'This Week' Transcript: Lon Snowden, Donald Trump

Lon Snowden is interviewed on 'This Week.'

ByABC News
August 10, 2013, 6:30 PM
Donald Trump meets with guests after a press conference in Sarasota, Fla., in this Aug. 26, 2012 photo.
Donald Trump meets with guests after a press conference in Sarasota, Fla., in this Aug. 26, 2012 photo.
Edward Linsmier/Getty Images

NEW YORK, August 11, 2013 — -- GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Good morning. And welcome to This Week.

Spy ship: the president reforms America's secret surveillance programs. Was his hand forced by this man?

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, I don't think Mr. Snowden was a patriot.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: This morning, Snowden's father responds. Brand new details. Will his son come home to face trial? What will he reveal next? Snowden live only on This Week.

Plus breaking this morning, are embassies reopen after that worldwide terror alert. Are we still at risk?

And why is Donald Trump stumping in Iowa?

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TRUMP: The Republican Party is in serious trouble.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: The powerhouse roundtable weighs in all the week's politics right here on this Sunday morning.

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News This Week with George Stephanopoulos starts now.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning.

In the news overnight, a dramatic rescue: Hannah Anderson, that kidnapped San Diego teenager is safe a after an all-out man hunt ended in the Idaho wilderness.

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BILL GORE, SAN DIEGO COUNTY SHERIFF: James Lee DiMaggio was shot and killed by an FBI tactical agent. Hannah Anderson was located with DiMaggio. She appears well...

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STEPHANOPOULOS: And Hannah will be reunited with her father this morning.

Overseas, one of the deadliest days for Iraq for years. Nearly 70 people killed from a series of car bombs all timed to hit those celebrating the end of Ramadan.

And across that region, 18 of the 19 American embassies and consulates closed after a global terror alert are open again.

ABC's chief local affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz has been tracking the threats that led to this extraordinary closing. And Martha, are the embassies opening again now because U.S. officials believe those drone strikes in Yemen this week actually got plotters?

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: George, officials I've spent the weekend talking to say the plotters of this specific plan were not killed in those strikes in Yemen, but the dead are part of what they called the network of terrorists trying to kill Americans.

Intelligence officials believe the plan in Yemen was to send a truck bomb into the U.S. embassy there. But a senior U.S. official now tells me that because of all the actions taken they've -- the terrorists have likely moved the explosives out of the vehicle and are changing tactics, adding we think that this imminent threat has dissipated, but fear they have gone back to ground waiting for the next opportunity to strike.

So George, this immediate threat may have passed, but the threat of terrorism really never passes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And Martha, we also heard from U.S. officials that they believe the NSA surveillance programs may have helped track this emerging threat. We saw the president come out on Friday announcing some reforms in those programs, also had some pretty tough words for the NSA leaker Edward Snowden, said he was not a patriot. Take a look.

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OBAMA: Mr. Snowden's been charged with three felonies. If, in fact, he believes that 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.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: So, Martha, what have you been able to learn about what U.S. officials are trying to do to actually get Snowden right now?