Tag: interview

During a 15-minute interview Sunday with Chuck Todd on Meet The Press, presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg defended himself against critiques that he lacks political experience while also criticizing President Donald Trump's caustic rhetoric. Todd began by asking Buttigieg — mayor of South Bend, Indiana — why he felt qualified to sit in the Oval Office, despite never having served as an elected official in Washington like other contenders for the Democratic ticket, including Senators Elizabeth Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. In response, Buttigieg argued that his relative inexperience was, in acutality, an advantage. "I would stack up my experience against anybody," he said. "I know it’s not as traditional, I haven’t been marinating in Washington here for a very long time and I’m not part of that same establishment but I would argue that being a mayor of a city of any size means that you have to deal with the kinds of issues that hit really hit Americans." He continued by noting his extensive experience serving in the U.S. military, and then suggested his candidacy would be an antidote to the fiery rhetoric oozing out of the Trump administration, which he said suffers from a “loss of vision” and a “loss of decency.” “It just might make sense for somebody my age, coming from experience in the industrial midwest, nonfederal, different background, bringing something that will actually help Americans envision the world as it will be in 2054, the year that I will be the current age of the current president,” he said in the conversation. “And just change the channel from this mesmerizing horror show that’s going on in Washington right now.” Buttigieg, who is still in the exploratory stage of his campaign, is expected to make an official announcement next week in South Bend, Indiana, where he serves as the city's mayor. So far, the 37-year-old—who would make history not just as the youngest president ever, but also as the first openly gay politician to nab a spot on a major party ticket— has made moderate gains by framing himself as the political and ideological antithesis of President Donald Trump. When asked to square Trump’s support among evangelicals with the president’s actions, Buttigieg said it was “frustrating” since Trump was preoccupied with “chest-thumping look at me-ism” rather than the tenants found in scripture. He continued, "You see the diametric opposite of [biblical teachings] in this presidency."

Aa Aa Kaja Kallas, leader of the opposition Reform party which won the Estonian elections over the weekend, gave an interview with Raw Politics host Tesa Arcilla on Wednesday. Kallas is on track to become the country's first female prime minister. A lawyer by training and former MEP, she addressed how she was asked to be more masculine while on the campaign trail. "There were times during the campaign when the polls didn't show very good results. There was a lot of pressure on me that I should do something differently. There were two people who gave advice, and they meant well, they gave me advice like: wear trousers, cut your hair, be more aggressive, speak with a lower voice." "To me, it sounded like: 'be more masculine'. So I was wondering, it might be, that (since) the leaders of our country have been mostly male, that people may think there's something wrong with me because I'm different. Kallas also discussed Estonian politics and the rise of far-right groups. Watch the full interview in the player above.

Donald Trump returned to the attack against Andrew McCabe on Monday, in response to an interview in which the former deputy FBI director discussed his new book and made claims damaging to the president. 'I believe Putin': Trump dismissed US advice on North Korea threat, says McCabe Read more In the interview, broadcast by CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday night, McCabe addressed, among other matters: How the deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein was told by Trump to write a memo justifying the firing of FBI director James Comey in May 2017 How, following the firing of Comey, McCabe ordered investigations of whether it was done to impede the investigation of Russian election interference and whether Trump was acting on behalf of the Russian government How he believes that is why he himself was fired Discussions about whether Trump could be removed from office under the 25th amendment Discussions about whether Rosenstein should wear a wire to record the president How Trump ignored US intelligence advice on North Korea’s nuclear capability and said: “I don’t care. So it was really something that he kinda threw out in a very frenzied chaotic conversation.” The deputy attorney general also offered to wear a wire to record conversations with Trump, McCabe said. “The deputy attorney general [DAG] never authorized any recording that Mr McCabe references,” the statement said. The president may have been engaged in obstruction of justice in the firing of Jim Comey Andrew McCabe He told CBS: “Rod was concerned by his interactions with the president, who seemed to be very focused on firing the director and saying things like, ‘Make sure you put Russia in your memo.’ That concerned Rod in the same way that it concerned me and the FBI investigators on the Russia case. “If Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein listed the Russia investigation in his memo to the White House, it could look like he was obstructing the Russia probe by suggesting Comey’s firing. And the president responded, ‘I understand that, I am asking you to put Russia in the memo anyway.’” Publicly, shortly after Comey’s firing, Trump told NBC he had done it because of “this Russia thing”. The president, then, fired the director. “In the firing of the director, the president specifically asked Rod Rosenstein to write the memo justifying the firing and told Rod to include Russia in the memo. On CBS, McCabe was asked how he could remember conversations with Trump well enough to put them in a book.

Action News reporter Dann Cuellar spoke exclusively to two men Thursday night who have a lot to say about the Johnny Doc and Bobby Henon charges. Fumo says for years, they suspected something was amiss at Local 98 and couldn't understand how John Dougherty was getting away with it. "For years, people thought John was a confidential informant for the feds," said Fumo. "That's the kind of ego John has, he's very vindictive, he's very power hungry," added Fumo Former Councilman Rick Mariano said, "I wish Councilman Henon, hope he gets out of it, I wish he would have listened to me when I told him when I came home from prison, 'Do you trust these people with your future?'" Mariano shudders at what both John Dougherty and Bob Henon may go through should they end up in prison. Not to mention the costs of going to trial. "My case cost me 10 million dollars, fortunately for me, I'd just sold my bank," said Fumo. "Oh I think the mayor should give back not only that but the money that he got in the last election, I think he has an obligation," said Fumo. Mariano urges Henon to cop a plea. "Could be a lot more to come and I think there's a lot of people out there still concerned," he said.

Sirius XM radio and Fox Nation host David Webb reacts to CNN legal analyst Areva Martin accusing him of 'white privilege' during a debate on his radio show. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to…

Former Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke faced across-the-board criticism on Tuesday after an unflattering interview in The Washington Post portrayed him as equivocal and unsure on a variety of substantive policy issues. O'Rourke, 46, is widely considered a possible 2020 presidential contender, after falling only a few percentage points shy of dethroning incumbent Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2018 midterm elections. At one point in the two-hour chat with The Post's Jenna Johnson, O'Rourke openly wondered whether the U.S. can "still be managed by the same principles that were set down 230-plus years ago" in the Constitution. Asked what could be done about illegal immigrants who overstayed their visas, O'Rourke told Johnson simply, “I don’t know." Asked about the planned Syria pullout, he responded that there should be "a debate, a discussion, a national conversation about why we’re there, why we fight, why we sacrifice the lives of American service members, why we’re willing to take the lives of others. ... We haven’t had a meaningful discussion about these wars since 2003.” Asked whether the U.S. is capable of change, O'Rourke was again equivocal: "I’m hesitant to answer it," he said, "because I really feel like it deserves its due, and I don’t want to give you a — actually, just selfishly, I don’t want a sound bite of it reported, but, yeah, I think that’s the question of the moment: Does this still work? "When it comes to immigration policy and changing the way things are, he has few solutions — and would rather debate and discuss the topic," Johnson wrote on Twitter. Just knows one thing: He's against a wall," Washington Examiner chief political correspondent and Fox News contributor Byron York wrote on Twitter. "Beto might have to figure out what he thinks about Syria before the first debate," commented CNN political reporter Rebecca Buck. In a move that channeled O'Rourke and New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Warren broadcast herself in her kitchen on New Year's Eve using Instagram Live, drinking a beer and thanking her husband for his presence.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) tells CNN's Anderson Cooper why he thinks there should be a vote on a bill to protect special counsel Robert Mueller. #CNN #News

Katy Tur reports from an Atlanta precinct as polls just closed in Georgia. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines, insightful political commentary and informed perspectives. Reaching more than 95…