future law firm both lose their races in new york. and the iphone gets cheaper, gets more colorful but it means you'll actually -- who doesn't already have one? that's another question. this is "way too early." good morning, everything. brian shactman here. it is wednesday, september 11th, 2013. the 12th anniversary of the attacks on the twin towers as we all take a moment to think about certain things. for me i always go back to where i was and what i was doing at the time and want you to look at this image from david dusek from "golf" magazine. he took it from seat 12f on a plane over new york city last night. of course, those lights representing the twin towers. we will have coverage of obviously all day on this including ahead on "morning joe" and talk more on 9/11 but we

begin with today's news and president obama addressing the nation on syria. the president asking congress to postpone a vote on striking syria as a possible deal for them to hand over its chemical weapons gained traction and condemned them laying out the time line and making it clear he believes assad is responsible. >> no one disputes that chemical weapons were used in syria. the world saw thousands of videos, cell phone pictures and social media accounts from the attack. and humanitarian organizations told stories of hospitals packed with people who had symptoms of poison gas. moreover we know the assad regime was responsible. >> acknowledging war fatigue after afghanistan and iraq, the president repeated no boots on the ground and a limited operation. but president obama also answered the question of what the day after military strikes

would look like saying he'd restart diplomatic efforts. diplomacy took a dramatic turn yesterday if you were following the news. syria accepted russia's suggestion it relinquish hundreds of tons of chemical weapons. >> we believe that when we exit this proposal, this mean we put an end to the war and we put our truck in syria on a peaceful solution. >> the assad regime acknowledging for the very first time they have chemical weapons. something he would not do just days earlier. so a few specific questions remain over whether the assad regime would really comply and the daunting logistics as you might imagine of pulling unstable material out of what's quite honestly a brutal war zone. the president's response to the plan was tepid. >> over the last few days we've seen some encouraging signs.

in part because of the credible threat of u.s. military action as well as constructive talks that i had with president putin, the russian government has indicated a willingness to join with the international community in pushing assad to give up his chemical weapons. the assad regime has now admitted that it has these weapons and even said they joined the chemical weapons convention which prohibits their use. it's too early to tell whether this offer will succeed. and any agreement must verify that the assad regime keeps its commitments. but this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force. particularly because russia is one of assad's strongest allies. >> but if the president does try to go ahead with strikes he still has some ground to gain with domestic audience. polls showing he has failed to convince the public of a need to intercede and a barrage of statements from lawmakers afterwards showed most of them were unmoved or favored

diplomacy. senator rand paul went a step further in characterizing what a u.s. strike on syria would mean. >> 12 years after we were attacked by al qaeda, 12 years after 3,000 americans were killed by al qaeda, president obama now asks us do be allies with al qaeda. >> secretary of state john kerry will head to geneva thursday to meet with his russian counterpart for a shot at avoiding u.s. military involvement i want to bring in casey hunt. the president had something for everyone in the speech, russia, allies, even members of both parties, rand paul notwithstanding, take a listen. >> to my friends on the right i ask you to reconcile your commitment to america's military might with a failure to act when a cause is so plainly just. to my friends on the left, i ask you to reconcile your belief in freedom and dignity for all people. with those images of children

writhing in pain and going still on a cold hospital floor. for sometime s resolutions and statements of condemnation are simply not enough. >> the first question, did the speech move the needle at all. >> i think the question from lawmakers is still where exactly is president obama trying to put the needle. the biggest criticism coming off the hill that i've been hearing from lawmakers over the course of this week is that the president doesn't have a strategy. it's all over the map. it's a muddle. i talked to a number of senators who came out of the meeting saying that really he was urging them to delay this vote and the reality of that is that he just didn't have the votes. the longer this dragged on, the worse it was getting for him and it's going to take a few days for this speech to settle into the national consciousness and a way for members to get a good sense of whether or not the president convinced americans

that it's important for the united states to act here, but at this point, the support is just not there. >> right. you talk about things dragging on. do you have any sense from the people you talked to if they do try to work with russia and syria on this, is this going to take months? i mean it seems the longer we drag it out the more difficult it is but they can't exactly do this in a week. >> exactly. the momentum has really sort of -- the balloon on capitol hill for this has deflated and while there is a group of members who are working on a version of this resolution that would require the u.n. to act that would require syria to give up its weapons but that would authorize the president to use force in the event that that didn't happen, those discussions are still ongoing but at this point there's no horizon for a vote. we have no sense of whether or not the senate will push forward with that. i mean the president has asked congress to keep up the pressure. he says that's a key part of any diplomatic solution, but even compared to how slowly congress normally moves diplomacy is

typically an even slower process. >> discuss quickly, tight on time. if there had to be a vote this week or next, how ugly would it have been? >> it would have been extraordinarily ugly for the president and that's a big part of while he didn't necessarily say it explicitly in that meeting according to sources, there was definitely a tone in the room that said, hey, i really need you to not hand me defeat right now. >> all right, kasie hunt, thanks for getting up early with us. >> thanks, brian. all right, today on a somber note, as well along with syria, we, of course, mark 12 years since the attacks of september 11th. today's ceremony on the two-year-old memorial plaza relative also read the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died when hijacked jets crashed into the world trade center, the pentagon and crashed near shanksville, pennsylvania. we will be honoring the anniversary with special coverage during "morning joe." willie geist will be in lower manhattan with an inside look at the 9/11 museum and mark the time of the attacks with moments of silence as well as look at some much the coverage of the

attacks as they happened 12 years ago and i know for myself any time that stuff is on television, it's like you just sit down and you watch it. it's just -- it's still chilling to this day obviously for all of us. some other news to get to on this wednesday morning. two disgraced democrats looking for political redemption in new york city waking up wondering what is next for their careers. former congressman anthony weiner coming up short in his bid to be new york city's mayor. he finished in fifth place in the democratic primary. who won? bill de blasio, the city's public advocate. he might have more than the 40% of the vote that would avoid a runoff against bill thompson. thompson, though, has not conceded. in his victory speech promised a sharp turn away from mayor michael bloomberg's policy sdmrgs tonight, before so many friends, i say this, what we have achieved here tonight and what we'll do in the next round of this campaign won't just

change the view of how things look inside city hall, but will change the policies that have left behind so many of our fellow new yorkers outside of city hall. [ applause ] >> on the republican side, joe lhota won his primary. meanwhile, former governor eliot spitzer, he got thumbs down from voters for this race for the city comptroller. scott stringer scoring the victory there. a major victory for gun right supporters to tell you about in a battle that pitted michael bloomberg against the national rifle association. two colorado democrats were kicked out of office in a recall election. the two state senators provided crucial support for a tough, new gun control law. the nra said the election sends a clear message to lawmakers. they should protect gun rights and be accountable to their con sit weapons not to anti-gun billionaires.

a swipe against mayor bloomberg who contributed $350,000 to the anti-recall campaign. both state legislators voted for have-round limits on ammunition magazines. of course, after the 2012 mass shootings in aurora and the school shooting in newtown, connecticut. the s&p on a six-day streak of gains, all three indices finished in positive territory. the dow firmly above that 15,000 level. now geoff cutmore live in london for us. >> good morning to you. this is a fascinating story. just away from the market numbers here but something i guess a lot of us have suspected that the rich have just got richer through the recovery. a couple of economists have crunched the numbers. 10% of income earners in the united states now take away more than 50% of total income and if you break that down even further

and start drilling into the billionaires and the really high earners, 1% take a fifth of the income in the united states. and they have only continued to see an improvement in their earnings as we've gone through this crisis. so the rich get richer, money attracts money. here's an interesting story. latest mpg numbers on car sales in the u.s. we are up at a mighty and i wince when i see this, 24.9 miles per gallon. and that is a record high in the united states. my subcombat does more than 50. the white house target is what 54.aso i guess you guys will get there in the end but that's an improvement of where you've come from. >> got to take a swipe at our fuel efficiency. that's fine. apple, the new iphones are out. what are the takeaways, positive, neutral, what. >> you watch the markets.

it was a 2% decline i think on apple's stock after the announcement. there had been some buy-in ahead of but people were, you know what, the 5s which is the high-tech version got some fingerprint t.j., slightly faster chip and obviously we've got a better camera but $549, that's still a pricey phone. and didn't move us very much further down the road on the technology and the cheaper version, the 5c which is the colorful one, well, some people think it still isn't cheap enough to really make it the emerging market phone of choice here. so i would just say a little bit of a measured response. how about you? what did you think? >> i mean i've been waiting for the 5 because i don't have an iphone yet. i'm still using my blackberry so if the cam is decent i'll take the plug. my photos absolutely stink. geoff, thank you very much. apple's classic, you know, buy the rumor sell the news type

thing. geoff mentioned fingerprint technology on the new iphone, kind of cool. maybe not a game changer so we want to know what feature do you want on your next phone? what would really make it sing for you that you would buy that over anything else? your best tweets with the #w #waytooearly. big night for usa soccer. and jimmy fallon welcomes a special guest to run through the best touchdown dances in nfl history that story to check on when we come right back. >> we have a breaking news story to tell you about. apparently a plane has just crashed into the world trade center here in new york city. it happened just i few moments ago. we have very little information available. at this point in time.

good job!

still running in the morning? yeah. getting your vegetables every day? when i can. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. two full servings of vegetables for only 50 delicious calories. you raise her spirits. we tackled your shoulder pain. you make him rookie of the year. we took care of your cold symptoms. you take him on an adventure. tylenol® has been the number 1 doctor recommended brand of pain reliever for over 20 years. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®.

[ female announcer ] at 100 calories, not all food choices add up. some are giant. some not so giant. when managing your weight, bigger is always better. ♪ ho ho ho ♪ green giant "i" formation! "i" formation! we have got to get the three-technique block! i'm not angry. i'm not yellin'. nobody's tackling anybody! we got absolutely... i don't think this was such a good idea. i'm on it. if we can't secure the quarterback center exchange... you're doing a great job, coach. well they're coming along better than i anticipated. very pleased. who told you to take a break? [ male announcer ] want to win your own football fantasy?

just tell us. then use your visa card for a chance to win it. let's start with soccer. why not. u.s. men's national team playing mexico. an awesome crowd in columbus, ohio. and one of the early heroes here is tim howard. an absolute onslaught by mexico early on. made huge saves. u.s. got goals from eddie johnson and right here that tap-in by landon donovan and n win-0 and are officially into the world cup. i love the slide. i like the airplane too. i don't know if i like the airplane better than the slide but i like the airplane too. >> the slide. >> no, i can't. i'll probably skin a knee and be on the dl for a month. nbc sport, die want to go to brazil. the nfl finding the lie ons suh 100,000 bucks for this

block. see the shadow. that could end somebody's career. it's the sixth fine of his career and one of the largest in nfl history, a lot think he got off easy. walkoff home run in baseball for dodger pinch hitter scott van slyke. we were talk talks about his dad andy van slyke talking about the pirate teams from the early '90s that won games. that was a two-run shot to win it and beat the diamondbacks 5-3 and they are walking into the postseason. the bronx bombers ended a six-game losing streak. soriano, two home runs. tie break. unbelievable. that one broke the tie in eighth. ya yanks, win, 7-5 and sox had clay buchholz come back and won 2-0 so the wild card race shrinking as the -- >> there's like five or six teams. kansas city still has a chance, the royals in here's hoping it's the orioles, the royals or the

rays or -- >> one of those little -- >> one of those little engines that could. a hurricane formed an hour ago and waited all season long for it in the middle of the atlantic or even eastern atlantic. no concerns but this is hurricane humberto. only a footnote in the history books because it took so long for the first one of the season. this will be harmlessly out there call aid fish storm not affecting any land. this morning air conditioners were going all night long. it is 79 in chicago, 78 in new york. overnight lows as warm as they get, it'll be a hot day. it's like summer. very humid, oppressive humidity from the northeast all the way down through the southeast. but relief is on the way and by the time we get to the weekend even the southeast is going to cool off. brian, this is a warm, warm day. mid-90s pretty much -- >> will that hurt the apples in the northeast. >> they'll be fine. they won't cook on the trees. >> thank you very much, bill. he always gets a little jab at

my questions. coming up at the top of the hour breaking down the president's prime time address to the nation. did he convince lawmakers and a skeptical public that action against syria is necessary. john meech chum. cokie roberts, on set, nbc and we around the cooler. you may not like her dance moves or tongue or much of anything she's done in the last couple of year, miley cyrus' social media strategy is unbelievable. she broke records yesterday. we'll give you details with we come back. ♪ all you ever did was break me ♪ ♪ i came in like a wrecking ball ♪ ♪ yeah i just closed my eyes

♪ at the top of the show we talked about president obama's address to the nation last night. if you want to sound smart tell your friends this marked obama's ninth primetime address. you know who olds the record? i'll give you two seconds of silence. what's on the screen. ronald reagan had 29 speech as cross his two terms. maybe they're doing their hair and weren't looking. leave me alone. it's a wednesday. all right. over to louis with the cooler. >> the most high-profile of anthony weiner's online mistresses continues to stretch her 15 minutes of fame.

sydney leathers tried to show up and might him for the first time. then he was caught sexting with leather using the alias carlos danger. while she didn't get to meet him she passed a message along. i think he should focus on getting sex therapy and maybe not running for public office. miley cyrus just can't stop. ♪ i came in like a wrecking ball ♪ ♪ i never -- ♪ all i wanted was -- >> her brand-new video just smashed vivo's record for the most viewed ever in the first 24 hours. how many people watched it? 12.3 million. that trounces one direction's best song ever which came in with nearly 11.1 million views. miley promised to release the full song to her new album after it broke the record. she kept that promise with a surprise.

she'll be teaming up with britney spears on a song which is pretty exciting. now, you know, the nfl season is under way and football fever is definitely going around. i know i have it. jimmy fallon brought in a special guest to help him through some of his favorite touchdown dances. take a look. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ >> i love the manti te'o on a date. i'm going to use that one. if you have a super bowl sunday party and you can't decide between having a pizza or having a burger, you don't have to anymore. get a load of this latest food creation called the pizza burger. boston's restaurant and sports bar released it at 40 locates an the country. pepperoni pizza that's wrapped around a bacon cheeseburger then cooked like a calzone. >> a burger calzone. >> the sandwich has more than 1300 calories, brian, and it's no blitz box but that -- >> telling you -- >> i personally -- it looks delicious but i'll do my mika. >> no, you can't give a disapproving face to that. >> come on. louis, just go away. >> that's not very nice, brian. >> still ahead on "way too early," the iphone announcement, what you want to see in your next phone. back in two minutes. is really made of cheese?

[ crisp crunches ] whoo-hoo-hoo! guess it was. [ male announcer ] pringles, bursting with more flavor. he was a matted messiley in a small cage. ng day. guess it was. so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. from contractors and doctors to dog sitters and landscapers, you can find it all on angie's list. we found riley at the shelter, and found everything he needed at angie's list.

join today at angieslist.com we got some great responses

for what your next phone should have as a feature. natalie, what do you have. >> one of my pet peeves too. i love my next phone to correct grammatical errors on [ music playing ] . >> i'd ask every member of congress and those of you watching at home tonight to view those videos of the attack and then ask, what kind of world would we live in if the united states of america sees a brazen dictator violently g