RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This back and forth between the Trump administration and a congresswoman keeps going, Steve.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Yeah. Florida member of Congress says White House chief of staff John Kelly should apologize. Kelly, you may recall, got his facts wrong last week when criticizing Frederica Wilson. She in turn is the one who first revealed President Trump's awkwardly worded call to the widow of a fallen soldier. But let's work backward to the beginning of this story because at the beginning, there's a tragedy. Four Americans were killed in Niger, which leaves lawmakers asking what U.S. troops are doing in Niger. Senator John McCain has said he might issue a subpoena. On NBC's "Meet The Press" yesterday, Lindsey Graham of the Senate Armed Services Committee conceded this.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS")
LINDSEY GRAHAM: But I didn't know there was a thousand troops in Niger. John McCain is right to tell the military because this is an endless war without boundaries, no limitation on time and geography. You've got to tell us more. And he's right to say that.
MARTIN: All right. We're going to get into this with NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Hey, Domenico.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey there.
MARTIN: What do we know? I mean, what does Congress seem to know about what those troops were doing in Niger?
MONTANARO: Well, you heard there from Lindsey Graham and, you know, John McCain, who is the chairman, by the way, of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He's usually a defender of the Pentagon. He said the Defense Department was not forthcoming with the information. Bob Corker, who's the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that they have some information but not all. Over the weekend on NPR, Seth Moulton, who's a Democratic House member and a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a veteran himself - he said that, you know, they know that there are troops in Niger but not the extent of what they're doing there or what happened in this incident. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Mattis said the loss of troops is under investigation. We in the Defense Department like to know what we're talking about before we talk.
MARTIN: Right. So this was the original question that a reporter asked in the White House briefing room about what those troops were doing there. And then it became totally unwieldy other thing - this back and forth about what the president did or didn't say. And was it offensive to this war widow, who had Frederica Wilson, a Florida congresswoman, in the car when she took this call? And President Trump has escalated this back and forth over the weekend. He called the congresswoman by one of these nicknames he's become so famous for - calling her also a gift to the Republicans. So we talk about these moments, these feuds that the president gets into as distractions. But is it possible Trump sees them as playing to his strengths in some way?
MONTANARO: Possibly. And, you know, he always seems most comfortable in a feud, you know, in some kind of a political fight.
MARTIN: Yeah.
MONTANARO: He doesn't back down. He always digs in. And it always seems to be personal. If you go after him, he's going to go after you, no matter who you are. But when it does come to members of the black community or people of color, he does seem to, you know, feel like there are - there does seem to be an even higher bar. And it becomes more difficult - less sensitive when it comes to a lot of issues around race. And a lot of people in the black community feeling disrespected by what the president has done and said in this instance.
MARTIN: Meanwhile, he's got to get something done. And Republicans want it to be a tax overhaul. Is that likely to happen? What are we going to see on that this week?
MONTANARO: He's going up to Capitol Hill on Tuesday. He'll be at the Republican policy lunch. The question is if he can rally his party and get into the kind of details necessary to sway members who might be wavering to get a consensus over the tax overhaul.
MARTIN: NPR's Domenico Montanaro, thanks so much this morning.
MONTANARO: You're welcome.
MARTIN: Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will soon know his punishment for walking away from his combat post in one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan.
INSKEEP: The Taliban captured Bergdahl in 2009. He wasn't released until five years later, when President Obama freed five Taliban members who were being held at Guantanamo Bay. But why did Bergdahl ever walk away? The Army investigated and charged him with desertion in 2015. And last week, he pleaded guilty.
MARTIN: Bergdahl's sentencing hearing opens this morning. NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre is going to cover this from Fort Bragg, N.C. That's where we reach him this morning. Hi, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Rachel.
MARTIN: Are we going to hear from Bowe Bergdahl today?
MYRE: Quite possibly at some point. Now, this is sort of a mini-trial. And it could last for a couple of days. We think it's likely quite possible that Bergdahl will speak. We're also likely to hear from at least one or more members of the military who were injured while searching for Bergdahl after he was captured back in 2009. And we do hear a lot of claims that people were killed searching for Bergdahl. But the former Defense secretary said that was not the case, or he didn't have evidence. So we don't expect to hear that kind of evidence. Bergdahl, remember, spent five years, much of it in a metal cage. And so he may talk in hopes of this will bring leniency from the judge.
MARTIN: Because of his own mental duress that he has suffered through those many years. Any idea what kind of sentence the judge might hand down?
MYRE: No, we don't. And this is really one of the fascinating parts of this case. The judge is Army Col. Jeffrey Nance. And he has huge discretion here. At one extreme, he could sentence Bergdahl to life in prison. This - endangering his comrades. Or the technical charges, misbehavior in front of the enemy. That does have potentially a life sentence. A desertion charge is five years, as well. But at the other extreme, he could allow Bergdahl to walk free. Bergdahl has not been in prison. He's been continuing to serve in the Army at a desk job in the San Antonio area. And the judge could say the five years he spent in Taliban custody under these terrible conditions is punishment enough. And, indeed, the Army's initial investigation said it saw no purpose in continuing to punish - to jail or confine him.
MARTIN: So this case is so unusual for so many reasons. I mean, there's just the facts on the ground of what happened or didn't happen. But, also, the public knows so much about it. Fans of the podcast Serial will know that Bergdahl's case was the subject of that podcast's second season. Reporters spent a whole lot of time investigating what happened, talking with witnesses. I imagine this complicates the case to some degree.
MYRE: It certainly could. It's certainly one additional thread. And in this case, it has stirred passions on many sides. Remember, Bergdahl was released in a trade for five Taliban members who were at Guantanamo Bay. Now, those five are still in Qatar, where they're being monitored. And that has stirred a lot of outrage. There's also Bergdahl's mental health issues. In this podcast, we've heard from Bergdahl. And it's made it a very public case. So, again, this is one of the many threads we'll be paying attention to.
MARTIN: All right. NPR's Greg Myre reporting for us this morning. Thanks so much, Greg.
MYRE: Thank you, Rachel.
MARTIN: All right. Another powerful man in the film industry faces now dozens of claims of sexual misconduct.
INSKEEP: His name is James Toback. He's a writer and director known for the Oscar-nominated screenplay for the 1991 movie "Bugsy," among other things. And now like Harvey Weinstein before him, he faces an overwhelming number of accusers. Thirty eight women - 38 - told the LA Times that he sexually harassed or assaulted them. Toback denies these allegations.
MARTIN: In the studio with us now, Hadas Gold. She covers media for CNN. And we should say here some of what we're going to discuss is graphic. Some people may just want to skip the next three minutes. Hadas, thanks for being here.
HADAS GOLD: Great to be here.
MARTIN: What can you tell us about the allegations?
GOLD: So, similar to what we saw with Harvey Weinstein, these allegations from these 38 women to the Los Angeles Times follow a pattern. James Toback, for a lot of these women, would approach them on the street or in a coffee shop in a public place, say, I'm a director. Because he's not a super well-known name, he would actually have credentials on him, sometimes articles or actually a copy of the DVD of a movie that he had directed or something like that. And tell them, I want to make you an actress. I think you're beautiful. I think you're whatever. Can we have a private meeting?
And somewhere during that private meeting, he would either try to convince them to undress, say it was part of the process. He, in some other cases, would masturbate in front of them, would actually grind upon them. This - all very disturbing allegations. But I think what's even more stunning about this is that, actually, some of this was public beforehand. There were Gawker articles. There were some other things published. And it's because of this sentiment we have recently that this is really blowing up.
MARTIN: Which was the thing with Harvey Weinstein - that everybody knew that this had been happening...
GOLD: Right.
MARTIN: ...For years and years and years. I mean, after now the revelations about Weinstein, there were accusations that - you know, where were people on this, especially men who knew, who enabled all of the interactions that Weinstein had? What have we seen so far in the day now after these reports about Toback? Are we seeing more people speak out?
GOLD: We've seen a few people speak out. And similar to the Harvey Weinstein aftermath, a lot of people are saying, I knew, and I should have said something. Or I felt like it wasn't my place at the time to say something. I think it was the director of "Guardians Of The Galaxy," James Gunn - came out and said, this is something I had heard about for 20 years or so. And it wasn't my place, or I didn't know enough about it to say something about it. And we're seeing this pattern with all of these types of allegations.
MARTIN: At the same time, we've got this report now in The New York Times that Bill O'Reilly, former anchor for Fox News, reached this $32 million sexual harassment settlement with a former colleague to keep the whole thing private. After that, Fox actually re-signed him, we should say. What does this indicate? Are we likely to see pressure on big companies to call out this behavior, even when it's their big stars?
GOLD: We already are seeing it, especially when these things get publicity. And I think that's the key here. Roy Price from Amazon is no longer at Amazon because of allegations that came forward. He likely would have continued otherwise.
MARTIN: Hadas Gold - she covers media for CNN - in our studios this morning. Thanks so much.
GOLD: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF RRAREBEAR'S "MOON") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
