| | | | | Good Sunday evening! This is Oliver Darcy in for Brian Stelter. It's been a busy news weekend. Let's get you caught up for Monday... | | Remembering John Sidney McCain | | There are certain deaths that hit you in the gut. You remember everything about the moment you learned of the news. You remember how you learned of it. You remember where you were. You can practically re-live the moment over and over again in your head. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that the death of John Sidney McCain was one of those moments.
Like many Americans mourning McCain, I never met him. I never had the privilege of interviewing him, or interacting with him on a personal level. But McCain was one of those guys you felt like you knew. His presence was sown into the fabric of American politics. It's frankly just difficult to imagine politics without him -- particularly when his Maverick-esque style is so desperately lacking in today's climate. | | As I wrote in Friday's newsletter, McCain had a very special relationship with the press. Journalists have always loved him. He has been a figure on the hill longer than most reporters have been covering Washington. And so his death hit the journalism community hard. Some notable quotes...
>> Dana Bash: "I want to say thank you, John McCain. Thank you for teaching reporters like me, who followed you around for a living, how to be serious, without taking ourselves too seriously..."
>> Chuck Todd: "Some deaths leave a greater whole in our national psyche. Let's do some straight talk here. Given our current political environment, the loss of a man who worked so hard to build bridges rather than burn them seem particularly poignant..."
>> Matt Fuller: "The one thing I'll say about John McCain is that he was the model for how politicians ought to treat the press. He could be curmudgeonly, but he always answered questions. He was always willing to talk to reporters. That counts for something in my book..."
>> Jake Tapper: "In 2013, I threw a party in DC to honor Clint Romesha right before President Obama awarded him the Medal of Honor. I told lots of politicians about it; only one elected official showed up..." | | Never without a sense of humor | | Manu Raju emails: McCain's relationship with Hill reporters was hot and cold. There were days when he hated us and others when he loved us. And my relationship with him was no different. There was a time when he wouldn't talk to me for an entire year (in 2012) when he was so angry at a story I wrote. But he eventually got over it, and I interviewed him countless times over the past 16 years, including in the back of his car as he campaigned for re-election in 2016.
But his sense of humor was an under-appreciated aspect of his personality -- something he showcased in 2017 when I was doing a live shot in the halls of Dirksen. He snuck up -- unbeknownst to me -- behind me and gave me the devil horns on live TV. Our producer, Laurie Ure, and photographer, Dave Burgess, were laughing hysterically. After I learned what happened and tweeted about it, McCain tweeted the words: "Revenge!" with a clip to the viral moment. He loved that moment, telling me on multiple occasions it was his most retweeted tweet. | | | Sometimes the news is what doesn't happen... and over the weekend, what didn't materialize was a statement on McCain from Trump. The President tweeted out his condolences to McCain's family, but did not comment on McCain himself. On Sunday evening, we learned why. WaPo's Josh Dawsey reported that Trump nixed plans over the weekend for a statement on McCain. The statement was, according to Dawsey's story, prepared by Sarah Sanders and John Kelly, and praised McCain as a "hero..." | | "There was something genuinely noble about John McCain," former "CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather told Brian Stelter on Sunday's "Reliable Sources."
Key quote: "A person with John McCain's character, matched with his leadership skills, is rare in any walk of life, and is getting to be particularly rare in the upper reaches of our country's elected office structure."
The takeaway: "We better hope we have some John McCains in the future..." | | -- Carl Bernstein reminded viewers about McCain's WaPo op-ed from January. The title: "Mr. President, stop attacking the press."
-- Rather, Nicole Carroll, and Frank Sesno spoke on "Reliable Sources" about McCain's rapport with the press corps. "He was very accessible, and it was a very healthy relationship," Carroll said...
-- That's not to say it was always friendly. Far from it. McCain could be testy with reporters. He sometimes gave certain outlets the "silent treatment," Carroll said. But it was clear that he respected the role of the press in society. "He brought on public debate, he engaged," Sesno said... | | This week's memorial schedule | | There will be five memorials and services for McCain over the next week. The first three will be open to the public.
Wednesday: McCain will lie in the Arizona State Capitol building.
Thursday: A memorial will be held at the North Phoenix Baptist Church. Those interested in attending can request tickets here.
Friday: McCain will lie in the US Capitol. A formal ceremony will be held in the US Capitol Rotunda at 11am ET.
Saturday: At 10am ET, a national memorial service will be held at Washington National Cathedral. The service is invite-only, but will be televised and live streamed.
Sunday: At about 2pm ET, a private service will be held at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Following the service, McCain will be buried at the academy's cemetery. | | -- Jennifer Rubin writes about how McCain "embodied time-honored virtues" and explains why "never have we needed" him more... (WaPo)
-- This is an old piece, but if you have not read it, you must. David Foster Wallace wrote nearly 25,000 words on McCain after spending some time with him on the 2000 campaign trail. Wallace described McCain's time as a POW in a way that will give you newfound admiration for the late senator... (Rolling Stone)
-- Carl Hulse writes about how McCain was the "last lion of the Senate." Key quote from Sen. Susan Collins: "The lions are gone. The lions of the Senate are gone. It is very sad..." (NYT) | | In the aftermath of the Orlando massacre, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said, "We will do everything in our power to make sure this never happens again." After the Parkland shooting, Scott said something similar, vowing, "I'm going to do everything I can to make sure this never happens again." But as BuzzFeed's Jon Passantino pointed out on Sunday, "It's happened again."
A gunman stormed into a video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, on Sunday afternoon and opened fire. Two people were fatally shot and nine others suffered gunshot wounds, authorities said. The gunman took his own life following the attack. CNN's story is being continually updated with the latest... | | "Everyone was just running and was just dropping because they were getting shot" | | | The eyewitness accounts to emerge from the shooting are horrifying. One eyewitness, Ryan Alemon, phoned into CNN and described the utter chaos. "Everyone was just running and was just dropping because they were getting shot," Alemon said. After the shots had stopped, Alemon said, "I just heard yelling. I heard like, 'help me, I'm shot,' and all this..." | | | The shooting was captured live on Twitch, a video platform popular among gamers who livestream themselves playing opponents. As the live stream from Twitch made the rounds on social media, a debate broke out between people who said it should not be shown -- heard, really, since it was primarily audio -- and people who said it needed to be heard. It is shocking to hear the shots and the screams inside the gaming venue. The shouts of "where'd he go?" and "oh my God" and "someone help" were chilling, but absolutely newsworthy... | | "A uniquely technologized horror..." | | | Sam Thielman of the Tow Center tweeted: "The video from Twitch of a red laser dot appearing on that guy's shirt right before he's murdered playing Madden with his friends is some kind of uniquely technologized horror that I don't think I'd ever witnessed before today..." | | | Brian Lowry emails: McCain wasn't the only A1 obit over the weekend. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Neil Simon was a comedy titan, moving between theater, film and television. In his NYT obituary, Charles Isherwood noted that Simon had four plays running simultaneously in 1966, noting, "Mr. Simon ruled Broadway when Broadway was still worth ruling." Read NYT's obit... And here's CNN's... | | | The NYT taped a "Last Word" interview with Simon -- an interview that was taped on the condition that it wouldn't be published until his death. Here's the 11-minute mini-documentary... Simon telling his own story... | | -- Is Craig Melvin about to move into a bigger role on the weekday "Today" show? It seems that way... On Saturday, he stepped down from his "Weekend Today" gig... (NBC)
-- BTW: "NBC News expects to announce his Saturday Today replacement in the next few weeks. Until then, his spot will be filled by a rotating group of guest co-anchors..." (TVNewser)
-- Kelli Ward, the far-right Senate candidate in Arizona, invited Mike Cernovich and Tomi Lahren aboard her campaign bus. Here's what it's like on tour with them... (WaPo) | | Chuck Todd places blame on Fox for distrust in media | | "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd suggested on Sunday that the growing distrust of the mainstream press is, in part, because of Fox News. Todd made the point during a discussion with CBN's David Brody. Brody brought up polls showing distrust in media and suggested it had helped get Trump elected.
"The conservative echo chamber created that environment," Todd quipped. "It's not -- no. No. No. No. It has been a tactic and a tool of the Roger Ailes-created echo chamber." Erik Wemple has a full write-up of the exchange and analysis here... | | CNN standing by its story about Cohen and Trump | | Brian Stelter emails: Michael Cohen attorney Lanny Davis "is backing away from confident assertions he made that Cohen has information to share with investigators that shows Trump knew in 2016 of Russian efforts to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton," the WaPo reported Sunday night.
FLASHBACK: One month ago, CNN had the scoop about Cohen claiming that Trump knew in advance about the infamous Trump Tower meeting. The story was attributed to "sources with knowledge." When the story broke, other reporters called Davis, and in some cases he spoke as an anonymous source, giving credence to CNN's info.
NOW: He's walking it back -- telling the Post that "I should have been more clear — including with you — that I could not independently confirm what happened."
REACTIONS: Pro-Trump web sites are claiming that the CNN story was a "lie," and that it's been "debunked." They might want it to be "debunked," but it's not. The critics don't know who CNN's sources were.
CNN STANDING BY THE STORY: In a statement to the Post, a CNN rep told the Post, "We stand by our story, and are confident in our reporting of it." | | From Sunday's show: How to cover a habitual liar | | Stelter emails: The banner for this "Reliable" segment said "SO MANY LIES, SO LITTLE TIME." Carl Bernstein, David Zurawik and Margaret Sullivan talked about how to cover, in Bernstein's words, "a president of the United States who habitually lies." Bernstein was pretty bullish about the fact-checking and followup reporting that we're seeing every day. Zurawik was more critical. He said he's had enough with the careful parsing of what's a "lie" and what's a "falsehood" and what's "misinformation."
"He lies every minute, he changes his story second to second," Zurawik said. He asserted that journalists should "just say he's lying, folks. Start from that premise. He is a liar." In other words, no more benefit of the doubt. "If you can prove he's not telling a lie, great," Zurawik said. "We should fact check him backwards, maybe see if anything he's telling us is true." Mediaite wrote up the segment here... | | -- If you watched Sunday's "Reliable," you heard Margaret Sullivan preview her Monday column about Trump and the Enquirer... (CNN)
-- Now here's the column: "What's clear here is a particularly sordid kind of poetic justice. The National Enquirer, under David Pecker, did everything it could to put Donald Trump in the White House. And it is now inseparable from the legal and political troubles that may send him packing..." (WaPo)
-- Stelter's Q to David Zurawik was, admittedly, a Q that none of us can answer: What secrets is the Enquirer still keeping about our president? (CNN) | | Jim Miller's Friday night scoop: Jemele Hill is leaving ESPN on 9/1. He said it's "been a long time coming" and it's an "amicable departure / buyout." Hill has a production company, so that's likely to be her home base for the time being...
-- Richard Deitsch tweeted: "Something to keep an eye on at ESPN: The future of The Undefeated. This was an important project to former president John Skipper." But "now out of Bristol we keep hearing a similar refrain from Jimmy Pitaro and his PR posse: Our NFL partnership is sacrosanct. We have been 'very clear with employees here that it is not our jobs to cover politics, purely...'" | | -- Hollywood and Broadway stars remember Neil Simon... (THR)
-- Man rushes stage at Beyonce and Jay Z concert... (ET) | | 'Crazy Rich Asians' tops box office again with crazy second weekend | | | From Frank Pallotta's latest: "Crazy Rich Asians" is still crazy rich at the box office. The Warner Bros. rom-com brought in an estimated $25 million in its second weekend to once again top the box office. That's just a 6% drop from its haul over the previous weekend, and nearly unheard at the box office. Read Pallotta's full story here... | | Other reasons for box office optimism | | Brian Lowry emails: As good as those "Crazy Rich Asians" numbers are, it wasn't the only reason for box-office optimism, as several movies continue to hold remarkably well in the waning weeks of the summer. In fact, four movies in the top 10 fell less than 30% week to week, the others being "Mission Impossible: Fallout," "Christopher Robin" (which is starting to look like a winner after a so-so opening) and Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman." Disney's "Incredibles 2" is also bearing up well, poised to become the first animated film to crack $600 million in domestic box-office.
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