a 3:00 a.m. phone call, the implications are there. >> i'm steve in for ari. from one strike to another. fast food workers hit the picket line. i'm krystal ball reporting in from pittsburgh today. obviously i'm breaking important sports news. the nfl makes history but no one considers this a touchdown. i'm toure. it's always a joy to see tamron hall coming your way unless she's investigating you for murder. i have your alibi. you're watching "the cycle." ready for action? it's no longer a question of if we'll respond to the syrian chemical attack, it's a question of when and who's with us. right now u.n. inspectors are

back at their hotels after spending another day interviewing survivors and collecting samples. they'll be coming home on saturday raising speculation that a strike might be on hold until after they're safely out of damascus. when it comes to who's with us, our major ally with us in this, british prime minister david cameron, who's facing his own resistance, but others say they won't join in the strike without u.n. support. as we suspect, that won't happen since russia holds veto power on the u.n. security council. russia is a big assad supporter. assad's other ally is iran which is vowing to strike israel. as a precaution, they're calling to issue gas masks. turkey is constructing bunkers and they're sending experts to the syrian border. because there are so many parts,

we're looking at this in three sections. first, we're looking a the the pentagon, what's going on behind closed doors at the white house and finally the role of congress in all of this. they're being briefed tonight on u.s. intelligence. we start with nbc news pentagon correspondent jim mikel chef ski. how long before we strike? >> once the president gives the go ahead, the order to launch those missile strikes against the syrian regime and much of those chemical delivery targets, it could be a matter of hours because those targets have been put in place for some time now. they tinker with them on a daily basis when they see them move, some military forces and equipment from here to there. they have the basic target set down. to go after those delivery systems, the rocket launchers, ar till ler ris, tanks. again, they emphasize as the president and the white house

have, they're not going after the regime itself because to do that will leave a huge power vacuum there in damascus in syria in which you would have so many disparate elements, many including al qaeda according to intell officials who would try to rush to fill that void. so these are -- the president's got a very fine line and difficult decision to make here, even actually whether to go with missile strikes at all. but i can tell you that despite the kind of diplomatic hangups, both at the u.n. and in the british parliament, and even in the political wrangling here at home, u.s. military officials are proceeding as if they will launch these missile strikes on schedule. that window starts to narrow, however, because five days from now the president is headed off to the g-20 summit in russia and the u.s. military is not going to conduct these kind of

operations with the president on the move overseas. >> you talk about the president heading toward the g-20 to talk to putin at the same time right now we have russian warships and submarine moving into the area. that makes this whole conflict that's brewing that much more complicated. >> you know, this looks like a slap in the face or we'll one up you, mr. president, from president putin there in russia. u.s. military officials are pretty prague ma pragmatic abou this. they say it's usual for the russians to do this. they have a naval base at one of the syrian ports there. they have a dozen warships that primarily patrol that eastern mediterranean area on a regular basis. even more importantly, they think that many of the russian ships are going to gather around to collect as much intell as they can on u.s. military operation, telemetry, launch

sequenc sequences, and as one official said, we'd be doing the same thing. there was a little bit of mutual admiration going on there military to military in the fact that the russians would, in fact, be gathering around what looks like will be some missile strikes out of the med here in a few days. >> all right. it's great to see you. joining us now at the table is former white house mid east advisor, mark ginsburg. great to have you here. underneath it all is our credibility that's on the line. on one end if we don't respond we're sending a message to the world that it's okay to use chemical weapons and we are not able to follow through on our word. on the other end, if we do take action which it sounds like we will, then you're poking a much bigger hole in the hornet's nest. the next question is, what comes up next? >> that's what i tried to address this morning when i wrote an article for the

"huffington post." the morning after is the worst. was the president's goal to punish assad or to deter him or both? if it's to punish him, well, we can fire cruz missiles, he gets his punishment, takes out several control and command centers and god knows what else. if it's to deter him from using chemical weapons again, it is the imponderable that no wironen answer. how many cruz missiles does it take? how many times can we do this before the president leaves for the g-20. the key is not to just punish. it's to deter assad from using the chemical weapons again. >> we're not really committed here to removing assad from power so that's going to be a continued problem. we seem to be wanting to police the conflict. you can do this, you can kill hundreds of thousands of people, but you can't gas them. i understand the humanitarian problem there, but as a military

option it is strange. it seems to be the idea of a short, targeted war leads us only into a quagmire. there will certainly be a response and we'll have to respond to that response. what do we do then? this idea that all the people in the military are talking about american credibility. do we really think that america has credibility in this region after going to iraq where they didn't have wmd and colluding with iraq against iran on a chemical weapons attack in the '80s? we don't have credibility in this region at all anyway. >> you and i just did a vulcan mind melt because the bottom line, toure, is essentially what you've been arguing about for several years. hundreds of thousands of syrians have been killed in order for this mob regime in damascus to stay in power. the world is essentially said our hands are tied because the russians have a veto. the u.n. cannot do anything. these people are caught in a terrible vice and here we are focused exclusively on his use of chemical weapons which killed

maybe 1,000, maybe 3,000 and all the other millions who are refugees. so the bottom line is the same. this is not going to solve the fund amt al problem. assad is going to remain in power. this is not an attempt to engage in regime change. if it deters him from using chemical weapons again, then for all intents and purposes the president achieved the goals of what the limited strike is about. >> you know, ambassador, as i've been thinking through this conflict and what our approach should be, i keep thinking about something that lawrence wright wrote. he talks about how in 1983 hezbollah bombed our barracks in lebanon, in beirut, and killed 2841 of our marines. reagan made the decision to pull our troops out of lebanon. meanwhile, osama bin laden was watching these events unfold and essentially learned the lesson that america was cowardly, that they couldn't take a punch in the nose and that emboldened him

to later on launch the attacks that we know he launched. i keep coming back to that because to me it seems like we have to figure out what type of strikes, what targets to strike. but isn't the bottom line here that the president said we have this red line of chemical weapons and if you cross that there will be enormous consequences. if we fail to deliver those enormous consequences, we lose all of our credibility in the reason gone, we lose all of our ability to act as a deterrent. iran is watching this and learning perhaps the same lessons that osama bin laden learned in 1983. >> krystal, the fact is international law was violated. the president's statement of crossing the red line occurred six to eight months ago. syria's used chemical weapons some months ago.

in fact, some reports indicate that he's used this some number of times, even 100 times on a much limited scale. the red line being crossed indeed establishes a credibility as you laid out. the country that is most watching the united states on this is not syria but iran. why? because the israelis and the americans and the iranians know that if the united states says that a red line was crossed and we did nothing here, then how are the iranians to judge if they can cross their own red line on developing a nuclear weapon? what are the israelis going to do in respect to our credibility. in some respects we're talking about the minor aspects and it's important as you completely and accurately indicated how important it is to keep this in the broader context of what our credibility is all about. >> you know, ambassador, krystal mentioned lebanon. the lesson i took was that that attack was the second attack

that was played out on america. the lesson was you don't go in the first place. we essentially intervened in a civil war in lebanon, the role then by intervening, the limited role that was designed expanded and it resulted in hundreds of americans being killed. the president with bipartisan support saying we've got to bring these troops home before this gets worse. i think there's a parallel that makes people nervous. yeah, we say this is going to be limited but are we going to get sucked into something bigger here? >> the fact of the matter is i am so against boots on the ground, so against us involving ourselves militarily in a conflict that is beyond our control to shape anymore. i am so against having us be in a situation where we repeat the same mistakes of the past. what this white house wants to do is in effect almost a libya type conflict. sanitized conflict. the white house seems to be

rightfully on a trajectory where we don't want to get involved in another war but at the same time as i just said it's important for the president's credibility. after all, it was he who said the red line was crossed by assad. up can't walk that cat back without doing something. if he had said nothing about a red line, we could be arguing until we're blue in the face whether or not assad should have the united states respond. it was the president of the united states who put the credibility of the united states on the line. not his credibility, the united states country. >> the red line. so many questions, so little answers. ambassador, so great to have you here. up next, as we examine all the angles to this fast-moving story, our president under the microscope. this "time" cover says it. what president obama can do and what may simply be out of his control as "the cycle" rolls on for thursday, august 29th. stamps.com is the best.

>> so for the latest on the white house angle on this we bring in nbc news political

director, chuck todd. >> reporter: mr. kornacki, how are you, sir? >> i'm good. give us the latest, chuck. >> the president just did a personal briefing to speaker john boehner trying to answer some of those questions that speaker boehner sent over to the white house in a letter yesterday. speaker boehner released his side of the conversation simply saying that he appreciates the phone call, the consultation, but then also said more consultation with congress is necessary so another way that a member of congress, a pretty important one, is saying -- has tapped the brakes a little bit on this issue of syria. we know that a larger briefing with other members of congress that's going to be -- will not include the president but a lot of the national security staff, secretary kerry, some other folks are going to be involved with this briefing. high level members of congress who are on key committees. that's going to happen later this afternoon. then at some point, steve, and i think that the white house realizes this, they spent the first part of this week building

the international -- trying to build international support for the plan. the last 24 hours and the next 24 hours are about dialing with domestic political issues. possibly late tonight or sometime tomorrow there will be a public release of some of the unclassified evidence that the united states government believes points directly at assad as being behind these chemical attacks. they know that they have to do some sort of public release of this information considering how skeptical -- remember, it's not just members of congress that are skeptical, it's the public at large about the idea of why get involved with another conflict. >> chuck todd at the white house. thanks for joining us. the president today is in a position he had hoped to avoid. over and over again from speeches to diplomatic meetings he's reinforced the idea that as he puts it he's willing to extend a hand if other nations would unclench their fists. joining us is bobby ghosh.

he's the editor of "time." his cover story this week called "the unhappy warrior." bobby, thanks for joining us. i guess i'll pick it up where we left it off at the end of the last statement with mark ginsburg. that is the issue of the weight of the red line comment that obama made over a year ago are factoring into all of this. i always got the impression when he made the red line statement last august, when you looked at subsequent statements even before this, over the next six months, it seems there was an attempt to not use the term again almost as if they regretted it. do you get the sense that the white house now if it could have that back would take that back? >> yes, i do get that sense, but it's not just that. there were two statements. there was the red line statement and then there was the assad has to go statement. those two i think if they had to do this over again, they'd want to take it back. that is not to say the white house wouldn't still be in a quandary today even if they

hadn't made those statements. if it turns out that several hundred syrians had been killed and laws had been broken, there would be pressure on the white house to act. the white house would have had more wiggle room. right now they've got nothing. >> well, and i think the thought was with the red line comment that that would be an effective deterrent. obviously it wasn't. a lot of critics of the president say that they're waiting to figure out what the obama doctrine is and that there's no obama doctrine as relates to the middle east. is it even possible to have some coherent doctrine with regard to that reason now, one given how enormously complicated it is and how you have to take everything case by case but, two, having a doctrine indicates that you would have the backing of the american people to commit their blood and treasure to backing up that doctrine. are we in a place right now as a people where we are willing to make that commitment? >> well, it's interesting.

foreign policy will say a doctrine is a fine thing. it doesn't work. it's never -- when doctrine meets reality, it's always the doctrine that trails. the president has discovered that. initially when he first came in his doctrine, if you like, was to be the unboxed. he thought the power of ideas and power of words, which it worked well in persuading the american people to work for him as president would work internationally as well. there was an enormous ground swell because he was not president bush. he got the nobel peace prize almost before they had finished redecorating the white house. but words are not the same thing and with people like bashar assad, words don't count for anything. this is a man who routinely says that he loves his people and that all syrians are one. for him words have no real meaning so people like him never bought into the obama doctrine, if you like.

and now five years later the president is finally facing up to the realities that to some degree he has himself created but to a large degree was created for him by a man who is in every possible way the opposite of barack obama. >> well, we're in a much different place today than we were in 1998 when president clinton made the humanitarian argument to intervene in does so he voe. does so he voe. i call it the iraq hangover. the war fatigue. nbc news is coming out with a poll tomorrow on how americans feel about going into syria. just to give you all a sense our own thomas roberts went out on the streets and there were some mixed reactions. >> i think there's more investigation that can be done before we went into an attack. >> how many more of our men and our boys can go and die over seas for other people that are

just -- >> horrible feelings that go off. very patriotic. >> i mean, many americans can't imagine us getting into yet another war in the middle east. how important is it to have the support behind you? >> well, it's all in the message. i think as you just saw there, the second lady said how many of our boys have tlog? the president has to make it clear there, none of our boys are going to go there. that is not at all what is being talked about. we are very clear about what he can do and what he can't do. he can't send boots on the ground. no scenario in which he can do that. this will be enormously unpopular here. he will be militarily probably very, very disastrous on the ground. what he can do, he can fire off missil missiles. there are five destroyers there. at a press of a few buttons the president can launch 250 missiles, tomorrow mow haww --

tomorrow mohawks. he can rally international support from the countries around syria, not including iran and russia, of course. so those are things he can do. the crucial question now, what does he want to do? does he want to simply wrap bashar assad on the knuckles and that's the end of it? does he want to change the power dynamic? does he want to weaken assad enough that the rebels get the upper hand or does he want to go whole hog and see if he can't completely destroy assad's military? he has the fire power to do that. whether he has the desire to do this, whether he has the political backing to do this, that's what's going to be there. >> the fire power to destroy assad's army in a couple of days. >> it doesn't have to be a couple of days. >> now we're talking about a major league conflict then? >> we're talking about what's possible. whether or not he wants to do it is completely different.

>> hopefully what he wants to do is explain to the american people what he's doing. this is not a dumb war but it's something that the american people don't want to get into if he can't clearly explain to us why he's going in there, then he'll have this problem on the streets. >> that's the question. how do you get the american people behind you. it's astonishing to me, it shows you the challenge the president has had over and over again. everybody in the administration says no boots on the ground. the first thing the lady says, how many of our boys are going to go there? that's the problem. the perception has to be changed and it's not going to be easy. >> bobby ghosh, thank you so much for joining us. that's the bobby ghosh perspective about the presidential point of view. up next, congress's role in all of this. top lawmakers are set to be briefed in a couple of hours. what role, if any, should they play in the go/no go decision.

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in just a couple of hours at 6:00 tonight members of the president's national security team will brief congressional leaders and high ranking members of the relevant committees on the situation in syria via a conference call. now, remember, a lot of lawmakers are home for august recess. the briefing comes amid a growing call for members on both sides of the aisle for a voteiz. president obama called speaker boehner to talk it over. dominico was covering that area of the story. how are you doing? >> how are you doing? >> what's going on? what's the latest? >> we know there's going to be the 6:00 conference call for committee leaders. speaker boehner in that letter he wrote to president obama yesterday laid out 14 questions and boehner expects some answers to those questions once this call happens. we know that mitch mcconnell, republican leader in the senate

who hasn't said very much, he spoke with susan rice yesterday, national security advisor on what's happening there, he said he couldn't comment yet on a plan because there isn't quite one yet. that really speaks to the difficulty here, that you can be guaranteed that if members of congress knew what to do or felt strongly about what to do, they would be weighing in. and that's just not the case right now. >> thank you so much for the update. we appreciate it. >> thank you. let's bring in josh, politics editor from business insider to talk about the potential battle for president obama on american soil, specifically with members of congress and a war weary public. josh, it's great to have you here. >> sure. >> i mentioned that he's talking to congress tonight on a conference call. the white house over the last few days has released a list of calls to the president, the vice president, the senior foreign policy team, to military officials, top diplomats. how much of this is about covering all of their bases in the situation that if syria becomes an iraq type situation,

you know, making sure that they can say then we did everything we could do. we had all of the right conversations. >> i think it's not just about having the right conversations. i think whenever you go into an operation like this, you want as broad a council as possible. going into iraq it tried to line up many. here's why you're having the foreign consultations. that's why you're being held up in the u.k. that are slowing the authorizations there. the discussions with congress are different. the white house wants to indicate that it's consulting. a lot of democrats are saying we need you to come and bring this to us before you do anything. the request from the republicans -- >> will that happen? will they take it to a vote? >> i think probably not. the war powers act gives the president 60 days into the start of an operation before he has to go to congress for a vote. it's not clear where whatever we do will take 60 days. like basically every administration since the war powers act was passed, the obama

administration says it's unconstitutional and they're not mandatory to go for a vote. >> also ft. meade yeah, definitely for congress both of whom who said in iraq, go ahead and do whatever you want. we don't want to check you what we should. in retrospect, a tremendous amount of regret on both sides. now they want to check the president, push back. "new york times" a 1 story saying, there's no smoking gun directly attaches to assad to these attacks. maybe it was a rogue unit under his control and not actually him pushing that button? people are remembering what happened in iraq and trying to do things differently this time. >> i think they're remembering that. i think people in congress are trying to avoid taking a position on it. john boehner's letter with 14 questions says he wants more information. they're not saying come to us and let us make the decision. rubio has a very funny letter. he says, i think the president should figure this out and do one of two things.

either present us with a good plan and a good strategy about why he's doing this or not do anything. notably rubio avoids taking a position on whether he should take any military action from syria. >> and to that point, josh, we had over 100 lawmakers signing this letter urging the president to consult with them, to allow them to authorize this action. gain a sense for me. let's say the president did, he's not going to do this. let's say he said come back into the session, let's have a vote. congressional leaders, they don't want to be on the record on this, right? then they lose their ability to criticize the president's decision if things go wrong down the road? >> right. i think, you know, they know the lesson of hillary clinton who arguably lost the 2008 presidential primary because she decided to favor the iraq war and barack obama was lucky enough to not be in congress to not vote for going into iraq. the best political decision is for the white house to make the decision. and then after the fact they can say obviously what i was for is

the thing that looked like the right decision after the decision. that said, i think especially democrats have to be in the position much saying they want congressional approval over this because they can't be in favor of an unchecked white house sending the military and attacking whoever it feels like. >> so right. always easiest just doing nothing at all. sounds like our congress. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. we will, of course, keep you on top of all of the developments and the u.s. response to syria and bring them to you as they happen. up next, something you should know about before you go and grab that big mac today. it starts with something little, like taking a first step. and then another. and another. and if you do it. and your friends do it. and their friends do it... soon we'll be walking our way to awareness, support and an end to alzheimer's disease. and that? that would be big.

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no. [ male announcer ] share more. save more. at&t mobile share for business. ♪ the news cycle begins with what the nfl hopes is the last hit it will ever take over concussions. good luck with that. the league has reportedly reached a $765 million settlement with former players who accused higher ups of hiding

the known risks of concussions. big news from the feds today about pot use. the justice department says it won't sue colorado and washington. the latest states to legalize marijuana. president obama has said in the past that it doesn't make sense for the feds to go after people who carry small amounts of drugs. hard to believe, but katrina made landfall in new orleans eight years ago today. we all know the damage it left behind. more than 1800 people killed as the same number of square miles of coast line lost. if you're a city dweller like me, it's the island of manhattan. frustrated fast food workers are taking it to the streets today in what could be the largest strike yet in their nearly year-long campaign for higher wages. number of major chains have responded insisting they offer opportunities for people that

enter the work force at a starting wage and advance from there, but those words are leaving a bad taste in the mouths of those striking workers. >> these are people that have families, that have kids. that need to support their kids and families. other people like me, i want to go back to school. i can't go back to school on what i'm making because i have to pay rent. >> the news cycle leads us to the spin. i have to say, i am so heartened by the actions of these fast food workers across the country, and i really think the timing could not be any more perfect, both because i really have this sense that there is a growing movement in the country where people are feeling pow jr.ful. they're recognizing that they are the masters of their own destiny, but also in the wake of the 50th anniversary of dr. martin luther king jr.'s i have a dream speech, people forget that dr. king was not only a civil rights activist, he also was a labor leader and one of the purposes, one of the stated

goals of the march on washington was to increase the minimum wage from $1.15 to $2 an hour which is the modern day equivalent of the $15 an hour that these fast food workers are actually demanding. one other thing i want to underscore here, they're not just asking for an increase in the minimum wage, they're also asking for the right to unionize which i think is even more critical here. asking for the minimum wage, very important, but that's like asking for the fish. being a union member gives you the ability to learn how to fish so you can advocate for yourself for the safety and the wages that you need in your job. >> yeah, krystal. i'm totally with you. i totally support this movement of the least fortunate among us to make more. over the last 40 years workers' income vis-a-vis their boss's income has gone from a differential of 20-1 to 267-1. before the recession it was 360-1. part of that inequality is because the power of unions has

been beaten back by the conservatives over the last 40 years and they're not able to provide the balance that they used to be able to. and the idea that raising the minimum wage will cost jobs is not borne out by the data. >> i think it's to your point bigger than the minimum wage. this is about making enough to live. it reminds me having spent time recently in beijing, this is what democracy is about. it's these demonstrations and these protests that in many cases encourage corporations to change. just to put this in perspective, if you're paying $7.35 which is what they pay in the state of missouri, if they work 20, 25 hours a week, which is the average in that state, they are bringing home about $10,000 a year. i mean, people deserve higher paying jobs. i think this speaks to a much bigger problem. it's jobs across the board where people aren't getting paid enough to live. >> right. yeah. i think part of this is, you know, the focus on what's mcdonald's paying, what's wendy's paying, the focus is

where is the minimum wage? where is the federal minimum wage? where is the state minimum wage? president obama called for an increase in minimum wage. nobody thinks that's going anywhere. if these strikes start to gain steam, if they exert the pressure that forces some of these companies to rethink their own practices, will it change the political posture these companies have. right now any time a minimum wage increase comes on the agenda, corporate america is opposed to it. if they face protests bigger than this, will corporate america say maybe it would be better if we did this across the board. i wonder if that changes the political calculation at all? >> such a great point, steve. up next, something you don't know about msnbc's tamron hall and how she was inspired to launch her new project. the busy lady takes her first spin in "the cycle." [ dad ] 0% . done and done. [ dad ] in that driveway, is a german-engineered piece of awesome.

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yeah? then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...safe driving bonus check? every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. silence. are you in good hands? trust me, you don't want testimony ron hall on your case. ari is guilty of social crimes. if you have committed murder, you don't want tam on your trail. "deadline crime with tamron hall" she's working with homicide detectives, prosecutors to get to the bottom of stories of murder. >> you have a murdered wife and a husband saying, we had issues and i had a girlfriend. >> he was definitely a suspect.

>> he admitted to the police that he ended the affair months earlier after a confrontation with ruth who caught bernie and his miss stress together having dinner together. >> so ruth knew when she walked over to that table who you were sitting there with? >> no, i didn't tell her. my friend and ruth met for the first time and it was very awkward. >> to say the least, i would imagine. >> in fact, that's exactly what happened. when ruth came over to the table i said, well, this is awkward. >> awkward, indeed. it's an honor to have my friend and colleague tamron hall at the table. she's the host of "news nation." her new show "deadline crime" starts on sunday. this is not a side gig for you. this is personal for you. your sister was murdered about ten years ago and it was never solved. >> no. her death, she was found in the backyard of her home in the pool, in her swimming pool, face

down. her hair had been pulled from the back of her head. her nails had been literally ripped off of her so it indicated she had fought back in some way and it's been unsolved. it's one of many. when i started the conversation with the president of discovery communications, i didn't go in thinking, okay, i want a crime show. it was the furthest thing from my mind. you know when you sit down and talk to someone, part of that is telling your story, and this is a major part of my family's story. my father passed away a few years later. my mother has always said she felt he gave up, he had a broken heart, because a dad's job, you know being a father, you know as well-being close to your dad, is to protect your daughter. that's your number one, you know, job. and there is great pain there. i have two nephews. my sister had two children. her son now is married. he has a child of his own. leroy asks, his son asks, when will i meet my grand mom. the answer is, well, she's in heaven. so our story sadly, you know, is not unique. and we cover a lot of these

stories from the victims' family's perspective, from survivors, and we also have a couple of cases. listen, i interviewed a guy who is in jail the rest of his life and right now there are organizations who believe that he is innocent and they're fighting to get him out. so it's not just about murder. it's the mini complexity of our judicial system. had someone ask me the other day, do i believe justice is fair in america? when i was in chicago i interviewed a man who was on death row for 25 years. he has the mental capacity of an eight-year-old. i sat and cried with him after he was out of jail. after that i said there's no way it's fair. this man should never have spent 25 years behind bars on death row. >> it gives me chills to your point. there's so many people out there who can relate. 40% of homicides in the u.s. are a mystery. i'm curious what you learned about the mind of a criminal. how often do you hear about a terrible story and people that knew the person would say, they were genuine.

there's no way this person could have done something so horrible. is it one event in a person's life? is it a mix of it all? >> it's a mix of it all. we have one case we'reall. the premiere episode -- it's interesting, where the person who ultimately is convicted of this crime, the family is heartbroken. they cannot imagine it. they can't visualize this individual would do it. when we talk about women, for example, we look at assaults. one of our stories focuses on a survivor, remember these movies, the burning bed or sleeping with -- we are more likely to be attacked by someone we know. the notion of being the guy under the car is more myth -- it's someone you loved and thought loved you. >> 40% go unsolved. how many of these cases do the

detectives think they know who did it? they're pretty sure it's so-and-so, but they can't prove it. >> with the case with my sister, the police officers i talk to that morning said, we know who did it. as it progressed, he said but we cannot prove it. that taught me a lot. you know, people believe that csi, dna solves all things, just give them a lie detector test. it doesn't happen like that. there are cases where the cops are wrong. i don't know if it's always malice, it's that they believe they get stuck on one person and people end up behind bars. there's the case we cover, the guy is a police officer, and he finds himself in the mid of this incredible situation. >> and when the gun debate with us going on. i talked a lot about how women are twice as likely to be shot and killed by an intimate partner than by any stranger

with any weapon at all. we as a society love to traipse through these stories of murder. why do we love walking through the stories so much? >> i think we fancy ourselves as attorneys, investigators, and there's also that what if it were me factor. you don't imagine yourself as the person convicted of a crime, but you wonder, do i know someone capable of doing this. we see situations all the time where someone is attacked and you say to yourself, wow, could that happen to me? so i think some of tess -- i think in the modern culture of crime television, with discovery i.d., i think people at home sit back, like my mother, did he do it? oh, he did it. and listen, let's face it, many of us will eventually serve on a jury. imagine yourself in that situation. >> congratulations. this show looks awesome. we'll all by watching, sunday september 1st when your show "i.d. deadline crime" premieres.

something that abby noticed was glaringly absent from wen's mar on washington -- the gop.

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a half century ago martin luther king junior delivered his call for justice, and yesterday tens of thousands gathered from around those very same steps to pay tribute to the man who envisioned a world where all could -- it was a day of unity, remembrance and reflection. it also served to remind us of

the collection and quint essentially journey we have taken over the last 50 years. it was amazing to see a multiracial coalition. activists actors lawmakers and former presidents who addressed the crowd, not one of them was a republican, not one. this wasn't because they weren't invited. according to event organizes, top republicans were invited, but all declined due to scheduling or health issues. there you had it. in the shadow of one of the great republicans, the man who championed the end of slavery, the man who signed and issued the emancipation proclamation, virtually no one from the party that lincoln managed to establish attended. they wouldn't take the opportunity to recognize the importance of this anniversary? while i can understand some of the political realities facing republicans, it still seems

incredibly short-psyched that we aren't more willing to put those differences aside to address our deep passion for equality. while more than 100 republicans did gather for a luncheon to pay tribute to dr. king, wouldn't a strong bipartisan showing at the 50th anniversary have been a step toward healing a great divide? after i watches presidents obama, clinton and carter stand at the top of the steps, it seemed to me republicans missed a real opportunity. from an electoral point of view, that's just bad politics. but more importantly it's the right thing to do. no surprise in 2012 mitt romney was only able to garner 6% of the vote. 6%, in a country where more minorities are born -- that's totally unsustainable strategy for a party that is seeking to attract the support of minority groups. republicans need to be finding way toss broaden their appeal,

not reaffirm their -- at the core rpg will always have a winning message, a message based on personal responsibility, liberty, family values, economic freedom and opportunities. however, as the old saying goes, 90% of success in life is just showing up. until then we'll never be heard. dwight eisenhower, even richard nixon, ronald reagan and both bushes know if you don't ask, most people won't vote for you. one could only hope the steps are populated by people of different backgrounds, races, yes, even political parties. that would at least be plouffe that the great political divide maybe was a passing fad. i'm guessing there are two other people who would hope for the same if they were around today -- abraham lincoln and. good afternoon. it's thursday, the 29thth.

syria strategy is weighing heavily on us all. there needs to be international consequences. >> the entire region braces for a possible war. inkts tailored approaches. not getting into a long conflict. >> make the case to the american people. >> too little and it looks weak. too much and it could create more chaos. >> not a reputation -- >> public opinion was well and truly poisoned by the iraq episode, and we need to understand the public skepticism. >> there really hasn't been any indication from the administration to what our national interest is. >> there will be those who clamor now for having a voice? people need to think these things through.