Sunday Round-up
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson went 5-for-5 today, hitting all of the political gabfests to discuss Obama’s just-completed summit on extremism and the Administration’s unwillingness to use the word “Islamic” when discussing terrorists.
The main takeaway from his appearances on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, FOX News Sunday and CNN’s State of the Nation was his warning to shoppers at the Mall of America in Minnesota. Al Shabaab—the Somali terrorist group—issued a video threatening the nation’s largest shopping mall. The Somali al Qaeda affiliate carried out the infamous and deadly Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, nearly two years ago. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali immigrant community in America.
The other lead was Rudy Giuliani’s appearance at a fundraiser for 2016 hopeful Gov. Scott Walker (WI). He handed the political media a plateful of red meat when he said that he doesn’t think Obama “loves America.” It’s turned in to something of a litmus test for the other candidates, with Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush all avoiding the mistake made by Walker when he refused to distance himself from Giuliani’s attention-grabbing bloviation.
Finally, the best and worst of Sunday came on Meet the Press. After spending a lot of time talking about Giuliani, they featured an excellent explainer by Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel on the debacle that is Libya. Engel explored how America’s attack on a country that didn’t attack America fueled problems in Syria and Iraq, while helping catalyze the rise of ISIS. On the other hand, they gobbled up airtime with an “NBC Exclusive” from the set of the Netflix series “House of Cards” and then closed the panel discussion with a chat about their favorite fictional presidents. Say “Goodnight,” Gracie. |