Joining today's show are Mike Barnicle, Phil Mattingly, Michael Steele, William McCants, Harold Ford Jr., Peter Alexander, Jennifer Granholm, Jim Miklaszewski, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Chris Jansing, Anne Thompson, Kelly O’Donnell, Kasie Hunt, Fmr. Amb. Ray Flynn, Chris Matthews, Andrea Mitchell, Greg Burke and more
I got sick yesterday afternoon. I assume I was already sick but I gave into it yesterday and last night. I am much better today but not perfect though.
Did Yogi Berra die? Damn. 90 years old too. Yankees icon and Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra did die at age 90.
On the field, Berra was regarded as one of the greatest catchers of all time. Over his 19-year playing career, Berra hit .285/.348/.482, with 358 home runs. He made 15 straight All-Star games and won three MVP awards during his 18 seasons with the Yankees.
Berra appeared in 14 World Series as a player, winning 10 of them. Both of those figures are a major-league record. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1972. The Yankees also retired Berra's No. 8 that same year. Following his retirement, Berra was named the Yankees manager. He initially lasted just one season with the club, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series in seven games. After he was fired, Berra joined the Mets as a coach. He actually appeared in four games in 1965 with the team before finally transitioning into a full-time coach with the team. Berra would eventually manage four seasons with the Mets, taking them to the World Series in 1973. The team lost in seven games. With the Mets, Berra compiled a 292-296 record. The Yankees brought him back aboard in 1984, but Berra didn't last long. He was fired just 16 games into the 1985 season after the team got off to a slow start. In seven seasons as a manager, Berra compiled a 484-444 record.
All of those accomplishments, however, might be overshadowed by Berra's vivacious personality off the field. Berra is responsible for a number of famous quotes about the game, including "it ain't over till it's over." He also said "baseball is ninety percent mental, and the other half is physical," and "love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too."
Berra's confusing quotes were the focus on a couple of ad campaigns, including this 1987 commercial for Miller Lite.
Whether you root for the Yankees or not, it wasn't hard to respect Berra's play on the field, or enjoy his personality once he stepped away from the game. Major League Baseball is undoubtedly a less entertaining place without Yogi Berra.
Anyway,the Pope landed in DC last night. Meetings, prayer and parade: Pope Francis prepares for D.C. debut. Pope Francis speaks directly to Americans for the first time Wednesday, as thousands of people gather in the shadow of the Washington Monument for a glimpse of the man whose humility and love for the poor has electrified the global Catholic Church.
President Barack Obama will deploy the full pageantry of the White House to officially welcome Francis, who at the age of 78 is making his debut visit to a nation pulsing with the market capitalism and rampant consumerism he often decries.
After speeches from the President and the Pope, the two men will hold private talks, with only a translator present, in the Oval Office. Officials will not disclose what they will discuss, but issues such as the U.S. opening to Cuba that Francis helped broker, immigration, economic inequality and climate change could come up.
Then, as an intense security operation swings into action, Francis will climb aboard his Popemobile, and slowly navigate a route through the ceremonial plaza south of the White House known as the Ellipse and onto the National Mall.
Pope Francis shakes hands with dignitaries, including Vice President Joe Biden, after his plane landed. Huge crowds are expected to greet Francis, whose frequent shows of charity to the needy and spartan Jesuit lifestyle have helped reinvograte the image of the church after an era of abuse scandals thinned congregations.
The Pope's speech will be closely watched for how far he strays onto perilous political ground on issues such as the treatment of undocumented migrants, abortion, global warming and the plight of those left destitute by capitalism's excesses.
American Catholics also are waiting to see whether the Spanish-speaking Pope goes off script -- as he sometimes does to speak candidly -- or whether his lack of fluency in English will mean he is less spontaneous than usual.
Both Republicans and Democrats, feuding in the early exchanges of the 2016 presidential race, will find plenty to chew over in his remarks.
But as he flew to the United States from Cuba on Tuesday, Francis told reporters he was not a politician and rejected the idea that he was a socialist, or a "lefty" following complaints by some conservatives he has embraced too many progressive causes.
On his plane on the way to Washington , the Pope admitted he "may have given the impression of being a little more to the left, but it would not be a correct interpretation."
"My doctrine ... this is the social doctrine of the Church. Nothing more, nothing less," he said.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest, meanwhile, said that Obama had no intention of using his talks with Francis to advance a political agenda, but did argue that the two leaders share common political and economic values.
"This is a president who has been animated even before he started running for public office by the idea that we need to fight for social and economic justice both in this country and around the world," Earnest told CNN. "This has been a hallmark of Pope Francis even before he arrived in the Vatican."
Francis will later preside over the canonization of 18th-century Spanish priest Junipero Serra at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
On Thursday, in the most political moment of his trip, the Pope will address a joint meeting of Congress. Later in the week, he heads to New York, where he will address the United Nations before ending his six-day stay in the United States in Philadelphia on Sunday. CNN's Daniel Burke contributed to this report
Bloomberg Poll: Joe Biden Now Top Presidential Choice for 1 in 4 Democrats. As Hillary Clinton's ratings tumble, nearly half of those surveyed say they want the vice president in the race. One quarter of Americans who are registered Democrats or lean that way say Vice President Joe Biden is now their top choice for president. The findings of a national Bloomberg Politics poll released Wednesday represent a notable achievement for an as-yet undeclared candidate, suggest concerns about Hillary Clinton's candidacy, and raise the prospect of a competitive three-way race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton, once the prohibitive front-runner, is now the top choice of 33 percent of registered Democrats and those who lean Democrat, the poll shows. Biden places second with 25 percent and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is at 24 percent. The other three Democratic candidates combined are the top choice for less than 4 percent of that base.
Recent polls in states that will host the earliest contests of the presidential campaign, Iowa and New Hampshire, have shown Sanders closing in on and, in some cases, surpassing Clinton with Biden in a more distant third place. As Clinton's numbers have dropped, the vice president has been openly mulling a late entry into the race. But he is delaying a decision to allow himself and his family an opportunity to grieve the death of his son Beau to brain cancer.
The latest Bloomberg survey shows the vice president at par with Sanders in terms of Democratic support nationally. Adding to the good news for the vice president: His favorability ratings are on the rise. Since the last Bloomberg poll in April, Clinton's favorability ratings have dropped 10 points, from 48 percent to 38 percent. Biden's 49 percent favorable score represents a 3-point uptick. He was the only one of a dozen national political figures and entities whose approval rating improved over the summer.
“He's been a very good, positive influence on the Obama administration,” said Karen Hood, a 63-year-old consulting engineer from Houston, Texas, who said that Biden is her first choice. “I think he would help carry on what President Obama has started.”
Clinton has been holding onto first place thanks to the the support of women Democrats who are registered voters, said J. Ann Selzer, whose firm conducted the poll. Among women, Clinton gets 35 percent support compared to 31 percent among men. Sanders, meanwhile, enjoys a reverse gender gap: 30 percent of men support him, compared to 20 percent of women. Among male Democrats, Clinton edges Sanders by a single point, 31 percent to his 30 percent. Biden, who has worked hard to win women's support by emphasizing his work on issues such as the Violence Against Women Act, draws support about equally from both genders.
Sanders is still unknown to about one in three registered Democrats. Only six percent say they don't know Biden.
The survey also asked U.S. adults across party lines whether they think Biden, 72, who has twice run unsuccessfully for president, should get into the race or stay out. Forty-seven percent said he should run, while 37 percent prefer for him to stay out and 15 percent aren’t sure.
A closer look at the sample of the Democrat and Democrat-leaning poll respondents shows that nationally, Clinton is better liked by women than men—74 percent to 64 percent—while Biden's favorability is closer to gender-neutral, with 81 percent for women and 79 percent for men. The survey also found those who are married or have children under the age of 18 were more likely to give Biden favorable ratings than Clinton.
Opinions on President Barack Obama are fairly evenly divided: 46 percent of survey participants said they approve of the job he's doing and 47 percent don't. Obama is underwater on most issues, with 47 percent approving of his handling of the economy and 44 percent approving of his work on health care, but his ratings are much lower on his handling of the Republican-controlled Congress and the nuclear deal with Iran. He gets just 35 percent approval on each of those issues.
The poll of 1,001 adults, including 375 registered Democrats and Democrat-leaners, was conducted Sept. 18-21 for Bloomberg Politics by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, Iowa. The overall sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, while the Democratic sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.
POLITICO reports that Top unions put brakes on Clinton endorsement. SEIU and AFSCME decide to hold off, in part because of a prospective Joe Biden candidacy. Two major unions have decided to delay endorsements in the presidential race -- a move labor insiders attribute in part to the uncertainty Vice President Joe Biden’s potential run has inserted into the Democratic primary.
The decisions are a setback for Hillary Clinton, who has been courting the labor giants in the hopes of an early lock down of two powerhouse unions that can organize millions of members and resources on the ground. And they come against the backdrop of a Clinton campaign show of force -- in terms of establishment donors, delegates and endorsements -- as Biden weighs his options. Adding the support of two of the most muscular unions now would have sent a powerful message there is little room in the race for the vice president.
The executive committee of the 2-million strong Service Employees International Union gathered on Sept. 16 and 17 for meetings where many had been expecting agreement on endorsing Clinton, according to union insiders, although a vote was not on the schedule. The board of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -- the country’s largest public employee union, which endorsed Clinton in 2007 and has been expected to do so this year -- also held meetings in Washington, D.C., on Monday and Tuesday this week that presented an occasion for AFSCME to endorse.
Both unions, however, chose to put off any decision and remain uncommitted in the 2016 race. "We are determined to take the time necessary to make sure every voice is heard," an AFSCME official told POLITICO.
Supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders hailed the delay as a victory, and attributed it as much to Biden’s influence on the race from the sidelines as Sanders’ momentum.
“The hesitation on their part is likely due as much to Bernie as to Biden -- he throws uncertainty into the mix,” said Rand Wilson, communications director for SEIU local 888 in Boston, who personally supports Sanders. “This gives more time for the supporters of Sanders to work hard to win their national leadership’s support. It’s very positive.”
The former president of the Communications Workers of America, Larry Cohen, who now serves as a campaign advisor to Sanders, said: “Both of those unions recognize their members are in different places, and they’re really encouraging their members to stay active and they’ll check in later.”
Both unions could still endorse before the end of the year. The SEIU board next meets in November; AFSCME does not need to assemble its board to take a vote.
Clinton has been actively courting SEIU, which represents more than 2 million healthcare, public service and food service workers. Last month in Los Angeles, she met with a small group of home healthcare workers and told them she was in favor of improving work conditions and increasing wages. Back in June, she called into a conference of fast-food workers in Chicago to lend some support to their push for a $15 minimum wage -- although she stopped short of endorsing the national movement (she has since endorsed a $15 minimum wage for fast food workers in New York). She also appeared by video at a Fight for $15 convention in Detroit this summer.
SEIU officials said the union has no timetable for an endorsement. Local leaders, they said, are still in the process of engaging members on the issues and candidates they support. Union officials said the polls so far show Clinton with the highest level of support from members, with 75 percent of members feeling favorable toward her.
But it has also faced vocal pressure from Sanders supporters to refrain from endorsing. Ahead of its September meeting, hundreds of SEIU leaders, members, retirees and staff signed a petition urging the union to hold off, arguing that an early Clinton endorsement would put the union in direct opposition to a growing movement of Sanders’ supporters fighting for progressive causes, like the Fight for $15.
At a meeting with AFSCME in June, Clinton told the board: "Unions provide balance to our economy and a boost to every Americans, we're all therefore better off."
In 2008, SEIU allowed local unions to endorse on a state-by-state basis in the fall of 2007. Its executive board eventually endorsed Barack Obama in February 2008.
AFSCME, which represents 1.3 million healthcare workers, correction officers, sanitation workers and other public sector employees, has been conducting polling since spring, and livestreamed its town halls with candidates in Iowa. "We have created unprecedented opportunities for every member around the country to play an active part in this important decision and there is no predetermined timeline for a decision," the AFSCME official said.
Top union officials are also looking to avoid the revolt among rank-and-file teachers who publicly called on the American Federation of Teachers to withdraw its endorsement of Clinton last July, claiming there had been little internal discussion with teachers before the union backed Clinton.
“Hillary Clinton is proud of the six unions that have already endorsed her campaign -- representing 3 million workers -- and she looks forward to earning the support of more in the weeks and months ahead,” said Clinton campaign spokesman Jesse Ferguson.
In addition to the AFT, Clinton’s campaign has scored the backing of some smaller AFL-CIO affiliates, such as the Machinists Union, the Roofers and Waterproofers Union, the Bricklayers Union, and the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union. On Tuesday, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America announced their endorsement of Clinton. That puts her labor support ahead of Sanders, who so far has the backing only of the 175,000-member National Nurses United.
FBI reportedly recovers deleted emails from Clinton server. Federal investigators reportedly have recovered work-related and personal emails from Hillary Clinton's time as secretary of state that the Democratic presidential front-runner claimed had been deleted from her personal server.
The recovery of the emails was first reported by Bloomberg News late Tuesday. The initial report, which cited a source familiar with the FBI investigation into Clinton's private email server, was corroborated by The New York Times, which cited two government officials.
It was not immediately clear whether all 30,000 messages Clinton said she had deleted from the server had been recovered, but one official told the Times that it had not been difficult to recover the emails that had been found so far.
The FBI is investigating whether classified information that passed through Clinton's so-called "homebrew" server during her time as secretary of state was mishandled. Clinton turned over approximately 30,000 copies of messages she deemed work-related to the State Department this past December. Clinton said earlier this year that the emails she deleted from the private server she kept at her Chappaqua, N.Y., home mostly pertained to personal matters such as her daughter Chelsea’s wedding and the secretary’s yoga routines.
An intelligence source told Fox News earlier this month that investigators were "confident" they could recover the deleted records. The source said that whoever had been deputized to scrub the server must "not be a very good IT guy. There are different standards to scrub when you do it for government versus commercial."
It is not known when exactly Mrs. Clinton “wiped” her server, nor who was directed to do so. However, it seems the move came after October 2014, when the State Department requested personal emails be returned as part of her business records.
The source also told Fox News an FBI "A-team" is leading the "extremely serious" investigation into Clinton's server and the focus includes a provision of the law pertaining to "gathering, transmitting or losing defense information. The section of the Espionage Act in question is known as 18 US Code 793.
When asked about the report, Clinton’s presidential campaign spokesman Nick Merrill told Fox News that Clinton’s team “will always cooperate with the FBI,” and that Clinton and her staff “simply don’t know what the FBI has, and doesn’t have” in regard to the ongoing investigation.
Fox News’ Ed Henry said Tuesday that should the report of the newly-recovered emails prove true, some of the emails recovered would already be in investigators’ hands.
A separate source, who also was not authorized to speak on the record, said the FBI will further determine whether Clinton should have known, based on the quality and detail of the material, that emails passing through her server contained classified information regardless of the markings. The campaign's standard defense and that of Clinton is that she "never sent nor received any email that was marked classified" at the time.
It is not clear how the FBI team's findings will impact the probe itself. But the details offer a window into what investigators are looking for -- as the Clinton campaign itself downplays the controversy. Fox News’ Ed Henry, Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne contributed to this report.
Trump discusses Muslim remark with "60 Minutes". In a "60 Minutes" interview that will air on Sunday, Scott Pelley asked Donald Trump why he didn't respond to an anti-Muslim remark at a recent rally. The front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination said he would welcome Muslims in his administration. Scott Pelley Interviews Trump About Handling Of Muslim Question: "I Wonder What That Tells Us About You". In a clip from his upcoming interview with Donald Trump to air on Sunday's 60 Minutes, CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley brought up the way the candidate for president handled a man calling President Obama a Muslim at a recent townhall event.
"You let that pass," Pelley said of the Muslim question, "and I wonder what that tells us about you."
Scott Pelley: We were with you in New Hampshire when that man stood up...
Donald Trump: Yes.
Pelley: And said, "We have a problem in this country and it's Muslims." You let that pass. And I wonder what that tells us about you.
Trump: Well, he said much more than that. That was part of the statement. He then went onto say other things.
Pelley: But the bigotry part.
Trump: Right. He said mostly about Obama. That whole question was about -- I don't have to defend President Obama. He's not gonna defend me. So whether you agree with the man or don't agree -- and there were people in that audience, as you probably noticed, that did agree with him.
Pelley: It was a testing moment for a man running for president.
Trump: I don't think so.
Pelley: You never -- you never know when they're coming.
Trump: I don't think so.
Pelley: Here you had a bigot --
Trump: That wasn't a testing. Well, you don't know that.
Pelley: -- you could've slapped down.
Trump: You don't know that. I mean, he asked a question. You don't know that he was a bigot. But look.
Pelley: "Problem in this country is Muslims"?
Trump: Well, let me ask you this. So he said, "There's a problem in this country and it's Muslims." All right. I love the Muslims. I have many, many friends -- people living in this building, Muslims. They're phenomenal people. But like everything else you have people where there are problems.
Now we could say there are no problems with the Muslims. There's no problems. There's no terrorism. There's no problems. There's no anything. They didn't knock down the World Trade Center. To the best of my knowledge the people that knocked down the World Trade Center -- you know where they're -- they didn't fly back to Sweden.
Carson stands by Muslim president remarks, Trump weighs in. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Monday that he "absolutely" stood by his comments about not supporting a Muslim president, while also clarifying that he was referring to Muslims who had not rejected Islamic Sharia law.
"We don't put people at the head of our country whose faith might interfere with them carrying out the duties of the Constitution," the retired neurosurgeon told Fox News' Sean Hannity. "If you're a Christian and you're running for president and you want to make this [country] into a theocracy, I'm not going to support you. I'm not going to advocate you being the president."
"Now, if someone has a Muslim background, and they’re willing to reject those tenets and to accept the way of life that we have, and clearly will swear to place our Constitution above their religion, then of course they will be considered infidels and heretics, but at least I would then be quite willing to support them," Carson added.
Earlier Monday, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump -- who himself has faced criticism for not correcting a questioner who called President Obama a Muslim -- told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren that he could support a Muslim president.
"If properly vetted – the proper people properly vetted – going through an election, I think that anybody that is able to win an election will be absolutely fine," Trump said, later adding,"This is a long, tough road, Greta, I can tell you and it really is very revealing and I would have no problem with it, no."
Trump also addressed the controversy that arose when he chose not to correct a town hall questioner in New Hampshire who called Obama a foreign-born Muslim. Trump said he considered challenging the questioner at the time, but chose not to.
Donald Trump defends his remarks about Muslims
"Somebody was asking a question and actually making a statement, and it’s not my job to defend the president,” Trump told Van Susteren. “The president is capable of defending himself ... President Obama will be able to defend himself if he wants to. I know one thing he’s not going to defend me. If somebody says something about me, Greta, he’s not defending me, that’s for sure,” Trump said.
Carson came under heavy criticism for his initial remarks, which were broadcast on NBC's "Meet The Press" Sunday. Carson, a devout Christian, told moderator Chuck Todd a president's faith should matter to voters if it runs counter to the values and principles of America. In response to a follow-up question about whether he would support a Muslim candidate for president, Carson said, "I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation," Carson said. "I absolutely would not agree with that."
Carson also doubled down on his comments in a statement posted on Facebook late Monday, in which he fired back at his fellow Republican candidates who criticized him.
"Those Republicans that take issue with my position are amazing," the Facebook statement said. "Under Islamic Law, homosexuals – men and women alike – must be killed. Women must be subservient. And people following other religions must be killed. I know that there are many peaceful Muslims who do not adhere to these beliefs. But until these tenants are fully renounced ... I cannot advocate any Muslim candidate for President."
Carson added, jokingly, "I also can’t advocate supporting Hillary Clinton either by the way."
The GOP candidates who criticized Carson's initial statement included Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who told Hannity, "I don’t believe anybody should be disqualified from the presidency because of their denomination or because of their faith." Earlier Monday, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the remarks were "not productive", and former New York Gov. George Pataki compared Carson's statement to anti-Catholic campaigning against John F. Kennedy in 1960.
Carson's comments were also attacked by Democrats, with Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz saying Sunday, "It's hard to understand what's so difficult about supporting an American citizen's right to run for president.
"But unsurprisingly, this left Republicans scratching their heads. Of course a Muslim, or any other American citizen, can run for president, end of story." The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Regardless of how I feel sick yesterday and today, please stay in touch!
