them apart, mika? >> i say "owen" and two boys walk up. >> disay something dirty? >> no. >> if it's way too early, it's time for "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. >> there it is, west point, the oldest continually occupied post in america. it's the setting for president obama's commencement speech today. we'll get a preview from secretary of state john kerry. plus we'll get a look at what edward snowden said in his exclusive sitdown and how he got access to classified material and what made him dump it out for the world to see. and say hello to some new tex a

exes. today we folks on foreign policy first. at west point the president plans to lay out his foreign policy in a speech to graduating cade cadets. the white house is calling this an internationalalist vision and says the president believes the u.s. has a unique role to play as the only nation capable of galvanizing collective international action. the president will say the right policy is interventionist and internationalalist but not isolationist or unilateral. call it diplomatic interventionist. it's clear that for obama, who has been a reluctant wartime president, the threat of force is much farther down the list of

options. next week the president travels to europe where he'll give a speech about the u.s. commitment to the continent. he'll do that in warsaw, in eastern europe. >> the president will also attend the g-7 summit in brussels. he'll also mark the 70th anniversary at d-day, of d-day at normandy honoring the u.s. veterans in the wake of the v.a. mess. >> i see firsthand the terrible wages of war. if i did not think that the security of the united states and the safety of the american people were at stake in afghanistan, i would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow. >> it's been four and a half

years since he gave that speech. and now after 12 years of combat, more than 2,300 americans killed, over 19,000 wounded in action, three quarters of a trillion dollars in military spending just for that country, ten medal of honor recipients and there's about to become an 11th, the president is playing out his exit strategy for america's longest war. >> america's combat mission will be over by the end of this year. starting next year, afghans will be fully responsible for securing their country. american personnel will be in an advisory role. we will no longer patrol afghan cities or towns, mountains or valleys. that is task for the afghan people. >> but there will be a significant u.s. military presence in the country for at least the next two years. currently there are 32,000 troops in afghanistan. the president's plan calls for a

drawndown of all the forces. the primary mission will simply be to train afghan security forces. the taliban is not named here, by the way. by the end of 2015, that presence will be cut in half, consolidating u.s. troops in kabul and bagram airfield and the president claims the number of troops will be down to about a thousand. essentially forces are reduced to a normal embassy presence with a security assistance office in kabul. the agreement the u.s. is signing with the afghan government means the next government does have the option to send in more troops if necessary. it's a ten-year agreement we're signing.

>> last year they tried to do it with hamid karzai. the talks fell apart the u.s. has received assurances from karzai successors that it will agree to the plan as it is now. now, the president did strike a note of realism yesterday about his announcement and what it means for the future of afghanistan. >> we have to recognize afghanistan will not be a perfect place, and it is not america's responsibility to make it one. the future of afghanistan must be decided by afghans. >> underscoring that point this morning, a u.s. council bureau was attacked in afghanistan. the u.s. embassy says two americans were lightly injured and are being treated at a hospital nearby.

incident is being investigated the president's speech is expected to counter the unrelenting criticism of his foreign policy that's taking place in congress. senators graham, mccain and ayotte called it a triumph of politics over policy. house armed services chairman buck mckeon who is retiring this year said holding this mission to an egg timer doesn't make a lick of sense strategically. >> the war on terror will not be won on the defensive we must take the battle to the enemy, confront his plans and thwart

them before they work. >> today on counterterrorism, the president will talk about how the threat has changed and how an effective u.s. strategy will adopt to combat al qaeda and decentralize threats and he'll lay out plans for a $5 billion partnership fund intended to train other nations to deal with troops. and what does the drawn down mean for counterterrorism efforts in, say, syria? the united states is considering expanding the covert option for the u.s. mission, training others to put boots on the ground. these are all questions the president will attempt to april dress today in his speech. joining me now, secretary of state john kerry. mr. secretary, good morning to you, sir. >> good morning, cluck.

how are you doing? >> i'm okay. let me just ask it this simple way, will we ever look back on the war in afghanistan and say america won it, it was successful? describe. >> i think our objective has been to give the afghans the ability to fight the war and ultimately determine its outcome. i think we're on the road to achieving the transition that the president set out as his policy. the president also, you know, from 2009 when he came in, there was no strategy being implemented in afghanistan. most of the focus, as you remember, was on iraq and resources have been cannibalized from afghanistan to go to iraq. so the president focused on afghanistan. he set time limits. he set a target for the afghans to take over security, they did. he set a target for them to

provide the security and implementation for election, they did. and now he's setting a target for them to assume full control of their military, trained and equipped. >> so when will we be able to say this was a success? do you think we'll look back on it -- is it tn years? when is it a fair time to judge whether this war was a success or failure? >> chris, i think the transition test will come at the end of 2006 and into 2017 as we go forward to see how well their military holds and what the situation is on the ground. but ultimately every american understands that we cannot determine this outcome for the afghans. afghans have to determine this for themselves. i think americans can be extraordinarily proud of the steps we have taken to give afghanistan that opportunity. and now it is really increasingly up to them. >> we signed a ten-year agreement. the president is talking about a

dramatic drawdown from 10,000 troops essentially in 2015, to about a thousand, which is about the same amount of troops in iraq right now, for embassy security, things like that. but there's eight more years on that agreement pmt and the next president, without authorization from congress or seeking permission from afghanistan could end up sending troops back in according to this agreement. am i reading that correctly? >> you are. the agreement does permit it and the agreement, we believe, will be signed by whoever is elected the next president of afghanist afghanistan. >> so we could have more troops in there in three years. the next president could say a thousand doesn't work, we're going to go up to 15. >> no, you would have to to wait to see what the next president is and what the policy is. none of us should be

prognosticating what the nbs president will do. we will provide assistance to the afghans to help them able to make their best determination about their own future but we cannot want this outcome more than they do. they have to determine their future and i think americans can be proud of everything that we have done with extraordinary sacrifices by our oldiers, diplomats, others over the last years to give afghans this possibility. >> well, you can't end a war until you also rescind the authorization congress has given the president of the united states and it's the authorization in 2001, the sort of very open ended -- i know there has been some initial discussion about how do you get us off of this war footing, what is the new legislation in congress, where are we in this and is this going to happen before you guys leave office? >> i have no way of predicting what this congress will or won't do next week, let alone in a month. >> but is the administration going to ask -- are they going to provide a this is what we

think the postwar authorization should look like that allows for some counterterrorism operations and things like that? >> of course we will work very, very closely with congress and in consultation with them to determine what the best way forward is. if people feel that the best thing to do is change that that, will be subject to that consultation. but for the moment the president is really trying to lay out his vision and his agenda on a global basis for how we are going to use resources that were, in many ways exsenseively focused in afghanistan and begin to use them more effectively -- today the president will nons a counterterrorism partnership fund which will amount to about $5 billion where we will work with lebanon, with turkey, with iraq, with jordan and others in

the maghreb in order to do a better job of being able to country rise of increasing numbers of terrorist groups that are really permenting disorder and instability in places where we need to do better. >> let me ask you -- >> i'm sorry, go ahead. >> let me ask it this way. is it time we get off a war footing? and if it is, shouldn't we rescind this authorization from congress, the congressional authorization? is it time to rescind that authorization? >> as we move out of afghanistan, if we are not engaged in that kind of activity, obviously we should transition. but i don't think that's at critical as actually implementing the policy we need to implement, which the president will lay out today at west point in the graduation speech where he will lay out what we do need to do in various parts of the world. i don't think that's going to be affected one way or the other by

this authorization, frankly. >> let me turn quickly to syria. the policy of this administration has been assad has to go. what part of american policy supports -- what are you going to do to implement something to support that ultimate goal? and is that still the ultimate administration goal here, which is assad has to go? >> well, we don't believe -- in fact none of the group of the 11 nations that have been principally involved in supporting the on circumstance all of your gulf states, turkey, european states, germany, italy, france, britain and the united states together, all of them believe assad cannot possibly lead syria in the future because he has no credibility or legitimacy and there's no way the fight will go stop while assad is there. so the answer is that in the

recent meeting in london, which took place among those 11 nations, they all agreed to step up their efforts, to increase the support to the opposition, increasing terrorism as a result of assad playing ftse with some of them and attracting others to cause, the fact is that assad is the greatest mag nent -- he remains a serious destationizatidestatio destabilization factor. the president is determined to increase our efforts to have an impact on that outcome. >> secretary kerry, i appreciate your time. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> stay with us. find out what secretary kerry has to say about edward snowden. it's a pretty fiery response.

i'll have that right after the break. and we'll have preview of the nbc news exclusive, a sitdown with edward snowden. brian williams spent hours with one. most wanted men in the world. he talks to the man that was responsible for the most staggering leak of american intelligence secrets in the modern era. the snowden issues airs at 10:00 p.m. local on your local nbc station. and west point graduation is today. those are not kids, they are young soldiers. music stops ♪music resumes

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whether you consider him a traitor or a patriot, 30-year-old edward snowden has already gone down in history for the largest theft of intelligence data in modern u.s. history. it was one year ago that classified intelligence documents illegally downloaded by snowden began showing up in the media. in an exclusive interview with nbc's brian williams, snowden describes his work for the government that gave him access to this critical data. >> were you trained as a spy? it seems to me spies probably look a lot more like edward snowden and a lot less like james bond these days. >> well, it's no secret that the u.s. tends to get more and better intelligence out of computers nowadays than they do out of people. i was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the

word in that i lived and worked undercover, overseas, pretending to work in the job that i'm not and even being assigned a name that was not mine. but i am a technical specialist. i am a technical expert. i don't work with people. i don't recruit agents. what i do is a put systems to work for the united states. and i've done that at all levels from the bottom of the ground all the way to the top. well, the government may say, well, he's a low-level analyst but what they're trying to do is they're trying to use one position that i've had in a career here or there to distract from the totality of my experience, which is that i've worked for the central intelligence agency undercover overseas, i've worked for the national security agency undercover overseas and i worked for the defense intelligence agency as a lecturer at the joint counterintelligence training academy where i

developed sources and methods for keeping our information and people secure in the most hostile and dangerous environments around the world. so when they say i'm a low-level systems administrator, they've don't know what i'm talking about, i'd say it's somewhat misleading. >> the government says snowden may have accessed approximately 1.7 million computerized documents. but the scope of his theft is still somewhat unclear. glenn greenwald says he was been f -- given tens of thousands of documents. and intelligence leaders say the fallout from the revelation is widespread, that it's put lives at risk and given enemies valuable information. >> terrorists and other adversaries of this country are

going to school on u.s. intelligence sources, methods and trade craft and the insights they are gaining are making our job much, much harder. >> in june 2013, snowden was charged with espionage. >> what are you doing in russia? >> so this is a really fair concern. i personally am surprised that i ended up here. the reality is i never intended to end up in russia. i had a flight booked to cuba, onwards to latin america and i was stopped because the united states government decided to revoke my passport and trap me in moscow airport. so when people ask why are you in russia, i say, please, ask the state department. >> as part of my conversation with secretary kerry earlier

this morning, i did ask him about edward snowden and now he -- how he's changed the way the u.s. intelligence community does business. do you believe weed be having the discussion we're having about privacy, a public debate that we're having now without the edward snowden disclosures? >> i'm confident we would be having it because the president of the united states personally made a commitment to try to deal with the issue of privacy, has felt very concerned about america's posture with respect to not just privacy but also secrecy and has undertaken to try to address it. >> you don't think edward snowden deserves any credit for this? >> would it have risen to quite the level, chuck? no, obviously he's put on the table a greater degree of insight than would have existed, but that doesn't mean the debate wouldn't have taken place. but more importantly, much more importantly, what he's done is hurt his country. what he's done is expose for

terrorists a lot of mechanisms which now affect operational security of those terrorists and make it harder for the united states to break up plots, harder to protect our nation. if this man is a patriot, he should stay in the united states and make his case. patriots don't go to russia, they don't seek asylum in cuba, they don't seek asylum in venezuela. they fight their cause here. there are many a patriot. you go back to the pentagon papers with those who stood with the court system of america and made their case. edward snowden is a coward, he is a traitor and he has betrayed his country. if he wants to come home tomorrow to face the music, he can do so. >> joining me is the former director of the national counterterrorism council. a year later can you really say what the extent of the damage --

the government claims there's been a lot of damage done by these snowden leaks. there's been a lot of embarrassing political damage and diplomacy being damatic dam you talk about operational damage? the government talks about it and what we ask for it, they never say. >> it's very difficult for the government to say, look, these terrorists are now communicating more effectively because of what edward snowden exposed. because what are you telling people in that case? what they did was really good and now we have less of an idea what they're doing. i think the u.s. government has identified very concrete aspect of what has been released which make it more difficult for them to collect. terrorists and other groups are now communicating in ways that the u.s. government used to be able to listen to and they can't now. it doesn't mean we won't be able to in the future but it does mean at least for some period and some additional investment,

it's going to be hard to get that back. >> is it fair to say he could have caused even more damage and that the u.s. government should say maybe he's not a traitor? >> honestly, chuck, i'm not that worried about whether he's a traitor or a hero. i am more worried about the information he stole. the fact is he still could do a lot more damage and he may not have the information anymore. now news madia may. but if other information comes out, it could still do -- >> but it's been less damages than feared a year ago because of what he hasn't released. >> i think that's right. i think there's a lot of potential damage to be had there. we're obviously having the fallout of reshaping this legislation, which may not be a bad thing. >> the president is giving a big speech in about an hour about the different terrorist threats. essentially we're seeing

afghanistan is not the safe haven that it was. is the biggest terrorism threat in the world to the united states sitting now in syria? >> absolutely. in my view, syria is almost as bad as afghanistan was pr pre- 9/11. we have as many americans who have traveled to syria to fight with the opposition than we ever saw go to pakistan, afghanistan -- >> this is what makes it difficult. when you say afghanistan, i'm thinking afghanistan 1988, which is they're fighting on the side that america's on, oddly enough, right? >> syria has now become such a melting pot of violence going in both directions. so we obviously want assad out and some of the people fighting assad -- >> they're the most dangerous ones. the people fighting on the side to get rid of assad are considered the most dangerous terror threats as far as the u.s. is concerned.

>> that's right. we've now let syria go down this road of terrorism and instability that now it's too late. >> i think what we've learned from a variety of terrorist front around the world, if we are just on the defense, things will get through. we have to be on the offense. that was a lesson that president bsh experienced and that president obama has also adopted. i think we're going to have to be more effective against some of these threats. >> thank you, sir. appreciate your perspective. you can hear more, by the way, from edward snowden, the whole thing tonight on the identify nbc night live news" on an hour-long primetime special airing on your local nbc station

at 10:00 p.m. >> well, all my exes live in texas what the tea party triumph means there. but first, tdr trivia. first person to tweet the correct answer will get the on-air shout out. the answer is coming up on tdr. ♪ ♪fame, lets him loose, hard to swallow♪ ♪fame, puts you there where things are hollow♪ the evolution of luxury continues. the next generation 2015 escalade. ♪fame

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honestly, the off-season isn't i've got a lot to do. that's why i got my surface. it's great for watching game film and drawing up plays. it's got onenote, so i can stay on top of my to-do list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. with skype, it's just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. alright, russell you are good to go! alright, fellas. alright, russ. back to work! some sad breaking news this morning. the renowned poet and novelist maya angelou has died. her autobiography discussed her encounters with racial discrimination while growing up in the south. the book brought her

international recognition. she was on multiple commissions for presidents ford, carter, busch and clinton. >> best selling author, prolific poet -- >> i wrote this peace for every human being on earth. >> and so much more. she was an activist, educator, a three-time grammy winner nominated for an emmy, and a tony for her ground breaking role in "roots." >> you can stumble and fall and fail and yet somehow miraculously rise and go on. >> reporter: born in st. louis, missouri in 1928, her childhood was marked by sexual abuse.

traumatized, she refused to speak for six years, a story she told in "i know why the caged bird sings." her first break as a singer came in the 1960s. she was committed to bridging differences, working alongside both malcolm x and dr. martin luther king. >> i want to see some honesty and fair play. i want to see kindness and justice. >> she made poetry cool in the movies, and was only the second poet in history invited to compose an inaugural poem. >> on the cusp of this new day you may look up and out and say simply, with hope, good morning. >> she treated the world as her classroom.

♪ let it shine, let it shine, everywhere i go, i'm going to let it shine ♪ shine, america. >> oprah called her a mother-sister friend. >> she was one of the greatest influences in my life. >> she's inspired thousands of others who have encountered injustice in their lives. >> look heavenly and speak the word aloud, peace. we look at ourselves and then to each other and speak the word aloud, peace, my brother, peace my sister, peace my soul. peace. >> rehema ellis, nbc news, new york. >> born in st. louis, missouri,

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well, if it's wednesday, it means somebody voted somewhere and we have some results to bre break down. it's the end of an error for lieutenant governor david duherst and robert hall. the biggest take warp is it's the lone star bright spot for the republicans. this is ted cruz's texas and could be pushed to the right. meet dan patrick, conservative radio host and founder of the tea party caucus, he won the

runoff with a whopping 65% of the vote against david duwurst. if he wins the general, he will behold the most powerful seat in the texas state senate and state politics in general, which makes some republicans nervous, especially since patrick won largely by talking tough on things like illegal immigration. on the other hand, democrats believe me have a real opening to win their first statewide seat since 1992. democrats believe they'll look back on the runoff yesterday for the state's number two job as a turning point. yesterday's elections also marked the first loss for an incumbent member of congress. 91-year-old republican ralph hall lost his seat to former u.s. attorney john ratcliff, 53-47.

hall is the lone remaining world war ii veteran in congress. next cycle we will have no more world war ii veterans in congress. but democrats shouldn't rejoice just yet. david alameel defeated kesha rogers. alameel mr. face senator john cornyn in the big election. cornyn will be the favorite. >> then there was kinky friedman, who lost his bid to insurance agent jim hogan. the texas democratic party has still a long way to go if they think they're going to turn that state blue. a live picture of west point. we're just a few minutes away at president obama's arrival there and his commencement speech

there. but first, today's tdr 50 soup of the day comes to us from b g bingham's restaurant in lenox, pennsylvania. the president stopped there to buy some pie but they also make soup. the soup today is italian wedding. it's sort of like minestrone. you just put anything in it. i'm going to get you your rental car. this is so ridiculous. we're going to manage your entire repair process from paperwork to pickup, okay, little tiny baby? your car is ready, and your repairs are guaranteed for as long as you own it. the progressive service center -- a real place, where we really manage your claim from start to finish. really. ♪ easy as easy can be bye! i travel a lot for business, and it's hard to leave these two. mom! my llama smells like you. i use tide plus febreze in the wash. it keeps their clothes and stuffed animals smelling fresher for longer. when are you coming home? just one more night.

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the highest military ranking officer. renowned poet and novelist maya angelou has died. she was a producer, she starred in films, was on stage, worked

closely with dr. martin luther king. and at whack forest, she served at the reynolds professor of american study since 1982. our thoughts and prayers are with dr. angelou's families and friends at this difficult time. we thought we would share with you what i thought was probably among her biggest moments where everybody in marketgamerica got understand the greatness behind maya angelou. she was asked to deliver a poem at president clinton's inauguration in 1993. here it is. >> today i call you to my riverside if you study war no more. come clad in peace and i will sing the songs the creator gave to me when i and the tree and

the rock were within, before cynicism was a bloody sear across your brow and when you yet knew you still knew nothing. the river sang and sings on. oh, larry. she thinks i'm crazy. mm-hmm. but would a crazy person save 15% on car insurance in just 15 minutes? [ chuckles ] [ male announcer ] 15 minutes for a quote is crazy. with esurance, 7½ minutes could save you on car insurance. welcome to the modern world. esurance. backed by allstate. click or call. [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees.

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we are 20 minutes away from president obama's commencement address at west point and it is going to be more than that of course. he has just arrived at the stadium but two huge military issues are looming. first the massive withdrawal of troops from afghanistan by 2016. west point has lost 96 alums in iraq or afghanistan since 2001, and the president is expected to detail a strategy to derail wider terrorist threats across the middle east and africa. and whether he chooses to address it or not, you cannot say that the veterans affair

scandal is looming as allegations of covering up by officials is loom iing. tonight, three top the officials are asked to testify, and if they don't, they will be subpoenaed. the cadets will become officers when they graduate. but some of the cadets said that the army has changed dramatically since they first enrolled in west point. >> when we decided to commission, we had no vision of how long the conflict or how intense the conflict would get, and now that we are seeing an end of the conflict right at the time that we are about to commission into the army is a different army than we expected. >> i think that we are probably going to be shifting into more smaller scale operations, big focus on technology, so we will really use that to adapt and

shift our focus. >> and joined now by msnbc military analyst retired army colonel jack jacobs and doing the quick math, the cadets that you are speaking to today, they weren't teenagers on 9/11. >> yeah, of the one i talked to was only 8 years old on 9/11 and he can remember the incident, but he could not remember what its significance was, but he does now. they are going into the army that is very much different than the way it was before 9/11 and certainly one that was different in the last decade. it is going to be the smallest army that we have had since the beginning of the world war ii, heavily reliant on technology, and less reliant on the people, and there are plenty of observers who believe that it may not be necessarily the right way to approach the world wide responsibilities. and they are also joining an army at the time when we have a

will -- will have a large number of troops around the world and trying to make inroads into others, and a tough world for them to operate in. >> and the president will not discuss direct ly the future of the u.s. army is, but when you think of the army, you think of ground troops and you think that these are the guys and the gals on the front lines of any potential future threat, a ground war, and yet, what the president is going to outline today is a foreign policy that really doesn't ever plan to use ground troops in the foreseeable future, so what is the future of the u.s. army? what role does it play? >> well, it is a fair question. the army is supposed to do is to directly relate d to the strategic swrigs of the -- strategic vision of the united states. and in different areas of the world. a lot of critics are saying that

the national command authority has not articulated that internally in the halls of power so that the military establishment can put itself together to achieve them. so having this strategic vision does not seem to be the administration's strong suit which is going to cause a problem down the road as the world is changing dramatically. and the second important point of the army in particular, there is an old adage that it is easier to take an objective than it is to hold on to it. we are taking thing a lot of small objectives around the world including in africa, and whether or not we can hold on to them is a different story altogether. >> hey, quickly, how is morale in the army these days? >> excellent, and hard to believe in the circumstances after a decade, more than a decade at war. lots of losses, and it does not look like we had much focus and the military establishment is smaller and smaller, and lots of financial pressures and yet, the attitude of these kids is just

absolutely through the moon. >> in some ways a nice morale boost for you, too, colonel jacobs at west point to hear the president's speech. >> it s. >> and i know that we will see you later on in the day giving your perspective on what the president is outlining and the picture next to you, colonel jacobs, that we are showing the view ers is the president's motorcade and we will hear from him in a matter of minutes. thank you, colonel jacobs. viewers, be patient because we will get taped web specials because we couldn't get in everything that we wanted to get in, and so you can follow the show's twitter feed or my twitter feed to know everything that is going on, and what is coming up next is the president's live speech. the moment is right. cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines,

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