target. a change of heart from the white house. the president wants to give congress a chance to vote first. >> while i believe i have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization, i know that the country will be stronger if we take this course and our actions will be even more effective. >> so, what made the president change his mind and what if he doesn't get the votes? good morning, everyone. welcome to a special sunday

edition of "weekends with alex witt." an aide to house speaker john boehner says the speaker's office has received a white house draft resolution, authorizing president obama to use military force against syria. that follows president obama's announcement in the rose garden saturday that he will seek congressional authority for any punitive strike against seara. we have team coverage for you with nbc's richard engel in turkey and kristen welker, who is at the white house. we'll start with you, kristen. with a good sunday morning to you, where does the situation stand this morning? >> reporter: good sunday morning to you, alex. as you say, white house has sent a residenolution over to congre. i'm holding it here. it is about a page and a paragraph long. congress will take this up the week of september 9th, the president deciding not to call them back early because of the jewish holiday, harry reid saying he will hold a vote on this resolution the week of the 9th. the future of this quite

uncertain at this hour, alex. lawmakers were largely supportive of president obama's decision to put this to a vote in congress. as you know, for days they have been sort of mounting pressure on the president to put this to a vote. house speaker john boehner is saying he is pleased. tea party republicans like ted cruz, marco rubio, who are usually opposed to the president saying this is the right move. we are hearing also some opposition. representative peter king of new york saying this, alex. quote, president obama is abd a abdicating his authority as president in chief and undermining the authority of future presidents. just because you have senators like marco rubio and ted cruz saying this is a good thing doesn't mean they're going to vote yes on this legislation. of course, it gets far trickier for president obama in the house. that is the political state of this. this was a gamble for president obama. if congress votes no. the big question mark is what happens next? but president obama saying he believes this is the right move.

take a listen to a little bit more of what he had to say yesterday. >> i believe that the people's representatives must be invested in what america does abroad. and now is the time to show the world that america keeps our commitments. we do what we say. and we lead with the belief that right makes might. not the other way around. >> now, if congress votes no, the white house believes that there is a legal avenue for president obama to strike syria. we'll have to see what happens. administration officials saying they were initially shocked when president obama told them friday night that he wanted to put this to a congressional vote. but by friday, they say most of them were on board with the decision. alex? >> kristen welker with the white house, we'll be seeing more of you today. thank you very much. >> reporter: indeed. the president's rose garden statement in its entirety in about ten minutes from now.

what has been the reaction to the president's statement? richard engel, good sunday morning to you. activists and rebels alike, what are you hearing? >> reporter: we've been speaking to them this morning. they are doubting exactly what the clip of the president just said, that you played a short while ago. the president said he does what he says he will do and syrians we've been speaking to says, no, he does not. he promised to help them. he promised to defend them. yet he promised to have a delay in the process. there's been an enormous amount of disappointment. people feel they were betrayed. we spoke to widows this morning, who are refugees, living in terrible conditions in turkey, waiting to go home. they, for the first time in years, had thought maybe things will change. maybe we can go back to our home country. we spoke to them and they said does obama want us all to die? why the delay? why the backpedalling?

they understand that this isn't the united states war, but they also think that the united states, as it often describes itself, as the leader of the free world has the responsibility to protect defenseless people who are trying to fight a revolution and who have been doing this for the last 2 1/2 years. enormous amounts of disappointment, skepticism. they think this delay, which the united states says is not time sensitive, means that between,000 and then, many more syrians will die and only embolden the regime of president bashar al assad. in damascus, the state media has been celebrating this move. we've been seeing a lot of interviews put on state propaganda with people saying we were never afraid. we're not afraid. we are here. we are strong. and a lot of chest thumping. >> richard, i'll need a brief answer, if i can, on this

question. one sfa commander told your team the rebels would not be able to win without american intervention. is that a widely held view among the rebels? >> reporter: of course, it is. the opposition in libya wouldn't have won without a ntao intervention. revolutions are great and people came and they work well to upset things, but when you have a determined dictator, using his entire organized army, they generally don't win. the uprising against saddam hussein didn't work. the uprising against gadhafi didn't work. the uprising against assad hasn't been working the past 2 1/2 years. they don't think without some sort of game-changing military intervention, they won't seed. >> richard engel in turkey, thank you very much. david gregory's guest will be secretary of state john kerry this morning on "meet the

press." nelson mandela has been released from the house. mandela remains in critical condition. south aftrican officials say he will continue treatment at his home. he has been hospitalized since june for what the government has described as a recurring lung infection. next, in his own words, the president's speech, announcing he will ask for congressional approval to strike syria. and hearing everything from our marketing partners, the media and millions of fans on social media can be a challenge. that's why we partnered with hp to build the new nascar fan and media engagement center. hp's technology helps us turn millions of tweets, posts and stories into real-time business insights that help nascar win with our fans.

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a live look at capitol hill this sunday morning after a busy saturday in washington, d.c. members of congress will soon be reviewing an authorized draft resolution from president obama, asking for congress to authorize force in syria. senior administration officials

say the president spent the week wrestling with congress' role in the syria crisis before announcing his decision saturday. we want to play those comments for you now in their entirety. ten days ago, the world watched in horror as men, women and children were massacred in syria in the worst weapons attack in the 21st century. yesterday the u.s. presented a powerful case that the syrian government was responsible for the attack on its own people, and the intelligence shows the assad regime preparing to use chemical weapons, and acknowledging that a chemical weapons attack took place. and all of this corroborates what the world can plainly see. hospitals overflowing with victims, terrible images of the dead, and all told well over

1,000 people were murdered. several hundred of them were children. young girls and boys gassed to death by their own government. this attack is an assault on human dignity. it also presents a serious danger to our national security. it risks making a mockery of the global prohibition on the use of chemical weapons. it endangers are friends and partners along the syria borders, including, israel, turkey, lebanon and iraq. it could lead to the escalation of using chemical weapons, and in a world with many dangers this menace must be confronted. after careful deliberation, i have decided that the united states should take military action against syrian regime targets.

this would not be an open-ended intervention. we would not put boots on the ground. instead our action will be designed to be limited in duration and scope. but i am confident we can hold the assad regime accountable for their use of chemical weapons, detour this kind of behavior and degrade their capacity to carry it out. our military has positioned assets in the region. the chairman of the joint chiefs has informed me that we are prepared to strike wehenever we choose. more over, the chairman has indicated to me that our decision to execute this is not time sensitive. it will be effective tomorrow, next week or one month from now. and i am prepared to give that order. but having made my decision as commander in chief based on what i am convinced is our national security interests, i am also mindful that i'm the president

of the world's oldest constitutional democracy. i have long believed that our power is rooted not just in our military might, but in our example as a government of the people, by the people and for the people. and that's why i have made a second decision, i will seek authorization for the use of force from the american peoples' representatives in congress. over the last several days, we've heard from members of congress who want their voices to be heard. i absolutely agree. so this morning i spoke with all four congressional leaders, and they have agreed to schedule a debate and then a vote as soon as congress comes back into session. in the coming days, my administration stands ready to provide every member with the information they need to understand what happened in syria, and why it has such profound implications for america's national security. and all of us should be

accountable as we move forward, and that can only be accomplished with a vote. i'm confident in the case our government has made without waiting for u.n. inspectors. i'm comfortable going forward without the approval of a united nation's security council that so far has been completely paralyzed and unwilling to hold assad accountable. many people have advised against taking this decision to congress. and undoubtedly, they were impacted by what we saw happen in the united kingdom this week, when the parliament in our closest ally, refused to support the resolution. yet while i believe i have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization, i know that the country will be stronger if we take this course and our actions will be even more effective.

we should have this debate, because the issues are too big for business as usual. and this morning john boehner, harry reid, nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell agreed this is the right course of action. i respect the views of those who call for caution, particularly as our country emerges from a time of war that i was elected, in part, to end. but if we really do want to turn away from taking appropriate action in the face of such an unspeakable outrage, then we must acknowledge the costs of doing nothing. here is my question for every member of congress and every member of the global community. what message will we send if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight and pay no price? what's the purpose of the international system that we

have built if a probation on the use of chemical weapons that has been agreed to by the governments of 98% of the world's people and approved overwhelmingly by the congress of the united states is not enforced? make no mistake. this has implications beyond chemical warfare. if we won't enforce accountability in the face of this heinous act, what does it say about our resolve to stand up to others who flaunt international rules, to governments who choose to build nuclear arms, to terrorists that spread biological weapons and armys that carry out genocide? we cannot raise our children in a world where we will not follow through on the things we say, the accords we sign and the values that define us. so just as i will take this case to congress, i will also deliver

this message to the world. while the u.n. investigation has some time to report on its findings, will we insist an atrocity committed with chemical weapons cannot simply be investigated, it must be confronted. i don't expect every nation to agree with the decisions we've made. privately, i have asked those that care about the writ of the international community to stand publicly behind our actions. and let me say to the american people, i know we are wary of war. we ended a war in iraq and are ending one in afghanistan. we cannot resolve the underlying conflict in syria with our military, and in that part of the world there are ancient sectarian differences, and they have unleashed forces of change. we are not contemplating putting our troops in the middle of

somebody else's war. but we are the united states of political resolution of a government that respects the dignity of its people. but we are the united states of america and we cannot and must not turn a blind eye to what happened in damascus. out of the ashes of world war, we built an international order and enforced the rules that gave it meaning. we did so because we bheev that the the rights of individuals to live in peace and dignity depends on the responsibilities of nations. we aren't perfect, but this nation more than any other has been willing to meet those responsibilities. so to all members of congress, of both parties, i ask you to take this vote for our national security. i am looking forward to the debate.

and in doing so, i ask you, members of congress, to consider that some things are more important than partisan differences or the politics at the moment. ultimately, this is not about who occupies this office at any given time and it's about who we are as a country. i believe the people's representatives must be invested in what happens abroad. and i think it's time to show that we do what we say and we lead with the belief that right makes might, not the other way around. we all know there are no easy options, but i was not elected to avoid hard decisions and neither were the members of the house and the senate. i have told you what i believe, that our security and values demand that we cannot turn away from the massacre of countless civilians with chemical weapons. and our democracy is stronger when the president and the peoples' representatives stand together. i am ready to act in the face of this outrage.

today i am asking congress to send a message to the world that we are ready to move forward together as one nation. thanks very much. >> about 1:50 pm eastern time, that statement from the rose garden yesterday afternoon. did he make the right decision to consult congress? you can reach me on my twitter handle @alexwitt. we've seen a lot of reaction from members of congress and we're about to hear a lot more. live report from capitol hill, next. [ school bell rings ] [ male announcer ] from the last day of school, back to the first.

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the next step in the syria crisis lies in the hands of congress. fierce reaction is pouring in from lawmakers in congress. casey hunt, with a good sunday morning to you, casey. what's the reaction you're hearing? >> reporter: good morning, alex. in the initial phase, of course, most members of congress are saying, you know what? this is exactly what we wanted president obama to do. there were hundreds of lawmakers who called for him to ask congress to weigh in before he

decided to strike. ted cruz is one of those who has already weighed in on this. >> i am very, very glad that the president listened to bipartisan calls to come before congress and come before the american people and make the case. >> i think the war powers act clearly gives the president the ability to launch whatever he needs to do. >> reporter: so you're seeing there that they're, you know, looking forward to elliott engel, also congressman from new york, saying this is the way the president should be acting. of course, this means that t congress will end up owning the action in a way that they wouldn't have, had president obama decided to go it alone. >> i understand that congressman peter king had something very different to say. >> very hawkish voice within the republican party. he says, quote, president obama

is abdicating his responsibility as commander in chief and undermining the authority of future presidents. the president does not need congress to authorize a strike on syria. now, of course, the president hasn't totally abdicated his ability to strike or not to strike, no matter what congress decides. he could, if they say no, still decide to use the u.s. military to do something in syria. >> right. and the timeframe, kasie? a vote won't happen till a week from monday at the earliest? >> reporter: congress is still out on vacation for another week. they're set to convene back on september 9th. there was some discussion of potentially bringing at least the senate back, but the jewish holidays fall next week and they also did decide to bring the foreign relations committee back to hold hearings starting tuesday on syria. >> kasie hunt there on capitol hill. thank you for getting up early

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