was carried out.
Delta Force was part of a multi-branch force of about 100, the sources told CNN. There was hand-to-hand combat during the operation, which was helicopter-borne, the sources told CNN.
The U.S. forces blew a hole in the side of the building, entered through the hole and encountered more ISIS fighters, the source said.
ISIS combatants tried to use human shields, but U.S. troops managed to kill the fighters without hurting the women and children, the official said without elaborating.
One of the Blackhawk helicopters took a couple of rounds of fire but was airworthy and took off, the source said.
The U.S. forces had an Arabic interpreter with them. They came across ancient artifacts in the building, including coins, which they are examining now, the source said.
About a dozen ISIS fighters were killed in the firefight at a residential building in Deir Ezzor, the sources said. A senior administration official told CNN the purpose of the mission was to capture the target, but he engaged U.S. forces so was killed.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, said at least 19 ISIS militants had been killed by coalition bombing targeting ISIS' location in al-Omar oil field in eastern Deir Ezzor.
Preliminary information indicates that the U.S.-led coalition airdropped forces following the bombardment, it said.
There are six oil and gas fields in Deir Ezzor, all of which fell into ISIS hands in July last year. They include al-Omar oil field, Syria's largest oil facility.
May 13: Iraq says ISIS No. 2 leader al-Afri killed in airstrike
Computer records
Abu Sayyaf is not a name familiar to many ISIS watchers and may well be a pseudonym. Sources familiar with the operation said he also was known by the names Abu Muhammad al Iraqi and Abd al Ghani.
But the fact that the United States clearly had him under close watch and was ready to put its forces at risk to carry out a ground raid, rather than ordering a drone strike, suggests the target was seen as very valuable.
CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen said the decision to send in U.S. Special Operations forces into Syria was unusual, but not unprecedented.
"Taking out the guy who runs effectively the most important financing stream is obviously significant, but what's really significant is the computer records and all the materials that he would have with him as the head of this financing arm, if indeed that is the case that he is really that important," said Bergen.
The potential to seize valuable intelligence material and documents may have been what led the U.S. government to opt for a high-risk ground operation rather than a bombing mission, he said.
Such targeted operations push ISIS to be more careful about how they organize themselves and run their operations, he said. "They are going to be looking over their shoulder."
Interrogation of Umm Sayyaf may also yield valuable information.
For weeks, unconfirmed reports have been circulating that al Baghdadi was seriously injured in an airstrike back in March in northern Iraq. That has led to speculation over who might emerge as his successor if he is incapacitated.
Iraqi authorities have said Abu Alaa al-Afari, his top deputy, and a senior ISIS security figure named Akram Qirbash were recently killed in an airstrike.
Who might lead ISIS if al-Baghdadi dies?
ISIS advance in Ramadi
The U.S. operation comes at the same time as a monthslong fight for the key central Iraqi city of Ramadi appears to be going ISIS' way.
The Islamist extremist group captured the police headquarters, the Ramadi Great Mosque and even raised its trademark black flag over the provincial government building, sources said Friday.
The ISIS push began Thursday, with armored bulldozers and at least 10 suicide bombings used to burst through gates and blast through walls in Ramadi, according to a security source who has since left the city. Dozens of militants followed them into the city center.
Iraqi and allied forces have fought back, with a number of coalition airstrikes targeting ISIS assets around Ramadi, in Anbar province.
On Saturday, ISIS fighters pulled out of key parts of Ramadi, including the main buildings in the middle of the city, according to two Iraqi security sources in the city who did not want to be named because they're not authorized to speak to the media.
ISIS controls a huge swath of territory across Iraq and Syria, where it is chief among the opposition groups fighting to unseat long embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
CNN's Evan Perez, John Blake, Jim Sciutto, Jamie Crawford, Jim Acosta, Sunlen Serfaty, Hamdi Alkhshali, Jason Hanna and Nick Paton Walsh contributed to this report.
Isis fighters have driven Iraqi government forces from the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. The fall of the city, which lies to the west of Baghdad, came only hours after Iraq’s prime minister called for the area’s defences to be reinforced.
Bodies, some burned, littered the streets as local officials reported the militants carried out mass killings of Iraqi security forces and civilians. Online video showed soldiers gripping on to the sides of Humvees, trucks and other equipment speeding out of the city. Muhannad Haimour, a spokesman for the governor of Anbar province, said about 500 people – civilians and Iraqi soldiers – are estimated to have been killed over the past few days.
Haimour said had been taken by Isis fighters over the weekend. They also took the military’s operational command in the city, he said. “The city was completely taken ... It was a gradual deterioration,” said Haimour. “The military is fleeing.” Isis later released a statement claiming its troops had full control of the city.
By late Sunday, a large number of Shia militiamen had arrived at a military base near Ramadi, apparently to participate in a possible counter-offensive, said the head of the Anbar provincial council, Sabah Karhout. A spokesman said on Monday that more militiamen were preparing to deploy to Anbar.
“We welcome any group, including Shia militias, to come and help us in liberating the city from the militants. What happened today is a big loss caused by lack of good planning by the military,” a tribal leader, Naeem al-Gauoud, told the Associated Press.
He said many tribal fighters died trying to defend the city, and bodies had been thrown in the Euphrates river. Ramadi’s mayor, Dalaf al-Kubaisi, said dozens of police and other government supporters were shot dead in the streets or their homes, along with their wives, children and other family members.
On Monday, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said he was confident the Isis takeover would be reversed in the coming weeks. “I am convinced that as the forces are redeployed and as the days flow in the weeks ahead that’s going to change, as overall [Isis] have been driven back ... I am absolutely confident in the days ahead that will be reversed.”
Earlier on Sunday, the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, ordered Shia militia to prepare to enter the fray after reports that the Islamic extremists had driven government forces from a key military base on the outskirts of Ramadi and that some security forces had laid down their weapons, abandoned their vehicles and fled.
By ordering the Shia militia into a Sunni-dominated region, Abadi runs the risk of their presence sparking sectarian hostilities. Sunday’s retreat recalled the collapse of Iraqi security forces last summer in the face of the Islamic State group’s blitz into Iraq during which it captured a third of the country. It also calls into question the Obama administration’s hopes of relying solely on air strikes to support the Iraqi forces in expelling the extremists.
Police and army officials said four near-simultaneous bombings targeted police officers defending the Malaab district in southern Ramadi on Sunday, killing 10 and wounding 15. Officials said that among the dead was the Malaab police station’s chief, Col Muthana al-Jabri.
A statement by the Iraqi military called on its forces not to abandon Anbar province. “Victory will be in the side of Iraq because Iraq is defending its freedom and dignity,” the military said.
Police said three suicide bombers drove explosive-laden cars into the gate of the Anbar Operation Command, the military headquarters for the province, killing five soldiers and wounding 12. Fierce clashes erupted between security forces and Isis militants following the attacks. Isis militants eventually seized the Malaab area after government forces withdrew.
A police officer, who was in Malaab and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said retreating forces left behind about 30 army vehicles and weapons, including artillery and assault rifles. He also said about two dozen police officers went missing during the fighting. Iraqi warplanes also launched air strikes on Isis positions inside Ramadi on Sunday, the Iraqi defence ministry said.
Last week, Islamic extremists swept through the city, seizing the main government headquarters and other key sites. It marked a major setback for the Iraqi government’s efforts to drive out the militants from areas they seized last year. About 24,000 people had been forced from their homes in three days of violence in the Ramadi area, said the International Organisation for Migration.
Lloyd Grove at the daily Beast wrote today about the George Stephanopoulos and Hillary Clinton transparency issue that an ABC Colleague says that George Stephanopoulos ‘Really Isn’t a Journalist’. If ABC’s chief anchor thought two apologies over his undeclared Clinton Foundation donations would be enough to pacify his critics, he was wrong. It has been a rough weekend for ABC News’s embattled chief anchor, George Stephanopoulos, and an even worse Sunday.
On CNN’s Reliable Sources media criticism program, Stephanopoulos’s former ABC News colleague, Carole Simpson, unloaded on the former top aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton that she said she likes and respects.
“There is a coziness that George cannot escape,” said Simpson, who toiled for two decades at ABC News, notably as the weekend anchor of World News Tonight from 1988 to 2003. “While he did try to separate himself from his political background to become a journalist, he really isn’t a journalist.”
Thus Simpson attempted to obliterate Stephanopoulos’s claims of impartiality as the 2016 presidential campaign heats up, featuring Hillary Clinton’s status as the prohibitive frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.
Like Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter and another former ABC News colleague, Jeff Greenfield, Simpson said she was “dumbfounded” by Thursday’s revelation that Stephanopoulos failed to disclose $75,000 in recent donations to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation—this, as he conducted a confrontational April 26 interview with Clinton Foundation critic Peter Schweizer.
“I wanted to just take him by the neck and say, ‘George, what were you thinking?’ Clearly, he was not thinking. I thought it was outrageous,” Simpson said. “And I am sorry that again the public trust in the media is being challenged and frayed because of the actions of some of the top people in the business.”
Simpson added that despite Stephanopoulos’s alleged lack of journalistic bona fides, “ABC has made him the face of ABC News, the chief anchor, and I think they’re really caught in a quandary here. While ABC says this was ‘an honest mistake,’ they don’t feel that way. Secretly, they are hopping mad, I am sure.”
“While ABC says this was ‘an honest mistake,’ they don’t feel that way. Secretly, they are hopping mad, I am sure.”
Schweizer himself told Reliable Sources that ABC had gone into ”cover-up mode” over Stephanopoulos’ lapse. Schweizer would like “a rematch” with Stephanopoulos, but ABC News has not gotten back to him, he said.
Notwithstanding ABC News’s official statement of support, asserting that the news division management “stands behind” Stephanopoulos and he won’t face suspension or other disciplinary action, “George may be in some hot water within ABC,” Simpson said. Daily Beast contributor Greenfield, a former speechwriter for New York Mayor John Lindsay and Sen. Robert Kennedy in the 1960s, was hardly more charitable.
He speculated that Stephanopoulos might have donated to the Clinton Foundation in order to repair a frayed relationship with his former employers—who felt betrayed by his best-selling White House memoir, All Too Human, and by his early prediction on ABC that the Monica Lewinsky scandal could lead to impeachment.
Greenfield added that ABC News might be forced into the decision that Stephanopoulos must recuse himself from covering the 2016 campaign at all. Stephanopoulos’s self-made mess, Greenfield said, is “an indication that very smart people are sometimes very foolish.”
Facing a rising chorus of criticism for his lapse in judgment—not just from easy-to-dismiss partisan Republicans like former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore (another guest on Reliable Sources), but, more damagingly, from journalists like Simpson and Greenfield—Stephanopoulos dug in his heels.
Apparently relying on whatever lessons he learned as a tough operative two decades ago in the presidential campaign and the White House, beating back the various Clinton scandals and mini-scandals with an aggressive offense, Stephanopoulos decided to avoid the political sin of rolling disclosure.
On ABC’s Washington panel show, This Week With George Stephanopoulos—during which the Senate’s Republican Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, did him a huge favor by appearing as guest—he gave the same word-for-word apology as he did on Friday’s Good Morning America, where he is Robin Roberts’s cohost.
Even as he acknowledged error in making his Clinton Foundation donations—having been caught by the right-leaning Washington Free Beacon and Politico—Stephanopoulos continued to insist that disclosing it would have been “go[ing] the extra mile” rather than a basic journalistic requirement.
In other words—to paraphrase another famously beleaguered public figure whose blunders were inconveniently exposed—he might not have volunteered information, but at least he was legally accurate.
In Waco, Texas, a Shooting Between Motorcycle Gangs Leaves 9 Dead and Several Injured, Police Say. The shooting, involving three rival motorcycle gangs, occurred at Central Texas Market Place on Sunday afternoon, KWTX reports. Police advised citizens to avoid the area until further notice.
Next Top Story today is disturbing to me too but also, US 'deeply concerned' by Egypt's death penalty decision for Mohamed Morsi. US joins Amnesty International and Turkey’s president in criticising mass death sentence handed to more than 100 Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
The US is “deeply concerned” about an Egyptian court decision to seek the death penalty for the former president Mohamed Morsi, a State Department official said on Sunday.
The US criticism follows condemnation from Amnesty International and Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after the court ruling on Saturday against the deposed leader and 106 supporters of his Muslim Brotherhood in connection with a mass jail break in 2011.
The ruling against Morsi is not final until 2 June. All capital sentences are referred to Egypt’s top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion, and are also subject to legal appeal. “We are deeply concerned by yet another mass death sentence handed down by an Egyptian court to more than 100 defendants, including former president Morsi,” the State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“We have consistently spoken out against the practice of mass trials and sentences, which are conducted in a manner that is inconsistent with Egypt’s international obligations and the rule of law,” he said. The official, noted, however, that Saturday’s death sentence ruling was “preliminary”.
Morsi and his fellow defendants were convicted on charges of killing and kidnapping policemen, attacking police facilities and breaking out of jail during the uprising. Morsi, who became Egypt’s first freely elected president in 2012 after the ousting of president Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising, has said the court is not legitimate, describing proceedings against him as part of a coup by former army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in 2013.
Despite US lawmakers’ concerns that Egypt is lagging on democratic reforms, Egypt remains one of Washington’s closest security allies in the region. Relations cooled after Morsi was overthrown by the military nearly two years ago, but ties with Sisi, his successor, have steadily improved. In late March, Barack Obama lifted a hold on a supply of arms to Cairo, authorising deliveries of US weapons valued at more than $1.3bn.
The shows Mad Men and the David Letterman show end shows this week. I have never even seen an episode of mad Men but I read about it and I like that actor that plays Don Draper (Something Hamm).
Warning: There are spoilers ahead.
The series finale of "Mad Men" ended on the popular 1971 Coca-Cola ad, "I'd like to Buy the World a Coke."
While the ending may have left some wondering why that was the ad "Mad Men" ended on, diehard fans of the series will know the famous commercial was alluded to way back in season one.
In episode 9, "Shoot," Don Draper (Jon Hamm) takes then-wife Betty (January Jones) to the theater to see a show. During intermission, Betty speaks with Jim Hobart, the head of McCann Erickson.
While making small talk, Hobart mentions he's working on an international campaign for Coca-Cola and invites Betty to try out as a potential model given her resemblance to Grace Kelly. Interested by the idea of returning to modeling, Betty takes Hobart up on his offer, trying out for the ad campaign.
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The "Mad Men" finale brings the Coke storyline full circle.
At the end of the episode, the 1971 ad that plays was made by McCann Erickson, the agency Hobart worked for in season one.
Funny enough, the ad even ended up with two prominent blonde haired young women, similar in appearance to a young Betty Draper.
However, Hobart's main interest in Betty is to try and steal Don away from Sterling-Cooper. Hobart sends over the images of Betty to Don, but the ad man isn't having any of it.
Don isn't bought easily.
As a result, Betty doesn't end up on the Coca-Cola account.
Hobart shows up again in season 7, episode 2, "A Day's Work," trying to court Draper another time (not particularly for a Coca-Cola campaign).
David Letterman ends his show with all-star lineup.
The three-night farewell to "Late Show With David Letterman" kicks off at 11:35 tonight. Here's the rundown.
Tonight: Tom Hanks, who first appeared with Letterman on "Late Night" April 4, 1984, will make his 60th total appearance. And Eddie Vedder is the musical guest.
Tuesday: Bill Murray (pictured), Letterman's first guest on "Late Night" (Feb. 1, 1982) and his first guest on the "Late Show" (Aug. 30, 1993) will make his 44th and final appearance. And Bob Dylan will perform. It will be Dylan's first performance on "Late Show" in nearly 22 years. He appeared twice on "Late Night" (1984 and 1992).
Wednesday: As of Friday, CBS had not released details about the final "Late Show," saying only that it "will be an hour filled with surprises, memorable highlights, the show's final Top Ten List and more."
Tonight: Tom Hanks, who first appeared with Letterman on "Late Night" April 4, 1984, will make his 60th total appearance. And Eddie Vedder is the musical guest.
Tuesday: Bill Murray (pictured), Letterman's first guest on "Late Night" (Feb. 1, 1982) and his first guest on the "Late Show" (Aug. 30, 1993) will make his 44th and final appearance. And Bob Dylan will perform. It will be Dylan's first performance on "Late Show" in nearly 22 years. He appeared twice on "Late Night" (1984 and 1992).
Wednesday: As of Friday, CBS had not released details about the final "Late Show," saying only that it "will be an hour filled with surprises, memorable highlights, the show's final Top Ten List and more."
Mika's Know Your Values Event in Washington DC went down this weekend. NBC's Andrea Mitchell and msnbc's Alex Wagner discuss challenges facing female journalists at the Know Your Value event in Washington, DC.
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Last, the student that was accepted to every Ivy League school and that turns them all down (Ronald Nelson) is on the Morning Joe Show today. Evidently, he had a difficult decision to make after he was accepted to every single Ivy League school, and turned every one of them down. He has chosen to go to Alabama in part because of the fees. I think he says that he would have had huge debt after going to one of the non state schools compared to the cost of attending an Alabama University. As we all know, Joe (Scarbough) (I also think he said hios sons is too now) is a 'Bama alum.
Regardless of it all today, Please stay in touch!
Regardless of it all today, Please stay in touch!
