This Week with George Stephanopoulos – July 27, 2014

Host:

Jon Karl

Correspondents:

Martha Raddatz

Terry Moran

David Kerely

Jim Avila

Guests:

Gen. James Cartwright

Frederic Wehrey – Fmr Libya Attache

Steve Ganyard

Fran Townshend

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX)

Karl: holy shit America shut

down an embassy in Libya

Moran: in case things weren't

bad enough in the world

Libya is in totally chaos

Moran: it was a precision panicked

evacuation with drones and ships

and jet fighters and segways

Karl: wow

Moran: the Ambassador was

tweeting that there shots being fired

outside her window

Karl: #thatdoesntsoundgood

Moran: there's another

issue here as well

Karl: Benghazi?

Moran: Benghazi

Karl: Benghazi!

Moran: US officials fled Tripoli in

a 150 mile race to safety in Tunisia

Karl: gosh

Moran: the U.S. embassy in

Tripoli is empty and unguarded

– go to town radicals!

Karl: how bad do things have

to be where you abandon an embassy

Cartwright: pretty fucking bad

Karl: I imagine

Cartwright: there were 80 marines

and a few civilians left anyway

Karl: oh well no harm done

Cartwright: they shuttered the

embassy with the intent to return

Karl: did they burn the

files like in the movie Argo?

Wehrey: they e-mailed all

their files to themselves

Karl: clever but exactly how

does one evacuate an embassy?

Cartwright: very carefully – but there

was only a skeleton crew 

by the time they left

Karl: but the airport was being

shot at so they couldn't fly out

Cartwright: right so they drove

the whole way – what could be

more American than a road trip

Karl: is al-qaeda on the run or 

is it increasing exponentially?

Cartwright: it's franchising with

substandard products and

seductive marketing

Karl: it's the McDonalds of terror groups

Cartwright: except it kills fewer people

Karl: of course

[ break ]

Raddatz: how do train to

evacuate an embassy?

Expert: hesitation kills!

Raddatz: this fake embassy

attack is fucking terrifying

Expert: it's meant to be Martha

Raddatz: you took the American flags

as you fled in terror

Expert: these colors don't run!

[ break ]

Karl: panel there have been

a lot of plane crashes lately

Kerley: a plane was shot down

in Ukraine so of course lawmakers

are panicking

Ganyand: calm down –

flying is perfectly safe

Kerley: should American planes

have missile defense?

Rep. Steve Israel: terrorists have

lots of shoulder-launched rockets!

NRA: the only thing that stops a

good guy with a rocket launcher

is a good guy with a rocket launcher

Curley: missile defense would

cost a million dollars per plane

Nance: or we could just not fly over war zones

Kerley: but the whole world is scary!

Ganyard: you would have to fly once

per day every day for 4 million

years to die in a plane crash

Karl: facts have a non-panic bias

Ganyard: but why was Malaysia Air

flying over Ukraine?

Karl: to be fair a missile defense system

wouldn't have even helped MH 17

Ganyard: right – but not

being there would have helped

Karl: hey whatever what

happened to MH 370 – was it aliens?

Ganyard: in this day and age we

should not lose an entire plane

Karl: we have this image of terrorists

shooting down planes all over

America just for the fun of it

Townshend: we don't need

missile defense – we need to

stop flying over terror zones

Karl: you think Obama should

not have stopped planes in Tel Aviv

Townshend: it was ridiculous –

it send a signal to the bad guys

that we're scared of their rockets

Karl: but we are scared

Townshend: Obama overreacted to a threat

Karl: also he under-reacted to Benghazi

Townshend: Benghazi!!

Karl: I'm terrified of terrorists

Townshend: you should be

– they're everywhere

Karl: although most plane

crashes are weather-related

Ganyard: that's right – weather

kills far more plane passengers

than terrorists do

Karl: agggghhhhhh!!!!!

[ break ]

Avila: most of the new immigrants

are children and female

Rick Perry: call out the National Guard!!

Avila: the Guard can't actually do anything

Karl: don't knock the Guard

Avila: also the number of

immigrants is actually down

Karl: problem solved

Avila: this is a humanitarian crisis

which Congress is being asked to

end before they take a month long vacation

Karl: good luck with that

[ break ]

Karl: Congressman is this

crisis of small children coming

to America finally over?

Cuellar: maybe or it might be

too hot to come to immigrate right now

Karl: you're going on a 5 week

vacation without doing anything

Cornyn: hey we deserve it –

it's hard doing nothing

Karl: I'm sure

Cornyn: we might get some

money to help these kids

Karl: why don't Democrats want

to repeal the Bush law that

caused this problem?

Cuellar: some do

Karl: Pelosi and Reid don't

Cuellar: 42,000 kids have

showed up in my neighborhood!

Karl: what about screening kids

in their home countries?

Cornyn: criminals are exploiting the Bush law!

Karl: well I'm rooting for you

Producer: you said that out loud Jon

Karl: I did?