Good morning. In the news overnight, a dramatic rescue. Hannah anderson, the kidnapped san diego teenager is safe after an allout man hunt ended in the idaho wilderness. James lee dimaggio was shot and killed by a tactical agent. Hannah anderson was located with dimagg dimaggio. She appears well. She will be reunited with her father this morning. One of the deadliest days in iraq for years. A series of car bombs all timed to hit those celebrating the end of ramadan. And across the region, 18 of the 19 american embassies and consulates closed after a global terror alert are open again. Martha raddatz has been tracking the threats that led to the closing. Are the embassies opening again now because u. S. Officials believe the drone strikes in yemen this week actually got the plotters . George, Officials Say the plotters of this specific plan were not killed in strikes in yemen, but the dead are part of the network of terrorists trying to kill americans. Intelligence officials believe the plan was to send a truck bomb into the u. S. Embassy there. But a senior u. S. Official, that because of the actions taken, the terrorists have likely moved the explosives out of the vehicle and are changing tactics. Adding that we think that the imminent threat dissipated, but fear they have gone back to ground waiting for the next opportunity to strike. This immediate threat may have passed, but the threat of terrorism never passed. We heard from u. S. Officials that tlebl that the nsa surveillance programs helped track this emerging threat. The president announced some reforms on friday in those programs. And had tough words for the nsa leaker Edward Snowden, said he was not a patriot. Take a look. Mr. Snowdens been charged with three felonies. If he believes what he did was right, then like every american citizen, he can come here, appear before the court with a lawyer, and make his case. So, what have you been able to learn about what u. S. Officials are trying to do to get snowden right now . Some officials ive talked to wish that a deal could be struck to bring him back to the u. S. Make no mistake. One official said he has done irrefutable damage. The more the terrorists know how we can monitor them, the less we will be able to. Thats the single most important asset we have. Some Officials Say we dont know all of what he has, we dont want him in the hands of the russians. Whatever message it would send, hes gotten the president of the United States to make some changes. But the Justice Department has given no indication a deal is in the works. Some pushing for it. Thanks. Now to the exclusive interview with lon snowden. The familys lawyer, thank you for joining us. Some officials believe that a deal may be in the United States interest. Do you think your son is open to it . Im not open it. Thats what ill share with my son. In terms of plea deal, at this point not open to it. Not open to it. What i would like is for this to be vetted in open court for the American People to have all of the facts. What i have seen is political theater. I was disappointed in the president s press conference. I believe thats driven by his clear understanding that the American People are unhappy with what theyve learned and more is forthcoming. What disappointed you in particular . What he suggested is superficial. We can go over that point by point if you would like, but a deal the only deal will be true justice. You know, justice should be the goal of our government. And its also the goal of a civil society. Those are the words of james madison. But i could make these points, george. Number one, we have a date for visiting moscow. Youre going to moscow. You have visas from the russians. We have visas, we have a date which we Wont Disclose because of the frenzy. Its imminent . Very soon. And we intend to visit with edward and suggest criminal Defense Attorneys who have experience in espionage act prosecutions. There have only been ten in 100 years. We think its important to go back to what president obama said about him not being a patriot. It was the voice of the american revolution, thomas payne who said it was someone who saves his country from his government. We heard about the alleged disasters that would ensue because of what edward has done. Back to the Bradley Manning case, at the damage phase, the United States conceded not one person has been injured and impaired because of of what he disclosed. What was your reaction when you heard the president hes not a patriot . I would say, again, i think he was put in a tough spot. Theres many questions that should have been asked that were not. I would have liked to see them ask about the dea special operation division, many other things, his treatment of whistle blowers. But if hes a patriot or others like peter king who says hes a traitor, what i would say is my son has spoken the truth. He sacrificed more than the president of the United States or peter king have ever in their political careers and their american lives. How they choose to characterize him really isnt youre not open to a deal, but it does sound like youre going to encourage your son to come back and face trial. I can add, because i wrote a letter with lon to the attorney general of the United States saying we would like to discuss conditions to make it permissible. Pretrial detention, no gag order, he would choose the venue. At a venue that was impartial because history of eastern virginia being a graveyard for defendants. They were not stated as ultimatums. They were subjects for discussion with noncircumvention clauses in there. Understand, we cant dictate what the department does. As a father, you want your son to come home. As a father, i want him to come home if i believe that the Justice System we should be afforded as americans is going to be applied correctly. If you consider the statements by the leaders in congress, they are irresponsible and inconsistent with our system of justice. They have poisoned the well in terms of a jury pool. Where my son chooses to live the rest of his life is his decision. But i would like for him to be able to come back to the u. S. Whether hes going to live here, and face this. I believe that the truth will shine through. Its clear that the American People regardless of the laws it does appear he broke the law. No. Thats simply irresponsible to suggest before a trial someone has broken the law. May well be that what he disclosed is protected by the first amendment. The president conceded the theres something about irregular with the nsa program other avenues lets go with that. Mr. Snowden should have gone to the Congress Oversight committees. They have gone on record, dianne feinstein, guilty of treason. They knew for seven years what was going on and refused to disclose it to the American People. The best was some cryptic statements. If they knew what was going on, they would be stunned. Edward snowden is supposed to go to them . That seems rather implausible because they were the ones responsible for the secrecy. I want to add to this. In terms of the president made the statement that the president had enacted whistle blower laws that protected contractors like my son edward, that is absolutely untrue. Either the president is being misled by his advisers or he is intentionally misleading the American People. The whistle blower absolutely not. We should go through that. Hypothetically, lets imagine he said theres a problem he got on an airline in honolulu and flew to washington, d. C. , and lands at dulles and actually gets an audience, lets say, peter king, or dianne feinstein. How do we think he would have been received if he had a private audience . We have seen how they reacted, they spin the truth, he would have been buried and we would have never known the truth. I know you havent been in direct contact with your son, but what do you know about his condition right now . Ill say that having spoken with his russian attorney, he said hes safe. He obviously is exhausted. But hes now needing a period of time where he can recoup his energy level and reflect on what he wishes to do going forward. Thats from his attorney. We hope to meet with him very soon, with edward in the next weeks. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And the chairs of the Foreign Affairs committee, robert menendez, democrat, and republican congressman ed royce, the chairman of the house Foreign Affairs committee. Senator, let me begin with you, you heard this from lon snowden, and his attorney, they dont believe that ed snowden could have gotten a fair hearing had he come to congress. I dont think thats true. I as a father appreciate the vigorous defense that mr. Snowden is providing for his son. But in my view, ed snowden is a fugitive who deserves to be in an american courtroom, not in asylum in russia. I believe he would have got an fair hearing. All the time issues related to the government by whistle blowers who come forth and bring those issues to the attention of the congress is often the way to have action. He didnt need to undermine Americas National security to pursue whatever his conscious led him to do. Theres a process by which he could have pursued his interest in a way that doesnt undermine the National Security of the United States. When we have our sources and methods known by our enemies, we undermine the National Security of the United States. I would say its easy since we have not, thank god, had an attack on american soil since september 11th, to minimize the threat, but its real. And the terrorists only have to get lucky once. We have to do it right 100 of the time. Thats a tough standard. And a key member of your committee from california whos chair of the subcommittee dealing with russia seems to have sympathy with Edward Snowden. This is him yesterday on cspan. I thought he was being loyal to the rest of us by letting the American People know that the government was getting out of hand. Accepting him for asylum, i think, was not as hostile an act as its being portrayed. Do you agree with those views on Edward Snowden and russia . No, i do not. And we have to keep in mind here that the conundrum were in is one in which alqaeda is learning how we track them, and second, you know, with this new master bombmaker that theyve used in yemen to develop this new strategy, the underwear bomber, for example, his attempted attack was at the behest at the with the support of this master bombmaker. This master bombmaker now is teaching his trade, we happen to know, to a lot of other bombmakers in yemen, and theyre going on the internet with this capability, and with the hope of bringing into the United States agents to carry out these types of attacks. Attacks which are undetectable. And so were in the process of trying to monitor what alqaeda is doing overseas and here in the United States in order to try to replicate that particular attempted attack and to expand it demonstrably. So when you have someone who is giving out the means and methods in which were tracking alqaeda, it is a problem for the United States. And secondarily, when were talking about the former head of the kgb, president putin in russia, this is not been an ally. As you know, the administration has tried to engage him on several issues such as missile defense, and has worked with him on trade issues. And we have not seen any reciprocation from the russians because this former kgb agent still has a sense of hostility to the west and to the United States. So, senator, how do we get the relationship with russia back on track . The president says theres no bad relations between he and president putin personally, but they are at odds on every major issue. Well, look, you know, russia should be looking towards how do they achieve a prosperous future for the citizens versus going back to an authoritarian past. We seem to be more invested in the effort to create a relationship with russia that can be productive for both countries more than putin is. It seems to me that as weve tried to restart this relationship several times, maybe now is a moment to pause and think about how were going to move forward with russia. They are unresponsive to us as it relates to the tragedies that are going on in syria. They are unresponsive to us as it relates to further nuclear arms reduction. They are unresponsive when they violate the rights of gay and lesbians including foreign visitors who would come to russia and be arrested. They are unresponsive when they stop the adoptions by americans of russian children. I look at that and think its time to pause and think about the relationship and how to pursue it in a way to promote the National Security and interest of the United States. Do you think that ed snowden would get a fair trial in the United States . I think he could get a fair trial in the United States. And i think that the concern here is that in in going to china and going to russia and in particular with respect to the authorities that hes meeting with in russia, i think this further compounds the problem for u. S. Intelligence. And i think we have existing whistle blower capabilities here in the United States. On a regular basis, whistle blowers come forward, give information to congress, and we attempt to address those issues. Going to china and going to russia was not the solution to the problem. It compounds our difficulties in the United States with respect to alqaeda. Congressman, senator, thank you for your time. Thank you. Roundtable up next. Joaquin castro and Louis Gohmert on obamacare and immigration. Plus all kinds of action in iowa this weekend. And stumping for hillary, and donald trump, his interview on this week. Ted cruz, born in canada. Is he eligible to be president of the United States . Well, if he was born in canada, perhaps not. Nada, perhaps not. Is being streamed. Music a quarter million tweeters are tweeting. And 900 Million Dollars are changing hands online. Thats why hp built a new kind of server. One thats 80 smaller. Uses 89 less energy. And costs 77 less. Its called hp moonshot. And its giving the internet the room it needs to grow. This is gonna be big. Hp moonshot. Its time to build a better enterprise. Together. Like carpools. Polly wants to know if we can pick her up. Yeah, we can make room. Yeah. [ male announcer ]. Office space. Yes, were loving this communal seating. Its great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share . A data plan. At t mobile share for business. One bucket of data for everyone on the plan, unlimited talk and text on smart phones. Now, everyones in the spirit of sharing. Hey, can i borrow your boat this weekend . No. [ male announcer ] share more. Save more. At t mobile share for business. Roundtable coming up. Roundtable coming up. All the weeks politics and the Campaign Action already in iowa. Hillary clinton, donald trump, a whole pack of president ial prospectors. Clinton, donald trump, a whole pack of president ial prospectors. Anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. So you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the Game Changing app from ink. We didnt get into business to spend time managing receipts, thats why we have ink. We like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. So you have time to focus on the things you love. Ink from chase. So you can. Where over seventyfive percent of store management started as im the next american success story. Working for a company hourly associates. Theres opportunity here. I can use walmarts education benefits to get a degree, maybe work in it, or be an engineer, helping walmart conserve energy. Even today, when our store does well, i earn quarterly bonuses. When people look at me, i hope they see someone working their way up. Vo opportunity, thats the real walmart. Every august,he every august, the iowa state fear features pork tenderloins, deepfried twinkies, a whole bunch of ambitious politician with the white house in their sights. Its three years away, but its never too early. President ial hopefuls are out in force across the Hawkeye State this morning. Jonathan karl is there. Reporter good morning. Donald trump was here, he gave a speech saying that passing immigration would be a death wish for the Republican Party. He may run, but that has some people raising their eyebrows and some rolling their eyes. Could you be taken seriously . I have built a Great Company with a tremendous net worth. And beaten a lot of people that are very smart. And thats what the country needs. Reporter what do you say that a possible trump candidacy is a joke . Its a publicity stunt, to get more attention for yourself . Interestingly, i filed applications last time, and i filed my net worth. Im a private person, nobody knows. People were shocked at the number. Now its bigger than it was. How strong the company is, how much cash. Its a beautiful company. Its a company like this country should look. Reporter whats the number, what are you worth now . Probably over 10 billion. Reporter if you were to run for president , how much would you be willing to spend . If i made a decision, id spend a lot. Reporter a modern president ial campaign would be half a billion dollars. It could. Or more. Reporter that much . If i did it, i would spend what it took. Reporter your assessment on the field. Give me the first word that pops to mind. Marco rubio. Immigration. Reporter rand paul. Interesting. Reporter paul ryan. Well, you know, i really like him a lot. But you have to look at what he says about the Social Security and medicare and medicaid. Its a tough road. But i do like. Lets say medicare. Reporter chris christie. Wonderful person. Hes a wonderful guy. Reporter ted cruz. Obamacare. He really is fighting on trying stop this absolute disaster for the United States called obamacare. Reporter donald trump. Smart. Reporter you said a lot of things over the years that people say make you not serious. One of the big things is on the birth certificates. Why does that make me not serious . I think that resonated with a lot of people. Reporter but you dont question he was born in the United States, do you . I have no idea. Reporter even at this point . Was there a birth certificate . You tell me. You know some people say that was not his birth certificate. Nobody knows. You dont know either. Youre a smart guy. Reporter im pretty convinced. You said pretty. Reporter totally convinced. You said youre pretty convinced. Lets see what happens over time, but its not my issue, jonathan. My issue right now is much different. Wait a minute my issue is economic. Our country is being ripped apart by china and many other countries. Thats my issue. Reporter but on this issue you said youre pretty sure. Youre pretty sure, thats not acceptable. You have to be 100 sure. Reporter im 100 sure. I dont think you are. Reporter let me ask you this, ted cruise. Born in canada. If he was born in canada, is he eligible to be president of the United States . If so, hes not. Reporter he was definitely born in canada. Youll have to ask him this. Reporter his mother was an american citizen. Thatll be ironed out. I heard somebody told me he was born in canada. Thats his thing. Reporter you played golf with john boehner the other day. I did. Reporter the big question is will House Republicans pass a funding bill for the government that includes funding for obamacare. Should they . Well, that is a good question. I do think this, the budget should be funded. But i dont think that obamacare should be funded. And the republicans are in many ways their own worst enemy. I happen to be a republican. If they get together and were unified, i think they could do damage to get rid of Obamacare Chas very positive thing for the country. Reporter you know Hillary Clinton. I do. Reporter how touch ever tough will she be to beat if shes the nominee . She will be tough. Reporter what do they need to do to beat her or whatever the candidate is . They need to pick the right candidate. Mitt romney was in theory, everything should have been good. It didnt. Didnt resonate. Wonderful guy, didnt resonate. They have to pick the right candidate. Reporter the iowa caucus are two and a half years away, but this place is crawling with possible president ial candidates. Just this weekend, we have seen ted cruz, of course, donald trump, rick santorum, and even Claire Mccaskill was out here on behalf of Hillary Clinton. If youre here in iowa, looks like the 2016 president ial campaign is already well underway. All right begun. Thanks very much. More from the powerhouse roundtable. Joined by george will, donna brazile, Louis Gohmert, republican, and joaquin castro, democrat. Both from texas. Setting aside donald trump, it appears theres an intensity of activity in iowa, particularly on the republican side. We saw Claire Mccaskill out for hillary this weekend. Its in part because its so wide open in the gop. Both parties will be nominating someone whos not president. That opens it up a lot. The democratic field, they have a weak bench, and be careful what they wish for to clear the field and have no competition. The last time almost uncontested nomination was 56, with stevenson. He probably would have been beaten anyway, but he was beaten. Competition is good for parties. The Republican Party is going to get their fill of it. No question, but there does not appear to be that much competition yet, understandably, with Hillary Clinton out there find of freezing the field. I dont think so. Martin omalley made noise hes interested, joe biden, and kristen gillibrand, elizabeth warren, a lot of buzz, and Governor Cuomo from new york. A lot of talk. And let me not forgot joe biden. He will call me this afternoon and remind me. Its too early to handicap the race, if Hillary Clinton gets into the race, there will be a coronation of her because there are so Many Democrats who last time around supported her, who i think are anxious to see her out there again. I read your brother, mayor of san antonio, heading to iowa as well. You accompanying him . Hes not running for anything. Hes headed out to the harkin steak fry in september. A lot of tilling of the ground. Let me bring this back to you, congressman, because it seems theres a brewing potential civil war inside the Republican Party. You heard sarah palin last night said she was on the team of rand paul versus chris christie. Theres a lot of competition out there. With regard to the democratic side, i seem to remember in 2007, this was hillarys nomination. Obama may run just to be ready in 2016. The point being you never know. I think thats true where we are with the republicans. I dont think you could say. I would never have predicted that somebody named mccain would end up being the nominee after 2007 when the story was he was so low he had to carry his own bags. I dont think you should underestimate the power iowa has to attract people to the state fair of the fried butter. It is absolutely incredible. You have an excellent point. Republicans have a lot of experience with civil war, 1912, roosevelt and taft. 1964, rockefellers and bhoop whoops, excuse me, goldwater. What republicans need to bear in mind is one number, 28. 18 states have voted democratic in six consecutive elections back to 1992. If they hold the base, and they look for 28 electoral votes, theyve got 242 in those states, theyll find them. I think whats most problematic for republicans is they seem to be taken by the tea party more extreme base, so the candidates that are most appealing right now are the ted cruzs, the rand pauls, those folks. If they nominate them, its 1964 all over again. Thats not majority of americans. Is that your fear . Not really. At the tea party, i see people from all races, ages, genders. The thing they have in common is theyre paying income tax. I dont think you should rule out District Of Columbia voting for republican if well pass my bill that ends the unfairness for d. C. In their income tax. They dont have a full Voting Member of congress. D. C. Goes so get rid of their income tax. The gohmert bill. The Pew Survey Says 84 of Tea Party Voters vote in primaries. Theyre intense, theyre organized and they come out to vote. Thats going to matter. Particularly in iowa with a crowded republican field. And rand paul starts with his fathers constituency in a crowded field, thats a plurality. But the tea party is like a a controlled wildfire that is now burning the Republican Party, especially the Republican Party establishment. So i dont know if the tea party is good for the Republican Party in 2016 given the fact that it has narrowed the base of the party. And its igniting an immediate confrontation. And i think thats why, george, i really think they have one or two more election cycles where they can continue like this. Otherwise the infighting is getting so severe that i dont see how you sustain that. Lets talk about the one coming right now. September 30th, government runs out of funding. Rand paul and ted cruz, other republicans, marco rubio, saying unless obamacare is defunded, we shouldnt approve the government funding. President obama took that on friday. My friends in the other party have made the idea of preventing these people from Getting Health Care their holy grail. Their number one priority. The one unifying principle. Thats the only thing that seemed to get the president really riled up on friday. He says its an ideological fixation. How does it play out . Do you believe that faction is going to succeed in pushing the leaders to hold the line . Thats a false narrative. He says were trying to keep people from Getting Health Care. Thats just not true. Thats an absolute, blatant lie. Were not trying to keep anybody from Getting Health Care. Whether or not they have insurance under an exchange or not does not prevent people from Getting Health Care. Want to take that on . Sure. The fact is you have millions and millions of americans who cant afford health insurance. Its helping people get health insurance. Republicans have offered no other solutions or plans. We have but at this point, its just ideology. Its just extreme ideology. Does the government shut down . The congressman says thats a lie. Remember when mark stain said the difference between a lie and a cat is a cat only has nine lives . The fact is the president has the power, particularly when supported as this one is by the Mainstream Media to set the narrative. The narrative will be that the republicans have chosen to cause chaos. Its a bad idea. To go down the line. You can not govern the country from onehalf of the three branchs of government. Cant be done. It appears the speaker of the house, john boehner, agrees with that. Mitt romney gave a speech, one of his few. Mitt romney was warning republicans of being accused of shutting down the government. Mitt romney, romneycare is obamacare. Theyre not what i call distant relatives, maybe kisses cousins. But he supported john mccain and others that this is a foolish idea to try to shut the government down. And many of the veterans of previous government shutdown, Newt Gingrich and others are speaking out as well. Whats going to happen . I dont know. Even though were onehalf of the legislating body from which no spending occurs unless we agree, that is a position that allows us to force others to adhere to the constitution. We dont have to wait for the Supreme Court. We can force that. And we can say youre going to abide by the constitution whether the Supreme Court gets it wrong or right. We have the ability to force respect for the law. And some of us think that we ought to force them to do that. Do you think you have the votes to defund obamacare . Not right now. Well see after august after people go home. As far as obamacare, though, when the president himself says its not ready, so im giving this break to all big business. What about the poor guy making 14,000 . Hes going to pay extra income tax if he cannot afford to pay the several thousand dollars for an obamacare policy. Whos caring about him . A lot of us do, but not this president because he didnt let the individual mandate have a year off. That only goes to big business. Thats not fair. Well, i would say, first of all, its the law of the land. The Congress Passed it, the president signed it. And a conservative Supreme Court upheld it. Its the law of the land so how does he get to they a year for just rewrite and say were going to delay it for a year. The problem is the House Republicans, with all due respect, im a former hill staffer, not a member. They cannot agree on spending. Just before the recess, they could not pass a transportation hub bill. I dont understand the Republican Party these days. They have set these budgetary goals and theyre afraid to meet them. Were not afraid to meet them. Too extreme. But you have to remember, and i think Lyndon Johnson said it, if two people agree on everything, one is unnecessary. Its good to have a good disagreement. Thats how we got to the constitution lots of disagreements over Immigration Reform. We heard donald trump say passing it would be death for the Republican Party. And president obama spoke out on that on friday on friday as well, making this claim. Im absolutely confident if the bill was on the floor of the house, it would pass. The problem is internal Republican Caucus politics. Which means that the senate bill, unlikely to reach the floor of the house of representatives. And if it did, it wouldnt pass. Its unconstitutional, it goes back. What republicans are hearing, the New York Times which wants the Republican Party to go away, saying that if only they would pass Immigration Reform, it would prosper. Theres a dissonance there republicans dont like. Im much more sympathetic to Immigration Reform than most republicans are, but how many of your members, probably none, face electoral defeat if they oppose Immigration Reform. I dont know. But i think you would be shocked how many i think most everybody in our party would vote for an Immigration Reform bill once they can be sure the boarder is secure. But until including legalization for the undocumented in the country . I think we could get an agreement on all of those things. But if you pass a dream act without the border being secured, youre going to have to have another one and another one and another one because people are going to continue to come. George, you had an editorial we had a net zero, but you still continue our Border Patrol are saying were getting three to five times the numbers coming while we talk about legalization. Secure the border and we get the bill passed. The number of apprehensions, the crossings is at a 40year low. We have double the number of Border Patrol agents than 2004 when president bush was in office. The border has never been more secure than now. In 1916 it was. Right now the plan is to take Immigration Reform in pieces. Take Border Security first and then consider other aspects. Can that work . Is there a way to get comprehensive reform . As democrats we want a comprehensive bill. Theoretically, if you did it piecemeal, if you had a bill for each piece, you could send it to conference, have a final conference bill and have each chamber pass it. But thats not the intention of the republicans in the house. Theyre cherry picking. Do you support the kids act . I guess its the dream act. I support securing the border, and until that, with i dont think we ought to be talking about who gets legalized. Once we secure the border as determined by the border states within not homeland security. Your new, brilliant, one of my favorite democrats here comes the but. What ive learned in my eight years, when you hear comprehensive, republican or democrat, it means we have a lot of bad laws to pass, but cant do it unless we have a big bill. George, you get the last word. Furthermore, the well has been poisoned by the president insisting on his unilateral anticonstitutional power to rewrite laws and not enforce laws he doesnt like. No one on the republican side believes that anything in the immigration bill will be binding on an unleashed president. Were going to have to leave it right there. Great discussion. The billionaire founder of amazon buys the Washington Post. How did bezos change the News Business . That debates next. Ezos change the News Business . Thats coming up next. The wash post. How did bezos change the News Business . Thats coming up next. How did bezos change the News Business . Thats coming up next. My dna. S me. It helps make me who i am every piece is important. Its like a selfportrait this part. Makes my eyes blue. So thats why the sun makes me sneeze. I might have an increased risk of heart disease. Arthritis gallstones hemochromatosis ill look into that stuff we might pass onto to our kids. Foods i might want to avoid. Hundreds of things about my health. Getting my 23andme results it really opened my eyes. The more you know about your dna the more you know about yourself. I do things a little differently now. Eat better. Ask more questions change what you can, manage what you cant i always wondered what my dna said about me. Me. Me. Now i know. Know more about your health. Go to 23andme. Com and order your dna kit for only 99 today. Learn hundreds of things about your health at 23andme. Com like carpools. Polly wants to know if we can pick her up. Yeah, we can make room. Yeah. [ male announcer ]. Office space. Yes, were loving this communal seating. Its great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share . A data plan. At t mobile share for business. One bucket of data for everyone on the plan, unlimited talk and text on smart phones. Now, everyones in the spirit of sharing. Hey, can i borrow your boat this weekend . No. [ male announcer ] share more. Save more. At t mobile share for business. Major shakeup ithe major shakeup in the media world. The graham familys Washington Post bought by jeff bezos of amazon. What it teaches us about the future of news. Our panel weighs in next. Jeff bezos of amazon. What it temps us about the future of news. Our panel weighs in next. Amazon founder jeff bezos send a thunder bolt through the media world with the surprise purchase of the Washington Post. Weve got an expert panel on what it means for that world and what bezos may do with the post. Rebecca jarvis has background. Reporter the paper that brought down nixon and breaking news for more than a century this week made news. After 80 years, the graham family sold the Washington Post for 250 million to amazon founder and ceo jeff bezos. We will become a place that does its traditional jobs but tries things. And i hope it will succeed. Reporter it wont be easy. Sales and profits both are shrinking. Circulation is down 40 in the last decade. Bezos told employees in order to turn it around, we will need to experiment. Which is exactly how amazon got started. Today its worth more than 130 billion. Surpassing expectations as he told Cynthia Mcfadden in 2009. Did you have any idea how it was going to work . No, the Business Plan was very modest compared to what happened. Reporter bezos isnt alone. Other billionaires have jumped into the print business. What does he do next . Its innovate or die. Its dangerous not to evolve. If you want to ensure your extinction, cease to evolve. Reporter for this week, rebecca jarvis. Abc news, new york. Joined again by george will, your cool yum has been in the Washington Post for, what, 40 years . And david, for ten years. And bloomberg west tv, and arianna huffington, editor and chief of the huffington post. Started the new media. Your selling price was higher than the Washington Post just a couple of years ago. Yes, its interesting how everything has changed. But its interesting how much faster you can create a brand now. Obviously the Washington Post is a historic, legendary media brand. But look at brands that were created, you know, in the last few years. Twitter, 2006, instagram, 2010, huffington post, 2005. So that changes dramatically the media landscape. But i think this is wonderful news. And everything arianna mentioned, i believe you can add tumblr, instagram, they all went for higher prices than the Washington Post. The boston globe was bought for 1. 1 billion in 1993, and sold for 70 million. They gave it away. Hes earned a place in the pantheon of American Business with forbes, jones, sears and roebuck, all of those. But hes a genius, maybe not a magician. Does he have to be a magician . I think he bought it for the sheer intellectual challenge of it. Thats a big one. I want to get to that question, but first about donald graham. One of the old media families. They loved the Washington Post. Clearly didnt to want let it go. You wrote about his final speech to the post and said this was kind of a tragedy. I think his heart was broken to have to give it up. But the post was diminishing year by year, losing money and circulation. It was losing and there was no answer. There was no answer. Was it avoidable or not . Even if he made different moves, made it more national than local, embraced politico in some way and made it his own. I dont know. I dont know if that would have saved it. New york is very different from washington. The New York Times is very different from the Washington Post. And the New York Times has enough challenges as it is. Heres what interests me most, though, jeff bezos is a Great Innovator in technology. Thats terrific. He has vastly more money than the grahams, which is important to invest in the newspaper. But will he run a newspaper that puts pressure on power. Thats what interests us most. Thats not a value, thats a universal among anyone, much less some have suggested the opposite. Perhaps hes buying protection for his business. Precisely. Cory johnson, you cover jeff bezos. Youve covered and as i talk about his motives, george will says its the intellectual challenge. You talk to people who know jeff bezos, the first thing out of everyones mouth is hes smart. Its interesting in a world of smart people, hedge fund managers, entrepreneurs and technology. Hes the guy they say is smart. Hes quick and hes thoughtful. One of the interesting things is he built his business initially on books. Of all the things he could have sold, he chose books. He chose seattle because there was a distributor that helped him take on barnes and nobles. Now they are struggling. Similarly, he has a love of the written word. One of the interesting anecdotes that i have picked up from former executives and board members, he starts the meeting with study hall. If youre an executive, and you want to bring a project, launch a multibillion dollar business, bring the plan to the corporate meeting or to the board meeting, singlespaced, no graphics, no powerpoint slides. Everyone sits and reads a multipage memo in silence and discusses it. He loves the written word and the language. I think thats interesting. That is fascinating. Tell us about the Washington Post. And hes a distribution master. Somebody who can actually come up with different Distribution Channels for great journalism. And to davids point, somebody who really can use the internet to keep the feet of the powerful to the fire more effectively because the internet allows you to do that constantly. One of the ways the internet is doing it, and those who have succeeded in the new media tend to have, george will, a more clear ideological bent. Arianna, the huffington post, and others on the right. And even the billionaires who bought big newspapers seem to succeed when they have a political agenda rather than a general agenda. To the extent we know his political philosophy, its a techie libertarianism. For gay marriage, against taxation on people like him which is perfectly sensible in my point of view. It seems to me his ideology is less important to his motives than the challenge of seeing if he can make this go. When gutenberg started with the printed word is not over because of the digital. But its changing dramatically right now. And it would be incredibly important if he can establish a beyond left and right position for the Washington Post. Just look at the things we are not covering at the moment because they are divided in the absolute leftright way. The war on drugs, today in the New York Times, whats happening to the california prison system. Were having a major incarceration drug war crisis. Somebody we know about them because we are covering these things. One of the very few places that invests in it, that puts in the investment is a place like the Washington Post or the New York Times or i should say the new yorker as well. Now, Mike Bloomberg is a Great Innovator, but i have to say ive heard straight from the horses mouth, from mayor bloomberg that he detests the New York Times. Does he want to buy it and change it . He might want to do the latter. But its not up for sale as they have made clear for the moment. But bloomberg thinks its an opinion on the front page. He really loathes it. That may be because hes covered day after day and has an ego the size i wouldnt imagine a new york mayor thought differently. No one was the richest mayor and has the capacity to buy it. Hes done astonishing things in the media. Being a newspaper proprietor is the exception. So jeff bezos may in fact be a wizard in many ways. But it remains to be seen if he has the same values as the grahams. And if you trust don graham as i learned to in ten years at the Washington Post, i never had to trust him more than in his judgment to revive the Washington Post. Cory but one quick thing, its not just about strengthening journalism. Its also about looking at news and seeing how can we reinvent it, how can we redefine it to move beyond simply what is covering corrupt and broke ton cover what is working. With his foundation, hes done an amazing job. But all the journalism experiments, they are trying cover what is working and dont end up creating a profit. You guys at aol had to sell patch covering local news because it just doesnt work. Our coverage of what is working has been one of the most profitable. The public and readers love it, advertisers love it. But its critical when you have a more and more dysfunctional government to focus on what individuals, communities, startups are doing that is actually working and help scale it. Its essential right now. He can help do that. In five years, what does the Washington Post look like based on what you know about jeff bezos . To throw it back to the earlier premise, taking aside his work online. If you expand the conversation wider, whats worked in sports and celebrity coverage. There are passionate sites that cover culture and sports that havent had to take a left or right view. Its not just old media in a new world. I think what you can expect from bezos is investment. The way theyre investing in amazon is incredible. They have spent more in the last six months investing than any year in their history. Their spending like crazy to build up and invest. But also experimentation. You would expect him as an owner to push hard to find new ways to develop media thats appropriate for the new age that maybe the graham family couldnt figure out. Don graham sits on the board of facebook. He is not a rube when it comes to technology. Didnt invest enough. George will. Hard on bookstores, not on books. People are reading a lot. Im in 400 newspapers, i have no idea how many people read my column in the paper or on web. Id like to find out. Maybe he can help me. Great discussion, everyone. Thank you so much. And the senator who turned his legislative work into an actionpacked thriller. Actionpacked thriller. Time now for the sunday spotlight. Shining on byron dorgan. The former senator from north dakota caught us by surprise when he started penning spy novels after retiring from the senate. As he told john karl, the plot of his latest thriller is based on intel he picked up in congress. Reporter its the terror plot in the movie live free or die hard. Its crashing. They just hit the entire financial sector. And the top of the reallife u. S. Threat list. The next pearl harbor could be a cyber attack. Reporter and now the key plot in a new book called gridlock by former senator byron dorgan. It might be terror, cyber terror shutting down an electrical system. I decided to write a thriller. Reporter the onetime author of Appropriations Bills is churning out action thrillers. This is the second. When you were writing the bills, they didnt read like thrillers. You were in politics, now you write fiction, same thing. Not quite. Reporter gridlock traces a global conspiracy engineered by iran and venezuela. Using a hacker in amsterdam to shut down the u. S. Power grid. With the action colliding in where else . His home state of north dakota. Its a novel, but it relates to some really serious issues in the country. If we were to lose power for a week, a month, could ruin the american economy. Reporter droe he isnt the first senator to dabble in fiction writing. It includes former senator bob graham, and current senators mckulski and boxer. You will not find deep human insight in a novel written by a senator. You need to sit in on a Committee Hearing to know that. Can we find deep human insight from a u. S. Senator . I hope so. Fiction is a different genre for me but i hope that you read that and cant sleep after wards, and cant stop reading and cant get to sleep. Reporter for this week, jonathan karl. Thanks to byron dorgan for that. Now we honor our fellow americans who serve and sacrifice. This week the pentagon released the name of one soldier who was killed in afghanistan. Thank you for spending part of your sunday with us. Check out world news with david muir tonight, and ill see you tomorrow on gma. Ill see you tomorrow on gma. Next a special hearing in San Francisco superior court is about to begin. Will the judge approve the governors request for a coolingoff period to avert another possible bart strike . We will have a live report. A live look outside. The golden gate bridge. No surprise here. Plenty of fog but clearing quicker today for some warmer temperatures. Ill have a look at the sevenday outlook
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