Veteran Reporter Tom Brokaw Has Something to Say About Obama Staying at 'Baseball Game All Day Long' After Brussels Attacks

Former anchor of NBC's "Nightly News" Tom Brokaw questioned President Barack Obama's decision to attend a baseball game in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday after learning of the terror attacks in Brussels, telling MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he expected Obama to cancel those plans.

"So much of politics and national security is a combination of symbolism and reality," Brokaw said Wednesday. "The reality is that we did have that attack yesterday. It was unnerving to us, it was devastating in Europe."

"But at the same time, the symbolism is that the president stayed at the baseball game all day long where you would have thought he would have said, 'Look, we’ve got more business that I have to deal with, I wish you well,' get on the phone," he continued. "We’ve got to put together some kind of a bulletproof syndicate to deal with all this."

[sharequote align="right"]"This is the time to be the leader."[/sharequote]

The former anchor added, "There’s a real urgency about it, and he has got to convey that, not just to the American people but to the world. I think it was Mike Hayden who said he is the leader of the free world, and this is the time to be the leader because this kind of attack can occur again and again and again."

"This is the time to be the leader," Brokaw declared.

Obama faced a myriad of criticism Tuesday for attending the game, particularly from GOP presidential contenders. However, Obama addressed that criticism during the top of the third inning in an interview with ESPN. Obama said he didn't want the attack to interrupt his flow of life, which he contended is the goal of terrorists.

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