Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Elections is something that actually the fcc should be looking into. Theyre preparing for impeachment and theyre trying to win hearts and minds. Ken, they did so, i imagine not being a lawyer but a layperson, at some professional peril. Listen to what mimi rocah said. I suppose it could attract some attention, American Bar Association type stuff. Does the base need that much bolstering that these guys have to dog and pony it across xm radio . Brian, its very much a part of the pr strategy that the president himself has led and set the tone for, and it just shows frankly how far Rudy Giuliani has come from when he first started on the legal team and famously was sort of chastised by donald trump for not having his facts straight on the Stormy Daniels payment, the 130,000 hush payment to Stormy Daniels. Now you see him very much channeling the president , talking about a witch hunt, suggesting that there needs to be an investigation of muellers
team, and we do see that strategy having some effect. If you look at the polls. Its not just the base, it is numbers rising of folks who are skeptical of Robert Mueller and therefore might be less inclined to accept the results of his investigation. That i think rather although it may be partly what frank was saying, a preparation for impeachment, but its certainly also a preparation to try to undermine any adverse findings that Robert Mueller might come with in his report. Annie, have we ever seen anything like this . Youve got the fox news involvement with sean hannity handing off to two lawyers for the president of the United States. I mean, it goes it speaks more to the odd role that hannity is playing too, that hannity is a white house adviser, and the interchangeability between i mean, its one thing to have these guys on his show as guests and another thing to actually hand over the reins as hosts, ac taking calls from listeners. The lines are blurred between all the roles here with lawyers playing the role of spokespeople, tv hosts playing the roles of advisers. Theyre all on the same team at the bottom line, and thats what we saw here today. Lets not forget sean hannity, Michael Cohen client. Hey, frank, lets talk about the signs that things are tightening around roger stone and tell us where you expect this to be going. Roger stone is going to turn out to be a bigger fish than many people realize. Weve all been focused on manafort and the Trump Tower Meeting and gates, but while were focused on that muellers been ratcheting up the effort on stone. And why is he doing that . Because i believe that stone can put the crime in the collusion concept. By that i mean the mysterious connections between stone, wikileaks, julian assange, and the hacking into the dnc and the release of those emails. Mueller is focused on that like
ken, given what you know and talk about what stone has called his 40year friendship with donald trump and the kind of damage a guy like that can do. Yes, i also think that roger stone, frank used the phrase, trip into, roger stone has made a long career of sort of exaggerating this role and his significance in some of these episodes of dark arts and dirty tricks. All the way back from watergate, where he was just the tiniest bit player in the nixon operation but has managed to make a whole career out of this sort of personification of himself as a dirty trickster. And i think this ends up being a little bit of careful what you wish for. Its true that he was sort of a bit player by the end on the Trump Campaign but that he also continued to try to insert himself in ways that were sort of at the margeins and that he did interact with an internet
persona, this guccifer 2, that mueller one of his recent indictments has revealed was in fact operated by russian intelligence. So he sort of by almost by accident became the very sort of character that he portray himself as and ultimately be his undoing. Annie, i have been reading and following you all day. I need you to perform a service on a friday night in august, we send them off into the good night knowing everything there is to know on all of the stories out there. Thats where you come in and you get to tell our Audience Everything they need to know about this new book by Omarosa Including but not limited to a scene where the president is eating paper and the fact that she gave an npr interview apparently that conflicted with a tale in the book about the president s alleged use of the n word. Have at it. Its a lot. So omarosa was fired from the white house last december, and
she she gets the prize for being the first tellall memoir out of this white house. And its a weird one because theres questions about omarosas credibility, what is true. Her allegations are serious. She claims first out of the gate that she calls the president a bigot, a misogynist, all the bad words she says that he used the n word and she has tapes to prove it. This is where She Couldnt Rah dictated herself. In the book she writes that she has not heard the tape of him calling the n word but she has confirmed its existence. In the npr interview she claims that she heard him say it herself. I think thats what it is. She claims that he ate a piece of paper when Michael Cohen i think was walking into the office to hide it from his lawyer, he ate it. She claims that ivanka trump, the first daughter, was responsible for ordering up the list of leakers in the white house who would be fired. This like apparently, ivanka tries to stay or project a
persona who was above the fray and cares about womens empowerment only. Omarosa portrays her as cutthroat as her father. As her father in a wig. So the allegations are tremendous. Where this falls on the Credibility Matrix with Michael Wolffs book suffered from some questions of credabilities and whats real and whats not. How do you judge omarosas book is a big question. But she certainly has a nice runway on a nice august weekend to have the news cycle to herself. All the kids watching, Dont Eat Paper if youre seeing this at home. This from the generation that thought it was a good idea to eat paste in school. Cant thank you guys enough 37 frank figliuzzi, ken vogel, annie karni, our omarosa correspondent for just tonight. Thank you all so very much. Have a great weekend. Coming up for us, what we think might have been happening behind the scenes during that lengthy and unusual delay in the manafort trial today. And later, preparing for a tense weekend in charlottesville on of course the oneyear anniversary of that fatal confrontation. And then in washington, where White Supremacists and counterprotesters will square off, some of them within earshot of the white house. The 11th hour on a friday night just getting under way. Booking a flight at the last minute doesnt have to be expensive. Just go to priceline. Its the best place to book a flight a few days before my trip and still save up to 40 . Just tap and go. For the best savings on flights,
go to priceline. Provides the most Wifi Coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. Its the ultimate wifi experience. Xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. It was a mysterious and rather dramatic ending to week two of the manafort trial with the president s name Coming Up In Court Again today. Before the day could even begin proceedings came to a screeching halt. With the jury out of the room the judge and attorneys spent much of the day huddled in private conversation and in recess officially with no explanation as to why. Transcript of what went on has been placed under seal. At the same time the prosecution is once again asking the judge to revisit comments he made in front of this jury. This time they were unhappy with
what the judge said while prosecutors were discussing a loan that they say manafort fraudulently applied for but did not receive. In the motion they argued, the courts statement that the government might want to spend time on a loan that was granted misrepresents the law regarding bank fraud conspiracy, improperly conveys the courts opinion of the facts, and is likely to confuse and mislead the jury. Well, when witnesses finally did take the stand, jurors were told that manafort may have used his position to dangle possible Trump Administration jobs including some big ones in exchange for massive bank loans. With us to talk about all of it we welcome back danny cevallos, a veteran criminal defense attorney, and we welcome chad day, an Investigative Reporter for the associated press. He was inside court today for all of these proceedings, or lack thereof. Danny, i heard Chuck Rosenberg on this Network Earlier tonight. He was u. S. Attorney for this district at one time. He was theorizing that this
could be one juror who came in today and said your honor, i looked at a device, i saw television coverage, someone talked to me, i talked to another juror, which would still take a lot of time to churn through, correct . Absolutely. Could have been a juro juror ri on the subway or seeing a newspaper or glancing at if or a Juror Overhearing another juror. But either way, this is a process that takes a long time. They have to take the juror aside in the presence of counsel, remove the other jurors, ask that juror, hey, what did you find out . And a lot of the time gets burned up as the attorneys huddle in their corners and decide not really so much whether the jury did or didnt do something but how can we spin this to our sides favor . Do we like this juror . Because there may not even be a consensus on the team whether they like that juror. One attorney for the defense may say thats a good juror for us and the other might say no, weve got to get him out of there. And thats why this can take so long, because it is a lot of back and forth just because a
juror might have flipped on the tv at the wrong time. So chad, you were there. What was it like again, we dont know what it is you witnessed. But what was it like witnessing it . Right, so we expected the prosecution to come in and rest their case today. Instead we were greeted by a 20minute huddle between the attorneys and judge ellis and like you say there wasnt any kind of explanation for why there was a delay. He recessed until the afternoon. We did get a couple of things to kind of back up what danny is saying is that the judge at one point actually left the courtroom toward the jury room and then later on when the proceedings actually started he admonished the jury several times to not discuss the case amongst themselves, not discuss the case with anyone else. And even kind of cracked a joke about dont even comment on the attire of the witnesses. So i think all signs are kind of pointing toward thbing some kind of jury issue. But like you say, the transcript is under seal and we wont know for some time. Danny, we get into your line of work. The defense goes to work. Theyre under no obligation to call any witnesses. What work do they have to do, and what do you think theyll do . Many times youre right, many times the defense calls no witnesses at all, they rely on just attacking the governments case. In a case like this there are not many defenses in such a paperintensive case. But heres what the Manafort Team needs to do. They need to focus on gates, that the orders came from gates. They need to focus on that which the bank employees, when they testify, they dont have a dog in the fight, theyre not biased witnesses, theyre not cooperating witnesses. Some of them, they just have to defense has to point out that this isnt necessarily fraud. He may have put it this way and air bnb has another policy that allows this and thats not really inaccurate and at least if it is inaccurate its not intentionally so. So the defense has a lot of work to do because this has been a paperintensive quas with a cooperating witness who got up there on the stand and for all his sins pointed out the
defendant and said thats my former cohort, he done did it. Hey, chad, i love covering trials. If only to test all the theories that people have. Like among journalists and lawyers you often hear people say if you watch the jury, a jury that has just cleared the defendant is going to come in and make strong eye contact. Theyre proud of what they did. A jury that has just nicked him or her, found them guiltys going it avert their eyes. Stuff like that that we journalists watch the jury box for. Having said that, whats the dynamic with the jury which i know youve been watching sitting there . Right. So i know ive been in the trial the last two weeks. The jury seems to really have been paying attention. There have been some times where the subject matters gotten quite dry. We have seen the jury kind of maybe not nod off but not be paying thatch attention. Rick gates testimony definitely got their attention and i think theyve really been keying in on a discussion of the lavish lifestyle and also really following the tax case. The prosecution put on an Expert Witness who was testifying about how much money, 16 million that he says should have been reported on his taxes, and i could tell that they were taking notes and they were keeping up with that testimony and so its a complex case but these are really kind of simple charges. Did you report offshore Bank Accounts on your taxes . Did you pay your taxes, pay enough taxes that you were supposed to, and did you lie to get loans . So i think that so far theyve really been keeping one what the prosecutions been putting in front of them. 16 million on a tax return, sooner or later youre talking about large amounts that might attract . Attention. Cant thank you gentlemen enough after a long week, after a long final day of that week, and this trial which is stretching into what, week three. Danny cevallos, chad day, really appreciate it, gentlemen, thanks. Coming up, security tied around the University Of Virginia and the streets of that town as well. One year after the violent protests with White Supremacists. We are live in charlottesville. Well have that when we
continue. Ahead of this anniversary. Many streets are closed. No Protest Permits were granted by the city. And this weekend w5shd washashi d. C. Is bracing for a march organized by that same altright group. That march plus several counterprotests expected in d. C. On sunday. Some of it in Lafayette Park right across from the white house. With us from Charlottesville Virginia is our own cal perry. There is really no other question except to ask you what it feels like tonight. That is, were all imagining it feels quite haunting. Yeah, very much so. You can see the outer edge of the Security Cordon behind me. It is not subtle at all. It is not designed to be subtle. It is designed to send a message that people should stay out of charlottesville. The eight to nine blocks in front of me are going to be completely shut down. No vehicle traffic. Pedestrians only. But by way of geography, listen, charlottesville is a blue dot in
a sea of red. This is a liberal town in a conservative part of the country, in a conservative part of the state of virginia. And so for that reason you have a statue of robert e. Lee just 500 meters in front of me that was supposed to be gone by now because in the heated aftermath of what 457d a year ago of course it was decided that statue was going to be removed. But not so easy when you start hearing from other voices, especially around the state of virginia. Theres a long list, brian, of prohibited items that youre not going to be able to bring into this area. Hairspray, bottles. But you can bring guns. People are open carrying tonight in downtown charlottesville. Theyre making that point, that it is their Second Amendment right to carry weapons. But a lot of people are questioning the police and why it is that thats allowed to happen at the state assembly line. All of that is to paint a picture that charlottesville is a microcosm of america and all of issues that this town is going through, that it has not healed from, is what america is talking about. As we stood outside, brian, today in this area, a number of people asked us to leave. They said the media is not helping, we dont like the
media. Theyre not allowing this town to heal. And its a town that just has not healed. So to answer the question that you started with, i think the police have done a great job in sending that message that they understand they did not handle the situation well a year ago. The mayor is gone. The police chief is gone. So they are letting people know if you you want to protest you are going to do it in washington, d. C. , homefully not here in charlottesville, brian. Thank you for that report on that summation from charlottesville, virginia. Cal perry on the scene for us tonight. With us to talk about all of it and where weve been and where were headed Clarence Page, veteran journalist and columnist for the chicago tribune, and jon meacham is with us, pulitzer prizewinning author and historian. Importantly his latest book is called The Soul Of America the battle for our better angels. Paging our better angels. Hey, john, what is the year later Damage Assessment from charlottesville . Well, theres obviously the
memory of Heather Heyer who stood as civil rights activists did throughout the long and tragic jim crow era, stood for what we should be. Not necessarily what we are all the time. And so i think thats perhaps one of the most important things to take a moment and realize that someone gave her life trying to protest against the neonazis and the klansmen who gathered there a year ago. I think that when the history of this era is written the president s reaction to charlottesville, the events of august 11th and august 12th, will loom pretty large because that was the first moment maybe not the first Bay Significant Moment where the president seemed to have a very hard time figuring out whether he stood with people like Heather Heyer, who argued that we had to be part of our and side with our better angels, or did he stand with david duke and others. And david duke said that weekend
in charlottesville a year ago that this is why we elected donald trump, was to protect statues like the robert e. Lee statue, to protest in the way they protested, and when the president of the United States abdicates his moral leadership so decisively and so decidedly, then that set a tone for the ensuing year, and were still living with those aftershocks. Clarence, you get to write history in real time on a daily basis. Is it possible that when we look back at 2018 part of the subplot is going to be we had both racism and activism both as concurrent Growth Stocks . Thats a good way to look at it because it was quite a clash, quite a wakeup call i would say that many of us had a year ago that Race Relations had gotten this bad only a few years after the optimism that sprung up from Barack Obamas successful pain. Remember that phrase postracial society, brian . I never used it but a lot of
people were questioning whether that would happen. And i realized how much my spirits had been lifted and my optimism had gotten inflated until the Tragedy Hit In Charlottesville A year ago. I have to say as one who remembers the summer of kent state 1970, four College Students killed in kent state, Ohio On Campus while protesting the war, killed by National Guard troops, another situation that didnt need to happen, people werent ready for things to escalate like that. The same kind of thing happened in charlottesville, where the police really underestimated what would happen when the protesters i should say the unite the right, far rightwing factions, clashed with antifa and led to violence there in the streets. They werent prepared for that. Now charlottesville has got hundreds of State Troopers who are at the ready. Theyre in a State Of Emergency already. Here in washington thats a little more accustomed tond this kind of disruption, things are
pretty quiet like august in washington usually is. But i expect theyre going to be a lot noisier between now and sunday. Charlottesville is known for anything but being home to one of the great universities in our country. Just part of the conversation. Both gentlemen, Clarence Page and jon meacham, have agreed to stay with us over this break. Well take this break. And when we come back, coinci coinciding with the start of the nfl preseason, the president renews his dispute with protesting pro Football Players and further adds most dont even understand why theyre outraged. Well talk about that on the other side. The National Anthem. Or you shouldnt be playing. You shouldnt be there. Maybe you shouldnt be in the country. You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem. Well, pro football is back. Preseason at least under way. And someone must have alerted the president bright and early this morning President Trump shared these thoughts. The nfl players are at it again, taking a knee when they should be standing proudly for the National Anthem. Numerous players from different teams wanted to show their outrage at something that most of them are unable to define. He adds, be happy. Be cool. And this warning. Stand proudly for your National Anthem or be suspended without pay. League policy is still unclear on how to address those players who protest. But as eli stokels of the l. A. Times reports, the new nfl season brings trump an opportunity to heighten attention to his ongoing feud with the africanamerican players, a wedge issue that animates a number of his white voters heading into the november midterm election. Still with us, Clarence Page and jon meacham. Jon, ive got to say i missed football. I was excited for last night. My beloved giants didnt skip a beat. They lost just so we wouldnt feel any shock overt end of last season and the beginning of this season because they care about their fans. And then this happens. We need certitude in these times. What is going on with the president and the National Football league . Other than the leagues kaleidoscopic inability to deal with this challenge from the president. I think the piece you just read from is exactly right. Its an elective feud that the president has undertaken, an elective battle, and hes this is absolutely for the base. Its kind of 101 old southern strategy. I say that as a southerner. But Everybody Knows what hes talking about when he talks about these people shouldnt be
in the country. And it works with the base. I think. That 30 , 35 or so of the country that seems to be inclined to follow trump anywhere, including into a sphere of our civic life that a lot of us think should be Above And Beyond politics. But if it becomes about politics it becomes about players who are exercising their First Amendment rights. An amendment written by a man who lived not far from charlottesville, james madison. So i think its pure oldfashioned unattractive and divisive politics and its the kind of thing where the president s playing to fear, not to hope, and hes going to pay a high price for this if not in the short term certainly in the long term of history. Clarence, fox news again today proved its always an interesting place. I heard dana perino, and ill paraphrase her, say that questioned a rich white guy asking about freedom of speech
of rich black guys. And then were just coming off the following from Laura Ingraham, well known to many in the media world, former Supreme Court clerk, longtime lawyer. She said this, and weve attached her attempt at a cleanup the next night. In some parts of the country it does seem like the america we know and love doesnt exist anymore. Massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the american people. And theyre changes that none of us ever voted for and most of us dont like. Now, much of this is related to both illegal and in some cases Legal Immigration that of course progressives love. The purpose of Last Nights Angle was to point out that the rule of law, meaning secure borders, is something that used to bind our country together. And despite what some may be contending, i made explicitly clear that my commentary had nothing to do with race or
ethnicity. All right, Clarence Page. What do you thinks going ton here . Let me say ive known Laura Ingraham for a couple of decades since she was fresh off the campus and i advised her quite some time ago that one ann coulter is enough and she doesnt really make a good look for her to come off as a far right antiimmigrant xenophobe, if you will. I think its kind of a ratings grab just like i think Donald Trumps little fiasco with the nfl started out as an attention getter, even if it meant stepping on his own message. He has some more important issues going on at the time. But he becomes obsessed when people defy him in anything. And i think this whole nfl protest which began with kaepernick would have faded away on its own had trump not kept pumping it up like hes still pumping it up. And its not helping him. Its not helping the nfl. I dont think its helping his numbers really because whats his base . Largely white males who love the nfl. I dont think hes going to change their minds in any kind of a way thats going help him at all. But this is the kind of fiasco that we have stumbled into. Well, gentlemen, this is why we have smart guys like you on the broadcast at times like this. Our friends Clarence Page and jon meacham. Jon, please keep those better angels on speed dial, will you . A lonely nation is asking. Its in our contacts. All right. Thank you both. Really appreciate it. Have a good weekend. And coming up for us, does the u. S. Military need a sixth branch . Can the nation afford it right now . What else is out there that may compete more urgently for our time and attention right now tonight and Around The World . Ahh. Summer is coming. And its time to get outside. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. With the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. And for just 14. 95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. If you dont like it exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. So take audible with you this summer. On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. No matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. Text summer17 to 500500 to start listening today. I had a great meeting with putin. We discussed everything. I had a great meeting. We got along really well. By the way, thats a good thing, not a bad thing. Just one week ago President Trump was telling supporters just how good his relationship with putin of russia is. Now facing more sanctions from the u. S. Russian leaders are striking a decidedly different tone. According to reuters, the Prime MinisterDimitri Medvedev offered this warning. If the new sanctions impact russian banks, it would be possible to clearly call it a declaration of economic war and it would be necessary to react to this war economically, politically or if needed by other means. At least that sounds closer to normal over the years. With us tonight retired
fourstar army general barry mccaffrey, former Battlefield Commander in the persian gulf, former drug czar for this country, and these days an msnbc military analyst. General, take them on one at a time, please. And that is, what are russia and north korea and their leaders trying to game from this country . Well, i think theyve got a clearer understanding of their own objectives, which i think we lack in the United States. By the way, im still very much convinced and confident in secretary jim mattis at d. O. D. And mike pompeo is an extremely capable person over at state, and gina haspels very professional, knowledgeable person. And secretary of the treasury is firstrate. Having said that, the president s reaction to many of these situations, i hate to say this unkindly, borders on fantasy. When it comes to north korea,
theyre Still Producing fissile material. Theyre Still Producing their icbms, which are not yet fully tested. There is zero chance theyre going to denuclearize. Theyre trying to escape sanctions. Theyre trying to get us out of south korea. And to some extent the president s public rhetoric is helping them. Thats a problem. When it comes to the russians this statement by medvedev was very unsettling. One thing we shouldnt do is overstate the threat from russia. Theyve got a lot of nukes, a lot of oil. A minor Strategic Force in terms of naval power, air power. An army that is not a significant threat to western europe. It is to the baltic states, poland. You know, the ukraine. Is theyre batting way above their weight average. I remind people that the economy of russia is less than that of italy, less than that of
california. This is not a major player. Its run by by the way, the roar of that crowd behind the president is what unsettles me. That is something new for our times. This guys a thug. He murders journalists, he murders the opposition, he murders people overseas. He has eliminated most of the democratic beginnings in the russian federation. Hes a bad guy. General, ive. Wanting to ask you about this space force idea. Of course we already have the u. S. Air force Space Command which is a large part of the u. S. Air force with a task and a mission. What do you make of the Space Force Notion and its chance at success . Well, look, the threat is real, particularly from the chinese and the russians. But the threshold to threaten our Communications Satellites is pretty low. I mean, a modest country can build an attack capability. Were spending a lot of money
right now and a lot of science on trying to harden it and protect it. Space operations is baked into every service. The army cant ornament smart weapons dont work without space communications. So the Space Force Concept is a separate service is one of those intellectually attractive ideas widely debated thats a thoroughly stupid idea. I dont think its going to get fundsed by congress. Would be a 10 to 15year struggle to disentangle every one of those elements and stick it under a new service with new uniforms. Civilian secretary, a new chief and i dont think its going to happen. But its not a very good idea. Its an organizational fix to a functional challenge that i think mattis is addressing right now minus new legislation. Give us your oneminute summation of this president s
behavior he. And ive heard you put it this way. What if he were a Combatant Commander in the military . I said actually a battalion commander. Over at fort bening all day today with these unbelievable experienced war fighters now that are running the army, air force, navy, marines, coasties. The president is personally, brian, ive been involved with three white houses fairly closely. Ive got a lot of years now doing with business, 15 years. Ive been in civil government. Ive never seen this level of illogical behavior, anger, impulsiveness, rudeness to the international leadership, never mind his domestic opposition. This is not the correct behavior for a Senior Executive at any lefshl level, never mind president of the United States. Strong words from an experienced man. General, always a pleasure to have you on. Barry mccaffrey with us on a
friday night. Coming up, we remember a friend of ours, a patriot and a warrior and a scholar and an enemy of terrorists everywhere. When we come back. From the very beginning. It was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Specialists focused on treating cancer. Using advanced technologies. And more precise treatments than before. Working as hard as we can doing all that we can for everyone who walks through our doors. This is Cancer Treatment centers of america. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Treating cancer isnt one thing we do. Its the only thing we do. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Cancer Treatment centers of america. Appointments available now. Within his own government, sheehan became frustrated at the lack of action. In looking back on his life as a soldier, statesman, and scholar the New York Times this week quoted sheehan as asking his colleagues at the time, what is it going to take to get them to hit al qaeda . Does al qaeda have to attack the pentagon . Of course that was just one of the targets on 9 11 and sheehan helped secure the other, new york city. He ran the then brand new nypd counterterrorism bureau, and he turned it into a World Class Organization in its field, rivaling federal agencies. Mike was born and raised in new jersey. I always thought the reason we got along so well was we shared an exit and neighboring towns. We both grew up just off exit 117 of the garden state parkway. 114 if you want to go the back way. Mike left the jersey shore for west point, then ranger school, then Special Forces as a green beret, where one hostage rescue
mission got the attention of the new york papers. He later earned two masters degrees. He was chief of counterterrorism at the state department. He oversaw Special Operations at the pentagon and peacekeeping at the u. N. , which he was proud of. Mike sheehan, our friend and former colleague, was 63 years old. He fought multiple myeloma as hard as he fought terrorism during his lifetime. We of course send along our condolences to his family. That is our broadcast for this friday night and for this week. Thank you so very much for being here with us. Have a good weekend, and good night for all of us here at nbc news headquarters in new york. Im dara brown in new york. Were following Breaking News out of seattle where a small Commuter Plane carrying no passengers crashed after a socalled unauthorized takeoff from seattles airport