was it a problem for dennis mcdonough to not tell the president? i don't think. so there's a lot of things. if you pick out this isolated thing, why didn't he tell the president? well, everyday dennis mcdonough or whoever the chief of staff is probably learns a lot of things that he doesn't tell the president because the president has a limited amount of decision time so blocking information to the president is his job. so i think this seems -- maybe the political radar didn't go off. i think probably seems like something the president did need to worry about. >> i see it differently. we need to keep the i.r.s. story in focus which is this. the i.r.s. actions were reprehensible, heads should have rolled and they did roll. there is no evidence that this was anything except for bottom up incompetence and stupidity abetted by management, incredibly bad management at the i.r.s.. there's no evidence that anybody at trry less anybody at the white house, knew about any of this before the i.g. started investigating. so when this did go to the white house, though they in

>> i would say the three people are dennis mcdonough, dan pfeiffer, jennifer palmery.jennifer palmery went through clinton and through john edwards. >> in strong terms or just sicca fan? >> everything you hear about them is that they do you bring up a good point. we don't know unless we're in that room. >> what's your sense? >> my sense is they don't. or he's not listening. somebody needs to tell him exactly as you said at the opening. he needs to hear the fact this train is coming. the only way you get in front of it is get all the information out, out in the time and manner you want to. you don't wait and let things leak out the way they've been. don't let yourself be second guessed. don't let yourself look like a thug -- >> let's talk about the benghazi -- >> we'll start with that. a lot of people think that's not properly called a scandal. what is it, though in what to you call that thing? >> it is sort of this -- i don't know what to call it. we'll call it a controversy. >> the enemy -- >> he believes that it is a witch hunt by republicans. >> he thinks that. do t

of march of this year and dennis mcdonough heard about it on april and president obama says he heardgo. this is laughable. these are major players in the obama administration. some as far back as two years ago. >> bob: these are very senior people who are the exact kind of people to keep bad news away from the president. he may have had some idea about it. i do think there is a smoking gun? do they think they circle here and should they lie, and should they be gone? absolutely, but i think this is not something that ends his presidency. >> eric: if in fact president obama did know about it and he going on national television and says i learned about the way you did, on tv. >> andrea: he as comfortable time trade he is incompetent. 80% of the time they talk about obamacare and 118 meetings, what do they talk about rest of rest of time. basketball? what were they talking about in these executive meetings? i think what is most troubling, as jay seculo, he is frequent guest on and he is about to file ten more lawsuits of groups saying they are still being targeted by the irs. irs says th

dennis, mcdonough, he brought donuts. >> one question, susan rice going testify?ward tomorrow. >> eric: hey she is the one that did the talking points. >> dana: believe me there were people that were running through her paces. at any point did somebody say, i don't think this is story is going to hold on up. >> do we have a license to call ambassador rice. >> greg: point about the donuts, why did they bring the donuts? >> there is a hole in the story. [ laughter ] >> kimberly: they need to bring donut holes. >> greg: greta van susteren she joins us from ohio with information she gathered from the scene. amanda, gina and michelle were rescued less than 24 hours ago. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >>. >> bob: welcome back to "the five." we are talking about the rescue of three women who were abducted eight years ago. what was the story about the daughter of one of these guys? >> eric: castro's daughter. >> dana: daughter of the cleveland suspect, in 2007 the accused daughter emily castro treo slashed a woman's throat and serving a 35 year sentence.

kathryn ruemmler apparently knew about it on april 24th and so did white house chief of staff dennis mcdonough. treasury secretary jack lew knew about the irs investigation on march 15th. but, again, mr. obama knew nothing until may 10th. joining us now from washington, fox news political analyst charles krauthammer. and you >> well, the president says everybody has to tell the truth. i was on this show last week thursday, the day the president answered questions from the press while standing next to the prime minister of turkey. there was a question asked by the bloomberg reporter. did anybody at the white house know about the irs activities? and do you remember my saying on the show that time with you, that obama gave a very lawyerly and peculiar answer. he did not answer about the white house staff. he said i didn't know about the ig report until i learned about it in the press the question was not about him. the question was about the white house staff. and he deliberately dodged that answer. now we know that when he was asked that question last thursday, he knew at the time that his staff

if you look back at the white house in particular, dennis mcdonough who is now the white house chief of staff was at that time the deputy of the national security council pulled together a meeting along with bin roads and others which is probably where this -- i think we don't have the proof yet, we need to get it but d where some of these very bad and dangerous decisions were made and where the coverup really had its genesis. >> governor huckabee: we don't know where the president really was. he had one phone call that night. no photos of him in the situation room. no indication, no even white house official coming and saying the president was monitoring this from the situation room from the oval office or even from the residence. we have no idea. what his engagement and involvement was. now,o general, a lot of accusations have come from democrats saying that this is all about politics just tomorrow bare was the president. you are a military guy. and you led an effort 700 special forces people to sign a letter. was that a political statement on your part and those of the 700 special

the "new york times" reporting today that dennis mcdonough, who is a directing white house -- he's the president's chief of staff is directing white house staffers to spend no more than 10% of their time on these issues. >> right. i mean, i think that was, you know, a calculated decision both to show that we're not going to be deterred from our agenda for all of this. let's keep in mind that this could be very good for the tea party and for republicans, but it could also represent an opportunity for the tea party and the conservative base, as it often does, to overreach. we're already hearing talk about impeachment hearings. i think that most americans, as you showed, president obama's numbers are already up. i don't think most americans think this is an impeachable offense. >> some republicans are already saying quit talking, it's not watergate. >> exactly. as rhetoric like that continues to spread, i think republican elites are going to try to tamp down some of that enthusiasm a little bit. >> i want to bring our congressman polis, the democrat from colorado. quote, we like to play i

>> well, they have invited in-strategist in-strategists, the chief of staff, dennis mcdonough has weekly in-staff meetings to kind of take their pulse. no surprise to me it is a bunch of strategists who are very good at damage control. we've seen the white house start as dana talked about on the damage control on the irs. they want to try to figure out a way to get some advice about how to get back to their agenda. how did they ever work with republicans after all they have gone through? and what steps the president can take pro actively to convince the american public that he is working for issues that matter to them. so they're bringing in the strategists to kind of bend their ears. >> and dana, what made it harder with the irs thing, it just seems there are early days in the scandal. there is a lot more information and data to come out. the second term agenda, he needs republicans. what has it done to that? >> well, this is a distraction. no question, i talked to a senior democratic source on capitol hill and they're concerned about the issue, the most tenuous, and possibly the most i

chris: there was a story in the papers over the weekend that the white house chief of staff dennis mcdonoughh top aides and said i want you to spent no more than 10% of your time on any of the scandals. you have been in the middle of the scandals in the bush white house. how consuming are they. >> good luck. it will consume as much time as it needed. we will have three or four weeks or five or six weeks of hearing and debate back and forth on capitol hill and it will consume time. the narrative of not being able to get things done. it is not just the government cannot get things done. can't get things done. 57% of american people thought the president was able to get things done after the election and 37% said he was not. after the year thus far in the budget and sequestration and all of this the administration has fallen flat it is now 49% say he can get things done, down 8. with the coming battle over the debt ceiling and budget and all this i think this is going to get worse and not better. >> chris: you have a poll for everything, don't you? >> i only offered up two, i think today. >> ch

congress and correct directly with some of the members and the new white house chief of staff, dennis mcdonough has been central to that. he helped get that dinner going with the republican senators he's taken the democrats around town. jim was pointing out this isn't a partisan thing at all. democrats complain as much as anyone about the silence from this white house. democrats who could give them good advice, who've lived through what they're living through now say they never get a call or if they get called in to the white house if they do go in nobody ever asks them their opinion we hear about his visits with world leaders. the president's conversations with world leaders are not-- the key question for any good marriage-- "what do you think?" you don't find this president -- >> rose: or what's in it for you. none of them say that he was genuinely interested in listening to me and how i could maybe either help him with his issues or he could help me with mine. >> look at the notes on the world leader conversation and it's "i think, i know, i believe." >> rose: is that what they say? "i think

white house leaks the story to the "new york times" that says the white house chief of staff, dennis mcdonough, has told his staff not to spend any more than 10% of their time on these issues. does that mean you don't take any of this seriously? >> oh, no, absolutely not. there are some very serious issues here, particular let's i.r.s. where whrfs inexcusable conduct that needs to be fixed. the point our chief of staff is making, this is the republican play book, when they don't have a positive agenda try to drag washington into a swamp of fishing expeditions and we're not going to let that distract us and the president from doing the people's work. >> schieffer: i do not want to compare this to watergate. i don't think this is watergate by any stretch. you weren't born then, i guess, but that is exactly the approach the nixon administration took. these are all second-rate things. we don't have time for this. we have to devote our time to the people's business. >> as you were correct, i was not born then. but i want to be very clear, what happened at the i.r.s. was inexcusable, and we have to

dennis mcdonough did it right.rouble with that is, if they think this was a success, they ain't going to change for the next four years. they're going to be what they were and they walked right into this. that's my view. what's yours? >> i just don't think they reacted right in terms of their own political self-interest. when this came to the attention of the white house, there was a delay. they should have gotten all the information out quickly. by the way, even now all the information is not out. it turns out from "the new york times" and other sources there were liberal groups also investigated by the irs. legitimately investigated for misrepresenting the purpose of their organization. if it had been put in proper context at the beginning, and it had been the white house that was bringing the information out rather than having it leak, i think they would have been better off. >> well, i'm not sure of the facts yet because i still believe -- are you sure you're right about this, that mostly they were the tea part

that dennis mcdonough would like to limit this too. >> as senator blunt was saying on the daily rundown, chris cillizza, what is common sense? would the white house counsel have learned of this and not told the chief of staff? would the chief of staff know about it and not tell the president? you have to say what tests you know, cred you'llty here? >> mark is right here if dan fifer appeared on all the shows yesterday and said what he said, you got to know that you've got this thing sort of tied into a package. that there's more than gs to come out if you're going to draw a hard line and say this didn't reach us, this is partisan fishing expeditions and sorts of frame it in a political context, you kind of have to know all the details. there's a difference between knowing that there was a report coming out and knowing at least what the preliminary findings of that report showed. that matters. that is not a nothing. and that's the issue i think for the white house, which mark has hit on. which is unless they know, no other details will come out this is a story they're not going to be abl

>> well, it's from dennis mcdonough to david axelrod to tom donelan to plouffe plouffe, et cetera, that ultimately decided -- >> rose: plouffe was not in government at that time. >> no, but they all had -- but those who were in the white house that day -- that they had the -- they had the decision ultimately as to recommendations that come from the different agencies of the government. ultimately what ends up being an option that the president would consider and then would ask questions for and would then go to the relevant agencies and say what would it take to resource this, how long will it take, what are the results? but that wasn't there. as i said in woodward's book, it's very clear there are only two options on the table. >> rose: here's what's important, this book, "the dispensable nation: american foreign policy in retreat" suggesting that no longer are we the indispensable nation, we are in fact, the dispensable nation. american foreign policy in retreat. a lot of people-- and this is a very important point to make. a lot of people who think seriously and deeply about foreign

saturday, the white house leaked the quote to "new york times" making it clear the chief of staff dennis mcdonough told those in the west wing he expects them to spend no more than 10% of their time on the controversies. we have to stay focused, even if it's not going to break through. in the short run, we have to keep hammering on. how is the recent performance of government supposed to reassure the public? when it comes to immigration reform, dealing with a lot more visa applications, perhaps or the implication of health care. something the irs has a small role to play but a role to play on the implementation front and americans are all too eager to link the implication of health care. >> the irs has a role to play in t the -- >> over our health care in the impluication of health care. >> implementing obama care. >> now there's rumors who wrote the policy is the person running obama care. >> it's very possible that republicans overplay their hand, try to so hard to make this a scandal that they turn the public off. but a new cnn poll shows the president's approval has remained steady in the wake

thing one day about kathy rummeler, the white house counsel, we hear another thing about when dennis mcdonoughs briefed on it. it seemed like the narrative could have been established at the outset by the white house and it wasn't.ç >> i don't disagree with that. i think what is clear is that the white house counsel was briefed on some of the details of this investigation. and was told that there was a report that would be coming shortly. they were awaiting the report. and those facts are simple. it seems to me they were simple from the beginning. and if there was confusion about them, i think that was a mistake and maybe exacerbated the problem. but at the end of the day. it is sort of immaterial. because we're talking about a period of a few weeks in the last month that has nothing to do with the actual problem. so yes, your question is appropriate. could it have been handled better? perhaps, in the last couple of weeks. is it material to any of the underlying concerns? absolutely not. >> david, i want to open this up to my panel in new york and maggie, it seems to me that it's not surprisi

carney revealed today a wider group of senior white house officials, including chief of staff dennis mcdonough were informed by ruemmler of the probe but did not tell the president. >> after that initial notification in april the white house council informed the chief of staff and other members ever the chief of staff. at no time did anyone on the white house staff intervene with the irs inspector general audit. >> one week ago today in an off-camera briefing. carney only mentioned ruemmler had been informed and down played by saying told only about the fact that the ig was finishing a review about matters involving the office in cincinnati. >> when you were asked this about this in the briefing last week about white house officials being aware. you just mentioned the counsel's office. you never mentioned that the chief of staff and others -- >> -- i think i said white house counsel knew. i think i said i didn't know until friday. i'm getting this information thousand. >> they believe white house aids may have deliberately the president. >> somebody has to be responsible bill for running the g

we know that the white house chief of staff, dennis mcdonough decided not to inform the president abouthappening there in ohio. do you think that was the right tactic, keeping the president shielded from the information? >> alex, i don't have all of the information on that. i did read an account that the reason the white house council did not raise it with the president was she was afraid that the president would be open to attacks that he tried to influence the investigation. and obviously that's probably a sensible legal call, was it the right political call, not having the president in the loop, it probably doesn't look good. but i think the portland and the administration have moved forward with personnel changes, with investigations. you know, this is -- look, a lot of administrations have these problems, these scandals. i've seen presidents from nixon and johnson and clinton and ford, the bushes, this happens with every administration and you can't expect the president, alex, to know everything, every step the bureaucracy does. there has to be accountability, though. here, i think

>> part of it is a discipline within the white house use a dennis mcdonough he doesn't want to spendwhite house time on these matters. they've got to overcome a pretty energized republican opposition. it is now galvanized by some of these issues like benghazi and the irs. the president has thrown the idea of taking on the federal shield law to better protect reporters who are trying to publish government secrets. on capitolall churn hill but how quickly will they get into campaign mode on these issues that preclude action on immigration or the budget with the debt ceiling fight coming up. >> thank you so much. don't forget, you can watch "meet the press" 10:00 a.m. right here on wbal. an elderly couple is recovering after they were hit by a car in baltimore county. it happened on harford road at 9:30 last night. and 80-year-old man suffered serious injuries and the female victim was taken to shock trauma as well preclude her injuries are believed to be not as severe as the man. the vehicle remained at the scene and now there is no word on who was at fault. police are investigating a

i think the scarier part -- if i were dan pfeiffer and dennis mcdonough i would be more fearful of this inability to manage the federal government. >> senator hagan, obviously, you come from a swing state, north carolina. thank you very much for your vote on background checks. courageous. you siding for 90% instead of 3%. >> must have been hard. >> it was a courageous vote for you and we thank you for that. but let's talk talk about i know when you're in north carolina you hear people talking about ben ghazi and hear them talking about the irs right now. what should the government be doing to make sure that this never happens again? >> you know, obviously, there is committee hearings going on in the house and senate on the irs situation. there is a criminal investigation going on at the department of justice. we need to follow through with this. we have got to be sure that our embassies overseas are well protected, to protect our american citizens who are serving us abroad. and talking about the v.a. backlog, that is a terrible situation right now. in my state, we're a military state an

findings that the irs improperly targeted tea party and conservative groups and shared it with dennis mcdonoughy agreed it would be best not to show to it to president obama. this leads people to question what is going on and look at what she did and her job is to protect the president but ultimately did she? >> she will have to answer that question. she's one of the most tenacious litigators in the country. it is curious why it may have happened in that string of events are correct. i have no reason to believe they are not but we will have to wait and see. lois lerner has be become the face of this. this does not bode well for the white house. the questions remain who directed her to do this? it is not clear. when they learn this is happening what did they do to stop it and what measures did they put in place to make sure this doesn't happen again? and are there other types of targets happening? i'm sure taxpayers watching that are audited wonder whether or not there are things that are being done or have been done against them the past few years so it opened up a pandora's box of questions. >

white house officials have confirmed for me the "new york times" story which says chief of staff dennis mcdonough directed the staff here to spend about 10% of their energy dealing with those controversies that you just mentioned and the rest of their time focused on the president's second term agenda which you of course, includes immigration reform, deficit reduction. but there are a lot of unknowns right now, just how big will these controversies sfwhk they are particularly concerned about the irs controversy that is one that has a lot of legs because it is something that impacts average americans, something that really gets americans fired up but that is really the directive from the white house at this point in time. in addition to all of those unknowns, there is, of course, the question of how do they make this stick in how do they shift the conversation? we saw president obama try do that in his weekly address. americans are quite frustrated by. this the president has a limited amount of time to enact his second term agenda. to so it is not clear they will be successful at shifting the conv