An oops-moment from Michael Morell as he lavished praise on Hillary Clinton on the Charlie Rose show just ten days after he lavished praise on Hillary Clinton on the Charlie Rose show ten days ago.  (Get the picture?)  It was clear, from some of the things Charlie said, that he, CBS, and Morell had gotten so much flak for what Morell said on August 8, that it was decided to give Morell a mulligan on August 18.

https://charlierose.com/videos/28626?autoplay=true

Morell’s oops-moment starts at about minute 50.

 

“You know, it’s interesting, Charlie:  I worked with her [Hillary Clinton] for four years.  Leon Panetta, David Petraeus worked with her for four years.  We trusted her word; we trusted her judgment.  You know, Charlie, Director Panetta, Director Petraeus, I provided her with some of the most sensitive information that the CIA collects and she never gave us one reason to doubt how she was handling that.  She spoke to us forthrightly. … I trust her word and I trust her judgment.  You know, she spoke to us forthrightly. … I trust her word and I trust her judgment.” (End of scripted interview – Emphasis added)

 

Surprise; surprise! Charlie didn’t think to ask Morell if he were the only person in Washington unaware that FBI Director James Comey branded “extremely careless” her handling of sensitive CIA information by using highly vulnerable, unclassified servers. And this might have been a follow-up question for Charlie to ask: “Did Mrs. Clinton speak ‘forthrightly’ to you, Michael, about “how she was handling that?”

 

Michael Morell is welcomed back for another hour with Charlie Rose, remarkably, ten days after the interview in which he told Charlie he wanted to kill Russians and Iranians, so that he could ‘splain that he really didn’t want to start a war.  But he still wanted to do the kinds of’ things to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that fit the classic definition of terrorism: “The use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal.”

 

Morell should be apprehended as an international terrorist.  But more on that later.  I made the sacrifice of watching the whole 54-minute interview.  Just after minute 50.  Morell has just told a heartwarming story about how compassionate Secretary Clinton was when he lost out to John Brennan, whom Obama picked to be the CIA Director.  The day after Morell was un-picked for the job, he was in the Situation Room [it’s always “in the Situation Room!”] and Secretary Clinton, “sat down next to me, put her hand on my shoulder, and she simply said, ‘Are you okay?’  There is humanity there, and I think the public needs to know.”

 

Charlie goes on to lament how hard it is for Clinton to convey what he calls her “humanity” and how she is worthy of trust … then does a riff on the Biblical passage about those who can be trusted in small matters [like sitting down next to Morell, putting her hand on his shoulder, and asking him if he is okay].  A nice soft pitch from Charlie; Morell gives every indication that he hit it out of the park.  And … the oops! mentioned above.