are there public flubs or behind the scenes in intelligence is not really giving them a clear picture either? i think they got caught flat footed at the beginning. you get into a crisis situation and events take place very, very quickly. and there s very few good option which is you get to a crisis and i think that the administration is playing catchup here. they are reactive. they should have been pro-active away head of this. they knew elections were coming up in the fall. they should have tried to influence mubarak much sooner than this to talk about a succession plan other than his own son. i think they are in a very tough situation. we had both two senior intelligence officials clarifying their remarks yesterday after testifying on capitol hill. now, i m not saying it s not a tough job. intelligence is very, very tough. the fact of the matter is that the government is behind the power curve at this point. one last thing here for me quickly. people in this country are useded to
military had that announcement this morning that they indeed support hosni mubarak and hosni mubarak staying in power until the transfer can take place. how is that being received this morning, frederick? not very well. on the other hand people didn t expect the military to step in that forcefully at this point in time and certainly there were some things that the military have said to sort of try to smooth things over. what it seems is going on right now is military trying to tell the people that they still support this course of change and transition. however, they also want this to happen in a timely manner which then means that hosni mubarak will at least for the time being stay in power. that s not going down well with people down there. they don t blame the military. they blame only hosni mubarak and omar suleiman. if you look down at the people right now, that s who they are directing their anger against. you hear chants behind me. they are screaming hosni mubarak
that s the ruling party. you had statements from military that they were going to intervene to save egypt and there were other indications. i think you would have to say that they fully thought that he was going to step down. i think the devil is in details because president mubarak may think he did step down by transferring those powers but technically he s still there. let me bring you in, kate. if they were starting to piece this together, maybe the president himself, did they have a lot of hope and optimism at some point yesterdaand you were traveling with the president, did you see them almost deflated and get to a point of anger and confusion and frustration there at the white house over what transpired last night? it was interesting getting a rare window into watching it unfold for the president. when he came out and spoke to the group, he was not supposed to mention egypt in his speech on national wireless initiative to a group in marquette, michigan.
we ll see if uncertainty in egypt, some days markets don t care about it. some days like today it was a pivotal day yesterday. it really was. do they care more because it s friday and there are two days off in terms of that. that s a good point. there is a university of michigan consumer sentiment number that comes out after opening bell and concern about that stock that s been up a lot. they want to watch oil and watch the dollar and gold and see if that will show uncertainty in egypt and whether that s something that will affect stocks as well. all right. as always, we appreciate you. thanks so much. coming up on this american morning, as you know we re keeping a close eye on the developments in cairo. the anger on the streets may be as angry as we have seen protesters in quite some time demanding that president mubarak go. donald trump making a big political statement at the cpac conference. he was blunt about why he feels there s not that much out there and not many peo
he has given up the powers he could to see democratic reforms go forward but mubarak is insisting on his dignity and his status and he s now in many ways a figurehead president. had he done this a week ago it would have been enough. mubarak s problem, everybody except the people on the ground, is they are taking these steps a week late or ten days late and so i fear that the protesters may get to a point where they don t know when to take yes for an answer. if they get these democratic reforms and i acknowledge that this is an if, that allow for free and fair elections, and if they get emergency rule lifted once the protests stop and achieve all that with mubarak having only a figurehead s power, if you would ask them before they started that they could get these things would be they be happy, they would have been thrilled but now anger, resentment, the seesawing of