i'm thomas roberts. it is battlefield congress looking for a green light to strike syria. the white house will lay out its case for the use of military force in the first hearing on capitol hill today. now that hearing will be held in just a few hours in the senate foreign relations committee. there are signs of a split that goes beyond partisan lines. >> president obama, because he is -- has really backed america into a corner. and i'm highly concerned about the loss of credibility by not following through now because of what president obama has done. >> if we're going to put service men and women in harm's way, they have to be able to count on the fact that the nation's political leadership is unified behind them. >> among those expected to testify today is john kerry and chuck hagel and martin dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs. this follows the president's sit-down yesterday in the oval office with unlikely allies for his request to strike. senators lindy graham and

senator john mccain. mccain ran the gauntlet of the morning shows and said this to his colleagues in congress. >> if we turn down and reverse a policy that was announced by the president of the united states to the world, an action that was going to take place is negated, i think it does horrendous damage to the credibility of the president of the united states. >> with new numbers out today from the united nations putting the number of syrian refugees at 2 million, a defiant assad sat down with an interview with a french newspaper. in that interview he challenged both france and the u.s. to produce evidence that he used chemical weapons against his own people. assad giving this dire warning. the middle east is a powder keg, and the fire is approaching today. i want to begin with our peter alexander at the white house. a full slate of events on the administration's plate in addition to a meeting with key lawmakers at the white house and watch the briefing coming up at

1:00 p.m. and real action the use of force hearing and at 2:30, it really is the rubber is going to meet the road, i guess for a better turn of a phrase there. what sense are you getting of the success for the president's push for supporters? you said it was flooding the zone. >> reporter: first of all, there has been a big back and forth taking place in this private meeting in the cabinet room right now and they are still in there now more than 1:15 after that meeting, first began with the president and vice president and john kerry leading the course of that conversation. you talked about the idea of flooding the zone as a white house official told me this is all about everything being on the menu. you just listed the priorities for this white house in terms of dloiverg his message. one of the key moments is the open forum you noted this afternoon with secretaries kerry and hagel and chairman of the joint chiefs, martin dempsey up on capitol hill for a hearing before the senate foreign relations committee. one senior administration official told me the onus is on congress and they will make their case that american credibility is at stake, that a

failure to act would unravel the in this norm of banning chemical weapons and the need and response of what has taken place there. to come to congress which they said the president didn't need to do it helps the u.s. look stronger. needs a lot of help right now. take a look at the graphics put occupy the screen. "the washington post" formed this sense of where things would be if there were to be a vote for authorization right now in congress. on the senate side right now, just 20 senators are against it or leaning no. 23 favor strikes. 57 undecided. the senate seems like it's more certain to support the president. the greater concern exists on the house side where "the washington post" finds 94 representatives are leaning or would outright say no and 16 in firmly in favor and 90 there are still said to be undecided at this time. thomas, one thing to keep a

close on right now is the outreach. not just by the president, but by his traditional allies. not all democrats are on board with this. consider the obama for america, they run his twitter handle, not one tweet yet on the topic of syria. the last three days they focused on diana nyad, obama care, and labor day. >> peter, thank you very much. we want to bring in florida democratic congressman, aaron grayson. kerry told house democrats this is a moment for the united states. and pointing out the reference to the 1938 munich agreement from hitler and chamberlain after chamberlain said it would lead to peace for our time and history showing that is pretty much junk. but the hard line that the white house is taking in its drive for degree of medical approval for syrian resolution, is there anything the president can do to

sell you and other skeptical members that action is what is needed and must be done? >> listen. i'm sick and tired of stupid historical metaphors that have nothing to do with this. i don't think as many people alive remember munich right now and properly so, that has nothing to do with this. let's look at the facts of this situation. this whole situation has nothing to do with us. not a single american has been attacked. not anyone of our allies has been attacked. this is a civil war and it's becoming a proxy war between sunni fundamentalists and shiite fundamentalists and neither one of whom wish us as well. in addition to the attack being contemplated won't do any good. we won't get rid of assad through this attack and not disarm him through this attack and not do anything significant to prevent him from doing what he may have done before. >> would you say turn a blind eye? >> it's expensive and murdering his own people? >> where is the humanitarian effort needed by the united

states? not only is the support needed -- >> yes, yes, so now we are going to -- >> a blind eye? >> let me finish here! now we have a debate about humanitarian bombing and humanitarian missile strikes. why don't we have a debate about doing something to help the 2 million refugees who are across the border in jordan and turkey? take the billion dollars and give some relief to them. >> that's great. what legislation are you going to draft for that? >> we already have drafted legislation for that and why are you asking a question like that? >> well, i just mean if that is what you think the effort needs to be directed toward, why not try to steer the conversation that way and away from the unnecessary bombing that you're talking about? >> that's what i'm doing right now on your show with your audience. >> so we have the secretary of state and the secretary of defense. they are set to appear this afternoon before the senate foreign relations committee. politico suggesting a few of the questions that the senators might hear is including what will obama do if congress says no. also what is the end game after the bombing. sir, we all know that the

intrastrategy is easier than the exit strategy. >> yes, right. if you're looking for historical analogies let's talk about iraq and afghanistan and they might be more relevant than munich. >> i would agree that most people in today's culture would understand, having had someone in their families or in their lives that may have served in afghanistan or iraq. so if you were sitting in today's committee meeting, what question would be burning for you? what would you want to hear from them first? >> i will be sitting in tomorrow's committee meeting before the house and i have a whole bunch of questions i would like. five minutes can't possibly contain. but the questions for america are as follows -- why does this matter for us? we are four weeks away from the government shutting down. we are six weeks away from the government running out of money. i sometimes think that the entire u.s. government consists of people who have a serious problem with attention deficit disorder. why can't we concentrate on our

own problems? >> i think that people would look at this and say that the president declared the red line last august and we have allowed and turned a blind eye as a country to the fact that, you know, people are being murdered by bashar al assad. would you not agree with that? >> no, i would not agree with that. the president said what he said. he made some vague remark about red lines. that does not change the fact that in this country you have 20 million people looking for full-time work and still have 40 million people who can't see a doctor when they are sick and 40 million people who live in homes where the mortgage is worth more than the home. we have roughly 45 million people depending on the government to feed them. these are the problems we need to be concentrating on, not the syrian civil war and not shiites and sunnis going ago it. >> only domestic issues and not foreign policy issues? should we be zoisolationists?

>> we can't do all of that. >> thank you for joining me. joining me is jim miklaszewski, in business pentagon analyst and colonel jack jacobs. good to have you here. mick, you've been all over israeli's missile test and that happened this morning. explain to everybody the timing of all of this. would some people assume this is saber rattling on their part? >> not on the u.s. part and this was a missile test and some speculating that israeli did this testing at this time to send a message to syria don't think about attacking us. what is remarkable about this, thomas, is that six hours before the pentagon could even acknowledge that the u.s. military was sort of indirectly involved in this missile test, the russians informed the world that missiles were flying in the persian gulf. u.s. military, senior military and senior pentagon officials are no idea this test was going on and they finally relieved a

statement a short time ago, saying that, yes, the u.s. military did provide or d.o.d., defense department did provide some technical assistance to this test so there was a bit of confusion and nobody looked good in this, particularly the pentagon and the u.s. military. but i do want to talk about this afternoon's hearings with secretary of state and secretary of defense, but the person to really watch closely is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general martin dempsey. for nearly a year now, he has been very firm in rejecting or advising against the idea of u.s. military involvement in syria in just any way, because the consequences are indeterminable, and it will be interesting to see if he backs off from that a little bit. we are told that he will likely tell congress that limited u.s.

missile strikes against the syrian chemical weapons program could deter and could degrade that chemical weapon ability, but the question is for how long and the question we expect to hear from dempsey, what happens next? >> mick, as you point out, limited and proportional is the phrase we keep hearing from the president. jack, the president heads to the g-20 this week. vladimir putin doesn't believe that bashar al assad has done what is accused and russia is the biggest funnel arm to syria and they have a military port for their naval ships base of operation off of syria to fix part of their navy. so they have a vested interest in what happens in syria. how much does this put on the president for side talks, bilateral talks about putin the one that was canceled originally?

>> this whole sad series of events gives putin plenty to mock the united states about, i can tell you that. there is some small opportunity to get together with putin and maybe work out some sort of arrangement that might be suitable to co-op them into an operation, whereby, assad is gotten rid of and somebody else -- but the time for all of that was 18 months to two years ago. now we are overtaken by events, we drew the line in the sand and everything now is a function of what the united states is committed to do. putin is not going to affect that and neither is our lackluster ability to conduct state -- >> as you were hearing representative grayson saying munich may not be the best analogy here. closer to iraq and afghanistan if we use an analogy at all. what does the u.s. stand for if we don't stand for this humanitarian crisis? >> given what the president has said and committed to doing and

what the secretary of state so eloquently described a couple of days ago, i think the u.s. has no option but to attack syria, but the president has already said it's going to be a limited objective attack and, therefore, we can can conclude it's a demonstration of what our resolve is without any indication that we have any resolve, other than this punitive attack. i don't think we are committed to do anything, other than attack, fixed or mobile installations, some of which will be repaired in two to three months and maybe continue to attack them with guided missiles. otherwise, wernts going to get involved in, no matter what the president says. >> gentlemen, thanks so much. mick, we will take your advice to follow what general martin dempsey says coming up today. thank you, sir. this was the end. the extreme dream. i didn't come back after 30 years of retirement to be a swimmer again. i just wanted to do my heart swim which is cuba.

>> there is the woman everybody is talking about today. this morning, she speaks with me about achieving her dream, diana nyad on her historic swim is next. don't miss it. that leads to our big question today. what is your extreme dream? weigh in and we will get some up on the show. but with a mortgage. and the furniture's a lot nicer. and suddenly, the most important person in my life is someone i haven't even met yet. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. as you plan your next step, we'll help you get there. exact individualization that your body needs. this labor day, don't invest in a mattress until you visit a sleep number store. when we actually lower the sleep number setting to get the sleep number bed to conform to them, it's amazing the transition that you see with people. oh, that feels really good.it's hugging my body.

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welcome back. live pictures from key west, florida. we are expecting a news conference to begin any minute now with swimmer diana nyad who completed an incredible feat yesterday. sunburn and exhausted, diana arrived on the shores of key west early monday afternoon and becoming the first person to swim from cuba to florida without a shark face and wearing a special silicone face mask and endured the elements of the salt wear and air and other extreme challenges with a special team

that modern her at all times and she made the dangerous 110-mile journey in 53 hours. 35 years in the making an testament to the power of perseverance. this was her fifth try since 1978. in 2012 that jellyfish stings forced her to cut her fourth attempt short. now she is explaining to the world why she refused to never give up! joining me now is the intrepid diana nyad. dare i say the most popular woman in america this morning. congratulations to you for this incredible achievement an an inspiration to all of us. how are you feeling? you survived these salty waters, the sharks, the jellyfish. tell us how your body is doing today. >> you know, thomas, i think the real -- umbrella view of that is that as you know, i have failed four times before and i

remember, last last year about this time, talking to you and saying how my body was racked with pain and, you know, the abrasions that come from the salt water inside your mouth, they are so darn painful. but, today, because of making it, somehow all of that physical stuff just has evaporated. >> let's talk about what it took mental stamina wise. at 64 years old, you say you are in your prime right now and you bring up the fact that there were four failed attempts before, so what do you think it is about this age and this time in your life that really was the sweet spot to achieve this dream? >> oh, you know, i've heard so this athletes. i personally remember john mcenroe saying this. so many athletes say that when they gain their perspective on life and they have had children, and they are in their emotionally mature years, their 50s and 60s, they only wish they could go back and be a world class tennis player again. i'll tell you something.

i am a far better athlete than i was in my 20s. i have lost a little speed, but the kind of swimming i do out there has nothing to do with speed so it doesn't matter. but i am stronger, calmer, and in a state of awe, rather than in a state of ego. i'm a better athlete all around at this age. tell our fellow baby boomers that these are the best years, trust me. >> you are an inspiration. let's talk about not the destination for making it to the shore but the journey in and of itself. at what point mentally did you realize i am going to achieve this? i'm sure there were certain obstacles in the way the salt water how you were ingesting that and making you ill. when did you realize this was it, the charm? >> on sunday night, we sort of have a cardinal rule out there, nobody tells me how far we have gone because you don't know.

some boat captain might say, oh, look at this, we are 60 miles in! tell diana we are at least halfway. they have no idea if that is halfway. what if i get sick or we have a crisis or the gulf stream starts taking me east in a strong way? what if a huge thunderstorm comes and we are stopped for a while. we never know if we are half-by-out sunday night, i had five boats. they all started honking their horn and screaming. i looked up and my intimate crew and the boat next to me, bonnie and my navigator were putting pointing like that. i looked over and i saw a whisper of white light on the horizon. i thought they are saying it's sunrise, we made it through the night again. i said to bonnie, is the sun coming up? because i have no idea what time it is. i thought i saw the taj mahal out there literally. bonnie said, "it's key west. it's the lights of key west!"

and that was it. i had 15 more hours to sort of take all the journey, as you call it, in. >> this was an extreme dream. you don't strike me as the type of person that will rest on your laurels. something else you want to achieve now that this is something you have checked off? what is on your list? >> thomas, i have my own personal sort of career goals. i've always wanted to do a one-woman show. who hasn't? but i will put that together finally. in terms of the sweimming realm this was the end. i didn't come back after 30 years of retirement to be a swimmer again. i wanted to do my heart swim which is cuba. that has been realized. i will start what we call nyad's swim for relief. october 8th through 10, i have to start healing up, in new york, i'm swimming in harold square in a beautiful pool we are installing and i'm going to go 48 hours, no jellyfish!

no seasickness and no sackehark! and in the lane next to me notable new yorkers. i assume you're throwing on a speedo and be there. >> i will be there. i don't know about the speedo but i will be there for you. >> you come in board shorts, whatever you want to wear. we would love to have you. we are raidsing money for hurricane sandy relief and then we are going to the boston marathon and raise money for the people who suffered from that terrorist aattack and then to moore, oklahoma. my thing next two years is not forget people who had their lives damaged so badly and natural terrorist disasters. we are going to go back and swim for relief. new york is the first one in about five weeks. >> i'm on the nyad train. whatever you need. maybe i'll each consider that speedo request. diana, congratulations to you. we will see you here in new york. but what an incredible accomplishment. congratulations. >> thanks, thomas, so very much. thanks for talking to me.

>> i want to talk to that live presser we were telling you about from key west. there is diana nyad. >> she came to me and in the water with her full-on dive gear saying i don't see any right now. no, you need to get that mask on. now you're okay. she developed a green gel that literally the tentacles can't protect. you have valuable to the world but you're very special to me! thank you! >> ah! >> diana nyad thanking her team there and one of her three points when she got out of the water about never giving up is also say this looks like a solitary support. she was surrounded by the love and support of her team she couldn't have done this epic swim without. congratulations once again to her. obama administration and what it is looking to do towards syria. could the president or congress end up on the wrong side of history? we will evaluate that and who will be the key players, as congress enters this debate

today. nbc's kelly o'donnell will join me live from the capitol hill and agenda panel will jump in on that and much more after this. usua l please. usua thank you very much. ok guys, i'm back. i need a template of a template. oh my gosh. i've never even seen this record, i've only read about it in books. yeah we can get some peanut...that is huge. please don't judge the amount of peanut butter we are getting. from prepaid to platinum, cashback and more membership has a card for every character. i'm carrie brownstein and i get to be whoever i want. this is what membership is.

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breaks news right now. speaker boehner addressed cameras and now nancy pelosi. let's listen in. >> that is a differentiation what he has done up until now. people say he killed a hundred thousand people. what is the difference with this 1,400? this 1,400, he crossed a line with using a chemical weapons. president obama did not draw the red line. humanity drew it. decades ago, 170 some countries supporting the convention on not using chemicals, chemical war fare. it is something from the humanitarian standpoint cannot be ignored or else we cannot say never again. secondly from a national security standpoint, we have to send a very clear message to those who have weapons of mass

destruction of any variety that should forget about using them. it was a very constructive meeting. the president listened to our colleagues and the speaker was very clear and i'm sure he toll us his view and i associated myself with his remarks. i believe the american people need to hear more about the intelligence that supports this action. and that is that the responsibility for this chemical weapons use is clearly at the feet of assad. now we go to the next step of having further debate in the congress of the united states. i am hopeful, as the american people are persuaded, that this action happened and that assad did it and that hundreds of children were killed. this is behavior outside the circle of civilized human

behavior and we must respond. >> are you ready then to, in a sense, with your membership to get on board with the president? because we have been hearing from the house especially all over the place. >> yes, i'm respectful of that. on these kinds of issues, it's not a question of whipping, it's a question of discussion, to make sure that people have the information that any need to make an informed decision, to make sure that they have the full value of the intelligence that says this is how this happened. and then members have to decide, are they -- do they want to ignore the fact that this humanitarian disaster took place or not? and then there is a larger issue of syria's behavior if they get away with this. so, again, very respectful of all of the concerns that the members have, that our

constituents have. i do not, in my district, i don't think people are convinced that military action is necessary, but it's important for them to know that the weapons of mass destruction use has taken us to a different place, that the president takes, obviously, any president would, but this president does not take this lightly and that what will happen will be targeted, tailored, of short duration, and will send the message that is necessary and then we go from there. so you're absolutely right, there is work to be done but it's not a question of whipping, it's a question of discussing with their members and hearing their views and some won't ever be comfortable with it. i, myself, from the humanitarian standpoint, think that waiting for the u.n. and waiting for putin, the slowest ship in the convoy of reacting to use of the

chemical weapons by assad, is a luxury that we cannot afford. i have to go. thank you all very much. >> listening to minority leader nancy pelosi after meeting at the white house. this is speaker john boehner from before. >> the use of chemical weapons is a barberus act. the united states for our entire history stood up for democracy and freedom for people around the world. the use of these weapons has to be responded to and only the united states has the capability and the capacity to stop assad and to warn others around the world that this type of behavior is not going to be tolerated. i appreciate the president reaching out to me and my colleagues and the congress over the last couple of weeks.

i also appreciate the president asking the congress to support him in this action. this is something that the united states, as a country, needs to do. i'm going to support the president's call for action. i believe my colleagues should support this call for accession. we have enemies around the world that need to understand that we are not going to tolerate this type of behavior. we also have allies around the world and allies in the region who also need to know that america will be there and stand up when it's necessary. thank you all. >> speaking, why are you here? >> listening there to speaker john boehner after his meeting at the white house. in business capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell joins me now. talk about who the big players to watch here. two of the main ones there, speaker boehner and nancy

pelosi. >> reporter: very critical to see the democratic leader in support of this. both are respecting the concerns that members have reflecting their constituents around the country who have been weary of war and who have concerns about these issues. but to hear john boehner and nancy pelosi both speaking in such strong terms and support of the president is a moment we don't often see and it's one that really speaks to the larger concerns right now. this isn't a debt fight. this isn't a ceiling or a cliff or the usual sort of domestic squabbles that happen on capitol hill that are a part of this place. this is bigger and it does not mean it will be easy, but it is certainly something where we are now seeing members having access to information, they have not always been able to get on other types of matters quite as easily. the administration is coming forward very aggressively providing access to information and an opportunity to have these conversations and to have the president hearing people out directly, as well as his senior membership. when you talk about key players, nancy pelosi is someone who has not had a history of wanting to

support military action in all circumstances. she laid out her case of why this is so critical. john boehner will have a hard time pulling along some of his members in the republican conference on the house side. the house should be the harder thing in terms of counting votes. nancy pelosi said this isn't about whipping, our term of votes for votes on capitol hill. it is bigger than that and i think it's so interesting, thomas. if you look to other key names, you see the john mccain, the lindsey graham who, as expected, have been very supportive of military action and in this case, supportive of the president, hoping for some tweaks to what would actually be done in terms of a game plan. there are legitimate questions that members are bringing forward, especially about what happens after a strike, if one should take place. what would be the next steps? but this is very key week on capitol hill, thomas, for getting questions answered and getting opinions aired out and seeing perhaps some -- perhaps some unity emerge.

it's too soon so that i for sure but key signs when boehner and pelosi are on the same page. thomas? >> thank you, kelly o'donnell. now we bring in our agenda panel. gang, good to have you here. i know you've been listening to what the speaker and what house minority leader nancy pelosi had to say. you wrote about how congress members are dividing up. let's talk about the fact that congress is dividing up into these different -- okay. he is getting his mike on. so congress is divided up into four different factions. party lines are pretty much being shattered here. aaron, we are seeing as kelly points out, this lock-step and unison from minority pelosi and speaker boehner. we are not used to this. >> right. i think it's a rapidly evolving situation. it seems the dominos are falling

for the president to get the support he needs for intervention. i think this will test the anti-intravenous factions that exist on the left and ones rising on the right. they will probably have their say on the floor of congress. but it is increasing looking like they will not get their way. >> gang, stand by. dianne feinstein is there at the mike. let's listen in. >> representative rogers and chambliss and ruppersberger and i will have a meeting on wednesday. the meeting i attended in 20 years is one of the best i've been to. it was thoughtful. it was considerate. both the president made the case. secretary of state made the case. i think the discussion was appropriate and my hope is that members left this meeting with a great sense of purpose and that purpose is to get this passed in both houses. >> first, i also agree with

senator feinstein. that was probably one of the most effective bipartisan meetings that i've been a part of since i've been in congress. democrats and republicans working on an issue that is important, not only to the american public, but to the world. i think the first issue is it's clear throughout the world, not only with the united states, that you had the assad regime using chemical weapons to kill his own people, including over 400 children, probably around 1,200 people right now that have been killed because of chemical weapons. the world decided years ago that chemical weapons would never be used and, yet, we have a situation now where we have a regime that is using chemical weapons. we have to deal with this not only on just the united states, but the world. we have to deal, first, with the humanitarian issue. to not allow anyone, whether it's assad, whether it's al qaeda, whether it's iran, whether it's north korea, that will be able to use chemical

weapons without any accountability whatsoever. that is a major issue. and we, as the united states, have resources that no other country has. but we can't a sheriff of the whole world either. we are now coalescing countries who are coming together that understand how serious this issue is as far as chemical weapons are concerned. >> listening there to congressman dutch ruppersberger of maryland and dianne feinstein. he said we can't be the slerve for t -- sheriff for the world. my interview with alan grayson people are telling me i owned him or he owned me, back and forth. ridiculous. this is a real crisis and whether we choose to be isolationist about it or not is not bringing back the killed in syria because of chemical weapons. what is it we do that makes us look like we are not useless on the world stage? >> what is interesting about

this this entire crisis has scrambled politics on capitol hill. you have dividing lines that didn't exist before in other places. the impact of this crisis goes far beyond syria and the media crisis. we thought we would be coming back from labor day weekend to face a budget showdown and to face this debt ceiling limit and, instead, we may be in a situation where congress, it looks like congress is moving to approve the president's plans to attack syria. and then how could congress, after the fact, shut down the government over obama care? how could the congress let the united states, which is just declared war on syria, how could they immediately let the united states to fault on its debt? it's scrambled everything right now and it's going to be an interesting month. >> we can do domestic and foreign at the same time. i mean, it doesn't have to be mutually exclusive and allow for this to continue with the humanitarian crisis. two million refugees have flooded out of syria and 5,000 people almost a day are leaving that country because they are in

fear of their lives. >> very true. over the weekend, as classified briefings started with members of capitol hill you saw a few republicans come out and a few lawmakers come out opposed to this. what you're seeing this morning, you're see aing much greater move toward the president's position on this. the evidence that the administration has -- we have not seen the evidence, but the evidence seems to be convincing enough to get people on his side. >> so we are looking at live pictures of senator rand paul surrounded by reporters there on capitol hill. he has been reserved but certainly critical of thinking of any action toward going to syria, especially thinking what proof actually exists. i know we have your microphone on now. >> yes. >> you were writing about the different classes of our elected leaders split into the four different roles. >> right. >> we are looking at congressman

elliott engle is speaking. are our minds not made up on which way to go with the president's wish? >> i think most lawmakers are kind of keeping their powder dry and have questions that are answered and a lot of their constituents with war weary. that the united states not going to bogged down in another iraq or afghanistan. i think the speaker's remarks that you played just a little bit before are extremely important and they are very, very remarkable because at this point, the speaker is completely behind the president. he has thrown his support behind the mission entirely. that changes the equation on the hill, i think. it's not a situation where boehner, as he often does, facilitates and mediates. it's enough for him to get enough republicans on board to make sure this passes. i think the president cause in

advancing this took a big step forward toward success. >> a lot of moving parts. thanks for rolling with the bunches as we listened to the leaders coming to the microphone. thanks to all of you. find more enter our panel at tv.msnbc.com. follow the link to my name. back after this! we don't have to go solo ♪ ♪ fire, fire, you can take me higher ♪ ♪ take me to the mountains, start a revolution ♪ ♪ hold my hand, we can make, we can make a contribution ♪ ♪ brand-new season, keep it in motion ♪ ♪ 'cause the rhyme is the reason ♪ ♪ break through, man, it doesn't matter who you're talking to ♪ [ male announcer ] completely redesigned for whatever you love to do. the all-new nissan versa note. your door to more. ♪ your door to more. nascar is ab.out excitement but tracking all the action 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

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i'm on expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for, because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown.

but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. ready to plan for your future? we'll help you get there. welcome back. a lot of moving parts at we have been watching this hour after a meeting at the white house. we heard from members of congress with speaker boehner coming out and nancy pelosi and much of which saying the same thing in support of the president and it remains to be seen if other members of congress are going to fall in line about that. this afternoon, we will hear from jen martin demp sane he will be briefing people what we do know actually that is accessible to support what the president would like to do and this is all going on while the number of people fleeing syria is now topping 2 million. roughly 5,000 people a day and

the u.n. says 2 million people have left this country with more than 4 million displaced inside the country itself. there could be 3.5 syrian refugees by the end of the year. joining me now live from turkey is jim maceda. explain, as they flood the borders and they are leaving, jim, who is taking the most of the refugees? is it jordan? lebanon? who is most attractive to those trying to escape the country? >> reporter: before i get to that i want to add one thing quickly. off the top, if you do the imagine that is 7 million syrians wrenched from their homes. i learned this now. that is a full third of the population of syria. they are mostly spread, thomas, amongst the region in camps, some are in parks, some are living out in the street according to the u.n. most of them, some 715,000 are in neighboring lebanon. jordan has taken in more than

500,000 and iraq has close to 170,000 and egypt with all of its problems absorbing 110,000 syrian refugees. here in turkey, syrians have been streaming the last two and a half years of conflict and we are told the number is likely to strike if the u.s.-led air strikes take place. sources tell us nearby here inside the syrian side of the border, syrian families are now afraid to leave their homes behind, but even more afraid to stay behind for the possible air strikes. they are huddling now right on the border inside syria. groups of you see hundreds of them together. up and down the 500-mile border and turkey officials expect to see a new wave of refugees flying those hostilities with no end in sight. the refugees are angry at the

u.s. and our allies because they feel like we have not done enough to prevent this from happening. back to you. >> nbc's jim maceda reporting from turkey. we will be right back after this. concerning news, 1 in 8 baby boomers are experiencing memory problems! one-third of the those surveyed said memory loss is affecting their work and personal lives and half didn't tell the doctors about their symptoms because they forgot to! brain game exercises and physical activities may be pretty bad to help. [ female announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day women's 50+.

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so the issue of marriage equality is pitting sisters from one of the biggest political families against each other. they are in a war of words over marriage equality. mary is a lesbian and liz is running for a senate seat and had been silent on the issue of marriage equality. she was forced to respond to a push poll in the stance itself. she said in a statement on friday she is not pro gay marriage and this prompted her

younger sister saying i love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage. freedom means freedom for everyone. this is a whole over marriage equality. pat brady is ousted for supporting the state's marriage equality bill and hired to lobby fellow republicans to help pass the bill. it's great to have you here. marriage equality appears to be the dividing issue socially here. only three senators are supporting it after the supreme court's ruling. walk us through what led to your ouster after voicing support for marriage equality in illinois. >> it's a long held belief that this is the right thing to do and marriage equality should be the law. it's the right thing to do analysis. they department like that, but the bigger story is it's a

healthy debate at the national and the local level here in illinois about marriage equality and shows we are not a monolithic party. we don't all think the same. even the cheney party. i long believed the conservative position is the government will be involved in marriage. you can't let 99% do it and 1% not. that is a true conservative position. i feel good about what's going on here. there is a good strong coalition across the board of republicans and democrats and financial reporters who want to see it done in the land of lincoln. we founded the republican party a couple blocks away. i feel good and debate is healthy and here in illinois it will be stronger. >> we look at how the cheney party put liz as the odd woman out. mary supports it and mr. and mrs. cheney support marriage

equality. if it passes, the marriage equality bill being abouts the 14th state to do so. you took a gamble. how will you convince house republicans in illinois to take a risk and vote in favor when the bill comes up in the fall session? >> i don't want to get too sanctimonious about it. it's not a gamble to do the right thing. there a lot of republicans and others who want to do the right thing. there is a huge coalition that is going to support republicans that do the right thing in this issue in the primaries. there a lot of people and we have new leadership in the house that will take a look at it and a lot of them will do the right thing. it's not a political gamble i don't think to do the right thing. >> best of luck with the new career path with the aclu and we will look to see where illinois

falls with the republican party chair pat brady. great to have you on. that will wrap things up for me. see you back here with 11:00 eastern. alex, a fast-moving day of fluid developments. >> indeed as washington considers military action in syria. the human toll continues to escalate. we will talk with ann curry about worsening humanitarian crisis. we will break down the arguments to and for authorization with "the washington post." speaker boehner is promising a whale of a fight over the debt ceiling, but his rabid wolverine caucus may prove to be the real challenge. all of that starts after this. [ male announcer ] if she keeps serving up sneezes...

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president obama talks to congress. secretaries hagel and kerry head to the hill and america decides what to do about syria. it's tuesday, september 3rd and this is now. two years after president obama told syrian president assad to step down, year after the red line was drawn, and two weeks after the syrian government appears to have used chemical weapons on its own people, the obama administration finds itself using a flood the zone campaign to authorize military action in syria. he laid out his plan of action. >> i want to emphasize to the american people, the military plan that has been developed by joint chiefs and that i believe is appropriate is proportional and limited and does not involve boots on the ground.

this is not iraq and this is not afghanistan. >> so far president obama's reasoning seems to be resonating. they emerged signalling confidence in the president's strategy. >> this is a barberous act. it's clear that the united nations is unable to take action and nato unable to take action. i'm going to support the president's call for action and my colleagues should support this call for action. we have enemies around the world that need to understand that we are not going to toll raid this type of behavior. >> hundreds of children were killed. this is behavior outside the circle of civilized union behavior and we must respond. >> secretary of state john kerry and chuck hagel are set to testify in front of the senate foreigne