that one dealing with the president's deferred action for childhood arrivals program. tension is so high that nbc's frank thorp filmed this vine thursday of gop rep donald young twisting the arm of a house aide who was trying to direct him to use a different door to enter a gop conference meeting. congressman young has since apologized. luke russert joins me live from capitol hill. luke, it is looking like they might have arrived at a deal. then again, we thought that yesterday too. >> well, that's right, krystal. however, why house gop leadership aides have more confidence today is just like the individuals you showed. folks like steve king, lui luis gohmert. what's it going to look like later today? the house is going to do two votes. they're going to have one vote on a $694 million bill.

that will give money to the national guard, strengthen the border. they'll change the 2008 human trafficking law so it makes children from central america easier to deport, not giving them the due process aforforded under that law. number two, though, is fascinating. this is something that got a lot of attention. daca, which the president moved forward in 2012, which allowed dreamers here to stay in the united states, the house is going to vote to withhold federal funding of daca. on top of that, try and limit the president's ability to deal with executive actions on anything pertaining to immigration and illegals. the language is still being crafted as we speak. they've not gone to the rules committee. this has not been moved forward yet to the house floor. the clock is ticking. they said they're going to stay here until they get it done. they all want to go home and start their recess. so we'll see. but the big news is that they're going to take a vote on daca, krystal, which one democratic aide told me this will be one we have in our campaign commercial

library for a very, very long time. >> oh, that's nice they'll have that talking point there. luke, quickly, did you get any explanation over that language we got from house republican leaders saying essentially they wanted the president to act outside of congress on immigration? >> yeah, i think they would be the first to tell you that was probably a bogey on their part, one they would like to have back. what they were trying to basically say is that the president has the constitutional tools at his disposal to act unilaterally if he wants. there's no mistaking it. folks like tom cole, a representative from oklahoma, said it looked foolish, especially after they voted wednesday to move forward with the lawsuit on wednesday. so they are right. the president does have the tools at his disposal if he wanted to act unilaterally in an executive manner, which he'll probably end up doing in august because congress can't get their act together. but to put those so closely

together, i think they'd be the first to say if they could do that over again, they probably would not have worded that statement the way they did. >> not only have the lawsuit, but also having the vote against his previous executive actions. but luke, a reality check. none of these bills are actually going to become law, which is part of what makes this so much of the theater of the absurd. they're arguing over the little technical details of something that is not even going to become law in this nation. >> and i think that's something that's very important that people have to know. but what is important regarding this is it does give us an idea of where the house gop stands on these issues. oftentimes they'll say a lot of things but we're never able to quantify it. we'll now have the language and be able to scrub it. all that being said, though, when you look at it from a procedural process, how did they not see this coming yesterday? they had to move the bill so far to the right to get people like steve king on board. couldn't you have seen this further out?

a lot of members have complained to me, look, they should have seen this coming so we would not have been embarrassed like we were yesterday. this is the new w.h.i.p. and majority leader. they have to stay around here and move the bill further to the right. it won't become law, but it does give us an idea where they stand not only on the border crisis but daca. the daca thing is big. that was popular with latinos. one latino representative, luis gutierrez, said today that if you do this to one of us, you do it to all of us. that's something we expect democrats to push a lot. >> wow. new leadership, same old problems it seems. luke russert, thank you so much. angela rye is a political strategist. mercedes strap is a republican strategist and former spokesperson for president george w. bush. ladies, thank you so much for joining me. mercedes, i'd love to talk to you about what luke was just speaking to, the importance of this vote that they're reported to be taking on daca,

essentially saying we opposed president's action on that front of allowing people who are brought here as children to stay in the country. do you think that does have a longer-term impact on the gop brand with latinos? >> you know, what's so interesting about daca in general is that it's actually application fees that pay for daca. so this is almost more of a symbolic move that the more conservative part of the party is moving towards, which actually, i don't think really makes that much sense. it's something that senator ted cruz grabbed these conservative republicans in the house and pushed forward on this agenda. so i do not believe it's helpful. i think that at the end, you know, what stands with the latino voter is going to be the tone of the party. and the party in so many other ways when it comes to economic policy and helping to empower individuals, you know, is something that can bring in latino voters. something going against daca, i think it puts them in a bad situation.

>> yeah, i think they're risking losing a lot of latino voters for the long term. angela, i can't help but wonder how much of an impact eric cantor's defeat had on this whole dynamic, because obviously after 2012 there was a lot of momentum realizing we've got to do something on immigration reform, we've got to act. slowly over time that support sort of eroded. then the nail in the coffin is really eric cantor's defeat and whether this analysis is right or wrong, people perceive he lost because he was too soft on immigration. >> you know, that is interesting that is people's assumption. i say this regularly. eric cantor actually is the same majority leader who came right behind the speaker of the house who said, we're going to act on comprehensive immigration reform. eric cantor put out his monthly memo on what the upcoming legislative activity would be, and he said, no, we're not. he didn't want to act on it. he did not want to move any bill forward that would seemingly provide amnesty to what they

deem as illegals rather providing a path to citizenship for undocumented people that have every right to be here. so he wasn't soft on immigration at all. what i think you're really seeing here, krystal, is the fact that the tea party as it continues to move the republican party more and more to the right, these folks don't care about leadership. their leader is ted cruz. sarah palin had it absolutely right. and this is probably the only time you'll ever hear me say this. she said cruz control. he's running things. the danger of having a ted cruz running anything in the lower chamber when he's the junior senator from texas in the upper chamber means you have an ie dee log freshman who cares not about procedure or negotiations and who cares not about a humanitarian crisis in his own state. this is what you have. an jupheaval. no policy moving forward. they're supposed to be on recess and they can't because they're getting ready to take a vote on a bill that will never see the

light of day in the senate. >> mercedes, let me ask you about that. congressman peter king yesterday after their closed-door meeting said something relatively similar to that in terms of who is actually running the show on the gop side. he said, i do wish that ted cruz would stay in the senate. nobody elected him speaker. nobody elected him majority leader in the house. and it's really a cheap shot to be coming in from the side, to have some guy come in from the outside like the pied piper is wrong. how much influence do you actually think ted cruz has with the house republicans? >> you know, i think that he does have a strong voice with the house republicans. i think that speaker boehner and the gop leadership are really trying to address this border crisis problem. the biggest problem here is that president obama once again has failed to bring in a bipartisan solution. and it's interesting because "the washington post" blog just today said that a white house official came out saying that the president agreed with 80% of what the republicans were proposing. so that 20%. we go back to this gridlock.

we go back to the fact that both of these parties are unable to come up with a solution in our own backyard. so it's incredibly unfortunate. i think it reflects poorly on both the democrats and republicans. >> angela, what do you say to that? >> i wholeheartedly disagree. even if you talk to senator reid in the senate, the reason why they can't bring bills to the floor in the senate so often is because the republicans are mandating an open rule because they can't get their caucus in line. that's absolutely and unequivocally false. >> senator reid doesn't even let republicans provide amendments or bring up amendments in the senate. so that's not even fair to say. >> let me be clear about what an open rule is. an open rule means they get to bring any amendment to the floor. that's exactly right. the reason why he doesn't do that is because it creates chaos. you have fools like ted cruz reading "green eggs and ham" on the senate floor. so i disagree with that. this is not a brock obama problem. this is a john boehner problem. >> it is a barack obama problem. >> ladies, i think it's a problem of who the small

minority is that really has control in the republican caucus at this point that seems dead set against any progress on immigration reform. mercedes and angela, thank you both so much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> and later, we'll talk with the democrat running for eric cantor's seat in virginia. we're going to hear what he has to say about the impact that cantor's early exit is going to have on his congressional race as well as his thoughts on immigration. but right now, breaking news to report. president obama will the make a statement from the white house briefing room. that will come in about 20 minutes. of course, we will bring that to you live when it happens.

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after an almost immediate collapse of a 72-hour cease-fire between israel and hamas this morning, the white house and secretary of state john kerry are blaming palestinians. in the violence that followed, dozens of gazans and at least two more israeli soldiers were killed. israel says a third soldier was captured in southern gaza during an attack on militants. in a statement released today, secretary kerry condemned a, quote, outrageous violation by palestinian militants and called for hamas to immediately and unconditionally release the missing israeli soldier. nbc's ayman mohyeldin joins me live now in from gaza. ayman, both sides obviously blaming the other for violating that cease-fire this morning. what do we actually know about what happened? >> reporter: well, we know that according to the israeli military this morning at around 9:30 a.m. local time after the cease-fire had come into place

by about 90 minutes, there was an ambush on their soldiers inside the gaza strip according to the israeli military. as a result of that ambush, two soldiers were kill. one was abducted. now, the palestinian factions including hamas have not actually publicly confirmed that they have an israeli soldier in their captivity. they have not provided any proof of life, but a lot of the political leadership by the organization has alluded to the fact that there was a violation by israel as a result of that violation, the palestinian faction's military wing managed to carry out an attack in self-defense to capture that israeli soldier. that is the two competing narratives that unfolded it here. as a result of that incident, what we can confirm is there has been an intense israeli operation in the city of rafah as a result of it. that has forced thousands of palestinians in rafah to leave their homes. hospital officials and palestinian government officials including hamas have called it a massacre. as a result of that, the death

toll continues to climb. right now at least 62 palestinians have been killed. more than 300 injured alone in that shelling of the city of rafah. the israeli military saying that was part of a rescue operation to try and contain any possible abductors it of that soldier from moving beyond the city of rafah if, in fact, they can actually locate them and try to rescue them. for the time being, it has been a very, very bloody day. ever since the cease-fire was supposed to take hold, krystal. >> ayman, where do we go from sneer the original goal of this temporary cease-fire, of course, was to try to get both parties to the table in egypt to negotiate a more lasting cease-fire. what's it going to take to get things back on track? >> reporter: well, we know that the u.s. state department, secretary of state john kerry, has called on qatar and turkey, two countries that have been mediating on behalf of hamas here, to put as much pressure as possible on hamas to release the captured israeli soldier and

ultimately for both sides to return to the cease-fire that was agreed upon yesterday. it does not seem for the time being that negotiations that were scheduled to take place today have actually begun. in fact, the hamas delegation that was here in gaza that was supposed to travel to cairo to participate in those talks did not leave gaza. there are some reports this evening that they could be leaving tomorrow and returning to the negotiating table. but you're really starting from a very different set at the negotiating table. the bar has invariably gone higher now on both sides. if, in fact, it is true that hamas has an israeli soldier, if, in fact, israel has now called off the cease-fire completely, they will not necessarily return the soldier. you have a whole new layer of complexities that negotiators, including the u.s., u.n., and others will have to work their way through. >> all right, ayman mohyeldin in gaza, thank you so much. and stay safe. we're joined by a senior global

correspondent with the post. she joins us live from jerusalem. secretary kerry has reached out to turkey and qatar for their help and influence with hamas, trying there to broker the release of this missing israeli soldier. israel, of course, has a history of paying a very high price to return their captured soldiers. how does this change the situation on the ground? and as ayman was saying there, how does this add to the complexity of bringing this conflict to an end? >> hi. i think, for one, i have to agree with ayman. i think today may be a game changer in this conflict. and sadly, very possibly, not in a good direction. for the israelis, the capture of a soldier is really -- i don't know what other term to use, but a real game changer. it's something -- it's very difficult for me to imagine israel is going to take hamas' word or even qatar's word on a

future possible cease-fire. i've been hearing this afternoon that egyptian messengers are telling israel that hamas is requesting to return to the humanitarian cease-fire of earlier today, but i think that at the moment the word chaos would describe it. in other words, the hamas reaction has been unclear initially. a hamas spokesman said they did have a captive soldier. then there were denials. now there are kind of vague announcements coming out from the political branch of hamas that only the military branch is authorized to address it. but the israeli army is unlikely to have announced onecaptive if didn't really believe it. i think israel is going to be extremely adamant about not signing on to further cease-fires if they fear they're going to be, you know, broken in

this way. >> so how do you proceed then if all trust -- not that there was any trust to start with, but if all trust is broken there? and also, israel and the u.n. have had a contentious relationship here with the israelis believing the u.n. has in some ways taken the side of hamas. of course, the u.n. also losing eight of their own. their facilities also coming under fire in a nurmber of instances. so how do we move forward at this point? >> i don't think any solution is going to be a military solution. i still believe that the only possible solution is going to be a diplomatic solution. what you're saying is true. i think there are very contentious relations right now between high u.n. officials and between israel. nonetheless, the humanitarian cease-fire that came into effect this morning at 8:00 was

negotiated both by the u.n. and the u.s. so i think while there may not be any love lost, there's a certain kind of pragmatic we have to get along about that relationship. and i think that the united states and the u.n. may still have a very important role. both those organizations, i think as ayman mentioned, called immediately for hamas to release the captured soldier. and i think, you know, that's one way they're going to keep israel on the table. there's one other thing i want to add. there's a lot of confusion, a lot of conflicting messages out there about the condition of these soldiers. in the israeli media, you're hearing a lot of questioning, asking if the sort of confused hamas reaction to this incident may reflect that the soldier is, in fact, captive but dead, wounded. there seems to be something unclear in the whole situation. >> got it. so questions about his status in

terms of his health at this point. all right. noga, thank you so much for helping us understand this. >> thank you. and now three things to know on this friday. a sign of solid hiring as the jobs report released this morning shows that the economy gained 209,000 jobs in july. that number was a little bit lower than expected, but it is still the sixth straight month of 200,000-plus jobs added. also, a bit unexpected, the unemployment rate increased slightly to 6.2%. the faa is putting new flight restrictions on u.s. airlines flying over iraq. it is now prohibiting planes from flying below 30,000 feet over that country because of the fighting there between militants and the government. and the sudanese woman who was facing death because she refused to denounce her christianity, she is back in the united states. a crowd cheered as miria

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we are watching the white house, where the president is expected to make a statement from the briefing room about ten minutes from mow. that's at 2:35 eastern. make sure to stay with us for live coverage ahead. but it is time for we the tweeple. today you are buzzing about vice president joe biden and other democrats posting throwback thursday pics of them at 26. they're hoping all you 26-year-olds out there will go and sign up for the affordable care act. when you're 26, that's the first year you are ineligible for parental coverage. biden posted this pic of himself at 26 saying, quote, short-sleeve button downs are coming back, but health care has always been in style. here's biden then and now. senior white house adviser

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(birds chirping softly in background.) (loud engine sounds!) what! how's it going? heard you need a ride to school. i know just the thing to help you get going. power up with new cheerios protein. we are waiting to hear from the president. he's going to come into the white house briefing room any minute now to make a statement. so let's go now to nbc's senior white house correspondent chris jansing. she's live at the white house. chris, do we have any idea what the president has been up to today or any indication of what

he might say in this statement? >> well, krystal, he's got a lot on his plate. let's start with what's happening on the hill. i think you're going to hear some of the points that he has been making over the last several weeks. in fact, as he's traveled across the country, some of the lines he's used before about a congress not getting anything done. the one thing they do get done, and this is one of the applause lines he always has when he's out there, is that they sued him for doing his job. you can expect him to point to the vote last night, the shocking vote for many, the lack of it, on the border bill, and he's going to push again for the need to get something done down there. look, i talked to a number of congressional democrats early this morning on the phone after what happened last night. they think that if nothing gets done in many ways, it helps them. it looks bad for the republicans, they say. here's a bill that essentially helps to deport people, something that they have been

asking for. and it makes the party look like it's in disarray. certainly expect him to talk about what's going on, on the hill. of course, there are a number of international crises. we did get a readout a short time ago that he was on the phone today with vladimir putin. of course, a stronger sanctions were put into place. we know the last time that sanctions were put into place against russia, it was quite the heated phone call. so we will look for some further details it on what that conversation was like. and finally a statement that went out today, actually out of secretary kerry's office, about the cease-fire that only lasted for a couple of hours. and a very strongly worded statement against the capture of that israeli soldier. and so the question is, how long will he be out there? will he take questions? how many questions? we should see the president very shortly, krystal. >> all right. nbc's chris jansing. always appreciate it. thank you so much. meantime, one day after the cdc upped its health threat travel warning to its highest level, the first ever ebola

infected patient is headed to the u.s. a half hour from now, officials at emory university in atlanta will hold a news conference as they prepare to admit an unidentified patient at this point infected with ebola. the hospital is one of four in the country specially equipped to deal with this deadly virus. the hospital declined to say who the arriving patient is exactly but did confirm that it is either dr. kent brantly or nancy writebol, two u.s. charity workers infected in africa. on thursday, dr. brantly refused an experimental serum after learning there was only one d e dose. he insisted it be given to writebol. both are currently in serious condition. the group confirms they are both in liberia today, but medical evacuation efforts are under way and should be completed by early

next week. meanwhile, as a growing list of humanitarian agencies, including the peace corps, are bringing more volunteers home. the cdc is sending 50 infectious disease experts into the hot zone. nbc's sarah dallof joins me from outside emory hospital in atlanta. how are they at this point getting prepared there? do we have any idea right now about the timing of the patient's arrival? >> reporter: well, the timing, krystal, all comes down to the patient. we're told there are crews in africa rel vat wag their medical condition. if the disease has progressed enough, it may be too serious to transport them. we're told something as simple as a bumpy dirt road could prove fatal. we don't know the identity of the patient coming here, but we do know that both americans are in stable but grave condition. their health actually deteriorated somewhat overnight.

that's going to be critical right now. are they well enough to make that long, long trip aboard these specially equipped airplanes which isolated patients from the medical workers and the flight crew. the cdc has performed similar evacuations in the past for the sars epidemic and the outbreak of drug resistant tuberculosis. >> we know this is only one of four facilities in the u.s. equipped to handle patients with ebola. what sort of special capabilities do they have there? >> reporter: well, they have several. first of all, we have just learned that when the patients do arrive, they'll be brought into the air force base just outside atlanta. that gives the cdc some control and some security over the arrival. it's also a little ways off. you know, not based in the middle of a population. we're told that any hospital with the ability to isolate patients could potentially take one of these ebola patients. here at emory, we have one of four specially equipped

isolation units in the country. the unit is actually separated from all other patients. we're told it is an extreme level of clinical isolation. it allows doctors and nurses to give these patients the highest level of care without exposing themselves to it the risk of these highly infectious diseases. >> all right, sarah dallof, thank you so much. and the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases joins us now. thank you so much. >> good to be with you. >> talk to me about the risk that zaisarah was just alluding there for the patients of traveling internationally on a flight at this point to come and receive treatment. it seems like there would be a lot of risks involved there. >> there are. it's always problematic when you try to move a seriously ill patient anywhere, even from one hospital to another. the idea about putting the patient in ground transportation to a plane and flying a long distance is something in which

the physicians taking care of the patient have to balance that risk-benefit ratio. the benefit of getting them to a better facility balanced against the risk that the actual stress of the travel might be counterproductive and detrimental to the patient. >> doctor, a lot of folks here are nervous about someone with that deadly ebola virus coming to the united states. talk to us about the realities of the risk involved for the population here in the u.s. >> the reality of the risk is that it's extraordinarily small. people are seeing on tv and reading about what's going on in west africa with the explosion of cases and the high mortality. the reason for that is the inability to contain in an infection-control way the epidemic itself. by not having the proper health care facilities, the ability to isolate as well as the proper protective equipment for many of the people who come in contact

with the patients. that's just not the case here in our own country, in our own society, and in the developed world. canada, u.k., europe, or what have you, we have the capability of doing the proper protocol procedures to protect against spread of infection is really very refined and well worked out. that's the reason why the cdc and i and others say there's very little risk. >> we're incredibly fortunate in that regard. what's it going to take to get the outbreak under control in west africa? >> well, it's going to take a lot of things coming together. they have a very difficult situation there. they don't have many resources. there's the issue of the population being distrustful of their health care providers. they just don't have the health care infrastructure to be able to handle this will in a way where you can actually wipe out the epidemic where we've been able to do that in the small in smaller, rural areas. right now you're in the cities, populous areas. that compounds the problem.

>> doctor, unfortunately the survival rate very low for people who do contract this virus. what makes the difference between survival and not making it? >> well, there's no direct treatment for the virus itself. the survival rate really varies depending upon your ability to treat symptomatically the individuals. for example, people lose fluid. they go into shock. that's how they die. so good replacement of intravenous fluids, treating the fever, bringing down the inflammatory response, making sure if people get secondary infections that you treat them with antibiotics. with you do that, you can considerably bring down the fatality rate. >> all right. doctor, thank you so much for your insights. >> good to be with you. >> and we're still waiting to hear from president obama. nbc's chris janicing is back with me from outside the white house.

chris, what do we know at this point? what are we expecting to hear from the president? >> well, certainly this is a day when a congress is going to do its lost votes before it goes away, goes home for a five-week recess. the question is, what, if anything, will get done on the border bill? there's been an adjustment on the house side. up to $694 million, which is way short of the nearly $4 billion that the president had requested. the white house has been saying that they are making some progress at the border, but when asked yesterday about whether or not that meant that they were willing to accept a much less robust bill, whether or not it would be enough money, of course, they're not looking for that adjustment. look, the president's message is going to be what he has been pushing for the last several weeks as he's traveled around the country. congress needs to get something done beyond agreeing to sue me for, as he puts it, doing my job. so first thing he's going to do, i think s to address the situation on the hill. but also all of this comes as

that cease-fire was brokered in part by the united states fell apart over what we believe was the kidnapping, the abduction of an israeli soldier. within the last hour or so, the white house put out a statement that the president had spoken to vladimir putin. that, of course, about the continuing crisis in the ukraine. and since you were also talking about ebola, i can tell you there have been a series of meetings here at the white house about the ebola crisis, of course, and the fact that a number of african leaders are coming for a big summit here to washington, d.c., next week. so all of that may well be addressed today. >> certainly no shortage of news there. nbc's chris jansing, stick with us. again, we are still waiting to hear from president obama at any moment now. we'll be right back. another grt all this walking i've been doing is that it's given me time to reflect on some of life's biggest questions. like, if you could save hundreds on car insurance by making one simple call, why wouldn't you make that call? see, the only thing i can think of is that you can't get any...

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we are watching the white house right now where president obama is expected to make a statement from the briefing room. we expect that to come at any moment now. so stay with us for live coverage. and we have chris jansing right now at the white house. chris, we heard the president earlier this week talking about ukraine levying additional sanctions on russia along with

our european partners. we know that he was on the phone earlier with russian president vladimir putin. it would be pretty remarkable if we had two statements in the week from the president on the situation with russia. >> yeah, and i think that we need to get some more details because we had only the very briefest of readouts from that call basically saying that it had happened. look, we thought -- >> chris, let me -- >> here comes the president. >> let's go there live. >> happy friday. i thought i'd take some questions, but first, let me say a few words about the economy. this morning we learned that our economy created over 200,000 new jobs in july. that's on top of about 300,000 new jobs in june. so we are now in a six-month streak with at least 200,000 new jobs each month. that's the first time that has happened since 1997. over the past year, we've added more jobs than any year since

2006. all told, our businesses have created 9.9 million new jobs over the past 53 months. that's the longest streak of private-sector job creation in our history. and as we saw on wednesday, the economy grew at a strong pace in the spring. companies are investing. consumers are spending. american manufacturing, energy, technology, autos, all are booming. and thanks to the decisions that we've made and the grit and resilience of the american people, we've recovered faster and come farther from the recession than almost any other advanced country on earth. so the good news is the economy clearly is getting stronger. things are getting better. our engines are revving a little bit louder. and the decisions we make right now can sustain and keep that growth and momentum going.

unfortunately, there are a series of steps that we could be taking to maintain momentum and perhaps even accelerate it. there are steps we could be taking that would result in more job growth, higher wages, higher incomes, more relief for middle class families. and so far at least in congress, we have not seen them willing or able to take those steps. i've been pushing for common sense ideas like rebuilding our infrastructure in ways that are sustained over many years and support millions of god jobs and help businesses compete. i've been advocating on behalf of raising the minimum wage, making it easier for working folks to pay off their student loans. fair pay, paid leave. all these policies have two things in common. all of them would help working families feel more stable and secure, and all of them, so far, have been blocked or ignored by

republicans in congress. that's why my administration keeps taking whatever actions we can take on our own to help working families. now, it's good that congress was able to pass legislation to strengthen the va. i want to thank the chairman and ranking members who were involved in that. it's good that congress was able to at least fund transportation projects for a few more months before leaving town. although, it falls far short of the kind of infrastructure effort that we need that would actually accelerate the economy. but for the most part, the big-ticket items, the things that would really make a difference in the lives of middle class families, those things are just not getting done. let's just take a recent example, immigration. we all agree that there's a problem that needs to be solved in a portion of our southern border. and we even agree on most of the solutions. but instead of working together,

instead of focusing on the 80% where there is agreement between democrats and republicans, between the administration and congress, house republicans as we speak are trying to pass the most extreme and unworkable versions of a bill that they already know is going nowhere, that can't pass the senate, and if it were to pass the senate, i would veto. they know it. they're not even trying to actually solve the problem. this is a message bill that they couldn't quite pull off yesterday, so they made. a little more extreme so maybe they can pass it today. just so they can check a box before they're leaving town for a month. and this is on an issue that they all insisted had to be a top priority. now, our efforts administratively so far have helped to slow the tide of child migrants trying to come to our country. but without addition fall resources and help from congress, we're just not going to have the resources we need to fully solve the problem.

that means while they're out on vacation, i'm going to have to make some tough choices to meet the challenge, with or without congress. and yesterday, even though they've been sitting on a bipartisan immigration bill for over a year, house republicans suggested that since they don't expect to actually pass a bill that i can sign, that i actually should go ahead and act on my own to solve the problem. keep in mind that just a few days earlier, they voted to sue me for acting on my own. then when they couldn't pass a bill yesterday, they put out a statement suggesting i should act on my own because they couldn't pass a bill. so immigration has not gotten done. a student loan bill that would help folks who have student loan debt consolidate and refinance at lower rates, that didn't

pass. the transportation bill that they did pass just gets us through the spring when we should actually be planning years in advance. states and businesses are raising the minimum wage for their workers because this congress is failing to do so. even basic things like approving career diplomats for am bas door yal posts aren't getting done. senate republicans for a certain period of time blocked our new ambassador to russia. it raised such an uproar that finally they went ahead and let our russian ambassador pass at a time when every day we're dealing with the crisis in ukraine. they're still blocking our ambassador to sierra leone, where there's currently an ebola outbreak. they're blocking our ambassador to guatemala, even as they demand we do more to stop the flow of unaccompanied children

from guatemala. there are a lot of things that we could be arguing about on policy. that's what we should be doing as a democracy, but we shouldn't be having an argument about placing career diplomats with bipartisan support in countries around the world where we have to have a presence. the bottom line is this. we have come a long way over the last 5 1/2 years. our challenges are nowhere near as daunting as they were when i first came into office. but the american people demand and deserve a strong and focused effort on the part of all of us to keep moving the country forward and to focus on their concerns. the fact is, we could be much further along, and we could be doing even better, and the economy could be even stronger, and more jobs could be created if congress would do the job that the people sent them here to do. and i will not stop trying to

work with both parties to get things moving faster for middle class families and those trying to get into the middle class. when congress returns next month, my hope is that instead of simply trying to pass partisan message bills on party lines that don't actually solve problems, they're going to be willing to come together to at least focus on some key areas where there's broad agreement. after all that we've had to overcome, our congress should stop standing in the way of our country's success. so with that, let me take a couple questions. i'll start with roberta rampton of reuters. >> thank you. i want to ask about the situation in the middle east. why do you think israel should embrace a cease-fire in gaza when one of its soldiers appears to have been abducted and when hamas continues to use its network of tunnels to launch attacks?

also, have you seen israel act at all on your call to do more to protect civilians? >> well, first of all, i think it's important to note that we have, and i have, unequivocally condemned hamas and the palestinian factions that were responsible for killing two israeli soldiers and abducting a third almost minutes after a cease-fire had been announced. and the u.n. has condemned them as well. you know, i want to make sure that they are listening. if they are serious about trying to resolve this situation, that soldier needs to be unconditionally released as soon as possible. i have been very clear throughout this crisis that israel has a right to defend

itself. no country can tolerate missiles raining down on its cities and people having to rush to bomb shelters every 20 minutes or half hour. no country can or would tolerate tunnels being dug under their land that can be used to launch terrorist attacks. and so, you know, not only have we been supportive of israel in its right to defend itself, but in very concrete terms. for example, in support for the iron dome program that has intercepted rockets that are firing down on israeli cities. we've been, you know, trying to cooperate as much as we can to make sure that israel is able to protect its citizens. now, at the same time, we've also been clear that innocent civilians in gaza caught in the cross fire have to weigh on our conscience, and we have to do

more to protect them. a cease-fire was one way in which we could stop the killing, to step back and to try to resolve some of the underlying issues that had been building up over quite some time. israel committed to that 72-hour cease-fire. and it was violated. and try to put that back together is going to be challenging, but we'll continue to make those efforts. let me take this opportunity, by the way, to give secretary john kerry credit. he has been persistent. he's worked very hard. he has endured on many occasions really unfair criticism simply to try to get to the point where the killing stops and the underlying issues about israel's security but also the concerns

of palestinians in gaza can be addressed. we're going to keep working towards that. it's going to take some time. i think it's going to be very hard to put a cease-fire back together again. if israelis and the international community can't feel confident that hals can follow through on a cease-fire commitment, and it's not particularly relevant whether a particular leader in hamas ordered this abduction. the point is that when they sign on to a cease-fire, they're claiming to speak for all the palestinian factions. if they don't have control of them, and just moments after a cease-fire is signed you have israeli soldiers being kill ed and captures, it's hard for the israelis to feel confident that a cease-fire can actually be

honored. i'm in constant consultation with prime minister netanyahu. our national security team is in constant communication with the israeli military. i want to see everything possible done to make sure that palestinian civilians are not being killed, and it is heartbreaking to see what's happening there. and i think many of us recognize the dilemma we have. on the one hand, israel has a right to defend itself, and it's got to be able to get at those rockets and tunnel networks. on the other hand, because of the incredibly irresponsible actions of hamas to oftentimes house these rocket launches right in the middle of civilian

neighborhoods, we end up seeing people who have nothing to do with these rockets end up being hurt. part of the reason why we've been pushing so hard for a cease-fire is precisely because it's hard to reconcile israel's legitimate need to defend itself with our concern for those civilians. if we can pause the fighting, then it's possible that we may be able to arrive at a formula that spares lives and also ensures israel's security. but it's difficult. and i don't think we should pretend otherwise. okay? bill plante. >> mr. president, like that cease-fire, you've called for diplomatic solutions not only in israel and gaza but also in ukraine, in iraq, to very little effect so far. has the united states of america

lost its influence in the world? have you lost yours? >> yeah, look, this is a common theme that folks bring up. apparently, people have forgotten that america, as the most powerful country on earth, still does not control everything around the world. and so, you know, our diplomatic efforts often take time. they often will see progress and then a step backwards. that's been true in the middle east. that's been true in europe. that's been true in asia. that's the nature of world affairs. it's not neat and it's not smooth. but if you look at, for example, ukraine, we have