Mohamed ElBaradei on the Egypt Protests and More Sunday Talk

Hillary Clinton predicts "difficult" decisions ahead, Boehner approves of Obama's response, and Howard Kurtz speaks to al Jazeera's Washington chief. That and more in our Sunday talk roundup. Plus, full coverage of the Egypt uprising.

Clinton on Egypt: Difficult Decisions to Be Made

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Egyptian government was stable despite growing unrest in the country. On This Week, Christiane Amanpour asked Clinton whether she stood by that assessment five days later. “We believe that democracy, human rights, economic reform are in the best interests of the Egyptian people. Any government that does not try to move in that direction cannot meet the legitimate needs of the people,” Clinton said. “So what I'm hoping is that there can be a very difficult set of decisions made, that the government will be able to maintain a peaceful relationship with peaceful protesters, that where there is criminal activity, looting and the like, that can be handled in an appropriate way, respecting human rights.”

McCain: “We Need to Be on the Right Side of History”

Sen. John McCain was reluctant to advocate cutting all ties with the Mubarak regime on State of the Union, saying Egypt is an important ally to the U.S. and that “what we need to do now is to lay out a plan for Mubarak to lift the state of emergency, announce that elections—free and fair—will be held in September.”

Al Jazeera’s Role in Egypt’s Protests

On Reliable Sources, Howard Kurtz spoke with al Jazeera’s Washington Bureau Chief Abderrahim Foukara about Bill O’Reilly’s recent comment that al Jazeera is “spurring on this revolt and encouraging uprisings all over the Muslim world.” Not so, said Foukara. “We may differ from certain governments on what the definition of trustworthy coverage is, but the fact of the situation is that the viewership, the people who are directly involved in these events, they come to al Jazeera because that’s where they feel with some trust they can air their grievances and their aspirations.”

ElBaradei: Obama Needs to Let Go of Mubarak

In a candid interview on This Week, Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent figure in the opposition against Egypt's President Mubarak, told Christiane Amanpour that the United States must stop supporting Mubarak and instead back the revolution.

ElBaradei on the Muslim Brotherhood

In another interview, this time on Fareed Zakaria GPS, ElBaradei said the Muslim Brotherhood has been unfairly maligned, thanks to the Mubarak regime. “They are a minority in Egypt, they are not a majority of the Egyptian people, but they have a lot of credibility because all the other liberal parties have been smothered for 30 years,” he said.

Boehner: “Reforms Need to Occur in Egypt”

In a bit of a surprising turn on Fox News Sunday, Speaker of the House John Boehner had kind words for Obama, saying, “I think the administration so far has handled this tense situation pretty well. Clearly reforms need to occur in Egypt, and frankly, any place around the world where people are calling out for freedom and democracy, I think we have a responsibility to respond.”

Daley: Raising Taxes Isn’t the Way to Go

Face the Nation took a brief break from Egypt coverage to air the first television interview with William Daley, Obama’s new chief of staff. Bob Schieffer asked Daley where he thought President Obama was going to get the budget to make some of the changes proposed at the recent State of the Union address. Daley said he didn’t think raising taxes was the way to go. Hey, we like this guy already!