'This Week' Transcript: Dan Pfeiffer
— -- Below is the rush transcript of "This Week" on August 3rd, 2014. It may contain errors.
ANNOUNCER: Right now on ABC's THIS WEEK.
Out of control, the bailout that's spreading fast. And now the race to save two Americans quickened with a killer virus. This morning, breaking details on the emergency mission to bring the first patient home.
Border bedlam: no action from Congress on the surging humanitarian crisis. Our reporter on the ground with the dramatic impact on the border patrol. And the families still crossing over.
Then remember this was quickest moments with the legend who brought so many of them home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Time for Dodger baseball.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From ABC News, THIS WEEK WITH GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS begins now.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC HOST: Good morning. It's an image sparking hope and fear for so many Americans, Christian missionary and Ebola patient Dr. Kent Brantly back in the U.S. walking in the Emory University Hospital Saturday then reuniting with his wife through a glass wall.
ABC's Bazi Kanani starts us off with the latest on this experimental operation to bring Brantly home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BAZI KANANI, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Dr. Kent Brantly arriving Saturday, the first Ebola patient on U.S. soil whisked through Atlanta by ambulance then that's him on the right in a full biosuit walking with assistance into a special isolation unit at Emory University. A 5,000-mile trip from Liberia on a jet modified with a protective tent to prevent contact with bodily fluids, which is how the killer virus is spread.
Officials say they're confident his treatment and that of his colleagues at Nancy Writebol, who will arrive in a few days, won't put the public at risk.
DR. BRUCE RIBNER, EMORY UNIVERSITY: We do not believe that any health care worker, any other patient or any -- or visitor to our facility is in any way at risk of acquiring this infection.
KANANI: Meanwhile, in West Africa, the biggest Ebola outbreak in history already called out of control by aid groups in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone is only getting worse; more than 700 dead so far.
Governments reacting with drastic new measures, soldiers on the streets, disinfectant sprayed in public spaces and schools closed.
What is the situation there on the ground in Liberia?
LEWIS BROWN, LIBERIA'S INFORMATION MINISTER: Well, actually, the situation is dire. Our health care capabilities and capacities are truly overstretched and overtaxed.
KANANI: Here, protesters (INAUDIBLE) bodies to be removed, then a standoff when (INAUDIBLE) refused to be taken to Ebola treatment clinics.
Back in the U.S., 20 quarantine stations are ready in case infected travelers arrive and caution in Washington, where participates arriving from the infected countries for the U.S.-Africa summit will be screened.
Authorities on alert should another case of Ebola turn up unexpectedly.
For THIS WEEK, Bazi Kanani, ABC News, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Our thanks to Bazi Kanani for that. And joining us now from Atlanta, the head of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Tom Frieden. And our own Dr. Richard Besser, also veteran of the CDC.
And Rich, let me begin with you.
Tell us a little bit more. You've been inside that isolation chamber. Tell us a little bit more about it and what the prognosis is for Dr. Brantly now.
DR. RICHARD BESSER, ABC'S CHIEF HEALTH AND MEDICAL EDITOR: Well, Dr. Brantly was supposedly very ill when he was in Africa. But seeing him walk out of that ambulance is a very positive sign. I've spoken with one of the doctors who's on the team that's taking care of him. There are four infectious disease specialists, two highly trained nurses.
They'll be wearing that same kind of protective gear that we've been seeing to take care of him. But they will be able to monitor him much closer, give him fluids, give him blood transfusions, give him the kind of care that was not available in Liberia.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And Dr. Frieden, as you know, a lot of anxiety here in the United States about the spread of Ebola, whether we're taking an unnecessary risk.
I want to show a tweet that Donald Trump put out just the other day.
He said that the U.S. must immediately stop all flights from Ebola infected countries or the plague will start and spread inside our borders -- act fast.
How do you respond to that?
DR. TOM FRIEDEN, CDC: Well, Ebola's scary. And it's understandable that with a deadly disease, people are concerned. But the plain truth is that we can stop Ebola. We know how to control it. Hospital infection control, and stopping it at the source in Africa.
You know, we're not going to hermetically seal the borders of the U.S. We're reliant and interdependent with the world for travel, for trade, for economy, for our families and communities.
But really, the single most important thing we can do to protect Americans is to stop this disease at the source in Africa.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But, Dr. Frieden, is it safe right now to send CDC workers into Africa?
FRIEDEN: Well, we are search our response and we're going to put 50 staff on the ground in these three countries to help stop the outbreak in the next 30 days. And we put safety first. Staff have experienced some hostility from groups that are so upset.
We immediately withdraw them. And we make sure that if we're taking care of patients with Ebola, we have the proper ears so that the risk of an infection is kept to the absolute minimum.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And Rich, there is a concern that the world is responding effectively to this crisis, which is spreading throughout West Africa right now.
BESSER: Yes, I mean, there's a big concern. The World Health Organization put out a plan, a statement that at $100 million are needed to control this. I've talked to public health experts who say that that's a gross underestimate of what it will take. Public health traditionally lowballs the figure. But there's -- there are two reasons there's a humanitarian reason for stopping this in West Africa. They have -- but the conversation we've been having also shows we have a self-interest in doing that.
And the conversation really has to look at what will it take to beef up the health system to control this where it is.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What about, Dr. Frieden, an Ebola vaccine? I know the NIH is planning some human trials in September. Is there promise there? And what's the block to getting it out more quickly?
FRIEDEN: We would love an Ebola vaccine. It would be very helpful especially to protect health care workers. But even the best case, it's a long way away and it's uncertain.
What is certain is that we know how to stop Ebola now. And really the tried and true public health mechanisms work. We find the patients. You isolate them. You find out who their contacts were. You trace the contacts. You track them every day for 21 days. If they get fever, you start that process again. You make sure there's good infection control and you educate the community in Africa about safe burial practices. When you do those simple things, Ebola stops. As every previous Ebola outbreak has been stopped, but right now it's out of control in West Africa and maybe will spread further in that region. What we can do and what we're doing is surging our response to put out the embers, because Ebola is really like a forest fire. If you leave one ember burning, it can flare up again. That's why it's so important that we control it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, Rich Besser, the Nobel Prize winning biologist Joshua Lobo (ph) recently wrote, "Assume the biggest threat to man's continued domestic on the planet is the virus." Are we going enough to address this broad threat of viruses?
BESSER: Yes, I don't think we are. I think we've been far too much in a reactive mode when it comes to new emerging infections. There has to be a much bigger approach, a much bigger effort to try and look at where will the next virus emerge and how we get prepared for that wherever it may occur.
STEPHANOPOULOS: OK. Thank you both very much.
Now the debate over immigration and the crisis on our southern border. Congress has gone home without agreeing on a plan and there are new questions this morning about what President Obama can do on his own to deal with these overlapping issues.
ABC's Jim Avila has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM AVILA, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: It's official, Congress has left the building, leaving the president promising to go solo on the humanitarian crisis at the border and broader immigration reform.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm going to have to add to that because we don't have enough resources. I've been very clear. We've run out of money.
AVILA (voice-over): Congress on vacation after a last-minute flurry of finger-pointing.
JOHN BOEHNER, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The crisis on the border is one of the president's own making.
AVILA (voice-over): In the end, nothing on immigration went from the Hill to the president for signing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The House stands adjourned.
AVILA (voice-over): And 1,500 miles to the southwest along the Rio Grande, there is no vacation. The rafts keep crossing as we saw from a border patrol boat this week.
(CROSSTALK)
AVILA (voice-over): The Obama administration has surged 200 more agents to this area, adding more boats. And it's working, say the people on the ground and water. Unaccompanied minor crossings are down by half in July.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The numbers have gone down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it because the message is getting across?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know about the message (INAUDIBLE) helping out.
AVILA: The refugees keep coming, many moms and their children, often kids by themselves. This 17-year-old girl came, she says, because of the gangs at home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The violence over there does not allow us to go to school. That's what we're coming over here.
AVILA: This type of effort at the border is expensive. And so are the new facilities being built to humanely hold the moms and kids while they await asylum hearings. The border patrol and ICE say they will run out of money by the time Congress comes back 36 days from now. That's enough time for another 5,700 children to cross the Rio Grande River alone.
For THIS WEEK, Jim Avila, ABC News, McAllen, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Thanks to Jim for that.
And now that stunningly blunt language from President Obama on torture, amid pressure on the CIA. Just days before the release of an explosive stunning investigation into the agency's interrogation practices after 9/11. The president's speaking out, defending the CIA director, who's under fire from senators livid over CIA's snooping on Senate staff.
ABC's chief White House correspondent Jon Karl has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: A long awaited report by the Senate Intelligence Committee may cast the harshest light yet on the CIA's post-9/11 interrogation program. Here's how the president summed it up on Friday.
OBAMA: They tortured some folks. They did some things that were contrary to our values.
KARL (voice-over): President Obama came into office criticizing those policies.
OBAMA: We must leave these methods where they belong -- in the past.
KARL (voice-over): But now he's also urging people to understand what the CIA was up against after the September 11th attacks.
OBAMA: It's important for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job that those folks have.
KARL: And the report isn't the only bad news for the intelligence community. CIA Director John Brennan had to make an extraordinary apology this week, admitting the CIA spied on computers used by Congressional staffers working on the interrogation report. The accusation of CIA spying was first made in March by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Diane Feinstein.
SEN. DIANE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: I have grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles.
KARL: Back then, Brennan strongly denied the charge.
JOHN BRENNAN, DIRECTOR, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: Nothing could be further from the truth. I mean we wouldn't do that. I mean that's -- that's -- that's just beyond the -- the, uh, you know, the scope of -- of reason.
KARL: And while some Democrats are now calling on Brennan to resign, President Obama is standing by him.
OBAMA: I have full confidence in John Brennan.
KARL: For THIS WEEK, Jonathan Karl, ABC News, Washington.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Thanks to Jon for that.
And joining us now, senior White House adviser, Dan Pfeiffer.
Dan, thanks for coming in this morning.
We just saw the president. He says he has full confidence in John Brennan.
But we also saw, just a few months ago, John Brennan saying he didn't know about this snooping, that nothing could be further from the truth.
So either he wasn't telling the truth or he didn't know what was going on in his own agency.
Doesn't that trouble the president?
DAN PFEIFFER, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Well, I think what we have to do is look at how Director Brennan responded to this. When there were allegations of improper conduct, he was the one who referred it to the inspector general. And then the inspector general came back with his report this week.
He set out -- he's setting up an accountability review board to ensure that the right steps are taken or -- to provide accountability.
And John Brennan is a man of great integrity and ability. He's someone the president knows very well and the president has confidence in him.
STEPHANOPOULOS: This Senate report is likely to come out this week, maybe a little later.
Will the president do anything more, order any more actions in the wake of this report?
PFEIFFER: I think that what this report does, which is the president calls for to be declassified as much as possible, as quickly as possible, is -- what he has said is we want to -- (INAUDIBLE) this happened, we want to acknowledge it, but most important, we want to make sure it never happens again, which is why, in his first week in office, he signed an executive order banning these, um, activities.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's move on to immigration.
The president says he's planning to take action now that it's failed again in the House to protect more of these undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
But back in November, he said his hands were tied on this issue.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: If, in fact, I could solve all these problems without passing laws in Congress, then I would do so. But we're also a nation of laws. That's part of our tradition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you know, according to people who have been briefed by the White House, this could affect up to five million undocumented immigrants.
Doesn't a reversal like that fuel the arguments of those who say the president is overstepping his authority?
PFEIFFER: Well, first, I think the reports you're seeing are uniformed speculation. The president asked...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Completely uniformed?
PFEIFFER: Well, the -- the -- yes, because the president has asked the attorney general and the, uh, secretary of Homeland Security to present him with recommendations by the end of the summer. They have not done that yet.
So let's wait and see what those are before we make judgments about them.
And what the president was referring to is that whatever he does in this space will be a poor -- will not be a substitute for comprehensive immigration reform. Congress will still need to act. But because of Congress's failure to fix the immigration system and to pass the supplemental appropriations, we need to deal with the specific crisis on the border, um, con -- the president has no choice but to act.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But if the president ends up providing -- which he hasn't made a final decision yet -- providing effectively no deportation for up to really five million immigrants, how do you respond to the arguments of those like John Yoo, who said this. "If President Obama can refuse to enforce an entire class of law, such as the immigration law, against millions because he dislikes the policy, why can't the next president unilaterally lower tax rates by refusing to prosecute anyone who only pays a 20 percent income tax when Congress requires 33 percent?"
What's the limiting principle here?
PFEIFFER: The limiting principle is the law. And the president has just simply asked what he can do under the law.
Now, in 2012, under, you know, he took a step to protect, um, a class of (INAUDIBLE) Dreamers, young immigrants who came here through no fault of their own. And -- and he -- that was done within the confine -- the confines of the law.
Now, the Republicans, last week, took a vote to deport all of those people back to countries that most of them don't know or remember.
And that, I think, speaks to the -- the challenge the president has, is we need to address the situation both on the border and through our immigration system.
So he's going to do what he can, but under the confines of the law.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And it will be in September?
PFEIFFER: It will be at the end of the summer.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, on this whole specter of impeachment, so much talk about impeachment the last couple of weeks in Washington. As you know, a lot of Republicans say that you personally are the person fueling this. You want to keep this debate going to have Democrats rile up their base.
I want to show Nate Silver FiveThirtyEight did a piece this week where he said Democrats are way more obsessed with impeachment than Republicans. It turns out there were more mentions in Congress by Democrats than Republicans.
MSNBC has talked about impeachment five times more than Fox News. Of course, you're raising a lot of money on this, as well.
So I wonder how you respond to these findings and the charge that it's Democrats fueling this talk?
PFEIFFER: Well, I think what we -- what I said was that it would be foolish to discount the possibility that this Republican Congress, at some point in time, would consider impeachment.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But the speaker said it's not going to happen. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee...
PFEIFFER: Right.
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- told me it's not going to happen.
PFEIFFER: Right. And five days before the government shutdown, the speaker said there was no way we'd shut the government -- government down over health care. And then we did.
And in the House of Representatives, John Boehner may have the gavel, but Ted Cruz has the power. And so I...
STEPHANOPOULOS: You don't really think impeachment is possible?
PFEIFFER: I -- well, I -- when the House takes an unprecedented step to sue the president of the United States, for inde -- for -- even though he is issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in 100 years, I think it would foolish to discount the possibility.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So the talk is going to keep on going.
OK, Dan Pfeiffer, thanks very much.
Up next, on the road in South Carolina with the Senate's only black Republican.
What is Tim Scott's message for his party?
And the roundtable weighs in on a week in politics where everyone was lashing out and little was getting done.
We're back in just two minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: In today's Closer Look, can one senator help the Republican Party broaden its base?
Tim Scott of South Carolina is the first African-American senator from the South since Reconstruction, the first black Republican in over three decades.
And as Scott learns the ropes in the Senate, he's got a message for his party.
ABC's Jeff Zeleny went on the road with Scott in Charleston.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tim Scott is happy to be back home in South Carolina, giving high fives.
(CROSSTALK)
ZELENY: Posing for selfies.
(CROSSTALK)
ZELENY: In every audience, hamming it up.
SEN. TIM SCOTT (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: You look good. Look at that.
(LAUGHTER)
SCOTT: (INAUDIBLE).
ZELENY: For five years, he's been on a rocket ride, rising from the Charleston County Council to the House of Representatives to the U.S. Senate.
SCOTT: It occurs to me...
ZELENY: We caught up with him the day Congress started its five week summer break, leaving a long list, including immigration, unresolved.
SCOTT: It is a hard question to wrestle with, is how to be compassionate for people that you know are coming to your borders looking for a better way of life, and, at the same time, adhering to the laws of the country.
ZELENY: Congress, both chambers, had two months to deal with the this and nothing, walked away with absolutely nothing.
I mean is it not a crisis anymore?
SCOTT: This is not a crisis that occurred in the last two months. The lack of collaboration and then to show up in the 23rd hour saying we need you to approve a $4 billion package is not the way to do it.
ZELENY (voice-over): He was appointed to the Senate a year and a half ago, arriving just in time for one of the least productive periods in memory.
SCOTT: Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you look at the Senate and you say to yourself, you just shake your head.
ZELENY: But Scott is brimming with optimism and steeped in history he's not only the lone Republicans African American in Congress, but the only black Republican senator in more than a century.
I noticed a headline in South Carolina biggest newspaper earlier this year. It says, "The GOP Hopes Tim Scott Will Attract More Black Voters."
Do you think you've done that?
SEN. TIM SCOTT (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I hope what I provide is an opportunity to have a serious conversation with voters everywhere, black voters, white voters, old voters, young voters.
ZELENY: Why do Republicans continue to struggle so much, diversifying their ranks?
SCOTT: We don't need to simply win the demographic war, we need to win the war of ideas.
ZELENY (voice-over): Black Republicans are a rare find here in South Carolina. Black Democrats are skeptical of its politics.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN, D-S.C.: Well, it's always good to have diversity. But diversity can be skin color and it can be philosophy. I would hope that the Republican Party would be a little more diversified in its approach to governance.
ZELENY (voice-over): Scott says Republicans should spend more time focusing on poor and middle class Americans.
Are Republicans as a party focused enough on these issues?
SCOTT: I think there's always room for improvement without any question. One of the things I've said very consistently is that we have to fight (ph) in the education space. My life has changed because a public education.
ZELENY (voice-over): Scott grew up on this dead end street in North Charleston. He thinks of this neighborhood when he gets hate mail or hears condemnations like when a North Carolina NAACP leader called him the GOP's ventriloquist dummy.
ZELENY: When they said those criticisms, do they know that you grew up here?
SCOTT: At the end of the day, these folks who are criticizing, very few of them have taken the time to make a phone call, to have a conversation, to have a debate about my agenda. The truth of the matter is, they have no clue who I am or what I stand for.
ZELENY: Conservatives are beaming about their new senator, in part because of his opposition to President Obama's policies.
JOHN STEINBERGER: He's a core conservative and he articulates what he believes and resonates very well with South Carolina Republicans.
ZELENY: Along the way, Scott started an unusual program, the undercover senator. One of his stops, a burrito restaurant, sweeping floors and chopping chicken all to anonymously listen to voters' concerns.
Did anyone have any idea that you were a United States senator?
SCOTT: No. You know, within an hour, hour and a half or so, (INAUDIBLE) typically someone says, aren't you that guy? No, I'm not Darius Rucker. I'm just Tim Scott.
ZELENY: These days he's putting on his salesman's hat for the GOP, trying to sell a helpful message and soften a debate he says is too often inflammatory and shrill.
Do you ever feel like you'd like to turn the volume down, though, on some of those senators on both sides on the Senate floor?
SCOTT: Let me say, I -- yes. I mean just to be blunt, absolutely.
ZELENY: On whose microphone?
SCOTT: Well, I can't be that blunt.
ZELENY: In Republican rich South Carolina, Scott's election in November seems almost assured.
It's his next chapter that's still to be written. For THIS WEEK, Jeff Zeleny, ABC News, Charleston, South Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Thanks to Jeff Zeleny for that. And coming up in just two minutes, the (INAUDIBLE) talk us all of these hot topics from the crisis on the border to the battle over presidential power. Is either side gaining an edge the country paying the price? First, our big winners of the week.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you willing to let any president choose what laws to execute and what laws to change?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a shame and a disgrace that we're here debating (INAUDIBLE) suing the president.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This country is founded upon the rule of law.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a waste of time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our Constitution does not say that the president gets to write his own laws.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: (INAUDIBLE) attack.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Come on.
STEPHANOPOULOS: House closed the latest sue the president one of the topics for our roundtable, joined by ABC contributor and the editor of "The Weekly Standard," Bill Kristol.
Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas.
Greta Van Susteren from FOX News and the editor of "The New Yorker," David Remnick.
And let me start with you, Bill Kristol. The House did pass that legislation (INAUDIBLE) to this lawsuit.
Some have suggested this is a dangerous strategy after the Republicans, after the backfire in November.
BILL KRISTOL, "THE WEEKLY STANDARD": No, I'm not sure that this (INAUDIBLE) world that they'll file a lawsuit. Courts will adjudicate it and I suspect they might be denied standing. And I don't think it'll be a big deal.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Even after, Joaquin Castro, the president, we just talked to Dan Pfeiffer, seems to be prepared to go forward on his executive orders to expand the number of undocumented immigrants who will not be deported. And (INAUDIBLE) you heard Dan Pfeiffer say the president hasn't made a decision.
But it is true that you and other -- you and others are pushing the president to expand this as fast as possible.
REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D), TEXAS: Oh, absolutely. The fact is, George, somebody's got to be working in Washington. And the president is ready to act on immigration reform. The Congress has now had several years, but especially the last two, to do something. And Republicans have failed to move on it. So he will do everything within his power and within the law.
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: It begs the question is it really within his power to explain this by 4 million or 5 million immigrants?
CASTRO: Absolutely. Remember, the way that he expanded -- he introduced DACA was deferred action on the students and others by not prosecuting them, and he can do the same thing for other folks as well.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Look, I don't know if he's probably going to do this, but the real promise we'll have an absence of leadership, you know, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid should be back in Washington. The president should call him back. And the House should be back in Washington. They should resolve it.
So here they all go running to the cameras and say this is a humanitarian crisis and they -- whether they all (INAUDIBLE) get out of town. That's a big problem. I do my job when there's a humanitarian crisis. I don't know, where are they?
STEPHANOPOULOS: And there is a bit of an analogy, David Remnick, in the week after the House first fell before they'd been passed legislation, many of the House later said, well, the president should go after on his own even though there's some to do the same thing.
DAVID REMNICK, EDITOR, "THE NEW YORKER": Well, look, the fact of the matter is the Obama administration has been rather light on executive orders. This is not an administration that ranks very high in the history of the United States in executive orders.
The business about a lawsuit and talk of impeachment is pathetic. Yes, it's been taken advantage of in the political by the talk of impeachment by the Democratic Party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're pushing it now.
REMNICK: But it's -- but it was initiated by the Republican Party, is a very, very sad spectacle. And history will look back on this Congress with a very, very critical eye and be --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- House Republicans passed the legislation Friday night. It is my view very good legislation. The days from the border crisis is actually is addressed on the border crisis, increases the National Guard, it makes it easier to deport people --
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: -- the Senate would say we did it a year ago.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Senate bill does not deal with the actual border crisis.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- immigration reform or not. The House passed legislation that deals with the border crisis and addresses the executive order --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- the president issued an executive order two years ago. That has backfired and has been disastrous --
VAN SUSTEREN: But there's no --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- those undocumented young people be coming here without the executive order?
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: There is a huge problem here and the people who are in charge of solving it are the president, the House and the Senate. And you know, they ought to all go back to Washington --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the House passed legislation --
VAN SUSTEREN: Fine. Great.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- and it didn't --
VAN SUSTEREN: That's terrific. And you know what should happen? The Senate should be back in session. They should vote on it, send it to conference and let it be resolved. The president should be showing leadership and so just -- this is like a -- almost like a classroom where the teacher leaves the room and also knows the upheaval in the classroom. The president's not showing any leadership. Instead, he says I'll just go on my own. Well, that's not how a democracy is supposed to work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, and Greta, I agree with you that both the Senate and the House should be working right now to get this done. But the fact is they're not.
VAN SUSTEREN: And the president. He should be leading them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact is the president has been trying to work with the Congress for the last two years to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
Now if the House had taken up the Senate bill, which would have passed, there are enough votes right now that if you put that on the floor, it will pass, that bill will pass, we would have been able to avoid some of the problems that we're seeing now with this border situation.
You would have more Border Patrol. You would have more judges to speed up the process. And a lot of that crisis that we're seeing now wouldn't be happening.
(CROSSTALK)
KRISTOL: You would have more of a magnet for people to come north. Amnesty...
(CROSSTALK)
KRISTOL: It turns out that amnesty is a magnet.
CASTRO: But these folks don't qualify for DACA. You know that under this executive order, these folks do not qualify for DACA.
KRISTOL: But they saw that the previous generation of people who came in were amnestied, and they think they're going to be amnestied.
CASTRO: Well, and that's why -- well...
KRISTOL: Amnesty is a magnet, I think, Joaquin.
CASTRO: The cartels and coyotes are trying to encourage them to make $7,000 or $6,000 to get them here. But, look, we're not going to set our policies based on what coyotes and cartels do.
We're going to go to Central America and dispel those myths. And that's what the president has been working on.
STEPHANOPOULOS: David Remnick, Greta says the president should show leadership here. But it does seem, if you look at the range of legislation over the last two, four years, no hope that anything is going to get done.
REMNICK: No, I think he's pretty stifled. It's frustrating at times to see his projection of frustration. You want him to suck it up and keep going at it and leading and leading.
But I think history is going to show that this presidency has been stifled at every angle.
(CROSSTALK)
REMNICK: If I could get in one word. The immigration issue, first of all, I think a lot of people at this table are here because of America's openness to immigration. I think that's fair to say.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Probably all five of us.
KRISTOL: Yes, it was legal. There's something called legal immigration and illegal immigration.
(CROSSTALK)
CASTRO: ... rules back then, Bill.
(CROSSTALK)
KRISTOL: Well, fine, if you want to make a case for open borders as we had then, I'm open to that.
(CROSSTALK)
KRISTOL: There are laws that should be enforced, in my humble opinion.
CASTRO: But, I mean, when we talk about the immigration issue, we have to talk about it historically and in context. And I think oftentimes, in the debate, a lot of that context is either willfully lost or just not known.
VAN SUSTEREN: But this is the discussion the president should be having with Speaker Boehner and with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. And it's not happening. They're all on vacation. I mean, this is their job.
CASTRO: I agree.
VAN SUSTEREN: You know, so I don't get it. I don't think -- this happens to be their job.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess, I don't know. I don't think another phone call or three more weeks in session is going to make any difference.
VAN SUSTEREN: No, but I don't see any effort. You know, I mean, all I see is a lot of finger-pointing. I see a lot -- everyone going up to the microphones and saying these things. I really don't see them all sitting down.
REMNICK: Look we have got a political situation now where the majority of the Republican base is for the impeachment of the president. Again, do I think the Democrats have played this up to their political advantage? Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And there's no way it can happen when the leadership is opposed to it.
REMNICK: And -- yes. And this is just a stifled gridlock political situation, and it's...
VAN SUSTEREN: But, David, that's...
REMNICK: And one more phone call, as George said, one more dinner invitation that becomes the talk of all Washington, is not going to...
VAN SUSTEREN: So you give up on democracy?
(CROSSTALK)
REMNICK: Nobody is giving up on anything.
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: Leadership is tough. Being president is tough. But you have at least got to, you know, keep trying. You can't just say, I'll go alone.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Quickly.
KRISTOL: House Republicans have passed a lot of legislation. People may not agree with it. Senator Reid has refused to bring it up. Some of it -- quite a lot of it has had Democratic support -- some Democratic support.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We've got to take a break. Before we do go to that break, our "Powerhouse Puzzler," inspired by my friend and GMA co-host Michael Strahan. You see him last night entering the pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Great moment for him.
Here's the question. Name the president whose library and museum are also in Canton. We're back in two minutes with the answer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: OK, which presidential library is in Canton, Ohio? Let's see the "Roundtable's" answers. Bill Kristol: Rutherford Hayes. Taft. Taft. Taft. They're all wrong.
REMNICK: All wrong? Great.
STEPHANOPOULOS: William McKinley.
VAN SUSTEREN: Oh, of course.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Of course. There you see it right there. I knew the answer.
(LAUGHTER)
STEPHANOPOULOS: OK. We'll be back with a live report from the Middle East, more "Roundtable," and our "Sunday Spotlight."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: New images from Gaza this morning. Israeli Defense Forces take out a Hamas tunnel. And there are new reports of another U.N. school coming under fire as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows the operation will continue under his terms. No talk of a cease-fire. ABC's chief foreign correspondent Terry Moran is tracking the latest from Gaza.
Good morning, Terry.
TERRY MORAN, ABC CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, George.
The news here today is Israel is changing tactics in this war. The Israeli military redeploying ground troops out of population centers, back towards the border, in some cases, across that border. But the pace of the air and artillery attacks has not slacked off. The bloodshed continues in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MORAN (voice-over): Israeli forces bombarded downtown Gaza City again this morning, pounding one of the city's high-rise office buildings. And yet another U.N. school housing refugees has been hit by shells, at least 10 reportedly killed there.
ROBERT TURNER, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, UNRWA: How this continues to happen, continues to happen, I have no idea. It's -- I don't have words for it. I don't know how -- I don't understand it.
MORAN: But Israel's ground war does seem to be winding down. Some troops returning to Israel, others taking positions along the border. Officials saying that the main military task, destroying that Hamas-built tunnel network into Israel, is almost completed.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear last night Israel will not stop until the threat it sees in Hamas-run Gaza is eliminated.
The Israeli military announced today that Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, missing since Friday and feared captured by Hamas, was in fact killed in an attack during that Hamas attack on his unit, which broke the cease-fire. Israel now rejecting any truce talks.
While ordinary Palestinians like Moussab Abu Toha (ph), who introduced us to his family at a U.N. school where they have taken refuge, they want the most simple, most basic things.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want peace. I want to live in dignity.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MORAN: There are truce talks underway in Cairo now, but Israel is not participating. The Israeli Cabinet making clear that they will act unilaterally, deciding on their own if and when to stop their operations here -- George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: OK, Terry Moran, thanks very much.
Back with the roundtable right now.
David Remnick, let me begin with you.
As I said, President, uh, Prime Minister Netanyahu sounding pretty clear he was going to do this on his own terms. This might be the beginning of the end of the end game.
But it's still hard to see where this leads to...
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- three, six months from now.
REMNICK: The only end game -- let's -- let's not get into the back and forth about tunnels and the brutality and the -- the horrendous death of civilian, um, civilians in Gaza.
We -- it is horrible and Hamas is a contemptible organization. You can see -- you can -- I think we can say two things at once.
But this cycle, these cycles, are not going to end until occupation ends, as difficult as that is, inevitably going to be, and it's not going to bring immediate peace by any stretch of the imagination.
But the only way this story changes and ends is with the end of occupation. And that can only begin to happen with Netanyahu taking his best interlocutor seriously, which is Mahmoud Abbas, a flawed interlocutor. And so it Netanyahu, to say the least.
But that has to be where this goes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: you know, we just -- we had about six or nine months of negotiations led by Secretary Kerry with Abbas.
REMNICK: Well, and I -- I -- and their collapse is an awful narrative, it's an awful story. But, you know, Israel is where it is. And in order for it to have a future, in order for the Palestinian people to have a future, this ongoing business has -- of occupation -- has to find a resolution. It cannot be -- you -- you are not a strategic thinker when you're thinking from Friday to Friday, from Shabbat to Shabbat, from Saturday to Saturday. You cannot.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Bill Kristol?
KRISTOL: And I totally disagree with you. The occupation of Gaza ended in 2005. Ariel Sharon pulled the Israelis out of Gaza.
What they got for that is three wars launched from Gaza by Hamas. Hamas needs to be destroyed. The leadership needs to be destroyed. The tunnels need to be destroyed. That's what Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to do.
The West Bank has been pretty peaceful. That could be -- they can work out the differences there. The fence has helped a lot.
But Hamas is not a partner for peace, a partner for negotiation and Hamas has to be destroyed.
STEPHANOPOULOS: and, Greta, Hamas does not have any friends -- many friends in the Arab world right now, either, but it's still hard to see what happens with Gaza once the tunnels are destroyed and Israel is still deployed right on the border.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, that's why so many people were critical of Secretary Kerry going to Paris and talking with Hamas, is because what it was thought is that the Arab League that that was, you know, supporting Hamas to the exclusion of the Arab League.
Look, this is an ugly situation. I'm not -- I'm surprised that anyone is even surprised that Netanyahu is doing this. He's been telling the world for a long time that he was going to do things. And now, all of a sudden, everyone is shocked that this is going on, you know, that this is going on as extensively.
This was inevitable. It was just a question of when.
CASTRO: And, you know, support for Israel is one of the few things right now that Congress does agree on in a bipartisan way. We just funded another $325 million for the Iron Dome system before we left. But, you know, we've got to keep pressing both sides to come to the bargaining table, come to an agreement, not only for a cease-fire, but for a longer-term arrangement that respects both sides.
STEPHANOPOULOS: It's hard to see how much leverage the United States has right now.
Why don't we to move on to Russia. The president did announce new sanctions for Russia this week, joined on by the European Union.
And, David, you just got back from a reporting tour for "The New Yorker." I'm going to show the, uh, the cover story right there right now. You say watching the clips, you know, of that little cartoon of Vladimir Putin and reading the report, it really does help understand why Vladimir Putin has not backed down in the face of this united front from the U.S. and Europe.
REMNICK: Well, Vladimir Putin is not the Vladimir Putin of 2006-2007. His popularity rating then was in the 80s because his economy was booming. He was delivering on pensions. Deficits were coming down. There was a kind of warped authoritarian legitimacy to what he was -- what he was up to.
Now, with growth rates at zero, with the economy in real disarray, for a variety of reasons, nationalism and a kind of neo-imperialism has become -- and whipped up by the state media has been responsible for his much higher popularity rating.
And it's -- to me, it's a -- it's a strategy without a future. And I think it's going to be not only a disaster for the world, but for, above all, for Russia and Ukraine.
VAN SUSTEREN: I'm hopeful the sanctions will work. I'm hopeful there won't be any cheaters. And I need -- and I hope the European Union is aggressive in it, as well, as the United States, because Russia is not the Soviet Union. It is part of the global economy. And this is a possible chokepoint.
This is not the Soviet Union that's closed up. This is -- you know, so I think sanctions have a chance, if they're strict and there are no cheaters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, but I do think that Putin -- Putin has a fundamental decision to make in the next few years, whether he's going to go back to being an isolated nation, whether Russia is going to be isolated in the way that the Soviet Union was from the world, or whether it's going to be part of the community of nations in the world and be productive and respect borders and interact economically.
And I think that he really is in the middle of that decision.
STEPHANOPOULOS: everybody keeps thinking because he's making that choice, but there are (INAUDIBLE) you know I was surprised. I was personally surprised after that Malaysian flight comes down, you would think that would be the moment to try to take a way out.
Instead, more forces built up on the border.
KRISTOL: I think David's piece explains Putin's mindset quite well. But part of that is he will not tolerate a pro-Western Ukraine. He thinks Ukraine should either be -- all of it should be part of Russia, or at least the eastern part should be part of Russia, and, in any case, he cannot tolerate a reasonably democratic, Western-oriented Ukraine on his border. It causes affront to him.
(CROSSTALK)
KRISTOL: People in Russia...
(CROSSTALK)
KRISTOL: -- people in Russia would say...
(CROSSTALK)
KRISTOL: -- hey, if Ukraine can have a decent government, why can't we?
So I do not think Putin is going to back down here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not just a question of nationalism, too. You have to remember, this is about money, that the military-industrial complex of the old Soviet Union, half of it is located in Eastern Ukraine. It's not just coal, it's not just resources.
And the deals made between a corrupt Ukrainian leadership, for years, and a corporate Russian had -- had -- are in -- are in jeopardy, are made in jeopardy by a new Ukrainian government, by a more transparent system that brings in Europe.
And, by the way, the United States and the European Union are not blameless in this crisis. They are not blameless. And Ukraine -- the Ukrainian Army has killed a lot of civilians in Eastern Ukraine.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the singular actor here is Vladimir Putin. He's the -- the hand -- it's in all of his hands.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to move on now to the CIA, John Brennan. We just heard (INAUDIBLE) say the president maintains confidence in -- in Director Brennan, despite the fact that we did learn this week, Greta Van Susteren, that the CIA did, indeed, snoop in on Senate computers. VAN SUSTEREN: It's not just snooping, they -- everybody keeps calling this snooping. This is called violating the law.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Right.
VAN SUSTEREN: This is a crime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
VAN SUSTEREN: And -- and you know what?
There should be a grand jury investigation on this. Eric Holder should be doing something about it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: he's had...
VAN SUSTEREN: This is not...
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- he said he looked at it and said he doesn't have the...
VAN SUSTEREN: Well...
STEPHANOPOULOS: --- the grounds for...
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: -- the media is calling it an apology. He's got admission, a confession by the director of the CIA. You can't get better evidence than that that it happened.
Somebody violated the law and everyone is calling it snooping, an apology.
This is the CIA -- go to their Web site, they say they can't -- that it's against the law to spy. This is not even a close question. They were just snooping, an apology, you know, whatever.
I don't get it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I mean, obviously, our intelligence agencies are very important to our national security. But, you know, the NSA just went through its own bout of Congress having...
VAN SUSTEREN: Ignoring the Fourth Amendment...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, hogwash.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hogwash. The NSA has not been accused of doing anything (INAUDIBLE)...
VAN SUSTEREN: No, nobody does anything, David, you're right. But look at (INAUDIBLE) the Fourth Amendment...
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: They could get a warrant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Congress...
VAN SUSTEREN: You know you're...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congress is reworking their -- their capabilities. What you risk if this continues in our intelligence agencies is that you have another situation, as in the 1970s with the Church Committee and the Pike Committee, where the reality is a thorough review by Congress of these capabilities.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And that's...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was a healthy thing.
STEPHANOPOULOS: it was a healthy thing.
Why couldn't we get that kind of focus this week or the week after, when this -- this full Senate report comes out?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it wasn't a healthy thing. It's an outrageous (INAUDIBLE) just in the next 15 years and that has caused us all kinds of problems in the Middle East.
So I am -- I agree that President Obama's CIA shouldn't spy on Congress. President Bush's CIA was at least focused on interrogating terrorists.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- spy on the senators, that's what you're risking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm saying you shouldn't do that. President Obama's CIA shouldn't have done that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Does Brennan have to go?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excuse me, are we going to say the word torture here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean I -- this press conference last week had to do with revelations about torture. We're about to get a much fuller accounting. This is a shameful episode. I know Bill is going to jump in and disagree with me, but...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) he's wrong. This is -- this is a stain on the -- on this nation. And I want to see more from this report. I want to hear a lot less about our own intelligence agencies spying on Congressional committees...
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: I don't think we need to do it to the exclusion. I think both issues are important. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I -- I disagree...
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: Not one to the exclusion...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't disagree with you.
VAN SUSTEREN: But I -- but I think when -- when our -- when our CIA is violating the law, that's a really...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I agree with you.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And I think we're going to be hearing a lot about...
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- both next week.
We've got to take a break right now.
We'll be right back with the man who's been called Africa's Bono.
And later...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time for Dodger baseball.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Baseball legend Vin Scully on some of TV's clueless moments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(music)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Africa getting so much attention right now. There's the man they call Africa's Bono, Nigerian superstar D'Banj, teaming up with artists from all over the continent, all ahead of President Obama's major summit in Washington to make investment and enhance Africa's growing economic power.
And D'Banj joins us now, along with Dr. Sipho Moyo, the executive director in Africa for The One Campaign.
And D'Banj, thank you for joining us.
You know -- you know, one of the goals of that video was to get African countries to invest 10 percent of their national budgets on agriculture.
Why is that the key?
D'BANJ: Well, good morning, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning.
D'BANJ: Yes. For me, coming from Africa, it is so key for us to know what we have. And if you look through, when I was approached do I want to start this campaign 10 years ago, the African leaders committed 10 percent to agriculture of their annual budget.
Why?
Because agriculture has been seen to be the fastest way of eradication policy and of creating job creation across Africa.
And I'm sure by the time we finish this, we've got more than two million African youths signing a petition that says we want to support Africa, we want to support agriculture. And we did it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And the question, though, how do you get it done, Dr. Moyo, when -- when so many African nations are struggling with corruption, weak governance, violence and with health challenges like Ebola?
DR. SIPHO MOYO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ONE CAMPAIGN IN AFRICA: Well, you know, what is really exciting about this is that I think we have struck a chord with agriculture. You know, we've told -- we polled nine countries, citizens of nine countries about what their real priorities were.
And one thing we heard from African citizens is that it's important for their leaders to invest in agriculture.
So I think this whole campaign really struck a chord and because it's coming from the citizens, the pressure is coming from African citizens, I think that's what has really made this a very different kind of campaign and one in which they will keep, you know, commitments on, you know.
So I think that's -- that's really what it is, is that, you know, you have citizens saying to their leaders you need to keep this commitment and that's what is going to make a difference.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And D'Banj, what do you hope to hear from President Obama at this summit this week?
D'BANJ: Well, for me, first of all, I would like to -- the theme of the summit is so -- it's why we're here, investing in the next generation. And I'm glad I'm privileged to be from that next generation.
And using my music, using our music, which, 10 years ago, we did not have any industry, we did not have any support. We did not even have any record label.
And because we believed in ourselves and we believed in what we had, we continued. And now the music industry is the biggest export from Africa after oil and gas.
I would just say that President Obama should please help us. Make sure that the leaders, African leaders, are -- with your permission, sir, in the summit, make sure that they implement it, because we have -- we have what it takes to unravel the wealth in Africa.
MOYO: And, again, investing, George, if I may come in there. You know, another thing that's really exciting -- because this is about investing in the next generation. We're looking forward and hoping that, you know, the key discussions among the leaders will be around agriculture, because that's really sort of the biggest potential for moving the most number of people out of poverty at the same time, as well as talking about energy, because that's what is holding back development in Africa.
The lack of energy really holds back and, you know, hampers, you know, education, health and particularly the agriculture.
So I think we hope, really, is they can have -- focus around those two conversations and investing in those issues in order to unlock the potential economic investment on the African continent.
(CROSSTALK)
MOYO: So we're really excited.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Good luck with that this week.
Thank you both for joining us.
And coming back, a baseball legend in our Sunday Spotlight after this from our ABC stations.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Take a look at these shots. (INAUDIBLE) from baseball's first televised game, the Cincinnati Reds versus the Brooklyn Dodgers 75 years ago this month. The first game of the season just 400 sets in New York City.
But at least one man is glad that TV and baseball were made for each other. He made a career out of it. Vin Scully planning to broadcast his incredible 66th season.
ABC's David Wright spoke with him for our Sunday Spotlight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time for Dodger baseball.
DAVID WRIGHT, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not often when one of the biggest stars at the ballpark is perched high above the field.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vin Scully is the best thing that's ever happened to baseball.
WRIGHT: When news that the team's announcer is returning next season...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vin Scully is coming back for another year of Dodger baseball.
WRIGHT: -- stirs up the crowd like a home run in the bottom of the ninth.
We now know Vin Scully is one of the greats.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And a very pleasant Sunday to you, wherever you may be.
WRIGHT: As much a baseball tradition as the seventh inning stretch.
(on camera): A very pleasant good day to you.
VIN SCULLY, BASEBALL PLAYER: Thank you.
And to you, too.
WRIGHT: Sixty-five years with the Dodgers. It must be hard not to be a hummer (ph) these days.
SCULLY: It's not difficult at all. I come and I appreciate any good play that any player makes.
WRIGHT (voice-over): He's been calling them like he sees them since 1950, back when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, covering legends like Sandy Koufax and Jackie Robinson. And historic moments like Don Larsen's World Series perfect game and Hank Aaron's record breaking home run.
SCULLY: A fast ball. It's a high fly to the deep left center field. (INAUDIBLE) goes back to the fence and it's gone!
I've tried to call the play as accurately and as quickly as possible and then (INAUDIBLE) and let the crowd roar, because there's nothing better. So when I went back on air, I said something to the effect, what a great moment for henry.
What a marvelous moment for (INAUDIBLE) and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing overturn in the Deep South.
WRIGHT: Scully has called 25 World Series over the years. His hometown Dodgers winning six of them.
SCULLY: High fly ball into right field. She is gone!
WRIGHT: Today, Scully still calls every Dodgers home game, with no announcing partner, no color commentator needed.
(on camera): It's often said that baseball lends itself to radio almost better than television.
SCULLY: In some ways. I know that it was more fun doing Sandy Koufax's perfect game on radio than it was to do Clayton Kershaw's no-hitter on television.
There's the pitch. (INAUDIBLE)!
Because on radio, describing Sandy running his hands through his wet black hair, drying the hand off on the side of his pants, all of that went out the window on television.
WRIGHT (voice-over): At 86, here's something of a throwback. But he has evolved with the game. This summer, during that Clayton Kershaw no-hitter, he even gave a shout-out to Twitter.
SCULLY: You can text your friends, hash tag Kershaw or something.
WRIGHT: In LA, Vin Scully is part of the soundtrack of summer. And summer just got extended one more season.
SCULLY: And all I can say is thank God and please, God, for another year. But let's get back to work now.
WRIGHT: For THIS WEEK, David Wright, ABC News, at Dodger Stadium.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Amen to that.
And we have some good news. The Pentagon reported no deaths of service members in Afghanistan this week.
That's all for us today.
Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us.
Check out "WORLD NEWS WITH DAVID MUIR" tonight.
I'll show you tomorrow on "GMA."