NSA, Healthcare.gov questions dominate "Face the Nation"
(CBS News) - The fatal shooting at LAX airport Friday again shows the need for stricter gun control laws, argued Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Sunday on "Face the Nation."
However, The Senate Intelligence Committee chair, a strong advocate for stricter gun control laws, said she lacks the support to pass such a bill.
"There's a hammer lock on the Congress by the gun owners and gun people," she said. Feinstein's assessment of the path ahead for gun control legislation made headlines at The Hill, The New York Daily News, Politico, The Huffington Post, and Washington Examiner.
Turning to the problems facing Heathcare.gov, the California Democrat said the White House should shut down website until the problems are fixed.
"I felt--and I said this directly to the president's chief of staff--that they ought to take down the website until it was right," Feinstein told host Bob Schieffer.
Her counterpart in the House, Congressman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., agreed.
"They need to take the site down, stabilize it --meaning they can't continue to add code every week--and then they need to stress test the system," he said. The National Review and Politico have more of our discussion regarding heathcare.gov.
The Intelligence Committee chairs appeared on Face the Nation to talk about the latest leaks involving NSA spying programs from former contractor Edward Snowden and they also agreed that the U.S. should not offer him clemency.
"He needs to come back and own up," said Rogers. "If he believes there's vulnerabilities in the systems he'd like to disclose, you don't do it by committing a crime that actually puts soldiers' lives at risk in places like Afghanistan."
Feinstein echoed Rogers' sentiment, saying that Snowden has done an "enormous disservice" to the United States. "I think the answer is no clemency," she said Sunday. The Washington Post, NPR, Huffington Post, New York Times, United Press International and BBC have more on our conversation with Feinstein and Rogers about Snowden's request for clemency.
On the alleged tapping of the phones of foreign leaders, Rogers said the focus should be on the threats that NSA programs have prevented.
"This is the whole problem: We've focused a lot on the NSA but not on what the threat is," Rogers told host Bob Schieffer. The Wall Street Journal and Politico wrote about the Michigan Republican's take. For her part, Senator Feinstein said her committee would conduct a review of the NSA programs.
In his appearance following Rogers, Former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden said it was possible that President Obama was not aware of the alleged Merkel phone tapping, but said it was "impossible" that White House staffers were not informed about the surveillance efforts.
"The fact that they didn't rush in to tell the president this was going on points out what I think is a fundamental fact: This wasn't exceptional," argued Hayden. "This is what we were expected to do."
For more on our conversation with Gen. Hayden, turn to Politico, Newsmax, McClatchy, and The National Review.
