we're going to dress up. >> pumpkins, it's that time of year. >> watch them this weekend. we'll see you back here monday. morning everybody. fox news alert. closing gitmo. president obama said to explore every option to shut it down. "the wall street journal" reports that the white house is looking for ways to override congressional ban on detainee transfers and send 149 terrorists to this country or to others. more in just a couple minutes on the breaking news. first, more breaking news on isis terrorists taking a key government building as the u.s. appears to be changing its strategy. ramping airstrikes along the turkish-syrian bored. friday, good morning. welcome, everybody. it is "america's newsroom." i'm bill hemmer. good morning, everybody. >> good morning, bill.

i'm martha maccallum. it comes down in many way ways to the city of kobani. this town terrorists are fighting to seize. the headquarters of the kurdish forces has fallen to isis. bill: back to greg palkot live on the border, center of it all. greg? >> reporter: bill and martha for the past two hours or so we've been listening to a battle royal going on in the syrian town of kobani the i will ask my cameraman mal james to zoom beyond me. you can't see too much. i think you can make out a line of trees. that is the center of kobani. that is the headquarters where kurdish defenders are. that according to our best source inside of the town has just fallen to the isis terrorists. we've been hearing a lot of shooting, a lot of firing around there. the fight might not be over but that would be a big, big strong hold for isis terrorists if that were to happen. we're hearing the border crossing, between kobani and turkey, the only border

crossing, is controlled by isis. if that is confirmed, that is the bad news for the kurds. that is the only way they get casualties out and reinforcements and resupply in. another one of our good sources inside of the city is claiming isis has as much of 40% of the territory of that city in their hands. frankly we think that is a little high but we do think they are in control of a good chunk of real estate. as for the new u.s. strategy? the best thing that can be said about that, according to our contacts it could have been a lot worse if the u.s. did not change the strategy. that's what we're looking at right now. in four days from monday this thursday and by our count, according to centcom records, there have been 25 airstrikes inside and around kobani. in the entire week before that, there were only five. now, on the other side of the border there is mayhem as well. here in turkey the ethnic kurds very upset turkey doing more to intercede in this

battle. third night running there were fights between the kurds and turkish authorities. the count now, death toll, over 30. that's a very deadly battle going on right now. also in ankara kind of the same topic, martha and bill. general john allen who heads up the u.s.-led anti-isis campaign along with assistant secretary of state bret mcgirk, meeting with the prime minister of turkey, trying to knock heads together. they're not coming out of meetings with anything too substantive. there is a promise after new military planning committee to come back to ankara next week. this as the fight rages on behind us. bill: in kobani along the town along the turkish-syrian border. greg, thank you. martha: senator john mccain says the syrian president bashar al-assad is taking advantage of our airstrike campaign. >> what we're doing is immoral. we're allowing ba'asyir assad to

destroy the free syrian army because every time we bomb isis, bashar al-assad moves in and attacks the free syrian army with more intensity. martha: some angles to this whole story. are these airstrikes actually helping assad? general jack keane will join us later on that in the show. all right. breaking news last night that could have a major effect on the midterm elections. federal courts striking down voter i.d. laws in two states, just weeks before voters head to the polls. big story this morning. leland vittert is live in washington. so, leland, who does this help and who does it hurt potentially? >> reporter: good morning, martha. conventional wisdom says this is a blow to republicans especially in wisconsin where governor scott walker is in a tight governor's race. the law requires voter i.d. at polls which justice department and others argues disenfranchises minorities and poor who are historically the

democratic base. in texas the justice department says that nearly 600,000 hispanics and others could legally vote but would have been blocked by the i.d. law that was in place in that state. in texas, eric holder and his justice department got heavily involved in the case. one activist called the latest rulings in both wisconsin and texas, quote, a perfect storm against voter i.d. and keep this in mind. we're now under a month until election day when these rulings have come down. there will be a lot of changes, perhaps a lot of confusion who is allowed to vote and what you need before you show up at polls. martha: i'll say. very interesting timing on this. what is the law that is underpinning all of this, leland? >> reporter: those in favor of requiring voter i.d., a photo i.d. to vote say it prevents fraud. pretty simple argument. those against voter i d.a. it disenfranchises poor or minorities, don't have a photo i.d. or too expensive of a

process. in texas the federal judge agreed. while the supreme court upheld a number of voter i.d. laws, texas's law is viewed as one of the more restrictive. for example, college i.d.s are not accepted by poll workers but concealed handgun licenses are. free voter i.d. is offered by texas. justice argued getting necessary birth certificate costs $3 could be undue burden. texas attorney general will appeal the rule ruling. wisconsin case is little more complicated. they didn't rule on the merits but blocked implementation until they make further ruling down the road. >> interesting background. leland, thank you very much. bill: laws meant to crackdown on voter fraud spreading. in just this year alone, 24 states have proposals for new voter i.d. requirements or to amend existing laws. 25 days until voters go to the

polls for midterms. later today, we got new polls throughout the past couple days. joni ernst is trying to turn iowa from blue to red will be our guest. martha: polls tightening in iowa and many of these. stay tuned. we'll take you through a number of them here this morning. >> meantime here is stark warning from the head of the cdc on ebola. dr. tom frieden says the outbreak today could be the next aids epidemic tomorrow if we do not take action now. that warning as five major american airports will start the process of checking passengers for fevers and other symptoms. john roberts on the story live in atlanta. good morning. what else are we hearing today? >> reporter: good morning to you. cdc director struck an ominous note talking to the world bank international monetary fund liking the ebola epidemic to the emergence of aids back in the early 1980s. >> in the 30 years i've been working in public health the only thing like this has been aids and we have to work now so

this is not the world's next aids. >> reporter: we've actually known about the ebola virus longer than hiv. ebola was first discovered in 1976. aids virus in 1983. marked differences. both are transmitted through bodily fluids, unlike hiv, the virus does not hide in the body of the virus is cleared and patient becomes immune. if you're infected with ebola get the disease typically two to 21 days, and you can't walk around for months and if not years asymptomic. it has the potential to become endemic. always around in humans. frieden was warning about the potential economic consequences in west africa, among the three country this isn't controlled and controlled soon. another headline, house homeland security chairman mike mccaul will hold a hearing at dallas-fort worth airport. he will focus on the response to the texas ebola case. no question some of the

screw-ups will be addressed. why duncan was turned away from the hospital. why texas didn't have contracts to clean up the apartment and transport and dispose of hazardous waste despite having months if not years to prepare for it. why sheriffs deputies five of them were told to go into duncan's apartment five days after he left for the hospital. bill: what about the contacts? what is the update, john? >> reporter: so far no news which is good news. the dallas county sheriff's department deputies rushed to the hospital couple days ago which was thought to be potentially ebola symptoms was released from the hospital. he had another minor illness. there are no systems symptoms even among duncan's closest contacts. that is good news. we just talked with anthony fauci on national institute of infectious disease. he said they're trying trials of ebola vaccine in mali among three health care workers to see if they begin to get vaccine out there among the general public maybe by next year, bill.

bill: john roberts in atlanta. a lot to cover. thank you. martha: airlines are not taking any risks. they're calling in a hazmat team over a bad joke on a plane. a patient on a flight from philly to the dominican republic on wednesday and sneezed into his hand reportedly yelled something about having ebola. smart move. flight attendant was alerted to this. the man was escorted from the plane for question. the other 225 passengers were stuck on board until the plane was cleared up. i'm sure they're happy. he is probably not laughing now. this is one of the things, terrorism, ebola is another watchword you can not joke about going through security or getting on a plane because you will end up an bad situation. bill: siegel is making point this is form of medical terrorism. why duncan had contact with 100 other people why no one else came down with it. he has a bit of a contrarian view. no to quarantine in this country. he will make his case coming up

today. martha: look forward to hearing from him. bill: president obama might look to fulfill one of his earliest campaign promises on day one of 2009, closing gitmo. what happens to 149 terrorists still housed there? we'll talk to a former director of the cia for that answer. martha: have you heard about this? gwyneth paltrow star-struck by president obama last night but democratic candidate refusing to admit she voted for the president in 2012. does the president have juice from hollywood or his own party? bill: what is being described as a cover-up in the secret service scandal. how high did this go? a house committee wants to know. >> three people, three, were put on suspension there simultaneous, pretty much simultaneous to them criticizing the white house and questioning why are we putting this information in there?

♪ "here i am. rock you like a hurricane." ♪ fiber one now makes cookies. find them in the cookie aisle.

bill: 15 minutes past the hour. breaking news. mentioned this a moment ago. the president looking to fulfill his first promise as president, january of 2009. closing gitmo. "the wall street journal" reports that the president is trying to find a way to get the 149 detainees off the island. james woolsey, former cia director. welcome back here to america's newsroom. >> good morning. >> do you expect this to happen? >> it is entirely possible. the president would have to either veto the defense

authorization bill, which isn't politically such a good idea or substantively a good idea when we're in middle of sort of an air war or saying he will not enforce the congressional ban on putting these terrorists prisoners inside the u.s. he has done that. constitutional lawyers, many of them, have a real problem with it but he doesn't appear to. so, yeah it could well happen. bill: what you're saying, if that is the case, do you support this? or do you find this dangerous? >> well i think it is dangerous and, they're down now to 149 i think prisoners. and most of these, like khalid sheikh mohammad are really dyed in the wool terrorists. a few are more complicated. the bergdahl trade, for example, the sergeant who was traded for five senior taliban terrorists, i think that was a about trying

to get rid of terrorists that are incarcerated in gitmo. get them taken, by somebody else or freed. so there is less and less pressure on the president to keep gitmo going. bill. gallup found back in june 66% of the american public are against this move, which would align it for a move that you do after the midterms. but if you have 149 do you bring them here or siphon them off on various countries? >> it can be like a fund-raising trip in reverse. the president went to estonia recently. estonia agreed to take one of the terrorists from gitmo. maybe if you get a presidential visit, bad side of it you have to take a terrorist. bill: this is a funky word, right? >> very. bill: unbelievable. you mentioned bowe bergdahl. viewers were asking about that this week. because you asked now, susan tweeted the following, what is

going on with the investigation of sergeant bergdahl. hushed until after midterms? here is what i found out. the investigation is complete by the army but apparently we will not know those results. why is that? >> well the results may not look very attractive. one or more of these five, maybe really pretty bad terrorists got traded for him and we may find out he was a deserter. we don't know. there have been stories to that effect. if the u.s. government traded a deserter for freeing five terrorists, that is not such a good deal and, possible that people in the government don't want that known. bill: is it standard that we would not know that? how can you, how can you keep all that information private? >> inside the military it, press stories say that the investigation has been done but the overall assessment has not yet been done. when we had major hasan kill his

13 fellow soldiers at fort hood a couple years ago the military put out a report, defense department put out a report saying it was workplace violence. that is just ridiculous. and you know, if you're going to paper it over with something like that, then maybe you want to hide it until after the election because -- bill: entirely true. especially if he was a deserter. if that is the fact and you have an election coming up here and five detainees hanging out in qatar. >> right. bill: james woolsey. thank you for your time. >> great to be with you. bill: to our viewers at home, hemmer@foxnews.com or follow me on twitter. shoot an email there. or because you asked, bya. thanks for doing that. >> north korea celebrating an anniversary of a political milestone, its leader, kim jong-un is still missing in action for 37 days as the nation

honors his grandfather. what is going on in the halls of north korea. a story that would be a headline if there wasn't so much going on in the world and how about their nuclear arsenal. bill: great point. a pakistani teenager who survived a taliban shooting earns one of the world's most prestigious honors in her crusade for equal rights. >> i truly believe the only way we can get global peace and toward peace and prosperity is only reading, knowledge, and education.

bill: so the pakistani school girl shot in the face by a taliban gun man is the youngest person ever to win the nobel

peace prize. she is 17. best known by her first name, malala, she inspired millions since the attack two years ago she was nearly killed for defying a ban of girls going to school. she has made a strong recovery. she will share the award with indian activist who is fighting for children's rights around the world. martha: what did you do at 17? what extraordinary role model this is. talk about war on woman, this is front lines. she took a bullet in the face. she is remarkable young lady. she is a true example and role model, that teenage girls in this country looking for somebody to look up to should look no further. bill: malala, congratulations. >> congratulations. to this now, as north korea's leader kim jong-un is nowhere to be seen at an annual event he usually would not miss. workers party anniversary

celebrations moving forward without him. kim jong-un is not among them. he has not been spotted in public more than a month. many wondering if he has been forcibly pushed out of power or if he is ill or even dead. chief correspondent jonathan hunt looking into this story for us which is not easy to do. he is in new york. jonathan, do we have any idea where he might be? >> reporter: frankly, martha, nobody outside of north korea is certain at all where kim jong-un might be. very few people inside of probably have any real idea where he is right now. most experts don't belief there has been a coup. but we are getting some clues to what condition he might be in. for instance, the last couple of times, we've seen him you see there, he had a pronounced limp. he may have health problems which were alluded to in a state tv broadcast delivered in typical breathless style. listen here. ♪

just to emphasize those words, the broadcaster is saying the wealth and prosperity of our social system thanks to the painstaking effort of our marshall who keeps lighting the path for the people like the flicker of a flame despite suffering discomfort. now that discomfort must be pretty severe for kim jong-un to have missed the workers party anniversary event today. and if, martha, a north korean leader is becoming physically weak, there is no doubt he will be becoming politically weak as well and there are a lot of people within that regime competing for power right now, martha. martha: 37 years old, right and suffering from gout is one of the ideas that might be of what is plaguing him. it really does matter to the united states who is in control of north korea no doubt. >> reporter: it really does. firstly and most obviously is the question of north korea's nuclear weapons.

we know that they have nukes. they have tested them repeatedly. we know that they are developing longer and longer range missiles. then you get the ongoing tension on the korean peninsula. south korean activists released balloons today designed to protest the north korean dictatorship. in the wake of that north korean forces fired across the border at south korean forces. so any instability on the korean peninsula is always dangerous. listen here to north korea expert gordon chang. >> in times like this the default position is always to take the hardest line possible. we've got to remember that these are adults who are killing each other. some of them have access to nukes, long-range missiles and large stocks of chemical and biological agents. this is not good news. >> reporter: certainly not good news, martha. we often look at those pictures of kim jong-un looking at things. easy to find the comedy in that.

when a north korean leader goes missing it is a deadly serious situation, martha. >> story to watch for sure. jonathan, thank you so much. bill: without everything else going on in the world that is a major headline. the mystery continues. nidal hasan praising jihad and muslim extremism in a letter to the pope. can the attack at fort hood still be classifieded as a work place shooting? we'll tell you what we found. martha: a question a democratic candidate tries to avoid for a very excruciating 40 seconds. watch this. >> did you vote for president obama in 2008, 2012? >> you know this election, isn't about the president. it is about making sure we put kentuckians back to work.

♪searching with devotion ♪for a snack that isn't lame ♪but this... ♪takes my breath away bill: so convicted fort hood shooter nidal hasan apparently writing a letter to pope francis

glorifying jihad. six-page letter to pope francis and vatican and other religious leaders around the world. hasan praises those who are willing to fight for almighty allah? a copy sent by hasan's attorney to fox news. hasan never mentions the fort hood massacre where he was convicted of killing 13 people. that killing designated workplace violence by the federal government, not terrorism. hasan is on death row, for the leavenworth, kansas. more on this a lit later. martha: two very different reactions to president obama's legacy less than one month until the midterms. first mr. obama getting a glowing reception during a hollywood fund-raiser at actress gwyneth paltrow's home last night. that is where everybody usual liver hangs out. the president was there and she got a little nervous an stepped over her words while introducing the president. and then they said, you're so handsome that i can't speak properly. ha, ha.

little joke, right? very different story unfolding in kentucky where democrat allison hundred der grand grimes, is fighting to under seat incumbent senator mitch mcconnell. grimes is trying to answer a question whether she even voted for the president. >> did you vote for president obama, 2008, 2012? >> this election isn't about the president. >> i know. >> about making sure we put kentuckians back to work. >> did you vote for him. >> i was in '08 a delegate for hillary clinton. kentuckians know i'm a clinton democrat through and through. i respect the sanctity of the ballot box and i know that the members of this editorial board do as well. >> you're not going to answer? >> again, i don't think that the president is on the ballot as much as mitch mcconnell might want him to be. it is my name. >> oh, boy. juan williams, fox news political analyst. mary catherine hamm, editor-at-large of hotair.com.

welcome to you both. interesting, two lovely women, both really smart, very different reactions, mary catherine ham to the president yesterday. >> first of all i'm excited about the president's populist swing across the united states of america from billionaire rich richmond's house to gwyneth paltrow. he is doing that special connection with regular americans. martha: all about income inequality. >> gwyneth paltrow comments smack of idol worship i'm not a huge fan on right or left when it comes to politicians. she is making a little aside when she stumbles over her words. there is interesting aside in the pool report, wonderful to give the man all the power he needs to pass the things he needs to pass. to which i say, because you agree with a politician and he has a nice smile is not a reason to deconstruct the constitutional and limited government we've created in the greatest nation on earth. martha: come on, mary catherine. where is your sense of romance?

>> to warn gwen, the next time someone comes around and who she doesn't like and doesn't have a nice smile he will have the powers that obama has given to him. martha: juan, what do you think about all this. >> i think obviously obstruction big part why a democrat like gwyneth paltrow would wish the president would be able to do what he wants. martha: that is what she is talking about. >> when it comes to how handsome he is, i don't know. i was hoping you guys would say that about me. you never know. i will say -- martha: i'm speechless, juan. >> thank you, guys. i mean the president has to play to his strengths. his strengths are not his numbers, not popular, not popular in a state like kentucky. he does have strength in the big blue states, new york and california, and can go out to raise money even in his home state of illinois. martha: yeah. >> a little bit like romney and corporate executives. he has this cheering section playing to it. when it comes to kentucky, mcconnell, the minority leader here in the senate, he is not

that popular and he would love to run against president obama. that is why you see grimes making every effort. i thought that was awkward like stumbling like incoherent to the point, so obvious. so patently transparent, that she doesn't want anything to do with president obama. she could have said i disagree with him, on coal, jobs, guns, anything. she didn't handle it well. martha: here are the numbers in kentucky and this tells the tale. is pretty tight race. mcconnell pulled ahead in recent weeks. he is now at 45.5. let's like at president obama's approval numbers. from the recent fox poll. in kentucky and see that, 59% in 10 cubbing disapprove of the -- in kentucky, disapprove the president's job approval. that is huge number. a mistake on her part. she very easily could have said. of course i voted for the president but i disagree with him on things that he has done. she could have gone that route. raised at least a couple

questions whether or not she voted or whether or not there is some other reason she doesn't want to say. >> look, it is not easy to run in this environment as a democrat in kentucky. she sort of is running against obama even if she doesn't want to be. that is what answer indicates. i think it is better part of valor to say, yes, i voted for him and all of us voted for politicians we haven't agreed with every single thing they have done. that would be honest, forthright answer and move on. this was like watching first mounds of "american idol." you never want to give all of us to watch that for 40 seconds. >> has bill clinton on the side. sticking up for clintons in a big way. she has to be, hoping he can help turn the tide for her there. he just visited. >> remember, he is southern democrat. very popular. former governor of arkansas. has had a good ratings. he won kentucky twice. you stop and think about that, he is a guy that the southern democrats who are particularly allergic to president obama right now have to rely on. they have to get that sense,

that tradition of the old democratic, southern, axis back into play to have any chance here, martha. martha: he seems to be saying when he is out there on the trail, mary catherine, you know, hang in there. you have two more years of president obama. then we'll deliver hillary to you is his wish, right? >> yeah. that is what they're hoping will work. he is great on the stump as always. the message is, just wait, some day you will feel the recovery. he said in 2012 famously in his dnc speech that you will feel it. you will feel this recovery. here we are several years later. people are not. that is what they're dealing with on the trail. that is why obama, sort of is on the ballot when it comes to a place like kentucky. martha: good points, mary kathryn. juan, you're handsome. eye candy, you know what i'm saying. >> there you go. bill: love to see your brain, juan. in kentucky, we found last week, our fox polling has mcconnell up four points which is tick higher than the "real clear

politics" average. you ask the question whether or not the president is on the ballot. physically no, name no. look at approval numbers we found out and disapproval numbers in these critical states. kentucky at 59. kansas 63. colorado, 67. arkansas, 61. when when he put those states into the equation, on our what if scenario, 55-45 republicans need six to get control of the senate. so if you were to keep kentucky red and keep kansas red according to some polling we've seen now, flip alaska as we just saw, hang on one second, we'll change alaska from blue to red. you're now at 46. what else was in the mix? colorado, you're now at 47. maybe arkansas and perhaps, tom cotton, now at 48. you still have to pick up a few more states. montana looks decent based on some polling. south dakota, probably. there are suggestions it might be a little murky.

we'll see on west virginia. republicans feel good about. that even with that, you're 50-50. south dakota perhaps put you over the top. middle of the country, state of iowa, that is blue. could be red. joni ernst is making hard push there. we will talk to her next hour. martha: that's right. bill: a lot of this polling the past week has given republicans a bit of a lift. what democrats will tell you, they have a lot of money. they do. they're spending it, some states four to one over republican candidates. the other thing they really believe in is their ground game. it was successful in 2008. hugely successful 2012. martha: huge turnout to get independents out as well. they have early voting in iowa. they already started voting with absentee ballots. they're doing a lot of door-to-door work to get folks out. so we'll see. bill: 24 days and counting. martha: a texas deputy who went to the home of an ebola patient has now tested negative.

very good news for him, for the virus. are concerns about bowl pole overblown? -- ebola overblown or is a quarantine needed in someplaces in america? dr. marc siegel, very interesting take on this coming up. >> he was one of the first-responders there. he was in the apartment maybe half an hour if that. we were told by him and other federal officials he didn't come in contact with duncan at all. [ narrator ] mama sherman and the legion of super fans. wow! [ narrator ] on a mission to get richard to his campbell's chunky soup. it's new chunky beer-n-cheese with beef and bacon soup. i love it. and mama loves you. ♪

martha: the most powerful storm of the year is heading towards japan. here is a picture of the typhoon. you can see the eye of that. look at the storm from the satellite. tweeted out by astronaut reid wiseman on the international space station. he has seen a lot of storms like this but nothing like this. it was downgraded technically from a super typhoon but still packing winds up to 150 miles per hour. it is expected to lose steam as it passes over southern japan.

let's hope it loses a lot of steam over the weekend. >> the numbers are going to increase before we can get to a leveling off point. but right now, what is most important is that every day those on the ground efforts that there is urgency. >> that is health and human services secretary sylvia burwell urging a strong ground response is best way to stop the spread of ebola. my next guest is about to argue that the scare is overblown. dr. marc siegel, professor of medicine at langone medical center, fox news medical a-team. i will let you make your case in a moment. first the texas deputy sheriff tested negative. he doesn't have it. you make the case do not quarantine because a quarantine leads to panic? explain that. >> that has been the case since the plague in the 14th century. the city of milan and didn't panic and didn't quarantine the whole city, they isolated sick people. the plague never took hold.

venice stopped boats coming into port. panic spread and initially thousands and thousands died. because when you panic, bill, you take fewer precautions. there is rope around my city you flee. what you do when you flee, you spread virus. if you're sick you spread virus not listening to anybody. that is the problem in west africa too because of all the panic and fear. if we do get cases here in the united states, more than just the one we have, we don't need the panic. i want to make a point about duncan. why is it we're all paying attention, such attention to everybody who is exposed rather than reassuring ourselves each time we find out no other cases have gotten it? there may be a case but lesson here -- go ahead. bill: he came in contact with 100 people and no one else that we know, including his family members, have come down with these symptoms, correct? >> that's a great point. bill: if that is true, what does that mean to you medically? >> medically it means that we were probably right.

scientists were probably right all along that it is hard to get ebola. this guy was vomiting in ambulances and all over the place. people were in fact contact with the secretions but may have not had sufficient exposure to get sick. all the talk on tv, could spread through your -- get it by being coughed on. this hides the truth which it is very hard to get ebola. bill: bill: you write in "usa today" is turning ebola into a microscopic medical terrorist. back that up. >> in the united states we have a lot of experience how terrorists work. we she a shoe-bomber in an airport, we think are the airports safe? same thing here. we're putting a lot of attention on our airports. we should, to calm our fears. to reassure our fears. since he came from liberia. that made us all question the airport security and the truth is, it is only been one case. same as regular terrorist works. this is microscopic terrorist.

we can't see it. it can kill us. so therefore we think, it is fear. it is fear. bill: i understand the point. on airport screenings, they started jfk i believe tomorrow and then four or five other airports on monday of next week. do you support the screening, telling airport workers, hey man, see someone a little sick or under the weather, stick a thermometer in their mouth? >> i support our military, 101st airborne going to over to west kafka,ter risk. i support doctors without borders. i support money pouring in there. travel should not be restricted. but comes to the airports we need to prevent a single case because of panic we're seeing. i'm in favor of enhanced screening same for any terrorist. for ebola i want people to be screened. be on look out for people who has some even though malaria is much more likely. bill: how do they know what the symptoms are? >> they have to be trained.

customs and border patrol need to be trained. i've been at airports. we need ramped up efforts on part of the customs and border patrol and cdc. bill: you believe in the process will calm fears. >> people need to listen. bill: dr. marc siegel. martha, what is next? martha: a chapter of the united auto workers accused of publishing a scab list. is the union trying to strong arm people by listing them if they don't want to join? bill: a certain california gearheading to the big game for one super gig. hey? ♪ so i can reach ally bank 24/7, but there are no branches? 24/7 it's just i'm a little reluctant to try new things. what's wrong with trying new things? feel that in your muscles? yeah... i do... try a new way to bank, where no branches equals great rates.

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♪ bill: katy perry will play super bowl, folks. super bowl iv 9, glendale, arizona. the league wanted the artist to pay for the coveted gig and asked, perry, rihanna and coldplay would like to perform. perry said i'm not the kind of girl to play the super bowl. they think she will do it for free. 100 million will watch. biggest stage in america. katy perry will fill it up. >> fireworks coming out of her dress, i wonder, raising the bar. speaking about that, sort of, the united auto workers union in kansas is next story. using website to publish so-called scab list. called out employees at gm who are exercising their right to opt out being in the union.

stuart varney host of "varney & company" on the fox business network. if you're allowed not to be the union which you're allowed to do posting a name on very important part of website. >> called intimidation. in the plant in kansas, local of the union is publishing a list of non-union members. the plant is vastly unionized but 30 people who are not members of the union, as is their right. their names are being published, where they work on the factory floor, that is being published. so you can find them. other union members are being encouraged to go engage them in dialogue. otherwise known as attempt at intimidation. martha: under what guise are though posting these names? why are they saying they're sharing the information. >> they say you guys, you 30 people, don't belong to the union but you take the benefits of union membership. we negotiate the contracts but you pay nothing and give nothing towards our negotiations. you're winning without even taking part. that is not fair.

so publish the names and the locations of the members, non-members i should say, so that members can go and argue with them. now, look, the union is in kind of a desperate situation here. union membership is down. they need the dues. they happen to be heavily in debt. martha: don't they have dues from the people anyway? >> don't you have to pay the dues? >> no, you don't. if you're not member of the union you don't have to pay up. martha: that's why they're calling them out. >> but the heart of this is michigan. that is a right-to-work state nowadays. you don't have to join the union to get job. that is the uaw's heartland. if a lot of people walk away from the union, in michigan, then the uaw is basic core starts to disintegrate. they're very worried about that. a little intimidation to get the non-union people back into the union, or put pressure on them. that works well for the union they think. martha: any indication why these people are opting out? i mean we know in some cases that they don't like the

political stance of the union that they're part of. they don't want to support it. do we think that is at work here? >> there is right of principle. i don't have to join. i won't join. i don't like to the politics of the union so i won't contribute to it. and obamacare. the unions supported obama care but it hurts many union members who receive health care through the union. if they don't receive the health care through the union, why be in the union? martha: that is good point. thank you, stuart. bill: real story behind monica lewinsky and whitewater and a whole lot more. the clinton presidential library set to dump important documents on embattled times of the clinton white house. martha: the white house appears to get wrapped up in another thing that has the scandal word attached to it. was the secret service told to cover up on an investigation on agents going wild in cartagena until after the election? may.

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martha: just hours from now some of the most headline-grabbing controversies of the clinton era will be laid bare for the world to see. the clinton library will be releasing 10,000 documents, and today we'll get material for the first time about the most infamous controversy of all. hmm, what could that be, you wonder? welcome, everybody, brand new hour of "america's newsroom." hello, bill. bill: hi, martha. martha: i'm martha a. bill: i'm billy. this is the seventh batch released since february, but this one will be big. it includes details on the white water scandal and a file on monica lewinsky. martha: and as always, these things happen on a friday. this one happens fairly early on a friday. chris stirewalt just can't wait to dig into no ez documents this morning -- into those documents this morning. [laughter] >> well, when you used the phrase "laid bare," i think that

may have been more apt than you meant, madam. [laughter] what we know is in there is a lot of internal communications from the white house about how to handle what's going on. now, james rosen, the intrepid james rosen will be sifting, panning for document gold through these things all amp. it is a friday, and it's also, of course, a holiday weekend. so that is the right time in american political life to do your docu-dumping. so they're putting it out there, the one they know is going to have the headline-generating things. but remember, hillary clinton is the front runner for the democratic 2016 nomination. this is part of her story, and while the lewinskygate and all of that stuff in there is certainly titillating, certainly exciting, the more material things for her may end up relating to the things that aren't as sexy including allegations of selling pardons and other mischief at the end of the clinton administration. martha: yeah.

there are two ways to withhold documents for presidents. is it if it pertains to appointments, the other if it pertains to comfortable advice between presidents and their advisers. it's also the pre-e-mail period, so it'll be interesting to see just how much of this was written down because back in those days people used the to have more face-to-face conversations. >> and use the phone. in those days people actually used the telephone which was a device where you could hear another person's voice -- [laughter] martha: familiar with that. >> yes. martha: so there's also going to be a couple of files, one of them's on oprah winfrey, chris. >> you know it is. martha: who knows what's going to be in there? >> well, oprah has been a democrat's preferred med for softening candidates. we know in the past that hillary clinton -- the constant concern for hillary clinton's handlers and advisers and her political team has been that she appears or harsh, unfriendly. she tried new talking points at

a campaign speech last night where she uses her new granddaughter to soften her up. but when it was the '90s, today, throughout her career, softening her image has been a huge consideration for her. martha: yeah. there is one potential republican candidate who likes to bring this monica lewinsky story back up x here's rand paul talking about just that. it's a full-screen quote, which means i will read it. [laughter] martha: very strong words from rand paul, chris. >> and, you know, that's a twofer for rand paul. one, the clintons very successfully -- you were not allowed to talk about it. they yelled at reporters, they yelled at people that you are not allowed to talk about this, this is unacceptable. rand paul demonstrates that, of course, you can, number one. and number two, it has the second benefit of reminding voters of how ossified, how ancient in terms of modern

political life the clintons really are. they may say, well, you're going back in ancient history x the response from republicans will be, well, that's where you lived, and that's what your life in american politics is, is 20, 25 years ago. martha: everybody's watching that famous video. do you remember when that came out? like, oh, my goodness, there they are. >> that woman. that woman. melissa: -- martha: and goes in for the kiss. anyway, there's an advantage to get it out now. hopefully, they would feel this is the worst of the worst. >> well, they held onto it as long as they could, longer than they were allowed to. they held on to it longer than george w. bush held on to his stuff, so they've done everything they could to hold back. therm, essentially -- they were, essentially, forced into releasing these documents. it will go out into the maelstrom, there will be spin, spin, spin, but mark my words, the allegations of corruption not just as it relates to

certain favors that were bestowed upon the president from ms. lewinsky, but also relating to how the white house was run and corruption. that is a theme that republicans are going to pick up on and so will -- if she has any democratic rivals -- will pick up and use against her because that will be the claim against the clintons as they seek a return to the white house, is self-dealing and corruption. not about their policies, it'll be about their personalities. martha: well, they may feel like some of these things are easier to stomach than benghazi, and they may even welcome people revisiting these stories instead of talking about that. we'll see. chris, thank you very much. we'll see you later. >> you bet. bill: the white house standing by its investigation of a volunteer who was caught up in the secret service prostitution scandal. the white house insisting there was no wrongdoing, but republican congressman jason chaffetz, he smells a bit of a cover up. listen, from hannity. >> you had 24, nearly 24 secret service and military personnel some were fired, some or were

reprimanded, but what happened at the white house? nothing. in fact, this person got a promotion. he now serves, he now works in the state department, and you can't make this stuff up, sean, he works in the office of global women's issues. bill: wendell goler from the north lawn, good morning there. the investigator says he was told to withhold evidence. or. >> reporter: bill, that would be the inspector general, but his boss denies the charge. and a senate investigation found no evidence of white house pleasure, though he reportedly says the 2012 election was on everyone's mind. the incident is said to have occurred at the cartagena hilton which is not the hotel where the secret service agents were staying when a dispute cause the row that eventually got nearly a dozen of them in trouble, and the report on the incident at the hilton was changed, though officials suggest that was not a result of pressure, they say it

involved differences between the inspector general and his boss over the strength of the evidence. some former secret service officials say, however, it shows a double standard. bill: what does the white house say about all this? >> reporter: essentially, the evidence of improper action was weak or nonexistent. they conducted their own investigation here. aides traveling with the president on a mostly fund-raising trip to the west coast said yesterday the white house was given a hotel log indicating a prostitute signed into the room of a volunteer advance person named jan than dack -- jonathan dack, but officials say there was no corroborating evidence. and a similar case involving a secret service agent, in that case the hotel log was found to be wrong. the volunteer doc denied the accusation. white house counsel has said it was concluded there wasn't enough evidence to sport the charge, and that's likely to have an impact on her prospects of succeeding eric holder.

i'm sure no one here wants her confirmation hearings to go into this again. bill: wendell goler, thank you, from the white house with us today. martha: an admission out of the blue of a fake marriage sending a jolt through the state of oregon. the governor's fiancee breaking down in tears after revealing she wasn't married an immigrant who wanted to today in the united states in exchange for money. how about that story? adam houseley there our west coast bureau. boy, this one's interesting. what happened here? >> reporter: yeah. it came out of -- this bombshell announcement came out of a news conference yesterday. it really is a bizarre story. you hear about these things and don't really realize until you actually hear it from somebody of this magnitude. basically, sylvia hayes is known as oregon's first lady, and she admitted yesterday she married an 18-year-old man from east yolk that so she could get a green card and go to college, this was a few years ago. in exchange, she received $5,000 which she used to buy a laptop

and pay school expenses. they divorced in 2002, and she hasn't seen him since. kansas city maybe her is running for an unprecedented fourth term in oregon against a key republican. hayes says she's sorry for the way the governor found off the the -- found out. >> john kitzhaber deserved to know the history of the person he was forming a relationship with. the fact that i did not disclose this to him meant that he has learned about this in the most public and unpleasant way. this is by far my greatest sorrow in this difficult situation. >> reporter: now, the two have been together for about ten years, and most political pundits don't believe that this will have any effect on the governor's re-election chances in oregon. martha: how did all this come about, this revelation? >> reporter: well, you know, there's weekly newspapers here -- we have them all over the country, but, you know, they do a lot of digging. this one was looking into the

way she's involved with the governor's staff. she's an adviser on his clean energy projects, and her influence on private consulting and contracts was the reason why they were looking into her background. and as part of that the reporter says through a regular background check, he found out about the sham marriage and repeatedly asked the governor's office about it. >> they wouldn't respond. my editor and and i said that's very unusual. it's a factual question, easy to answer, very unusual. there's something here. >> reporter: so, yeah, these types of marriages, martha, are illegal. the statute of limitations has run out, however, the man she married could be in hot water be they decide to go after him, but we haven't heard his name, and he hadn't, of course, surfaced since all this came out. martha: it's like a soap opera. adam, thank you so much. bill: we're just getting word that isis militants have now infiltrated a suburb of baghdad.

more on this in a moment. martha: and where in the world is kim jong un? the north korean leader has not been seen in more than a month. he's usually quite visible, and that is raising serious concerns about who is in charge of a nuclear arsenal.

>> like someone shoved a cake down over my head x the filling

rose up in flames, and put my hands up, and i rebuke you! [laughter] bill: tammy faye baker impersonation, an actress who died yesterday in new york of a serious illness. few details released. hook shot to stardom on snl in the late '80s. she landed in role in the sitcom designing women. she most recently appeared op ""30 rock"" and has now left us at the age of 57. martha: so sad. she was way too young, and she was hilarious. so fun to watch those clips of her. what a great contribution she made in a short life. bill: we remember her today. y. ♪ ♪ martha: so a major national holiday got underway in north korea with no sign of dear leader kim jong un.

he's been out of sight for 37 days now raising questions about what is going on there. is it his health? is it something else? is he having trouble holding on to power? peter brooks is former deputy assistant secretary of defense for asia and the pacific, and he has traveled to north korea and knows this area as well as anybody. it is a dark and mysterious praise, peter, and now there is something mysterious that appears to be going on with this young leader. >> well, we're all very interested to see what's going on. obviously, the intelligence services around the world, especially the americans and south koreans and chinese, are trying to see if there's any signs of a power struggle or that kim jong un has met his demise. they're probably looking for the movement of military forces, security forces, the movement of senior officials. but right now publicly we're not hearing of any of that. so he may just have a broken ankle. sometimes a broken ankle for a leader, a reclusive socialist, communist country is just a broken ankle, so it's not quite

clear. martha: i mean, it could be, but if you're concerned you haven't been seen in a long time, you can certainly come out in a wheelchair and make it very clear to the world what's going on. no big deal. i turned my ankle. >> that's right. well, it could certainly be much more serious than that. the cia and other intelligence agencies have doctors on staff that look at leaders, especially for countries where we don't have access. remember, i think dennis rodman is the most senior american who's ever met with this individual. martha: yeah. >> we don't have access there. we don't have an embassy there, and he's not seen much in public. so they're going to be looking at all this footage. does he are a heart problem? does he have gout? they're trying to figure this out. but they're also saying, you know, the south koreans who watch this very closely are saying they don't see any change in power. martha, think back to the cold war when we had these situations with what was called the kremlin flu when a senior leader may have died and it wasn't announced for quite some time. it's a very open question, but as you pointed out in the lead

to this, it's very significant because of the fact it's a nuclear weapons state, the world's fourth large itself army. we have 25,000 troops in south korea, they have chemical and biological weapons. i mean, this is serious stuff. martha: indeed, it is. and there were reports last week, peter, that there was a lockdown of the city, that they wouldn't let any of the internal government officials come or go. do you put credence in that report? >> well, there are a lot of rumors and speculation that come out of north korea, and a lot of times we're relying on the official press. so if that's true, something could have happened. but it looks like the kim family is still in charge. his little sister, who's only in her late 20s, is probably in charge, and he also has a confidant who's also probably handling the military, the security and the political services. so he may be incapacitated, but i think the kim family and the current leadership is still firmly in charge for the moment. martha: what's the concerns in terms of, you know, the geopolitical picture if there's

instability, if there truly is instability in north korea? >> well, you have to think about it, martha. first of all, you could have a civil war between factions there. it's a small place, and you have our troops just south of the border. somebody could decide to take on the south koreans. then we could have another rein war. you've got -- another korean war. you've got chemical and biological weapons. the south korean capital of seoul has about 10,000 artillery pieces that face it. if there is a collapse in the country, there could be large refugee flows. china could come into north korea, the u.s. and south korea could come into north korea, and you could have a war involving china, south korea, north korea and the united states. i mean, there's a lot of different scenarios out there that people are thinking about very closely. martha: a dynamic that's been in place for such a long time, and if it were to be rattled, as you point out, an amazing and awful list of possibilities are there. peter, thank you very much. we'll see you next time.

>> thank you, martha. bill: so a tight race for the u.s. senate in iowa. this is razor tight. republican joni joni ernst will join us live. martha: and a fast-moving wildfire in california destroying property and forcing a lot of people out of their homes. >> it's going to happen, yeah. it's like earthquakes. you know the earthquake area?♪ here eventually you're going to get a fire. ♪ "here i am. rock you like a hurricane." ♪ fiber one now makes cookies. find them in the cookie aisle.

bill: mentioned this a moment ago, fox news alert now, cbs news reporting isis militants are getting closer to baghdad. we're looking into these reports, but cbs saying they've infiltrated a suburb near abu ghraib about 8-10 miles west of baghdad and right near the airport. general jack keane, fox news military analyst and chairman

for the institute of the study of war. you've got baghdad, the airport's here and abu ghraib is over here to the west. what if this is true? what does that mean? >> well, what isis has been trying to do has been to circle baghdad to the north, west and the south for a number of weeks now, and they've been relatively successful at doing it. they've been attacking in the north, south and west and infiltrating the neighborhoods there. why? so they can conduct operations in baghdad. it's the obvious. terrorist activity's been going on on a regular basis. they support that terrorist activity from those neighborhoods, but also i believe they're leading up to a more conventional attack on the green zone itself; rockets, mortars and then possibly a ground attack on the green zone. bill: so back up just a little bit. so you believe they want to target americans because they're the people inside the green zone. that's where our embassy's located. we have, what, hundreds of american personnel there? if not more than that? but why would isis want to go

after baghdad now? >> well, first of all, they cannot seize the city, nor do i think they want to do that. it's five million plus. there's thousands of shia militia there that will fight them tooth and nail over thing. but i think they can make a demonstration attack on the green zone. a lot of them would die doing it. it's not so much the american presence there, it's government that is there. they want to undermine people's confidence in the government. look at what we're doing to your government. but in terms of taking the city -- bill: big job. >> it would take just about all of their combat power to do it. bill: washington post is also reporting today that, basically, anbar province -- which is west of abu ghraib, that's fallujah and ramadi and these towns we've talked about for ten years -- has basically been overrun by isis as well. we've got our cameras trained on that town in northern syria, and there's not a whole lot of reporting inside anbar. do you believe this to be true? >> well, what isis has been able to do despite two months of

airstrikes in iraq and two-plus weeks of airstrikes in syria is they have been able to maintain their freedom of movement and their ability to attack at will despite our air power. i'm somewhat surprised by that, and when i -- the conclusion i draw from it is our level of effort in terms of airstrikes, i don't believe it's what it could be and should be. bill: greg talcott's there, and we've been talking to him and getting his reports every day now, and he's said for the past five days the airstrikes were limited. but overnight something seemed to change there, and there were a lot more strikes, e believes -- he believes headed up by the u.s. does that mean the strategy is changing there? >> well, i think coe banny sort of sneaked up on us. command and control bases, staging areas to support infrastructure. and then they launched this large attack beginning 16, september, and it manifested itself. i think the media attention, frankly, at kobani was a stimulus more our effort because

it exposed what was taking place there and the amount of isis commitment in terms of tanks, artillery, ground infantry which were very vulnerable targets, and i think we shifted as a result of that, and that's what they're reported on. bill: so we reacted based on the reporting saying, hey, isis is gaining ground. but your point is well taken. they continue to stay on the offense. >> yeah. bill: right? >> that is somewhat surprising. i know some people will say, well, that's predictable. i don't think so. i think our level of effort is what i'm trying to say in going after them with the airstrikes and the fact that we do not have people on the ground to assist in making those airstrikes each more effective is the -- even more effective is the reason why they're still on the offense. bill: general, thank you for your time. we're going to follow this cbs or thing and also the washington post story, also our own greg talcott there on the turkish/syrian border. one key point in this, once the beheadings occurred, the news operations pulled out x there's been a vacuum in iraq and syria

for a couple of years now and that is precious, precious information that we, frankly, do not have. general, thank you. jack keane in new york. martha? martha: well, the pope has received a warning in a letter from nidal hasan. what he says in this letter to the holy father and why it is so alarming. bill: also some vietnam veterans in one town finally getting the welcome home they deserve decades later. >> kind of plugs a hole in my soul there that there's some recognition that this contemporary army is doing the same thing for us that they do for their own returning troops.

♪ ♪ martha: here's some of our top stories right now. the nurse in spain infect with the the ebola virus now in serious but stable condition. she got the virus after treating a sick patient who had just returned from west africa. and four days of protests planned in st. louis after the

fatal shooting of an 18-year-old black man by an off-duty police officer. organizers are expecting thousands of people to plan -- to join these planned marches and civil disobedience events. and mitsubishi recalling nearly 166,000 older model vehicles because the engines can unexpectedly stall. the recall covers certain model lancers and outlander suvs from '08-2011. ♪ ♪ bill: fort hood shooter nidal hasan writing a letter to pope francis, six pages long, handwritten with multiple references to the quran and praise for jihad. political editor at town hall.com and marjorie clifton, former con sl about the to the obama team. good day to both of you and good morning. >> hi, bill. >> good morning. bill: here's one of the quotes. the willingness to fight for

almighty allah can be a test in and of itself. mujahideen have a greater rank in the eyes of allah than believers who do not fight and on and on it goes. catherine herridge broke this story, guy. what do you make of it? >> look, taking a step back, bill, i try to eshoo the whole table-pounding thing and the whole outrage thing whenever possible, but if this whole situation doesn't get you infuriated, you don't have a pulse. let's remember, the army swept under the rug multiple warning signs that this guy was a radical jihadist who was getting radicalized and was a threat, and that decision, that cultural sensitivity, cost dozens of people their lives and their well being with murders and woundings left and right there. then the government swoops in after the event and chatfies it as workplace violence which is -- classifies it as workplace violence which is not just insulting and ludicrous, it

actually renders those victims and their families ineligible for the benefits and the to which they are absolutely entitled. and then to top it all off, bill -- and this was reported by a liberal magazine, mother jones in april -- some of those victims, some of those survivors and their relatives petitioned the white house, basically begged the white house for a face-to-face meeting with this president to try to plead their case on this stuff, and the white house didn't have time to squeeze them into the president's schedule. but he did have time when he was down there in fort hood this spring to go to two democratic party fundraisers in the state of texas. this is just an ongoing disgrace. it is an outrage. this needs to be made right. a lot of us have not forgotten. it's been five years. bill: marjorie, does this change the story more you? -- for you? >> well, look, there's no question this is a tragedy, but the other thing we have to look at is what was happening in the country five years ago. and it's not to say something couldn't change now given the new trends that we're seeing in

islamic extremism. so five years ago post-9/11, there was a lot of attacks going on muslims all over the country, and what they actually did say in the case was that we can't attribute his muslim faith as, you know, the sole reason that we prosecute him. we can't prosecute him for that, but we can prosecute him for his actions. and he actually did, was among the first in the military to ever get the death penalty. he is right now on death row -- bill: you know what the survivors said, right? as he was firing his weapon -- >> i do hear that, absolutely. >> he stood over their bodies yelling allahu akbar repeatedly. >> right. and i'm not going to defend his actions and department of defense and all the the work they do in the military and what not, but what i am trying to look at is, again, what was the tone in the country, and why did that happen? i don't think that's something just to point the finger at the president about. this letter to pope francis, if you look at what is happening with extremist islam and what's happening with isis and isil, a

lot of times they're gathering the disenfranchised x., frankly, there's a lot of people who are mentally ill -- bill: listen, people die, people live with injuries the rest of their lives. we cannot make excuses for that. >> absolutely. not excuses, no. bill: this whole phrase of workplace violence and what the survivors will tell you and their attorneys will make the case for this, they don't want -- they believe this administration does not want to anytime that a terrorist act was -- anytime that a terrorist act was admit r committed on u.s. soil period. >> yeah. and as long as we continue to bury our head in the sand, i'm fine with trying to be as sensitive as possible and, of course, not blaming an entire religion for the acts only soft of its most that gnattal adherents, but this was a man who was motivated by radical islam to kill his fellow soldiers. that is what happened. that is not because of what the culture was in america, that was not the environment in the country that was at fault, that was his ideology that manifested

itself in bloodshed. and if we want to pretend that that's not the case and if we want to look over here and look over there and every excuse in the book, we are doing ourselves a disservice, and we are condemning future victims to their fate because we refuse to see the threat for what it is. and, i mean, i just don't know what else to say beyond that. bill: hang on, marjorie. this crackpot jihadist now wants attention for what he did. go, marjorie. >> right. and i wouldn't want to defend his actions by any stretch, but i think it's important that we are clear about what the definition of terrorism is and what is defined in coordinated terrorist action versus extremism. i'm not saying their solution was necessarily the right one -- >> was it workplace violence? >> well, i mean, what i don't know and this would be an interesting question for attorneys is what categorizations they have available in the military -- bill: far too technical for my taste, frankly. [laughter] it is what it is. i flew to seattle, washington, i spoke with the survivors, guy

was shot three times, he told me exactly what he said as he stood over him. we know what this is, marjorie. >> well, it is extremism, no question, and again, i think we have to look at how we, how we label this and given this point in time. bill: well, right now it's workplace violence. you make up your own mind. marjorie, thank you. guy, thanks to you as well. 23 before the hour. martha: so a mea culpa from the head of microsoft's ceo for saying that women don't need to ask for a raise and should instead just trust that the system will pay them what they're worth. his comments at an event for women who work in computing sparked outrage on the blogs and twitter. he announced that he, quote, got it completely wrong. he says women should definitely speak up if they think that they deserve a raise. when he got home, he probably got an earful. you have said what? [laughter] bill: all they can say is no, by the way. martha: yeah. but there's no reason to qualify

whether it's women or men. anyone who thinks they deserve a raise should absolutely speak up for it. it's not a male/female issue. bill: that would have been the best answer. martha: absolutely. bill: she says being a mother, soldier and conservative will make her a great u.s. senator. listen. >> i will stand up and do what's right for iowans, not for california extreme environmentalists, not for senator harry reid, not for president obama. bill: she is a republican candidate for senator in the state of iowa, and that is a tight, tight race. joni ernst is her name. she's live to tell us how he plans to pull you have off a victory. she'll make her case. martha: and a close encounter that is out of this world, coming up next. ♪ pleasure. ♪ ♪ pleasure so ally bank really has no hidden fees on savings accounts?

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bill: an epic encounter in outer spac. a comet the size of a mountain expected to come within 87,000 of mars in nine days. nasa's gearing up for that event, deploying rovers and orbiters and telescopes to study the comet's effects on the solar system. its tail is as wide as the distance between the earth and the sun. ♪ ♪ martha: well, republicans gaining some ground in a key senate race, battleground iowa. let's take a look at the rcp, real clear politics, as of today. there is a look at iowa, folks. this is one of the races that will decide the future of the united states senate, and that is how it stacks up, about a 1% difference. and you've got joanie ens, who is a state senator, up against bruce braley who is an incumbent congressman. earnest's campaign has been picking up steam in the last

several months. she's been on the iowa state senate since 2007. she is also an -- 2011. she is also an active lieutenant colonel in the u.s. army reserves. she's married, has three daughters and six grandchildren, but you may hebb her making -- may remember her after she released this tv ad highlighting how her former farming background could help her in washington. >> it's time to force washington to do the same. to cut wasteful spending, repeal obamacare and balance the budget. i'm joni ernst, and i approved this message because washington's full of big spenders. let's make 'em squeal. martha: well, we left out one of the essential parts of that ad. here's joni ernst, iowa republican. in that ad you say you grew up castrating pigs, and i remember we ran that ad because we found it to be, you know, sort of catching, to say the least. were you nervous that that ad might backfire on you, jon if i? >> at all, martha. it is truly iowa, and it

highlights my farm roots. grew up on a southwest iowa farm. but most iowans got it and, believe me, it was a great key to winning the primary too. just really tying in with the farm roots, but also the successes that we've had in iowa cutting spending and balancing the budget. martha: yeah. and as we put up at the beginning of this, this race is very, very tight, about 1.3, 1.5% difference right now between you and bruce braley, and no doubt that means that the big guns, the big money comes out. there's a huge ground game, democratic ground game very strong in iowa left over even there president obama's runs there. how are you going to compete with that? >> well, we compete by making a point that the president said just last week that his policies are on the ballot this year, and congressman braley has supported the president in all of those failed policies. what we have done here in iowa in my time in the iowa state

legislature is lower taxes. we've implemented the largest tax dereese in iowa history, we've rolled back job-killing rules and regulations, and we have balanced the budge. it's an -- the budget. it's an iowa success story, and we've created up to 150,000 new, good-paying jobs in iowa. so we are 45eded the right direction. -- headed the right direction. we contrast that to the president's failed policies of obamacare, higher taxes, the wall street bailout -- martha: understood. >> -- more rules and regulations. and all of those things congressman braley has supported in the past eight years -- martha: you've had a debate -- >> so we're making the case that theaway is working and washington -- theaway is working. martha: let me jump in, if i may. when you take a look at that gap, how many undecided voters do you believe are out there right thousand, and what do you think is the major issue that's on their minds and how are you going to reach them? >> i think there are a lot of undecided voters at this point --

martha: do you know the percentage at this point from your polling? >> as nonparty independent voters, and what is on their minds, jobs and economy. i hear that over and over again. i'm in the midst of a 99 county tour. i am going to all 99 counties and speaking with iowans and hear what their thoughts are, their concerns. and when they talk about their concerns, it's jobs and economy, it's governmental spending, it's making sure that we are protecting our children and our grandchildren's future here in the united states. so that will be a difference between myself, my race and the congressman's. i have a record of success in creating jobs, and he has failed at the federal level. martha: so i'm hearing in the local reporting that there's an increase in requests for absentee ballots from independents and also from democrats, so there's definitely an effort by your opponent to get out some of these voters who maybe don't usually vote in midterm elections. how does your ground game match up to what they're doing?

>> our ground game is phenomenal this year. we are taking a lesson from the democrats from years past. we are working very hard to make sure our message is getting out to iowa voters and that we are getting their absentee requests in and that absentee ballots are being completed and sent in. and we are matching them the last five or six days, actually republican absentee requests have outnumbered the democrats. martha: really in. >> we feel our message is resonating not just with our republican base, but also those independent voters and those conservative democrats that are very concerned about where this country is going. and they see the failed attempts coming from president obama and congressman braley. they are concerned, and we just want to make sure that they are supporting my message. martha: all right. joni ernst, thank you very much for being with us. i know you've got a debate to prepare for tomorrow night, and we invite bruce braley to come and talk to us as well. we'll be watching the race very closely, and thanks so much for

your time. >> thanks, martha, have a great day. martha: you too. bill: seems to be razor tight. martha: absolutely. bill: "happening now"'s coming your way in a matter of moments. eric: new reporting today on just how successful those airstrikes on the khorasan group may have been inside syria. we're now told not enough. those plots to try to blow up american and european airliners, we're told they still exist. meanwhile, there are stepped-up air strikes on those isis terrorsts surrounding kobani, but are they enough to save the city? we'll look at that. and a report on the threat of ebola. a lot on our plate on "happening now," coming up just about ten minutes from now. bill: giving a proper welcome home to some overlooked american heros, finally. >> this carried along for many, many years. it made me feel like i'd done something wrong and i should be ashamed of it.

♪ ♪ "here i am. rock you like a hurricane." ♪ fiber one now makes cookies. find them in the cookie aisle.

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♪ ♪ bill: saying welcome home at long last to our vietnam veterans. a large army base in the state of washington now giving them the respect and honor they deserve. dan springer's life at fort lewis in washington state. what's happening will, dan? >> reporter: this is the government's effort to the not to argue the merits of the war in vietnam but finally say thank you and welcome home to all those who served. about 2,000 vietnam vets showed up here yesterday for the ceremony, and for many it was very emotional. we spoke with several who told us it's healing a wound. unlike the soldiers who returned from world war ii or the wars in iraq and afghanistan, they got no heroes' welcome. back then soldiers were told to change into civilian clothes quickly and watch out for protesters.

todd swanson, who received the purple heart, said he was even spit on in portland. >> really hurt. that we did what we felt was right for the country, we did our duty, and nobody appreciated it. >> reporter: 3.6 million americans deployed to vietnam from 1964 to 1975, bill? bill: are we going to see more of these ceremonies, dan? >> reporter: we certainly will. congress passed a law a while back, and now the the president of defense is tasked with carrying it out. we know it's a five-year effort to mark the 50th anniversary of the war in vietnam, a war that turned very unpopular. i spoke with one anti-war radical from the 960s, and he was concerned these ceremonies are some attempt to gloss over the opposition. do dod officials deny that and, in fact, almost all the peace activists we heard from support these welcome homes. >> i think it's a small token of

appreciation for the service that those men and women put in. it's late -- way late in coming. >> reporter: 58,000 americans lost their lives in vietnam, another 303,000 were wounded. bill? bill: emotional even today. dan springer, thank you. live in washington state for us today. martha? martha: well, there's some discouraging news out of syria today, the fall of kobani could be imminent according to reports we're getting, isis taking over the government headquarters in the center of that town. we will take you live to the border. [ female announcer ] you get sick, you can't breathe through your nose... suddenly you're a mouthbreather. well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38% more than cold medicines alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right so you can breathe and sleep. athat's enough plastic bottles boto stretch aroundery year. the earth 230 times.

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♪ >> long bit of music we had

there. this is breaking news. had the right stuff to get a star on hollywood walk of fame. popular '80s boy band, new kids on the block, received the 534th star. they will run out of room there. the new kids formed in boston with 1984. jonathan knight, joey mcintyre and done any walberg, married to jenny mccarthy. the band tours today. >> i have all their music in my itunes. listen every day. martha: little-known fact. bill: great work to jimmy on the steady cam over there. mahre very nice. bill: that was the move of the week. martha: thanks for saving on friday. bill: got to roll. martha: have a good weekend. bill: you too. martha: see you on columbus day. bill: whether you're working or not, going to school or not check us out at 9:00 a.m.

eastern time. set your dv. if you can not be with us. martha: "happening now" is the next program. shannon: new reports that top al qaeda terrorists are alive and well and actively plotting to blow up american and european jetliners. welcome to "happening now." i'm shannon bream in for jenna lee. eric: hello shannon. i'm eric shawn in for jon scott. isis has the world's attention. you know al qaeda fighters? they're apparently still at it targeting us here at home. you remember the khorasan group, that group of veteran al qaeda members in syria? precision airstrikes bit tomahawk cruise missiles after learning that the khorasan terrorists were in the final stages of their plot to attack the u.s. homeland with bombs placed on airliners. well, guess what? now intelligence officials tell the associated press those airstriks