White House CoS Names ISIS Hostage

While speaking on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough appeared to accidentally reveal the name of the American woman currently held hostage by ISIS. “[Do] we have any information on the American woman still being held?" asked George Stephanopoulos. In response, McDonough declared, “As it relates to our hostages, we are obviously continuing to work those matters very, very aggressively. We are sparing no expense, and sparing no effort, both in trying to make sure that we know where they are and make sure that we're prepared to do anything we must to try to get them home.” He added that the woman’s family knows "how strongly the president feels about this. And we will continue to work this." Prior to that slip-up, the U.S. had refused to release the name of the woman being held, and it’s a common practice to keep the names of hostages out of the media as a way to facilitate any negotiations.