Donald Trump names former Sen. Dan Coats to be intelligence chief

January 8, 2017

A senior transition offiical told CBS News of Coats’ selection on Thursday, but the official announcement was made on Saturday morning.
Mr. Trump’s announcement came one day after the release of a declassified government report on Russian efforts to influence the presidential election. The report predicts Russia isn’t done intruding in U. S. politics and policymaking.
On Friday President-elect Donald Trump received a classified briefing on Russian interference in the U. S. presidential election. An unclassified…
Mr. Trump wants to improve relations with Russia and repeatedly has denounced intelligence agencies’ assessment that the Kremlin interfered in the election, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. But the report released Friday explicitly ties Russian President Vladimir Putin to the meddling and says Russia had a “clear preference” for Mr. Trump over Clinton.
Coats, an Indiana Republican, will await Senate confirmation to head the office, which was created after the Sept. 11 attacks to improve coordination among U. S. spy and law enforcement agencies. Coats now finds himself in line to be at the center of an intelligence apparatus that the president-elect has publicly challenged.
Mr. Trump said in an early morning statement that Coats “has clearly demonstrated the deep subject matter expertise and sound judgment required to lead our intelligence community.” He said Coats “will provide unwavering leadership that the entire intelligence community can respect, and will spearhead my administration’s ceaseless vigilance against those who seek to do us harm.”
Douglas Ollivant, senior fellow at New America and former National Security Council director, joins « CBS This Morning » from Washington to discuss…
Coats, in a statement released by Mr. Trump’s transition team, said: “There is no higher priority than keeping America safe, and I will utilize every tool at my disposal to make that happen.”
Mr. Trump’s team has been examining ways to restructure intelligence agencies as part of an effort to streamline operations and improve efficiency, but Coats’ nomination could ease fears that Mr. Trump would push for a significant overhaul.
Coats, 73, is a Capitol Hill veteran who served eight years in the House before moving to the Senate in 1989 to take Dan Quayle’s place when Quayle became President George H. W. Bush’s vice president. Coats stayed in the Senate until 1998, then left to become a lobbyist.
Donald Trump chose former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats as his director of national intelligence Thursday even as he continues to publicly criticize the…
After serving as U. S. ambassador to Germany under President George W. Bush, Coats joined the international law firm of King & Spalding, helping lead the government affairs division and lobbying for pharmaceutical, defense and energy companies.
Coats, who earned $600,000 in his final 13 months at King & Spalding, downplayed his lobbying work when he returned to Indiana for a successful Senate comeback bid in 2010. He served one term and did not seek re-election last year.
Coats was a vocal critic of Russia and pushed the Obama administration to harshly punish Moscow for its annexation of Crimea in 2014. When the White House levied sanctions, the Kremlin responded by banning several lawmakers, including Coats, from traveling to Russia.
Mr. Trump received a briefing Friday from intelligence officials on the classified report about Russian interference in the 2016 election, and he later told The Associated Press that he “learned a lot” from the discussions. But the president-elect declined to say whether he accepted the officials’ assertion that Russia had intruded in the election on his behalf.

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Kellyanne Conway weighs in on Trump and intelligence community

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January 8, 2017

Kellyanne Conway on Friday was critical of the fact that some of the intelligence report on Russian hacking has leaked before President-elect Trump has been briefed on it, and she questioned why President Obama imposed new sanctions against Russia before he received the official report from the intelligence community about its interference in the U. S. election.
“What’s disappointing is having leaks in the media before we actually have a report on the alleged hacking. And it’s been very confounding to us, and certainly to the president-elect, why this report, if it wasn’t prepared until yesterday, why operatives were expelled, why punishment preceded actually conclusions,” the adviser to President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview on “CBS This Morning.”
“Why last week did the president expel these operatives?” she added. “Why for weeks have the Clintons — Team Clinton — been grasping at anything they can to explain her disastrous loss?”
However, the intelligence community arrived at its assessment about Russia’s meddling weeks ago , and this report will only make official what has been known for some time. As early as October , the U. S. intelligence community was confident the Russian government had directed hacks to influence the presidential election.
Mr. Trump will be briefed Friday by the directors of national intelligence, the FBI, NSA and CIA on a comprehensive report by the intelligence community about Russian cyberattacks during the election.
On CBS, Conway emphasized that Mr. Trump and his administration “are against foreign interference from any government.” Asked what action he would take if the report shows evidence of that, Conway said she didn’t want to speculate before the briefing.
“I don’t want to do what others have done which is pre-suppose a result and a conclusion and then the action. But respect him in this way, he’ll get the information, then he’ll take action,” she said.
This comes after Mr. Trump posted a series of tweets late Thursday still questioning the assessment of the intelligence community.
How did NBC get « an exclusive look into the top secret report he (Obama) was presented? » Who gave them this report and why? Politics!
The Democratic National Committee would not allow the FBI to study or see its computer info after it was supposedly hacked by Russia……
So how and why are they so sure about hacking if they never even requested an examination of the computer servers? What is going on?

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S. Korean critical after self-immolating over sex slave deal

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January 8, 2017

By Kim Tong-Hyung, Associated Press
Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017 | 8:53 p.m.
SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean Buddhist monk is in critical condition after setting himself on fire to protest the country’s settlement with Japan on compensation for wartime sex slaves, officials said Sunday.
The 64-year-old monk suffered third-degree burns across his body and serious damage to vital organs. He’s unconscious and unable to breathe on his own, said an official from the Seoul National University Hospital, who didn’t want to be named citing office rules.
The man set himself ablaze late Saturday during a large rally in Seoul calling for the ouster of impeached President Park Geun-hye, police said. In his notebook, the man called Park a « traitor » over her government’s 2015 agreement with Japan that sought to settle a long-standing row over South Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japan’s World War II military, police said.
Under the agreement, Japan pledged to fund a Seoul-based foundation that was set up to help support the victims. South Korea, in exchange, vowed to refrain from criticizing Japan over the issue and try to resolve the Japanese grievance over a bronze statue representing wartime sex slaves in front of its embassy in Seoul.
The agreement has so far come short of bringing a closure to the emotional issue. The deal continues to be criticized in South Korea because it was reached without approval from victims, and students have been holding sit-in protests next to the Seoul statue for more than a year over fears that the government might try to remove it.
On Friday, the Japanese government reacted angrily to the placing of a similar statue in front of its consulate in the city of Busan, announcing a recall of its ambassador to South Korea and suspension of economic talks.
At the time of the sex slave deal, Seoul said there were 46 surviving South Korean victims.

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Phones at CES 2017 a warmup for what's to come

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January 8, 2017

CES may be lean on phones this year, but the 17 we saw pointed out some trends that will help define handsets through 2017, especially as we head into next month’s Mobile World Congress , the phone world’s best and biggest show.
Cutting edge technology on display at the year’s biggest consumer tech show
2017’s year in phones is just kicking off, with more to come next week. HTC will launch a new product on January 12. The event, called “U”, doesn’t offer much of a hint of what we should expect, but rumors say there will be two phones called the HTC U Ultra and U Play.
A few weeks after that, we have Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world’s largest mobile conference. It’s there that we see flagship devices, a mountain of accessories and oddball concept devices from companies hoping to gain ground.
One big change we expect this year is Samsung’s lower-profile presence at the show. Its Galaxy S phone has been the anchor for years, but given the Note 7 recall and uncertainty over what caused the explosion, it’s probable that Samsung will hold off its Galaxy S8 launch until it can confirm that its next flagship won’t suffer the same fate.
CNET will be on the ground covering MWC live from February 26 to March 1.

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Syria car bomb kills dozens in busy market, opposition says

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January 8, 2017

Last Updated Jan 7, 2017 4:25 PM EST
Syrian government troops are pushing deeper into rebel-held parts in Aleppo. Regime forces now control more than 70 percent of Syria’s largest ci…
Rescuers and doctors said the explosion was so large there were nearly 100 wounded and burned. Over 50 wounded were transported to the Turkish border town of Kilis for treatment, as local hospitals couldn’t cope.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Locals said a rigged tanker caused the explosion and blamed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, who have carried out attacks in the town before. The militant group has been increasingly pressed in Syria and Iraq, and has escalated its attacks against Turkey – which backs Syrian opposition fighters in a campaign against the group in northern Syria.
Azaz, only a couple of miles from the Turkish border, is a key town on a route used by opposition fighters moving between Syria and Turkey, and is a hub for anti-government activists as well as many displaced from the recent fighting in Aleppo city. Activists say its pre-war population of 30,000 has swelled.
It is also sandwiched between rival groups, including Kurdish fighters to the west and Turkey-backed opposition groups to the east. ISIS militants, who have tried to advance on the key border town before, have been pushed back farther east in recent months in the Turkey-backed offensive.
The bomb went off early Saturday afternoon outside a local courthouse and security headquarters operated by the opposition fighters who control the town, resident and activist Saif Alnajdi told The Associated Press from Azaz.
“It hit the busiest part of the town,” Alnajdi said, referring to the administrative part of town.
A medical worker speaking to a local media outfit, al-Jisr, said many charred bodies, and body parts mixed with bones and mud, were piled up in local hospitals.
Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, said at least 48 people were killed, including 14 fighters and guards to the local courthouse. He said the explosion was caused by a rigged water or fuel tanker, which explained the large blast and high death toll. The activist-operated local Azaz Media center and Shabha Press put the death toll at 60, adding that search and rescue operations continued for hours after the explosion.
A still image taken from a video obtained by Reuters shows people and a bulldozer seen outside a badly damaged building after a fuel truck blast in the center of rebel-held Azaz, near Syria’s border with Turkey, Jan. 7, 2017.
Alnajdi said rescue workers were still working to identify and remove the bodies from the area, suggesting that the death toll was not final. He said some of the severely wounded were transported across the border into the Turkish town of Kilis for treatment. The Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency said 53 wounded Syrians were brought to Kilis’ local hospital for treatment, including five in critical condition, then transferred to Gaziantep. The agency said one later died.
Media activist Baha al-Halabi, based in Aleppo province and who gathered information from Azaz residents, said witnesses reported many unidentified bodies. Footage shared online showed a large plume of black smoke rising above the chaotic street with the sound of gunfire in the background as onlookers gathered around the site. In one instance, a father ran away from the scene, carrying his child to safety.
The courthouse and the security headquarters were damaged, as well as the Red Crescent and municipality offices, according to activists in the area.
Many rebels and civilians who were pushed out of Aleppo city during a massive government offensive late last year have resettled in Azaz. Syrian Kurdish forces control territory to the west of Azaz, and have often tried advancing toward the town, causing friction with Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters. To the east, opposition fighters backed by Turkey have been pushing back ISIS extremists, gaining territory and advancing on the ISIS-stronghold town of al-Bab, further east. Turkey considers Syria Kurdish factions there terrorists, linked to a local group it is battling at home.
A nationwide week-long cease-fire has mostly held across most of Syria after Russia and Turkey, who support opposite sides of the conflict, reached an agreement late December. It is set to pave the way for peace talks between Assad’s government and the opposition in Kazakhstan later this month. ISIS and al-Qaeda-linked group Fatah al-Sham Front are not included in the deal, according to the Syrian government.

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US seeks death penalty in Florida airport shooting

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January 8, 2017

Esteban Santiago, the suspect in the deadly shooting at the Fort Lauderdale airport, is escorted to jail by the authorities. (Jim Rassol, AP)
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Fort Lauderdale – Federal prosecutors have filed charges against the Florida airport shooting suspect accused of killing five travellers and wounding six others that could bring the death penalty if he’s convicted.
A criminal complaint filed by the Miami US attorney’s office accuses 26-year-old Esteban Santiago, an Iraq war veteran, of an act of violence at an international airport resulting in death. The punishment is execution or any prison sentence up to life. Santiago is also charged with two firearms offenses.
Authorities said that Santiago appeared to have travelled to the airport specifically to carry out the attack but they don’t know why he chose his target. Terrorism has not been ruled out.
Santiago is in federal custody with no bail and will face federal charges.
He is expected to appear in court on Monday.
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At least four dead in Palestinian truck-ramming attack in Jerusalem – police

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January 8, 2017

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian rammed his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers on a popular promenade in Jerusalem on Sunday, killing four people and injuring about 15 others in a deliberate attack, police and emergency services said.
Police identified the driver as a Palestinian from Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and said he was shot dead. A dozen bullet holes pockmarked the windscreen.
It was the deadliest Palestinian attack in Jerusalem in months and targeted officer cadets who were disembarking from a bus that brought them to the Armon Hanatziv promenade, a stone-laden and grass-lined walkway with a panoramic view of the walled Old City.
« It is a terrorist attack, a ramming attack, » a police spokeswoman said.
Police said the dead, three women and one man, were all in their twenties, without identifying them further. Soldiers’ deaths are announced in Israel only after families are notified.
Roni Alsheich, the national police chief, told reporters he could not rule out that the Palestinian was motivated by a truck ramming attack in a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people last month.
« It is certainly possible to be influenced by watching TV but it is difficult to get into the head of every individual to determine what prompted him, but there is no doubt that these things do have an effect, » Mr. Alsheich told reporters.
A wave of Palestinian street attacks, including vehicle rammings, has largely slowed but not stopped completely since it began in October 2015.
Security camera footage showed the truck racing towards the soldiers, and then after a gap that apparently included scenes of carnage, reversing into them.
« In a split second I looked to my left and saw what I can only describe as a speeding truck which sent me flying, » a security guard, who was identified only as « A » told Channel 10.
« It was a miracle that my pistol stayed on me. I shot at a tire but realized there was no point as he has many wheels, so I ran in front of the cabin and at an angle I shot at him and emptied my magazine. When I finished shooting, some of the officer cadets also took aim and also started firing. »
The footage showed many of the soldiers fleeing the scene as the attack took place, their rifles slung on their shoulders. Questions were already being raised in the Israeli media why more did not engage the attacker.
Rescue workers said about 15 wounded people were strewn on the street at the promenade as ambulances raced to the scene. The Israeli military regularly takes soldiers on educational tours of Jerusalem, including the Armon Hanatziv vantage point.
Channel 10 television said the soldiers’ tour guide also fired at the assailant.
As a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, which Israel considers part of its capital but the world does not, the truck driver would carry an Israeli identity card and be able to move freely through all of the city.
Palestinian street assaults over the past 15 months have killed at least 37 Israelis and two visiting Americans.
At least 231 Palestinians have been killed in violence in Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip during that period. Israel says at least 157 of them were assailants in lone attacks often targeting security forces and using rudimentary weapons including kitchen knives. Others died during clashes and protests.
Israel says one of the main causes of the violence has been incitement by the Palestinian leadership, with young men encouraged to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians.
The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, denies that allegation, and says assailants have acted out of frustration over Israeli occupation of land Palestinians seek for a state in peace talks stalled since 2014.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza praised Sunday’s attack.
« We bless this heroic operation resisting the Israeli occupation to force it to stop its crimes and violations against our people, » Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Reuters. (Reporting by Jeffrey Heller, Maayan Lubell, Ori Lewis and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Stephen Powell)

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Thousands rally for unity in Tel Aviv following Azaria verdict

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January 8, 2017

“I am whole because of the unity of the people,” said Capt. Ziv Shilon, who lost his arm in a Hamas terrorist attack near the Gaza border in 2012.
He made these comments at a rally on Saturday night in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, where a couple of thousand gathered to project unity and call for an end to the divisiveness plaguing Israeli society in the wake of Sgt. Elor Azaria’s manslaughter conviction.
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Shilon told the crowd that when he lay in the hospital following his injury, what helped him was the support he received from people of all sectors of society.
“There is a way to say things and that is in a civilized manner, with love and not by swearing and badmouthing,” Shilon said at the rally.
In the middle of the event, just ahead of Shilon’s speech to the crowd, a dozen Azaria supporters interrupted the rally with banners and megaphones and cries that Azaria was innocent and calls for his release. They were escorted away by police.
Late Thursday night, Shilon, who has been an inspiration to many Israelis due to his optimism in the face of great adversity, took to Facebook to decry the “hate” which has divided the nation.
“I feel that our people are divided, hurt, hateful, disappointed, discouraged,” he wrote.
Shilon explained that following the Azaria verdict, he took to social media to find “a glimmer of hope,” to no avail.
“A pain struck me in my chest, I went to my room and tears just started to trickle down,” he wrote. “Yes me, who did not cry during the critical moments that I don’t wish upon anyone, I sat today and simply cried, alone by myself, restrained tears but full of pain like they taught me to cry in the army for my band of brothers that I lost, I cried for the people of Israel that are tearing themselves to pieces with unprecedented hate.
“I cried for my hand that I left in Gaza and I asked myself, maybe for the first time in my life, whether it was worth fighting for a people that hates itself,” he continued.
Shilon decried the vilification of the IDF and people who express their refusal to serve in the army.
“The army was, until now, a consensus, a lighthouse for all the armies of the world, and today factions of the people that it protects call for the murder of the man who leads it? The army that they will not go to…,” he wrote.
As such, Shilon said he would make a stance at Rabin Square Saturday night, “even if it is by myself,” in order to express and call for “solidarity and mutual love and a return to the center of power that is crumbling – our unity.”
Shilon’s emotional post quickly garnered tens of thousands of views as thousands pledged to join him in the square.
His plea also won the support of Gesher, an organization which aims to bridge rifts in Israeli society, and the Jerusalem Unity Prize, initiated by the Jerusalem Municipality and the mothers of the three teenagers – Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel – who were kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian terrorists in the summer of 2014.
“Each and every one of us has the responsibility to act toward a mutual guarantee to save the rare fabric that our people have, let’s learn to look one another in the eye in a good light. Let’s learn the differences between us. Let’s hug one another, hug our army and our country. Let’s take responsibility,” Bat-Galim Shaer, mother of Gil-Ad, said at the rally.
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Michelle Singletary: Declutter your debt and your dwelling

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January 8, 2017

We are still in that time of the new year when we make promises to ourselves.
I love the opportunity for a fresh start. I think everyone does. And this year, I have a new challenge for you.
In previous years, I’ve encouraged people to do a 21-day financial fast during which they couldn’t spend money on anything that wasn’t a necessity. For 2017, why not start off the year by getting rid of things you don’t need in your home and financial life?
For three weeks, I want to help you tackle decluttering your home while also clearing away debt. This is the #NoDebtNoMess Color of Money Challenge.
The task of decluttering and organizing your home is much like getting out of debt. A sense of orderliness will help you stay focused and not let things get out of hand. Plus, you might find some hidden treasures, like a birthday card with money. Seriously, while decluttering recently I found a birthday card from my 40th birthday with $40. (Ahem, I haven’t been 40 for a while.)
For the next three weeks, I’ll be joining you on this journey. Here’s what we’ll be doing.
The first week, you’ll spend time evaluating your space and financial situation.
Your net worth statement is a way to assess where you are financially. How can you know where you want to go if you don’t know where you stand?
I’ll be doing a live online chat at noon Thursday at washingtonpost.com/discussions. Also check out my Facebook page (facebook.com/MichelleSingletary) throughout the challenge for videos of my own decluttering battles and for encouraging messages. You can also follow me on Twitter (SingletaryM) to ask questions as we go along.
WEEK 2: REDUCE REDUNDANCY
Time to get rid of whatever is superfluous.
You’ll shed the financial documents you no longer need. I’ll walk you through which documents you should keep, and for how long.
This is when things get tough.
The end is not here.
The Color of Money challenge doesn’t stop after the 21 days. The aim is to kick start what I hope will be a lifetime mission of #NoDebtNoMess.
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The outspoken Lee Daniels

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January 8, 2017

There are at least two things that Lee Daniels is really good at. The first is making movies and TV shows that people love, including “Monster’s Call,” “Precious,” “The Butler” and “Empire.”
On the set of what he hopes becomes his newest hit, the TV show “Star,” Daniels ricochets from the set to the costume department to a meeting about music.
Music is a big part of “Star,” a series about a racially-diverse aspiring girl group. The inspiration? The Broadway musical “Dreamgirls.”
“I’ll never forget stealing my mom’s El Dorado and driving from Philadelphia at 17 into New York City and sneaking in to see the show, and just how it changed my life,” he told Rocca. “But it’s not really about ‘Dreamgirls.’ It’s about my life when I first came to Hollywood, the desperation and finding myself, understanding what it was that I wanted.”
An even earlier formative experience in Daniels’ life helped inspire his hit series “Empire.” Rocca asked, “Is it exactly what happened, that your father took you when you came down wearing your mother’s high heels and put you in a trashcan?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think your father was just reacting to effeminacy? Or do you think your father was reacting to, ‘Uh-oh, I know what this means for him later on’?”
Lee Daniels.
“Both,” Daniels replied. “Because I think that he as a man was embarrassed to have a gay [son]. I had no questions, I had no problems rather, letting him know, ‘This is how I felt’ at an early age. I was very outspoken. I owned who it was that I was.”
Daniels’ father was a Philadelphia police officer.
How? “Verbally. Physically. He was embarrassed and ashamed. I think in hindsight, he was just more concerned about my future. And so I think that in some strange way his telling me that I was nothing inspired me to be something.”
When Daniels was 15, his father was killed during a holdup. His mother — with five children to support — convinced a neighbor to help her eldest son attend an elite suburban high school.
Daniels said, “I remember going into that environment and being the only black person, and feeling love and feeling like there was absolutely no racism at all for me.”
“Did you make friends fast?” Rocca asked.
Lee Daniels directs Helen Mirren in his first feature film, the 2005 crime drama “Shadowboxer.”
“Oh yeah. I learned to go seamlessly through a black environment to a white environment and to adapt to both. And I think that helped me with my journey, that I was very comfortable in both places.”
The experience gave him the confidence, he said, to move at age 21 to Los Angeles, where he worked as a receptionist at an agency for home health aides. Soon enough he opened his own successful agency.
But…
But what Daniels REALLY wanted was to make movies. So he started at the bottom as a production assistant on the movie “Purple Rain.”
He told Rocca he showed up on the set in an Armani suit, driving a Porsche, smoking a Newport cigarette.
He wasn’t a P. A. for long.
His winning combination of talent, smarts and startling self-assurance propelled him. By age 41, Daniels produced “Monster’s Ball,” which won Halle Berry an Oscar.
A Harlem Teenager Strives to Overcome Abuse, Incest and Illiteracy in This Harrowing Drama
As the director of “Precious,” Daniels earned his own Oscar nomination for getting raw performances from a cast that included a certain diva almost unrecognizable as a social worker.
How, Rocca asked, did he get Mariah Carey to take off her makeup? “Carefully!” Daniels laughed. “I’m a snake charmer. I mean, carefully. Nice and easy. Easy does it.”
“What’s that mean? Was it a hazardous situation?”
No, he doesn’t hold back … which brings us to the second thing Lee Daniels is very good at:
“I gotta tell you, for the record, I’m bored with Hollywood people of color saying Hollywood owes you something. Don’t nobody owe you nothing.”
… provoking and often outraging people with his unalloyed candor, especially on the topic of race.
Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton in “Monster’s Ball.”
“I had to fight for everything, from my very first movie on.”
“You raised the money for ‘Monster’s Ball,’” Rocca said.
“At last year’s Oscars, when there were no black nominees for any of the acting awards, how did you feel?”
“How did I feel? I don’t know that there was anything that was deserving to be nominated. Was there?
“I don’t vote on color. I vote on the movies that deserve to be nominated. You don’t see me running around complaining ‘cause I didn’t get nothing for ‘The Butler.’ You know what? Next. I went on and made ‘Empire,’” he laughed. “I mean, like, you know, see ya!”
Lee Daniels at his home in New York City.
From a fur-lined hammock in his New York City apartment, the 57 year-old Daniels presides over an empire he hopes continues to expand.
“Do I think that there are injustices in Hollywood every day, as they are in America? Yes, there are,” he said. “Not just injustices, but there are atrocities, I believe, that have happened. But is that going to define me? No. And am I gonna get what’s mine? You better believe it, I am! And I will continue.”