lying and this is sad. the president did address syria's war and potential intervention. >> the use of chemical weapons in syria is not only a tragedy but also a violation of international law that must be addressed. >> back in washington, more classified briefings are still expected in washington. facing criticism from skeptical members from congress. >> i will not, shall not support international support. it would be attacking a nation that did not attack us. >> there are no good guys to get behind here and i can only envision an escalation of this current conflict. >> so a breakdown from "the washington post" shows that the house is overwhelmingly undecided ath undecided and then over in the senate the lawmakers have ground to cover and lawmakers left to convince. >> they see this through the

prism of the last decade. it's very important that people understand what this is and what this isn't. >> joining me now from st. petersburg, russia, chuck todd. chuck, you have vladimir coming out and calling the secretary of state a beautiful liar here. you can't get more contentious than that. explain how icy this relationship is between president obama and vladimir putin and how much the tension and nontalk of syria is going to overshadow the summit. >> reporter: well, it's going to overshadow the summit because president obama, as far as he's concerned, this is his number one focus. it's dealing with syria. one thing that russian president vladimir putin said, by the way, at the opening session, he said, let's save the conversation on syria for the working dinner so that will take place -- we're about eight hours ahead of you.

that will take place in the next hour or so. there will be a working dinner. now, in talking to white house aides, they do think there are some things that they can accomplish on syria here that can help them with the congressional vote back home. for instance, the g-20 country, if they can get half the g-20 to even orator clee be behind the u.s., italy, germany who have been on the fence and haven't said anything, if they can get support of the statements from a total of ten, they think that this can help woo them. particularly for the folks back in washington dealing with this right now is to see how many democrats they can get on board and then from there, because that's what they are hearing from today and focusing heavily on trying to woo many of these democrats and by the way a lot of them got elected to congress

by being anti-iraq and war. they need a better explanation for the white house and they think that could help with the skeptical democrats. >> let's talk about some of that skepticism. we have a skeptical american public and deeply divided congress and most countries there at the g-20 are against this type of action. so how much can the president really influence that in just two days and how much is residual effect of iraq and that has shaken the credibility of our country executive? >> reporter: well, some of it is iraq. some of it is there is just natural tendencies. the member nations from south america, they have been anti-interventionists, brazil, argentina, you're not going to see those courts get on board. you've got china, india, russia who have been skeptical or against any of this action for a long period of time. but it's on the margins that all of the president is looking for

here. does he think he's going to make any great strides? certainly not with putin. at a minimum if they don't exchange bitter words and nobody calls each other a liar for the 36 hours that the president is on the ground here on russian soil, that will be an accomplishment. i think what's been fascinating with this relationship -- there's no more guessing if it's icy. both sides admit it's not close. the president himself said he hit a wall. putin said, you know, we have a lot of disagreements. we have things to work on together. but the fact that they don't even pretend that they have a good relationship tells you how bad the relationship really is. >> i looked up the weather. it's 64 and sunny in st. petersburg but with a high chance of frost. chuck todd, thank you. >> look at you, mr. cold warrior. >> thank you, sir. back here at home, lawmakers are hearing how their constituents feel on a possible strike in syria. john mccain is holding two town

halls and several members of congress have been doing the same thing in their district. here's what several of them heard at their own town halls yesterday. >> why get involved in another possibly ten-year war just for nothing and not only that, who's the enemy? >> i don't think it's the right time and the right place for our country to make a unilateral strike. >> why can't we get so much enthusiasm for helping our own people. helping our own people here at home who need it desperately. >> luke russert is joining me now. they approved military action in syria. at we showed the vote, it's 10-7. lawmakers know, luke, that they are going to be judged harshly as lawmakers have realized over the last 11 years because of the

iraq vote in '02. >> this will come back to haunt him when he comes up for re-election in 2014. it did pass out of there 10-7. you're looking at people like barbara boxer and also folks who voted against it and marco rubio and the fault lines you saw in the gop, thomas, very similar to what you're seeing with the big deals, sort of on immigration and the group that goes along with the president and the president is presenting and also have real questions about this intervention.

and the question really is the house and the question comes down to the house gop and the liberal democrats as chuck todd was just mentioning in that report with you. conversations that i've had with leadership aides on both sides of the aisle, there is a lot of opposition on the phone lines. almost 90% to 10% against syrian action. it's going to be fascinating to see how it moves forward and what these classified intelligence briefings provide these members and by chance that makes them switch their opinions about them. >> that's what i was going to ask you about. the influence of sway, because there's so many republicans that are entrenched with just being anti-obama. >> right. >> whatever he says, we do the opposite. how much do we think those classified briefings is going to help? because the president feels strongly that we have the information to connect the dots that takes it directly back to bashar al assad's brother who was the one that, you know, set

off the august 21st. >> break that down with two parties. nancy pelosi making this moral and imperative argument to show that this is not okay, trying to appeal to a morality sense that liberals have. it has mixed results so far. on the republican side, i would have told you even three, four years ago, if you have the speaker of the house who is a republican and the majority leader come out and say, this is a good idea. this is american strength. i mean, remember how americans got elected, the idea of going to iraq to show american strength and show resolve. talk about a complete turnaround from ten years ago to where they are now, that's the question that everyone wants to know. if it's a vote of conscience? do people sort of go this libertarian route? the fight within the gop or go the establishment route? nobody knows the answer to that question and we have pontificate

however we want. >> you make such a great point because so many americans are frustrated that we can't get our leadership to come together on domestic as we can for foreign war policy. >> right. >> it's interesting to watch. >> it's sort of the old school mentality. not there for domestic policies anymore. >> luke russert, thank you, sir. joining me is a member of the armed services committee who attended yesterday's contentious hearing on the foreign relations committee. congresswoman, great to have you here. the obama administration is really trying to convince the left, secretary kerry will chat with political bloggers. you say on your facebook and i oppose the united states taking military action against the assad regime in syria. explain what would the alternative be at the president's request to do it? >> i do oppose it, barring anything else happening here,

and the reason for that is because it's chaos there and we're not sure exactly what would happen if we intervened, if our strike is too light, we could embolden assad and he could claim that he was able to still stand and resist the united states. if we strike too heavily, we could accidently upset the balance of power and there's an alphabet soup of extremists waiting to step in. so there's no clear path right now through the civil war and that's the reason i said go slow and i plan to vote no at this point in time. >> congresswoman, michael hayden was on "morning joe" and gave a warning to congress who are opposed to the strike, at least for now. >> this is the least worst option that we have and it would be near catastrophic for the american congress not to support this. >> so are you worried at all about how the u.s. will look if congress decides not to act and

not follow the lead of the president? >> well, of course we worry about everything here but the reality is that there's still another option, that we can press harder for a political solution, that we can provide humanitarian aid and we can also really highlight assad and his regime and what they have done and we can put their names into an international court and we can prosecute them. remember, at the time in the '80s when chemical alley was using chemicals and of course it was suddam hussein and then president reagan did not take the actions at that time. we're not saying that we never would. i'm just saying right now we should not because we don't know what the consequences would be. i abhore the use of chemical weapons but i do not wish to replace him with people that are just as ruthless. >> you make a valid point because when people talk about the way and strategy to enter,

the exit strategy is major concern for people. and to accuse the president of using syria to actually distract from other problems during the house foreign affairs committee hearing the other day saying that this was just a way are to the president to take everybody's eyes off of benghazi and other situations. if they connect this to bashar al assad, does that change your stance? >> well, let me say i have reviewed the intelligence and the president is not making anything up. i have reviewed it. i have been in a number of hearings and briefings and there is great concern here. we don't know exactly the number of bad guys, unfortunately, like i said, it's like an alphabet

soup. i've heard different numbers of what the percentage of extremists are who are fighting with the free syria group but we don't know. and so right now i have to stay right where i am because i have to think about the day after if we struck. but the president's not trying to distract us. this is real. this is a chaos in this country and we do need to be monitoring and paying attention to it and discussing it. >> thank you, congresswoman. really appreciate your time and insights. coming up in the next hour with "now with alex wagner," ron paul is going to weigh in as well as his son's role in the libertarian wing in congress. should president obama give a primetime speech to make the case for military action in syria? weigh in on facebook or tweet me with your thoughts on that. and then walmart workers, they are planning their biggest protest yet in more than a dozen cities across the country. more on their claims that the

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welcome back, everybody. walmart workers and former employees across the country are protesting against what they say is unfair treatment by the retail giant. protests in new york have already drawn a crowd and police have taken at least three demonstrators into custody. the demonstrations organized by the group "our walmart" are the largest organization of walmart employees since last year's black friday protest and comes after the group set a labor day protest by participating in

demonstrations back in june. workers in 15 locations are taking part in boston, dallas, washington and miami. courtney reagan is in new york where workers are gathered. why were they taken into custody? and then let's get into the explanations of retaliation that so many workers are saying they are facing because they demonstrated prior. >> reporter: right. right now we're standing outside the office located here on fifth avenue. literally moments ago, the protesters moved to walmart location in long island. what we saw happen here is about 40 protesters affiliated with the group our walmart showed up here shortly after 10:00 a.m. we are retaliated against what they claim are unand safety

concerns. they have planned to deliver a petition with 200,000 signatures and two mr. williams. when they tried to enter the building, they were denied entrance and so four of them sat down in place to block the door. that is when the arrest happened. those workers that were arrested, they were two former workers and one former worker and we spoke and unfortunately that is exactly what happened here today. >> big mess. courtney reagan, thank you so much. we'll talk again soon. well, this is not a bright idea. we're going to show you more of that. and duck and cover? people who stop to watch a car fire the humble back seat.

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so tomorrow president obama will meet with activists before

he's in the g-20 summit and as a lawmaker introduced a bill that would deny gay parents custody over their children. in recent days we've seen a rash of violence against russians opposing the law banning the discussion of same-sex relationships around minors. and president obama's meeting comes at a time of rising tension between president obama and russia's president vladimir putin over the crisis in syria. a freelance journalist and fellow initiative made headlines before getting kicked off a russian tv show after he staged a protest over russia's policy and james it's good to have you back with us. let's talk about this because we have putin now having and basically this is about the propaganda of nontraditional relationships and said that the

most distinct thing that he said is they are not trying to go after people, basically, reassuring certainly for the olympics that they are not going to go after people that show support for a rainbow flag or anything like that. however, they have banned any type of demonstration or marches it's a really nuance way of propaganda laws. >> the pressure has obviously gotten to him where he feels that he now needs to backtrack a little and put on a nice face and conciliatory words that he gave to the associated press. whether or not they are arresting people during the olympic irrelevant. i would expect them to be easy and soft on these tourists and people visiting russia for two weeks. what really matters is what happens before and after the olympics when the spotlight isn't on russia anymore. i mean, how is the russian

government going to treat the gay citizens and the straight ones, too. this law affects everyone and it's part of a crackdown. >> putin signed that law in july and making it illegal to expose minors that portrays relationships as normal or attractive and, as we understand it, the law imposes hefty fines and subject foreign citizens up to 15 days in prison. the one thing that we've seen the most of is the fact that this has seemed to fan the flames of giving people that are homophobic a license to then go over gay and lesbians in russia, abuse civil go after them. >> that's right. >> there's nothing done to protect them against that. >> this is obvious, when you

pass a law and less than human due to perverse. you create an environment of impune tea and that's what we've seen. we've seen a very sharp and disturbing uptick in really disgusting violent attacks of gay people and torturing them on camera and this is what is going to happen when you create a sort of culture and it all goes back up to putin and his. >> james, a lot needs to be done and are you encouraged to know that the president is going to be meeting with russian lgbt activists? >> yes. i think it's important that they send a message that this is not a secondary issue. this is a very important issue. i think that it's good that he's doing this. human rights were put on a backburner for this administration when they tried to pursue a reset policy which has been a complete disaster and

i think the administration recognizes that and making it a secondary issue is not the way to go forward in dealing with russia. it needs to be a primary issue and needs to be put in their face, really, all the time. in. >> james, really appreciate your time. >> thank you for having me. >> absolutely. of course the topic in russia is syria. other g-20 leader this is morning facing tough criticism for members of congress, particularly from republicans who have been calling his leadership weak. listen to what the hawkish republican peter king had to say this morning. >> whether it's harry true man or john kennedy, you have to assume responsibility early on, show leadership and drive it forward. you can't have that type of

leadership. >> and then you have susan collins who said earlier today she's on the fence about military action. >> i continue to have many questions about the ramification of a military strike. one of the questions that i have asked is whether we're looking at this too narrowly. this is not a choice between doing nothing and doing a military strike. >> joining smelling now is a washington bureau chief and ambassador nicolas burns. gentlemen, it's good to have you here. let me talk with you first. as we're learning, the president's handling of syria is getting a lot of blowback and it has impacted his relationship with countries like russia, china, and germany. do you think that the president's leadership on the world stage has been diminished by the fact that he has seemed

to want to move ahead with some type of military strike against syria but has backpedalled a bit by taking this to congress? >> i think a lot of countries around the world, including our allies in europe, were surprised to seek congressional authorization and they have expected that the united states would act because the president has the constitutional authority to do that. if the president ends up taking action after these congressional votes, if the house and senate support him, i think all of these questions are going to disappear and as you've seen in both sweden and stock holm, the united states is seeking to just enforce the prohibition of chemical weapons. this was a president that when after osama bin laden and the president who prosecuted a very tough war against al qaeda on the afghanistan and pakistan border. it's difficult to question his

toughness and if this debate comes out the right way, if congress supports the president, i don't think the world community is going to doubt president obama's leadership. >> all right. let's talk about the chemical weapons' issue here. there's been an agreement that was signed back in 1992. syrian not signing on to that and the size of the arsenal that syria has been able to amass has been unknown. however, the french government has reported that they believe syria has about 100 tons of different types of chemical weapons, their program consisting of sarin and mustard and cyanide gases and we also know that the arsenal can be stored and moved from five different locations. that's something else that some people have been critical about, the fact that the obama administration has tipped their hand to say we're m coming after this to say that we're giving assad the time to move any of his operation to different locations. do you think, though, the evidence that exists so far is

enough to bolster the argument and get allies from around the world and while the president is at the g-20 to help gain the allies we need for the u.s. to lead this type of military strike? >> i think the united states was very late in dealing seriously with the chemical weapons issue in syria. i think it is a shocking that the administration was shocked that assad used weapons this time on a massive scale, back in april. so the president now has a dilemma. he's paying the price for the past. i do not believe that the president of the united states is a passivist but he does not look to the world as divisive and in control and willing to use the might of the united states. and i'm a proponent in this case of you go big or you stay hom and i think those out of states and rebels would like to see the

president embark on a syria strike that would cripple the regime and this should be done as part of an overall strategy that would include the diplomatic component, arming the rebels and convincing the neighborhoods and the russians that if you allowed it to fester for a year or two, it would be a place for radicals. if you have a soft partition in syria, that could be worse than afghanistan under the taliban or before the taliban when al qaeda controlled it. so now we are dealing with the ramifications of the withering of this administration, unfortunately. >> as we see what has happened with the arab spring, we know what happened in egypt and libya. the president has been trying to watch this play out and we know how bashar al assad has been reacting to this through the

brut brutality of his regime and then you hear peter king describing the president as weak on the issue and comparing him to other presidents who may have acted faster. but that's not taking into account the fact that we've been in war for so long and it's now damaging the credibility, not just of the president here domestically but the president while he's away. >> he will with, i think this is the heart of the matter, the core of the issue for the united states. our population is tired and weary after more than a decade of war and what i find worrisome here, where the president has to combat is the growing isolationism in both the tea party and the republican party but also in some elements of the democratic party among the extreme left of the party. and that's a recipe for failure for the united states and the foreign policy and the 21st

century. isolationism makes zero sense. no question about it. he needs to win these votes in the congress. and he needs to act in syria to uphold american credibility and the strength and the purpose and to oppose this brutal use of chemical weapons against the syrian people. that's at stake right now. >> you make a great point about the isolationist tone. thank you so much. now we want to tell you about this story because there are democrats out there demanding an apology, reaction to a republican who called senator mitch mcconnell of kentucky a quote empty dress and anthony weiner gets combative on the campaign trail. what made him go toe to toe in a debate. we'll let you see it.

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senate showdown. mitch mcconnell's female rival was called an empty dress and cory booker is facing crime. joining us is viviana and ryan riley a justice reporter for "the huffington post." it's great to have you here. let's start out in kentucky. democrats are outraged over the national republican senatorial committee spokesman e-mail to the hill slamming mitch mcconnell's opponent who is alison gri alison grimes. parrots the talking points handed to her by chuck schumer or she babbles after for getting to read her homework assignment. she's an empty dress.

viviana, break this down for us. there are people who will call men empty suits. do you think it's apples to apples that use that phrase and a political contender? >> i think it's fair in the sense that you said, we've heard about an empty suit, as women become more active in the political atmosphere, it's very likely that we're going to start to hear more of that. it sits very poorly with women voters and it really feeds into the story line that the gop has about a so-called war on women. in the case of mitch mcconnell and repeatedly voted against violence against women vote, the lilly ledbetter act and how you think of the perception problem plays out in an election. we saw that in 2012 that really hurt the romney campaign, obama

was able to beat president obama. >> steve, you wrote about this on friday. viviana with the record with women, there is a gender gap for women. and then he claims last week to have supported women and despite having to vote against it three times. i think what we have here is a case of bad timing and an insult to injury and imagine the gender gap is only going to get worse. >> ryan, mcconnell has stated absence, notably, over the syria debate and facing pretty conservative candidates in the primary. is that a smart move for him to stay out of the syria debate? >> you know, i think it could be. it's very early on and i think we're going to see spending coming up. over $100 million throughout the

campaign. it's going to be heated in the neck year. >> if we talk about getting heated, let's talk about cory booker and what he's facing as he's running for senate making for ten homicides in the past ten days. just yesterday he announced a way to fight crime in new york city. take a look. >> this has been a very tough stretch when we are down on murders and shootings. we're going to come out today with a stepped-up plan, putting more cops on the streets and more initiatives in terms of saturating areas with the police. folks are going to see a difference. >> viviana, this is the mayor that runs into burning homes. are they able to overcome the crime issue? >> when you look at new jersey, voters want to hear about these

bread and butter issues with crime at the very top. he's got to focus not just on this plan and this record that shows crime dropped 23% in the first half of the year of the summer and although there was crime it was relatively quiet compared to past years. that's what he needs to focus on. potential voters want to hear about those bread and butter issues. they don't really care what eva longoria or other celebs that are campaigning have to say about him. >> steve lonegan, this republican senate opponent can view this as an easy achilles heel. >> sure. it's something that he really doesn't have to face and he isn't running a city on a daily basis. the mayor has to get in there and show some sort of effort to fix this, regardless of whether or not it was actually connected to him being perhaps distracted

by his campaign. >> rand paul will be campaigning. we'll see if that makes any impact. my thanks to all of you. as always, you can find more from our panel on our website, tv.msnbc.com. follow the link. we're back after this. [ 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 we asked and you answered our question being should president obama give a prime-time speech to make the case for military action in syria. matthew weighed in saying absolutely. the messaging on this has been terl. the american people and the world must know why we must act. herman said, it doesn't matter what he tells the american public he is going to do what he wants to do no matter what anybody says. and then from chris, better not be tonight, i don't know how much support he'll have if he interrupts football.

i think he's, you know, talking about denver, the ravens, keep the comments coming in on twitter. and/or facebook. so olivia pope. olivia can handle any crisis, right? but can she flip the script in new jersey's governor's rate. scandal actress kerry washington who plays olivia pope is going to stump for garden state gubernatorial candidate barbara bueno. her running mate is her cousin from jersey the nyc mayoral candidate where anthony weiner got into a combative discussion on the campaign trial. he fired back at a man who criticized him and also took an -- >> yeah. >> very nice. in front of children. that is charming. >> you're disgusting. >> takes one to know one. [ bleep ] >> don't lose your temper. >> what's that? what's that? what's that? you waited till i walk out till you say anything. that's courage. >> we're having a discussion come back in here. i'm not afraid of you.

>> you're not afraid of me? >> don't use language in front of kids. >> you have a nerve to walk around in perfect. >> and you're a perfect person? you're my judge? what rabbi told you that? >> so here's the cover of today's new york daily news. arab zing. maybe you didn't hear it there, because the customer takes a zing at weiner and then says, and you married an arab, referring to his wife. south carolina governor nikki haley admitted to an embarrassing mishap at the governor's mansion. she posted on her facebook page what not to do getting locked out of the governor's mansion in your robe while sending t inings off to school sigh. and stephen colbert has advice for president obama when it comes to the debate on syria. check this out. >> our capacity to execute this mission is not time sensitive. it will be effective tomorrow, or next week, or one month from now. >> translation -- we don't know what we want to do, we won't do much, and it doesn't matter when we do it. who's with me?

i've got a crack graphics department upstairs ready to make a sizzling title sequence like, america at war, or desert storm, or showdown in the gulf. but thanks to obama, this is the best they could do. >> cris-ish in syria. eh! >> a quick reminder, programming note that mbs's all-in host chris hayess aa sit-down interview with secretary of state john kerry tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. and now with alex wagner is coming up next and alex, i know you have a big get of your own for the next hour. we look forward to it. >> different lane. but we got ron paul today at noonish. thanks, thomas. president obama's facing two distinct but not mutually exclusive challenges on syria russian president vladimir putin and the united states congress. we will discuss both with former national security council spokesman and panelists karen

finney, david corn and al exwald. plus former congressman and libertarian godfather ron paul joins us for a discussion about syria, republican schisms and the newly launched ron paul channel. and there is word on the hill that 2014 could be speaker john boehner's last stance. is boehner the best hope for american democracy? al that when "now" starts right after this. uld quit smoking but chantix helped me do it. i told my doctor i think i'm... i'm ready. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. i knew that i could smoke for the first 7 days. i knew that i wasn't putting nicotine back into my body to try to quit. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic

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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. president obama faces down vladimir putin, and a democratic whip count. it is thursday, september 5th, and this is "now." with president obama in st. petersburg for the g-20 summit all eyes are on him and russian host vladimir putin and they attempt to marshal international support both for and against military action in syria.

the original drama over the summit was supposed to concern nsa leaker edward snowden. but that has since been eclipsed by the standoff over u.s. military action in the middle east. it is a drama that is playing out on the opponent's home court and with few international partners openly at president obama's side. as politico reports, the timing of the g-20 meeting is, to say the least, awkward and uncomfortable for the white house. in an ap interview yesterday, president putin increased tensions, suggesting that any u.s. strike without u.n. authorization would constitute, quote, aggression, and threatened that russia would resume shipments of anti-missile air defenses to syrian president bashar al assad. putin also accused secretary of state john kerry of lying to congress about the nature of syria's rebel factions, declaring, he lies openly, and he knows that he lies. this is sad. back at home the president's decision to seek congressional approval for military force has been met