at least. the president comes back. congress comes back. this debate i think has just begun. >> watch the interview with bishop beckwith on this show online because i think he really crystalizes the decision the president has to make possibly alone. >> if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." stick around. is chuck -- are we going to chuck? no, it's luke! we've got luke russert straight ahead. chuck's show. breaking news, the new jobs report shows the unemployment rate falling again. and the jobs numbers falling short of expectations. but the real tough news may be in the latest round of revisions for older numbers. we'll break it all down in minutes. also this morning, president obama lowraps up two days of intense talk over syria with other world leaders in russia. his effort to convince congress didn't slow down one bit during the trip. now he heads home to try to get

it done. meanwhile, back at home, john mccain hearses an earful on syria at a town hall in arizona. and outgoing homeland security secretary janet napolitano. good morning. happy friday from washington, d.c. it's september 6th, 2013. i'm luke russert in for the great chuck todd who will join us in just a moment with more of the president at the g-20 in russia. quite busy here. we begin with the new jobs report for the month of august. the good news, the unemployment rate is down to 7.3%. that's the lowest level since december of 2008. 169,000 jobs were added. that was a little short of market expectations. now the bad news, in the summer revisions. 16,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in june. and look at july. 58,000 fewer jobs.

22,000 in the manufacturing sector alone. we'll have much more on the numbers in a few minutes with moody's mark zandy. turning to breaking news on another front. in lebanon, the state department has ordered all nonessential embassy personnel and their family members out of beirut. they've also issued a travel warning for lebanon and turkey as well. all of this is, quote, due to threats. both lebanon and turkey have seen the increased violence as civil war in neighboring syria rages on. president obama returns to washington later today after wrapping up a summit which has been dominated by syria. an issue which could go along way toward defining his foreign policy the next three years. it's been a tough sell persuading his g-20 colleagues in pursuing military action. moments from now, the president will meet with the president of france.

the only europe leader who has been the strongest supporter of the strikes so far. but any hope the president had of using the g-20 to build international momentum for his plans to strike syria, that appears to have stalled. europeanal lies the president hoped would go forward with support has not. with the icy relationship between prussian president puti and president obama on display. chuck, is the white house surprised? it's been a tough sell diplomatically. this is some tough going here. >> it is. i don't know what's worse at this point, luke, selling this to this international coalition, including a lot of western european allies, or selling it back home in congress. neither seems to be going well. to just give you a sense of the dynamic at the dinner.

the united states pressed their case. they seep eseemed to get a majof folks in that room believing assad did this. as an aide admitted, there just wasn't the political will among the leaders that believe the president's right, that he's got to respond, that the will wasn't there. interestingly enough, it's what you hear on capitol hill, that they may agree with the president, that something's got to be done, but the political will isn't there domestically, it's not there internationally. overshadowing this entire g-20 summit is this frosty relationship between putin and president obama. just a few hours ago, i spoke with the u.s. ambassador to russia, who was blunt in his assessment. >> simple question, state of the u.s./russia relations? you have putin calling our secretary of state a liar.

sounds pretty bad to me. >> yeah, i think that's an accurate statement. we're in a difficult time in term also of our bilateral relationship with russia. we've had a difficult spell. i would say punctuated by our disagreement about syria. >> is it syria more than edward snowden? which came first here? >> syria definitely came first. syria has been going on for two years. where we had fundamental disagreements with the russians about how to deal with the russians there, well before the current -- the latest chemical weapons attack. but i think you have to see the biggest context. we've had a lot of nonprogress on a lot of fronts. missile defense. >> nonprogress. >> nonprogress. >> that's diplomat-speak. >> we have not really maintained the progress that we started five years ago. which is not to say we haven't continued cooperation where we had it before. so it's important to remember that on afghanistan, north korea, iran --

>> you don't believe there's progression? >> not on those fronts. that's important to remember. even the economic front, trade in investment continues despite these other agreements. we work hard to continue that cooperation even when we disagree on big issues like syria. >> there's one thing that's changed. the american president's the same. the russian president is different. there was always this sense that was he really running russia, was he not? president obama obviously had a pretty good personal relationship. that changed. seemed like everything changed. is it that simple? >> almost certainly, we did have a constructive relationship with president medvedev. we're very proud of the things we got done during his time as president. we started at a very low point. let's remember that. in the fall of 2008, u.s./russian relations we inheriteded were pretty low so there was only one way to go i think which was up. in retrospect, looking back, the turning point was really libya

and here in russia, the consensus view among certainly president putin has demonstrated president obama's no different than the rest of them, willing to use force for regime change. we obviously radically disagree with that analysis of our policy. >> you believe president obama views bush and obama, same guy? >> well, there's some nuance but at the end of the day, he thinks we seek to use overt first and covert first when we deem it to be in our interest. he finds that destabilizing. that's his world view. the analogy that really irritates us most is this illusion back to iraq 2003. because what we're planning, what the president has laid out for syria has nothing to do in terms of the analogous situation with iraq 2003 and president

himself, many others have reminded him, he was against that one. putin and many others around him continue to say this is just a replay of iraq 2003. that's frustrating. we will disagree with the russians often. we have different interests. we see the world differently. what's most interesting is when we're disagreeing about basic facts. that's not healthy for the relationship. >> what is it? explain why is it that russia is so defiant, in your view, in defending the syrian regime. >> first and foremost, they want to preserve the u.n. security council. they want to push everything back there for obvious reasons. that is a sign of their power. second, they truly believe that the idea of the united states going around the world using force to destabilize regimes is

not in their national interest. it's not about any special relationship with assad. it's about their view of state sovereignty. >> is there a chemistry issue between the two presidents, between president obama and putin? >> medvedev and obama got things done that were good for obama and good for medvedev. guess what, when you're working with somebody and achieving outcomes, your report tends to be better, right? putin, i've been in several of meetings he's had with president obama. i actually think on the substance and on the body language it's a pretty good relationship. both are blunt guys. both don't do a lot of diplo-speak, like i'm trying to learn. very candid. they speak about their interests. they speak very clearly. so i don't think it's that. i actually think it's a different definition of the interests of russia. >> why wasn't there a meeting during this?

why wasn't there a pull-aside, a bilateral? was there an attempt to create space to allow the two of them to have a one on one? >> well, i mean, obviously, we decided not to go to moscow. it was a big decision because we felt that we did not make enough progress on the whole range of issues in the biliteral relationship. and the president's all about doing business. he's not about having meetings for the sake of meetings. that decision. so i know they've spoken on the sidelines. they're chatting here and there. they're obviously over there altogether for a chunk of time. >> david cameron had a 30-minute meeting. >> 2:00 a.m. >> 2:00 in the morning, right. the two of them couldn't find time to do this? >> the day's not over yet. they're over there right now. they obviously had a big discussion altogether on syria last night. but it hasn't been planned. most certainly is true, not planned. >> let me ask you about edward snowden. have you met with him? >> no, i haven't.

>> have you attempted to? >> yes, we did. we reached out, as we do to all americans in distress in russia. you know, if you're arrested in this country, we reach out to make sure your rights are being preserved and protected and to the best that we can. everything we know about him of course is from the russian officials. but allegedly he did not want to meet with us. >> all right. >> the offer's still open. >> thank you very much. >> well, as you heard there, mike mcfall, pretty blunt diplomat when it companies y c assessing the relationship between the president and putin. you see there vladimir putin is doing his press conference. the g-20 is other but wahat's nt over is all of the spinning. we're now getting some reports from the russian side, waiting for confirmation from the white house, that there was a 20-minute conversation at some point, on the margins, one on

one between putin and the president. hopefully, we'll find out more soon, luke. >> those details will be fascinating. thank you so much for being on your own show. let's turn back to the august jobs report with our expert who's with us every first friday of the month, mr. mark zanny, chief economist for moody's analytics. let's get rid of these numbers for the -- us layman out there in terms of the economy. what does this mean? obviously, the revision. unemployment rate the lowest we've seen since '08. the revisions are down 16,000 from june, 58,000 from july. what did we learn about the economy today, mr. zandy? >> the numbers were a disappointment, particularly the string of good economic news we've been getting the last couple of days. if you look through the zigs and the zags and of course this data will be revised again, i think it's steady as she goes. i think the job market today is

about the job market of about six months ago, a year ago, two years ago, so no real change in the job market. >> obviously, congress has a herculean task ahead of them. they have the debt limit, all this on the backdrop of the fed lowering the stimulus in the economy, as well as syria, this vote could have quite an impact on congress. do you think syria could impact the united states economy from where we stand? >> it certainly could. there's all kinds of sen phar s. if there's a limited strike and limited fallout from the rest of the middle east and it doesn't affect global oil markets, then i think it won't really affect the u.s. macro economy. of course, that's just one of many scenarios. you can construct some pretty dark ones pretty fast. if it does affect global oil prices, then we're going to be

affected by that and it's going to hurt. >> how significant would a replay of the summer of 2011 be in regards to the debt limit to the u.s. economy right now? we sort of have seen this fragile rebound that everyone talks about. but i cover it on a daily basis and it seems both those factions are ready to go. we've heard about the boehner rule. any extension of debt limit will have to have matching cuts. what impact do you see that having in light of the jobs numbers today? >> that could be a problem. i think the expectation, the strong expectation, is there will be a lot of political brinkmanship. a lot of back and forth. but when push comes to shove, we'll get a piece of legislation increasing the debt limit and funding for the government, at least for a period of time. so that's the expectation. if that's what happens, we're fine. no problem. but if they can't agree, then we've got a big problem. that would be very

destabilizing. >> thank you so much for joining us, we appreciate it. back to syria after a break, as congress gets ready for a floor debate on military action. we'll talk with a republican who favors air strikes and a democrat on what the president can and cannot do. mccain gets an earful on syria at a town hall in phoenix. he wanted to talk immigration but the crowd was not going to let him go there. it was all syria. first, a look ahead at today's politics planner. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. harry reid hosts a dinner with former majority leaders. sounds exciting. bill frist, trent lott. that's as far back as i go. [ male announcer ] if your kid can recognize your sneeze from a crowd...

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in an unusual alliance of liberal democrats and conservative republicans opposes intervening in syria. to win congressional support, the president must persuade war weary members of his own party. joining me now, democratic congressman jerry conley of virginia who served on the house foreign affairs committee. he co-drafted the resolution in the house and joins me now. thank you so much for being on the program. from where we see right now, this looks like the syria resolution authorizing -- the force in syria resolution is facing an uphill battle. >> well -- >> wait, quite an uphill battle. what we hear from the republican side is maybe at best they'll

need votes to go with boehner. how many democratic votes you think pelosi can drum up? >> i think it's too early to say. i want to correct one thing i think you said in your introduction. i do not support the president's resolution. >> the narrow one? >> that's right, a much more narrow one. >> with ben allen. >> that's right. by the way, even more restrictive than the senate. the resolution that's drafted is open ended. it's not going to pass the house of representatives. nor is it going to pass the senate. >> why is that? >> because it is overly broad and open ended. the language of the resolution, the president is military action he deems appropriate. >> i want to hear your opinion on the other side. >> a lot of americans, a lot of your listeners, are saying, this is going to be iraq, this is going to be afghanistan. here we go again.

i know this. i've heard it. the answer is no. profoundly no. >> what's your take of the secretary of state there? >> what's going on right now is all about iraq. it's really the overhang of a terrible experience. and everybody is understandably wary and skeptical because of that. evidence was manufactured or distorted. clearly, the president at the time was using evidence to justify a decision he had already made to go into iraq and evade it. we're not dealing with that hear. we're not speculating whether the weapons exist. they do. we're not speculating about whether he might use them. he did. we're not talking about a president who is hungering and thirsting and can't wait to invade another country. he'd rather not do it. but he feels that there's a moral issue here. and an international leg issue here with respect to the convention. >> so you just made that case right here.

how come the president hasn't done that yet? does he need to do that in a setting which the american people would hear that rational? >> yes, he does. he needs to go on television and explain that. he needs to personally be involved in talking to members of congress, collectively, small groups, individually. he really needs to up the game. because this is going to be a very difficult vote. >> how much is this within your caucus falls on the idea of, okay, we're not comfortable with the idea of launching any missiles into syria, but god help us, if we cut the president off here at the knees, he becomes a lame duck quite early in his term and looks entirely week. we're going to go along with him here in order to preserve his ability to govern on other major issues. is there an element of of that? >> i think it's probably in the back of people's minds but so far it hasn't surfaced in people's thinking explicitly.

people have pretty much been dealing with the merits of the case, not about the politics on our side. open the other side, some people have succumbed to this is an opportunity to whack the president and that's unfortunate but there are also i think men and women of conscious by and large on both sides who are really wrestling with this issue. >> from your conversations with your republican colleagues, they're obviously in this very interesting position. one of the central tenets has been strong on national defense. you know, be aggressive abroad when need be. but that sort of seems to have gone out the way side in the last few years. it's been more of a libertarian infiltration from sort of the rank and file folks in you've talked to on the republican side, where are they? because it almost seems right now that a vote for this resolution could possibly open you up to a primary challenge. mitch mcconnell has been silent about syria because he's worried about a fallout from the tea

party. >> i think that's a real dynamic, luke. instead of sort of really genuinely try to tackle this as a vote of conscious, some of my colleagues on the other side have succumbed to the politics of the moment. and that is to exploit a perceived vulnerability when the president came to congress. i find it ironic because many of those same people were not so long ago pillaring this president for lead from behind on syria. not doing enough. and not consulting with congress. so he has, you know, we're trying to restrict what the response is and he comes to congress and they kick sand in his face. so not everybody. but some of those very same people you're describing not so long ago were critics for not doing enough in syria. >> the popular narrative now, we've determined from conversations on the hill, is sort of the idea that the majority of phone calls are opposed to this. you have that overhang of iraq

you mentioned. i want to go back to the idea of the sell job. do you think the public could be persuaded about this? the polling is almost 70 to 30 opposed to intervention right now. is this just a matter of the president trying to explain himself more clearly? or has the public really moved on from any type of initial intervention at least where we are now in regards to post iraq and afghanistan? >> i think there's a substantial portion of the public because, understandably, of the experience of iraq, just don't want to be sucked into another war of any kind at any level. and they haven't really sort of independently, independent of that experience, and that overhang, looked at the merits of this case, and, you know, i think sometimes in -- when we're making foreign policy decisions, we get very sort of straight jacketed with the uses of history and the analogies we

speak. iraq is that analogy. you're absolutely seeing it. the president's going to have to try to up, as i said, the game, in helping the public understand these are different issues. >> real quick, mcauliffe, going to make it through? >> i believe we're looking at the potential of a democratic sweep in virginia november 5th. >> big words. thank you very much. coming up, we'll go back to russia as the president tried to rally support for military action in syria. and we'll hear from a republican congressman who is in favor of it. first, today's trivia question. longest serving secretary of defense. the first person to tweet the correct answer to @dailyrundown will get an on-air shout out. building animatronics

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in just a few minutes, we expect to hear from president

obama. right now, russian president putin is speaking at the end of the g-20 summit in st. petersburg, russia. tell msnbc news putin and the president did speak. as soon as the president speaks, we'll take his comments live. one key republican leader in the senate hears some serious opposition to action in syria from his constituents. tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the reverend al sharpton hosts "advancing the dream," live from the apollo. it's a celebration of how far we've come in the last 50 years and a look ahead at the work still to be done. it's all ahead tonight at 10:00 p.m. don't miss it. with the passion , and that's why we use angie's list.

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after listening to some of my colleagues it's amazing we are seeming to paralyze ourselves into inaction. with can we ban all war? we can't. if we can stand up and say chemical weapons have no place in this world and we can do something about it, god help us if we don't. >> illinois republican, a u.s. air force veteran, throwing his support behind military action in syria. that house hearing was one of several that have put a spotlight on divisions in congress over whether to give the president's plan a green light. the congressman joins me now from chicago. thank you so much for being on the show, sir. >> hey, luke, good to see you. >> question for you, similarly, informal whip counts place support for any type of action in syria from the republican side as maybe getting 50 or 70 votes from your conference. do you think this is a new gop that's more libertarian and isolationist in nature or

straight-up opposition to president obama and anything he supports? >> i don't think either. we obviously have a group in the republicans -- you see them on the news all the time that are talking about the united states needing to des disengage from the rest of the world. what's happened, this is actually a first time in literally five years, at least the 2 1/2 years i've been in korngs when the president's reached out to the republicans on anything. i mean, we may have had a big meeting or something but typically has never talked to us. now what you're seeing is a lack of belief that this president has a plan. i'm supportive of action in syria. i think it has to be done. i think for decades america's put down a red line saying no chemical weapons. i will put a lot of the struggle right now in washington on the president of the united states. he needs to be all over television selling this to the american people. any beginning of any military action hasser in been popular in the united states of america

until its leaders come forward and talk about what exactly it will accomplish. secretary kerry's done a great job. president obama really hasn't. >> interesting dynamic you bring up. what we hear so much from your colleagues is you're getting phone calls almost 90/10 opposed to any type of action. congressman conley on the show says, look, once you explain it to peep, they end up being more supportive. have you found that to be true, in a conversation in a town hall that you've been able to change minds on this. >> sure, i give people all the time to come up and say no bombs in syria. then i explain the fact american troops have never faced chemical weapons on the battlefield since world war i. president h.w. bush basically sent a veiled threat to saddam hussein through tyreke hazaz they would face a nuclear strike if they used chemical weapons against our troops. failure to enforce this --

enforcing that means making the use of chemical weapons far more costly than any benefit he gains. i think we've lost legitimacy to enforce a chemical weapons ban any time into the future. how do we now say, well, in this case, whatever the case in the future is, we are going to enforce a ban on chemical weapons? even though we didn't under assad? keep in mind, young children suffocated to death with the pure knowledge they were suffocating to death. kids who loved their mom and dad. who had hopes and dreams and aspirations. their life was snuffed out in a very evil way by a very evil man. god help us as a country if we don't stay there's going to be a price to pay for doing that. >> congress has passed this syrian accountability act. there's this idea now that -- well, obviously, a lot of pressure is on president to try to deliver these votes. is congress also letting down those kids you've mentioned, if they don't back the president on this -- in this resolution?

>> well, look, i don't think congress is letting down anybody. i think congress has to debate what the issues are and make a decision. we did pass the syrian accountability act. i also didn't hear a lot of people being opposed to this quote/unquote red line we hear so much about. a year ago when the red line was put down. now that it's actually happened, i think it's up to the president. look, he's the commander in chief. a sophomore congressman from illinois is not the commander in chief. i shouldn't be the one out having to sell this to the american people. he's got to be a leader in this. you look back as far as i think bosnia and the american people did not support strikes on bosnia and kosovo. in hindsight, we see those strike, actually are very popular now a days and accomplished a lot. he needs to put out what the plan is, what the future is. i think it's very simple. make the cost of using chemical weapons far exceed any benefit gained by assad and every time he thinks about using chemical weapons there, that's going to go into his mind, this is going to cost me x amount and it's far

too great. >> you're part of an extraordinary group which is these young veterans that have come home from iraq and afghanistan over the last ten years, who have borne an extraordinary burden. from your conversations with some of your colleagues, what does this bring up in their minds? how do they feel when they hear this? put away the politician side of it. the fact the united states could intervene in a country like syria, how does that resonate? >> well, it makes you tired. look, we're all tired of it. we don't want to be at war anymore. but the fact is, in 5, 10, 20 years, we're going to look back at this moment in history. this is going to be one of the most defining couple of decades. the question is america, did we get fatigued and back away? when america retreats, chaos follows. did we backway or did we say this is the time when we really have to muster down? as much as we hate war?

and we do. but at this time, even though we're tired, we have to stand up for the right thing to do because the world's going to judge us and history will judge us if we don't i fear. >> we appreciate you coming on the show, take care. >> thank you. >> let's bring in our friday gaggle. i'm downjoined by political ana and former rnc chair michael steele, kacie hunt and strategist chris safins. the governor made some news saying he is opposing this resolution in syria. he sort of represents this populist democratic idea of why are we going to spend wars for people who don't like us. explain the rationale here and how big a problem this is for the president that someone like manchin, and there are others like that in the house, are opposing right now. >> well, i mean, i think his rationale is very -- is one a lot americans have now.

which is a lot questions, concerns. but what we're doing, what the end game is, what the strategic goal is, you know, what is the -- where's this begin and where does this go. so i think he had a lot of concerns that weren't addressed by both the classified and the unclassified hearings. he was -- he actually -- even though he's not on the foreign relations committee, he went to the committee and heard the testimony. i think he made a thoughtful decision. i think he wants to put more resources into a diplomatic solution. i think what's happening, kind a bigger -- i've been saying this for the better part of a week. everyone's fixated on this game in congress. it's the wrong place to focus. what's happening in the country right now, i think a lot of members, leads of both parties are missing. i've been in politics a long time. i've never seen an issue where it's 90/10 in phone calls. senator manchin's office, it's running 101 against. >> i want to get your thoughts,

michael steele. one thing i've noticed in town halls, the opposition here is not necessarily dove opposition. this is the idea of wait, wait, wait, wait, our economy is still very much in shambles. why are we even talking about this? you see from voters they're offended. >> to chris's point, you know, loathe to actually agree with my fellow democrat over here. but the fact of the matter is, he's right, there's a palpable anger. people connected the dots to the economy, to a global stage. everything now is coming to a clear perspective. and they don't like what they see. the unemployment numbers coming out today belie the fact you still have millions without unemployment. poverty rate is something else. all these things are connected for being tos. now we are talking about going

to the next level in the middle east. to the congressman's point, he wants to make this costly for assad. okay, great. what's the cost to us? you know? are we going to really be -- can you tell us honestly, look us in the eye and say a year from now we won't be on the ground in some form or fashion? you're talking about with the senate resolution to expand the opportunity to get assad. that means training people. >> kasie, wrap this up here. it's amazing to see in the halls of congress the tsunami of opposition. >> there are two things the administration hasn't really done yet. they haven't explained to the american people what it is exactly they want to do. all these constituents are hearing is war in syria and the reflex is, no, i don't want to do that. second, they haven't established or explained to people what happens after we strike. who does this benefit? how do we make sure we're not helping al qaeda by actually

doing this. and those are two questions they'll have to start to answer aggressively last week. >> now the congressional wisdom is it all can be solved by an oval office address. we'll go back to russia in a moment. we'll check with chuck todd again. as president obama gets ready to address the world's press. but first, the white house soup of the day. my all-time favorite. i call it the carvelle. also known as the ragin cajun gumbo. who gets the allstate safe driving bonus check. rock beats scissors! [ chuckles ] wife beats rock. and with two checks a year, everyone wins. [ female announcer ] switch today and get two safe driving bonus checks a year for driving safely. only from allstate. call 866-906-8500 now. [ dennis ] zach really loves his new camera. problem is...this isn't zach. it's a friend of a friend who was at zach's party and stole his camera. but zach's got it covered... with allstate renters insurance. [ female announcer ] protect your valuables for as low as $4 a month

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right now, in st. petersburg, russia, president's about to take the stage at the close of the g-20 summit. chuck todd is back with more from st. petersburg. we have learned about this 20-minute conversation that put be and obama had presumably

about syria. any news so far? >> that's right, and putin right now, he's still holding his press conference here. the president is probably going to start with some thought that he'd wait until putin was done. everybody's try to keep a tight schedule here. according to putin's version of events, it was a friendly conversation. there was -- they listened to each other's arguments on various issues they disagreed about. but they did so in a friendly manner. look, realistically, it would have been odd if they never did find 5, 10, 15 minutes to do a pull aside like that because it would have sent even more of a signal that relations are not good. of course, ambassador just admitted, they're not great, they're not making any progress. the question is, can they make progress? obviously, he's going to be peppered with questions about how is he going to deal with this in congress. how is he going to turn around the momentum which is clear lly

running against him right now on capitol hill. in the public polls. and whether he acknowledges that this is a challenge and whether he is thinking about any plan bs, plan cs or plan ds. clearly disappointed with the lack of new international support which is what they hope to get out of here. >> right, which deeply hurts them from their liberal frank. with one thing we heard from the congressman we just had on the show is this idea that the president has to sell this more effectively. is that the conventional wisdom now from the white house folks you talk to, that this can all be solved with one oval office address? >> well, that's -- whether it can be solved with that, thing it's a multipronged approach. the question is, if that's the minimum, you know, but what else could they do? this is both, now, an inside strategy and outside strategy. i think they understand the

risks. you see what they're doing in the sunday shows. dennis mcdonough now going out, chief of staff, on sunday, trying to lay out the next steps here. but it is -- they've put politi. considering what is going on. i think that they know it. the address is going to come. the question is whether it can be effective. do they have time, right? the longer this drags on, the worse it's going to get. they do want to try to have an ending, if you will here. if they don't get a vote out of the senate and house by wednesday or thursday of next week, my guess, they are going to stop trying. >> chuck, have they admitted now that perhaps they miscalculated this? >> i don't think they are ready to admit anything on that front. that's not -- they are usually talking about back seat driving themselves in the middle of what is a tough political situation.

i can tell you this. prime minister cameron and there are supporters of his in britain and take this with potentially the same sort of -- that he regrets, not just going and doing this, not, you know, basically doing the strikes first and then asking for forgiveness politically later. in hindsight that is where he is at. is that where the president is at? could be. but i thought that was an interesting hint in talking to our uk colleagues about where cameron is headed. >> there seems to be now from some discussions that president obama could have gone bill clinton in '98 and just launched in missiles and said you know what? we are sorry, but this had to be done per the national security. chuck, i'll ask you this. you're big on twitter. in the current medium environment, don't you think with the possibility of a government shutdown coming up, that could have almost washed over to some degree in the way in which people jump from one thing to another now, or would

that have hurt the president who has been very big on peace and limited political inventimilita? >> clearly, he has to have somebody behind him. he didn't get the uk or the arab league but he knew he had to get congress. that is the position they are in. i think they are literally 15 seconds away from starting so i am going to hang up and not be the rude guy in the front row. >> chuck todd right there showing some great cell phone etiquette. we will go to kasie hunt quickly before the president comes out. i want to ask you in terms of what we face here in the fall on capitol hill this seems to be -- there's a lot of issues you have to deal with, but to come out of syria into this idea of the government funding extension, the debt limit, just talk about the politics of this.

>> i mean, at this point, especially if this vote on syria doesn't go the president's way, he was already having trouble wra wrangling members of congress to do what he needs them to the at this point. i don't see a situation he is in a better negotiating position as he tries to raise the debt ceiling and deal with the issues we knew were going to dominate this fall. >> have republicans lost -- if the president can't move this forward and he is effectively a lame duck, how do republicans work with him after that at all? >> they don't. there is no real intention within the gop caucus to do anything to move this president's agenda to be cooperative. >> the president is live from st. petersburg, russia. >> the people of russia, thank you for hosting this g-10.

this city has a long and storied history, including his historic resistance and extraordinary sacrifices during the second world war, so i want to take this opportunity to salute the people of st. petersburg and express our gratitude for their outstanding hospitality. this summit marks another milestone in the world's recovery from the financial kris that erupted five years ago this month. instead of the looming threat of another financial meltdown, we are focused for the first time in many years on building upon the gains that we have made. for the first time in three years, instead of an urgent discussion to address the european financial crisis, we see a europe that has emerged from recession. moreover, the united states is a source of strength in the global economy. our manufacturing sector is rebounding. new rules of strength in our banks and reduced the chance of

another crisis were reducing our addiction to foreign oil and producing more clean energy. as we learned today over the past three and a half years, our businesses have created 7.5 million new jobs, a pace of more than 2 million jobs each year. we put more people back to work but we have also cleared away the rubble of crisis and laid the foundation for a stronger and more durable economic growth. we are also making progress and putting our fiscal house in order. our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years. as congress takes up important decisions in the coming month, i'll keep making the case for the smart investments and fiscal responsibility that creates our economy going and create jobs and keeps the u.s. competitive that includes making sure we don't risk a u.s. fault over paying bills we have already racked up. i'm determined that the world has confidence in the full faith and credit of the united states.

as the world's largest economy, our economy is helping to drive global growth and in the emerging markets in particular there can is a recognition that a strong u.s. economy is good if their economies too. yet, we came to st. petersburg mindful of the challenges as it remain. as it emerges from recession, europe has a focus to boost demand and reducing unemployment, as well as making some of the structural changes that can increase long-term growth. growth in emerging economies has slowed, so we need to make sure that we are working with them in managing this process. and i'm pleased that over the past two days, we have reached a consensus on how to proceed. we agree that our focus need to be on creating jobs and growth that put people back to work. we agreed on ways to encourage the investments and infrastructure that keep economies competitive.

nations agreed to continue pursuing financial reforms and to address tax evasion and tax avoidance which undermines budget and unfairly shifts the tax burden to other taxpayers. we are moving ahead with our development agenda, with the focus on issues like food security and combating corruption and i'm very pleased that the g-20 nations agreed to make faster progress on phasing down certain greenhouse gases a priority. that is an important step in our fight against climate change. during my trip, we also continued our efforts to advance two key trade initiatives. the transatlantic trade and investment partnership and the transpacific partnership area i believe if we move forward on the fronts i've described, we can keep the global economy growing and keep creating jobs for our people. of course, even as we focus on our shared prosperity, and although the primary task of the g-20 is to focus on our joint

efforts to boost the global economy. what i've been emphasizing and will continue to stress is that the assad's regime brazen use of chemical weapons isn't just a syrian tragedy. it's a threat to global peace and security. syria circulating use of chemical weapons threatens its neighbors, tirk, turkey, lebanon and jordan. it threatens the international norm against chemical weapons embraced by 189 nations and those nations represent 98% of the world's people. failing to respond to this breach of this international

norm would send a signal to rogue nations, athorouuthoritar regimes they cannot pay a consequence and that is the world we want to live in. this is why nations around the world have condemned syria for this attack and called for action. i've been encouraged by discussions with my fellow leaders this week. there is a growing recognition that the world cannot stand idly by. here at saints petersburg, leaders from europe, asia and the middle east came together to say the international norm against the use of qechemical weapons need to be upheld and there needs to be a strong consequence as a consequence. the arab league foreign ministers said regime is irresponsible and calls for the measures against the culprits of this crime. the organization that islamic

cooperation as general secretariat has called the attack a blatant front to all religious and normal values which require a decisive action. in the coming days i'll continue to consult with my fellow leaders around the world and continue to consult with congress, and i will make the best case that i can to the american people, as well as to the international community, for taking necessary and appropriate action. and i intend to address the american people from the white house on tuesday. the kind of world we live in and our ability to deter this kind of outrageous behavior, is going to depend on the decisions that we make in the days ahead. and i'm confident that if we deliberate carefully and choose wisely and embrace our responsibilities, we can meet the challenges of this moment, as well as those in the days ahead. so with that, let me take some questions. i've got