act. a political adviser to benjamin netanyahu responded earlier on "morning joe." >> israel does not target u.n. facilities. and israel does not target civilians. >> israel began drawing down its troops from heavily populated areas over the weekend. we're going to bring you a live report from the region later in the hour. back here in the u.s., the water in one of ohio's biggest cities is now once again safe to drink. for three days, 500,000 people in toledo couldn't use their water for drinking or bathing. you can see the reason here. that green sludge in lake erie. it's the result of a toxin. >> this is coming from every individual house that is putting fertilizer an their lawn. folks overapplying manure on some properties. >> that safety ban caused a run on bottled water all across the city. if ingested, the toxin can cause vomiting, diarrhea, even liver

damage. more an this story in just a couple of minutes. in california, a rare torrential storm killed one and stranded thousands in the southern part of that state. the storm unleashed nearly four inches of rain over a short period of time in the angeles national forest. one person died when their car washed into a river. more than 2,000 people in the towns of oak glen and forest falls were stranded as well because roads were covered in deep, thick mud. in our nation's capital, 50 african heads of state will meet later today with president obama. the first summit held at this scale and level focused on boosting economic ties between the u.s. and africa. secretary of state kerry kicked things off with a handful of one on one meetings. this happening as western africa fights the worst ebola outbreak in history. a second american missionary infected with that virus is going to be back in the states tomorrow. that is nancy writebol with the north carolina charity

samaritan's purse. she's going to be flown to atlanta from liberia. she'll join fellow missionary doctor kent brantly in a special unit at emory university hospital. brantly, you can see him here walking into the hospital over the weekend is reportedly actually improving after receiving a dose of an experimental serum. yesterday the head of the cdc defended the decision to help bring him home. >> he was coming home. and the organization that sent him to africa made the decision to bring him home. he's an american citizen. and what our role is, in public health is to make sure that if an american is coming home with an infectious disease, we protect others. so that they don't spread it. >> today the world health organization increased the death toll from this deadly outbreak. 887 now confirmed killed. joining me are dr. anthony fauci, director for allergy and infectious diseases. and nurse monia saya of doctors

without borders. a fine and admirable organization. dr. fauci, the national institutes of health have been working on an experimental serum reportedly the came one given to those two american missionaries. and sources are telling nbc they've received multiple doses of those. what is that serum? >> well, the serum that's in question that was administered is a serum that we did early research on and now a company is involved in trying to make doses of it that can be determined if they are in fact, effective. they've been used on an emergency basis in the two patients that you mentioned. what it is is a cocktail of antibodies which are proteins that the body makes to block the virus as it were in simple terms. you usually get antibodies from natural infection or if you vaccinate someone. when you need to get the antibodies into someone right away, then you passively infuse it as was the case when the two individuals, the two americans

were given the serum. one in liberia and now back in the united states. >> you just got back from your second stint, i believe, helping ebola patients hands-on. when you see this news that we're bringing these missionaries back to the united states, how much of a risk is that in terms of the infection likelihood to others here? >> if the patients are coming and isolated in a proper way, which i'm sure they are, there are no risks to the population here. >> that's a relief to hear. this has been a contentious point. the media has been covering this aggressively. others have been pushing back in the same way you mentioned. take a look at this "washington post" headline cautioning that you're not going to see ebola in this country. i think we have that here. we'll get to that in a moment. i'll go back to you, dr. fauci. is there a risk this kourld spread beyond the current region in africa? >> the answer is in a developed country that has a health care system that is able to do the

kinds of isolation and personal protective equipment for the people who are taking care of these ebola infected individuals, there's essentially no risk. the situation that you're seeing in africa is because of the fact that they don't have universally those kinds of capabilities. >> we're looking at this headline cautioning maybe you aren't going to see ebola. the one i mentioned. go on. >> right. so in situations in which you don't have the capability of properly isolating individuals or having personal protective equipment, but also, and the doctors without borders can talk about that very cogently because they are experiencing it. that in that country, that you have people whose customs and traditions about being afraid of bringing patients to hospitals and keeping sick members in their home which easily spreads it to members of the family when the person dies, how they minister to the body can also spread infection. so those are the kind of things that are fueling the outbreak in

west african countries. what you're not going to say in a developed nation like the united states. that's the reason we can say with some confidence that bringing a patient over like we did, with another one coming, that there really is not a risk of an outbreak. >> maybe you can speak to that firsthand. you've been out there on the front hands of trying to treat this. what are the biggest obstacles in trying to do that? >> there are many. this outbreak is quite complex. it's in multiple sites which we've never seen before and three different countries now. the population, the communities are not very receptive. they are very afraid of this new disease and reluctant to come to facilities and have mistrust of the health care facilities. whether treatment centers or not. so it's very challenging. >> and do you see these experimental treatments, this push to find a vaccine as something that's likely to help those thousands of people at risk in west africa?

>> well, doctors without borders is key on helping any research that can save lives. however, if this happens and needs to be the leadership needs to be at the level of the w.h.o., the world health organization. at the moment, we're focusing all our efforts and resources on trying to save as many lives as possible. >> dr. fauci, do you think that these current research efforts will come to fruition fast enough to stop what we're seeing right now? >> it depends on what you mean by research effort. if you're talking about the infusion of the antibodies in the patients, the number of doses that are available right now are less than a handful. and even scaling them up, there won't be enough to have a meaningful impact on the epidemic within any reasonable period of time. the research on a vaccine which is going along very well is to prevent infection, and that would be most applicable particularly to health care workers who are putting themselves at considerable rink and taking care of individuals.

that will not be available until well into 2015. and so right now, good public health practices is going to be the way that one can contain this epidemic. >> dr. anthony fauci, moniya sayah, that helps put things in perspective. the city of toledo now says its water is safe. but would you drink this? america's water crisis when we come back. [ kevin ] this is connolly, cameron, zach, and clementine. we have a serious hairball issue. we clean it up, turn around, and there it is again. it's scary. little bit in my eye. [ michelle ] underneath the kitchen table, underneath my work desk, we've got enough to knit a sweater. [ doorbell rings ] zach, what is that? the swiffer sweeper. the swiffer dusters. it's some sort of magic cloth that sucks in all the dog hair. it's quick and easy. pretty amazing that it picked it all up. i would totally take on another dog. [ kevin ] really? ♪ [ kevin ] really? there was like an i haderuption on my skingles.

and burning. i'd lift my arm and the pain back here was excruciating. when i went to the doctor his first question was "did you have chickenpox?" i thought it was something that, you know, old people got. chances are we're already there. be or what you want to do, 12 brands. more hotels than anyone else in the world. like super 8, where every destination is super. save up to 15 percent and earn bonus points when you book at wyndhamrewards.com we're changing the way we do business, with startup ny.

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second. oh, there it is. behind me. yes. the actual water source that that water they are being asked to drink up of comes from. that's what it looked like over the weekend before going through the chemical treatment and purifcation it does when it hits taps. this is all the product of a devastating contamination that made that water undrinkable for days on end. nbc news chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson has the latest. >> reporter: the water crisis is over in toledo. at least for the moment. but the problem that caused it still remains. that is because the river which you see behind me drains into lake erie. this river carries run-off from farmlands all around the area. 4.5 million acres worth of that run-off. that run-off contains fertilizer which contains fos s phosphoroh feeds the algae blooms.

it's the perfect breeding conditions for algae because it is the shallowest, the warmest and most southern of the great lakes systems. so that is why this algae bloom problem happens here in the toledo area. now add to that that this is just the beginning of the algae bloom season. it's really not supposed to peak until late september. so city water officials are really going to have to keep an eye on the toxin level to make sure that tox in does not rise above what the world health organization says is safe. all the areas in toledo got below that level today. there were two neighborhoods in particular that the mayor was concerned about. they got below that level this morning. and so he said the city's water system is safe. in fact, to prove it he took a big gulp of the tap water to say it is safe. it's going to take more than that to convince residents because after more than two days of using bottled water and learning about this toxin which

can cause diarrhea, vomiting and liver damage, people here are now much more suspicious of their water supply than they were last week. ronan, back to you. >> anne thompson in toledo. this is the latest example of america running roughshod over its more precarious water supply. joining me, former ohio governor ted strickland. and here with him is collin o'meara apresident and ceo of the national wildlife federation. that was his hand holding that glass of green water over the weekend. governor, this isn't a new problem. what has to be done to prevent it from happening again? >> well, several things. we've got to reduce the amount of phosphorous that's going into our water supply. and that means we've got to change some of our farming practices. use less fertilizer. we've got to deal with the manure that these farming operations generate in a different way so that manure does not get into the water

supply. one of the ways of doing that is to encourage farmers not to spread manure over frozen land because that makes it much more likely to wash into the water supply. there's several things we can do to change our practices. but this is just -- but the latest example of how we are seeing environmental conditions develop as a result of human activity that is detrimental to human health. >> is this problem of run-off getting better or worse? >> it's actually getting worse in many ways. since the clean air act, most directed discharge, the big waste water treatment plans, the big industrial polluters, most of those have been controlled. the vast majority of pollution is coming from the individual farm fields or front yards with too much fertilizer. these individual sources. the challenge is as we see more intense storms, more precipitation, more nutrients

and phosphorous are winding up in the water. all of a sudden these blooms are begunning to explode. earlier in the year at volumes we've never seen before. >> clearly people taking the advice you are giving is not happening. the problem is getting worse. what regulations need to be imposed? >> in 1988, we made the decision that phosphorous would be takin out of laundry detergents. and that had an effect. you know in reducing this problem. now we've got to deal with the run-off from farmlands and from the water that's coming from some of our urban sewage systems in the like. and the fact is that our climate is changing. we're seeing more severe storms which calls the run-off to be even more problematic. and lake erie, as has been said, it is the most shallow of the great lakes. it's a great fishing lake.

but these toxic blooms develop and in this case, 400,000 people were deprived for several days of access to drinking water. surgeries were postponed. dentist offices, restaurants were closed. it had a great economic impact upon the city of toledo and the surrounding areas. and so we -- we've got to take this seriously. but i can tell you, this is not just happening in toledo and lake erie. it's happening in every state of america. and it's beginning to happen increasingly around the world. this is a very serious environmental issue that's got to be dealt with. not just in toledo, ohio, but nationally and internationally as well. >> and it's not just phosphorous run-off. there's contaminations from fracking fluid that have become prevalent. obviously water shortage issues becoming more endemic around the country. how vulnerable is america's

water supply in general right now? >> as you see the climate crisis evolve, you'll see a series of different types of water crises emerge. whether that's a quality water issue like in the great lakes, you've seen in parts of the east coast estuaries, water supply issues in terms of not enough quantity in the colorado river area and areas in california. water affecting us through storms. incredible amounts of precipitation or extreme storms like hurricane sandy or hurricane irene. so most environmental crises of the next few years will be water related. also water supplies contaminated by saltwater intrusion. some of these systems begun to merge. we keep talking about this as it's an environmental issue. it's not. this is a public health issue, an economic issue. property values in communities that have had these impacts have gone down. tourists are less likely to go to areas where they don't think it's going to be safe. we keep talking about having another environmental fix. this is an issue that's going to require a much morbipartisan solution. >> that's a terrific and important point. governor, given that it affects

the economic bottom line and so many parts of american life, what will it take to make politicians prioritize protecting our water? >> well, when i was governor, some six years ago, we had animals die as a result of a toxin, algae toxin in one of our lakes in ohio. so practices need to change. and as i said, farming is important. it's important to ohio, obviously. it's important across the country and around the world. but we've got to understand that the practices that we've been engaging in lead to these consequences and these consequences can and will be deadly to animals and to humans if we do not deal with them. and that means we've got to come up with plans that will minimize the amount of run-off into our waters and lakes. quite frankly, are contributing to this.

and then you layer up on that, although we don't automobile i don't believe place bassed an the information that this particular issue in toledo is the result of, you know, climate change, we know that these matters are affected with warming temperatures, heated waters and so on. >> collin o'mara, governor strickland, this is an important issue. appreciate you taking a stand. happy birthday governor strickland. >> thank you so much. >> and thank you for taking a stand on this important day for you. it is an escalating game of economic warfare with russia. vladimir putin is picking on an alcohol alcoholic beverage as his next target. you guessed it. it's not vodka. so what is it? find out after the brack. break. hey pal? you ready?

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it may be a little harder these days to get one bourbon, one scotch and one beer in russia. according to reuters, russia is singling out a kentucky whiskey distillery for exporting spirits with a high amount of an organic chemical linked to cancer and infertility in men. they are thinking of banning it even though it's passed european inspections. this is the latest in a round of russian economic actions that some say are a retaliation against the sanctions slapped on them by the united states and european countries. among the other actions the russians are considering? a ban on chicken imports from the united states. lawsuits against mcdonald's for allegedly misrepresenting fat content. and a rejection of ukrainian chocolate. ukraine's new president, of course, is a former chocolatier. no connection there. clearly. no word on whether the united states is planning any

reciprocal action against stoli. israel's latest cease-fire plans for gaza come to a screeching halt. now what? we are live from the middle east right after the break. since robert taira openedsion king's hhis first bakeryd, in a small hawaiian town. making bread so good, that people bought two loaves one to take home, and one to eat on the way. so good, they grew from here. to here. to here. but to grow again, to the east coast they needed a new factory, but where? fortunately, they get financing from ge capital. we not only have teams dedicated to the food industry, we're also part of ge, a company that's built hundreds of factories. so we could bring in experts to help king's hawaiian make sense of transportation routes, supply chains, labor pools, and zoning

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everything a cat needs for the first step to a healthy, happy life. purina cat chow complete. share your rescue story and join us in building better lives. one rescue at a time. american foreign policy today -- hell in a hand basket. just moments ago, the white house said they are still trying to work towards peace between israel and gaza. >> we do continue our efforts to encourage both sides to bring all the current violence to an end immediately and come to the negotiating table so we can try to resolve some of these longstanding differences. >> the international outcry is continuing after sunday's israeli air strike hit near yet another u.n. school. and bedeviled another attempted cease-fire facilitated by

secretary of state john kerry. meanwhile, over in afghanistan, the last 24 hours have seen the near collapse of kerry's deal securing international monitoring for that country's hotly contested election. first let's get the latest from israel. nbc's jim maceda is there in tel aviv. jim, thank you. this brief cease-fire has been fraught. we have seen some israeli troops withdrawing. could we be watching hostilities finally winding down? >> hi, ronan. today did feel a little like the violence was winding down. even if that temporary humanitarian pause call by israel only lasted seven hours. and then there were claims of breaches by both sides. the palestinians rejected the pause outright as being a ruse by israel and said that israel struck a house in a refugee camp in gaza city today wounding 29 and killing an 8-year-old girl. israel on the other hand said that at least four rockets were fired from gaza into israel.

but compared to previous days, it did feel almost like a lull today. still, this evening, after that seven-hour pause had ended, the israeli military resumed its attacks on gaza and palestinian officials claimed an israeli air strike had killed two people and wounded 16. that said, the idf, the israeli defense forces, has confirmed that is winding down its ground operations inside gaza. though some troops will continue to stay inside and look for more tunnels. we have seen over the past 24 hours many troops, tanks and artillery pieces being pulled back from northern gazan towns and moving either along the border with israel or back inside israel proper. >> is there any optimism there at this point for u.s.-brokered cease-fires? u.s.-brokered negotiations? >> well, every u.s.-brokered negotiation has failed. every u.s. brokered cease-fire

has failed as well. so there's not much optimism there, ronan. but even though israel has refused so far to go to cairo, the palestinian factions have been feeting there with the egyptians and they have come up today with a list of key demands for a long-term cease-fire. the lifting of the israeli blockade, the withdrawal of israel from gaza. the beginning of reconstruction in gaza which is going to cost something like at least $6 billion, they say. and the release of palestinian prisoners. the israeli negotiators could come back to cairo at a later date to work anesthon these dem but israel has rejected them unless the palestinians give up their arms and that's a nonstarter for the palestinians. not much optimism there either. >> jim maceda, thank you for that. israel is just one of america's foreign policy priorities going violently off track, it seems right now. in afghanistan, that u.s.-brokered deal to monitor a

fraught election is one such casualty. casting doubt on the ability of u.s. and nato troops to stay in that country and prevent it from spiraling further into chaos. mr. nasr worked at the state department on the team that initially crafted this administration's afghanistan and pakistan policy. it's good have you back on the show. to what extent is the current electoral consequence a consequence of failed american policies there? >> well, we helped the previous election, which was also problematic election, but we brokered peace between the challenger abdullah abdullah who is also running this time and hamid karzai. that gave afghanistan a government. we're now have told everybody we're leaving as a result, the two sides view this as a zero-sum situation that either one of them wins and the other one essentially will lose everything. and they are not willing to compromise, and they don't necessarily trust us anymore to

be able to broker a deal because we're not going to be there to protect a deal that we'll put on the table. >> this election being in limbo to some extent leaves our troops in afghanistan in limbo. if there is no agreement to keep a u.s. troop presence there, what's the ultimate consequence for afghanistan? and particularly what's the consequence for its women and its girls. >> largely because the elections have not produced a clear winner. i think the winner will be too weak to sign a deal with the united states. without a deal, it's very difficult for us to stay and we are not sure that the afghan security forces can stand up to the taliban. so afghanistan is looking at a future of more civil war, of the taliban controlling greater areas of territory. and that means that all the victories for women, for civil society, for education, for peace and security, for the economy are now at rusisk. >> another area of trouble is syria. this jaw-dropping testimony before the house foreign affairs committee from a syrian defec r

defector. caesar. a military photographer. smuggled out 50,000 photographs of dissidents with the help of family members. they are too gruesome for us to show. but it does reveal just how chaotic syria has become. have we dropped the ball on syria after promising so much action initially? >> the eyes of the syrians we clearly have. when you look at those photographs, these things have been happening over the past two years. where the united states did not get engaged. brushed off humanitarian tragedy as something that's tolerable and doesn't require our engagement. and even as we speak, our engagement in syria is money mal. minimal. in some ways in the eyes of the region these photographs are somewhat a condemnation or damnation of american foreign policy for standing by and legislate this happen. what do we do with these photographs and whether they will change the united states' will in terms of getting engaged

in this issue. >> one thing that makes it so difficult to engage in syria at this point is the broader regional crisis seems to be fueled by outside players like the united states sending in weaponry and support. do you think that even with this strategy of backing so-called moderate elements there's a risk of those weapons and that kind of support finding its way into the hands of isis? >> there is always that risk. but what we have to stop playing catch-up of giving a little whenever there is criticism. and actually coming up with a strategy of how are we going to strengthen and empower the moderate opposition and to what effect. what forces are we going to put on the ground in turkey in jordan, to monitor this, to train the right people to make sure that the arms go to the right places. to make sure that the moderate forces actually went on the ground, control territory. we can't just be doing this, as i said, on a piecemeal basis to appease the headlines. and that's when you have the greatest danger arising of weapons you're sending in not

getting to where they want, and not having the effect that you intended. >> there are dark times ahead in a lot of these places. thanks for sorting this out. some breaking news. we've just received a statement from the family of james s. brady who has passed. the statement reads as following. he was 73. we are heart broken to share the news that our beloved jim bear brady has passed away. his wife sarah, son scott and daughter missy are so thankful to have had the opportunity to say their farewells. jim touched the lives of so many and has been a wonderful husband, father, friend and role model. our condolences. and up next today, we'll be right back with some stories about africa's summit at the white house. and an historic moment. at the top of the list, an unusual threat. we're going to return to the question of what happened to our girls. stay with us. it's time for the "your business" entrepreneurs of the

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73. his family has released a statement that reads in part as follows. we are heartbroken to share the news that our beloved jim "bear" brady has passed away after a series of health issues. his wife, son and daughter are so thankful to have had the opportunity to say their farewells. our thoughts are with them right now. and today, 50 african leaders are at the white house for an historic summit on that continent. it's focused on building economic ties, but it could be overshadowed by africa's rising profile for another export. terrorism. one british report found nigeria is the deadliest country when it comes to terrorist attacks. surpassing iraq, surfacing afghanistan, even pakistan and somalia. the country has been mired by attacks from al shabaab and more recently from the brutal group boko haram. that includes the kidnapping of those 276 school girls at a school in april.

it brought worldwide attention to this growing terrorist organization. the council on foreign relations says this year alone, boko haram has killed more than 2700 people. mostly civilians. joining me is john campbell, former u.s. ambassador to nigeria who now runs an initiative tracking security threats from that country. thank you for being here ambassador. there are reports boko haram may be actually using these kidnapped girls as suicide bombers after a string of bombings in nigeria perpetrated by individuals that appear to have been young girls. is bicycoko haram thriving, get more dangerous? >> yes, i think it is getting more dangerous. it has certainly expanded the scope of its operations. you made reference to the suicide bombings in kano. there was also a suicide bombing apparently in lagos in the port. the first time there was a claimed boko haram operation in what is africa's largest city.

>> the u.s. has been attempting to combat this problem. we've sent a number of military advisers. as many as 80 to chat, to help locate these missing girls. we've sent financial assistance to the nigerian government. is there more that the united states should be doing at this point? >> i don't really see what more the united states can do. nigeria is a sovereign country. the assistance that the united states would provide has to be done at nigerian request. the nigerians are best positioned to determine what they want. and what they need. the most important assistance the united states has provided thus far has been surveillance. the use of unarmed surveillance drones and also low flying aircraft. but so far as i am aware, thus far, the missing girls have not been located. >> cameroon's president sent his army chief to beef up their battle against boko haram.

this is after boko haram abducted ten cameroonians, including the wife of cameroon's deputy prime minister. this was just last week. are nigeria's neighbors by and large helping or hindering the fight against boko haram? >> nigeria's neighbors feel threatened by boko haram. but there are important capacity issues. the borders between nigeria, niger, chad, are thousands of miles long. it is very, very difficult to control the flow of people back and forth across those borders. there has been a history of an edgy relationship between nigeria and its neighbors and niger, chad and cameroon are all french speaking. however, i think that edginess has largely been overcome. right now, the issues are

capacity. >> ambassador, late last year i was in nigeria covering the wake of the westgate mall attack. of course, by the group al shabaab. one thung i heaing i heard over was the way these bodies were torn apart, dismantled, the way people were tortured was very reminiscent of boko haram-style tactics. how much is boko haram fueling the rise of and informing the tactsices of other terror groups? >> it's very difficult to say, but i would tend to see the similarities. basically as the result of copycat activity. after all, with the ubiquitousness of the web and other social media, one terrorist group has a pretty good idea of what another terrorist group is doing. and what is effective. i think, for example, the rise in kidnapping for ransom in nigeria is a reflection of the

success of kidnapping in other parts of the world as a way of raising money for terrorist organizations. ambassador john campbell, thank you for that. >> thank you. the global outrage over nigeria's missing girls sparked an international outcry. with the #bring back our girls gaining steam all around the world. but it seems to have lost its urgency, lost its momentum. for this week's call to action, we're covering the threat of african truerrorism that claime them. and we're asking you to send a clear message that we won't forget about those 200 nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped nearly four months ago or the threat that they reveal. tweet #remember our girls. we want to call attention to them. and when we come back today, we're going to have more an the tragic death of former white house press secretary james brady. presidential historian alan lictman joins us to discuss. tha.

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back to breaking news in the death of james brady who served as white house press secretary under ronald reagan. he became a powerful supporter of gun control after he himself was nearly killed in an assassination attempt an reagan's life in 1981. professor allan lichtman is a presidential historian with american university. thank you professor for joining us. tell us, how does brady fit into the annals of presidential spokesperson history? >> brady is an extremely important figure. but not so much as a presidential spokesperson, although he did a great job in that he had humor, charisma. he had humility. he was a well respected figure. but it was a tragic event that turned his life and really propelled him into the forefront of american history. and that was his near death along with that of ronald reagan in the assassination attempt in march of 1981. in fact, the press prematurely reported that james brady had

died. james brady then devoted the great part of his life to preventing gun violence. and he has become truly the public the public face of the campaign of the horrific gun violence that has seared our country for so long. we know him, of course, as the godfather of the famous brady bill that instituted the first background checks on gun purchases that blocked purchases by many felons and others for whom they should not be carrying guns. and he has really carried the torch on this important campaign for so long. his loss is a great one for the nation. >> and of course one of the striking things about that legacy is that he was back at work at the white house less than two weeks after getting shot in the lung. he had a reputation for being indefatable. he was much loved. tell us about brady the person. >> yeah, brady the person really did inspire a tremendous amount

of love and affection from almost everyone who knew him. he was so well regarded at the reagan white house, even though he could not truly function over time because of his injuries as the press secretary. he kept that title throughout the reagan years and others who were spokespersons for reagan did it in the title of acting or deputy. that was the kind of deep loyalty this man of humor, of humility, of great knowledge and compassion was able to inspire. >> and the other distinctive thing, of course, is the role his family played in that sustained campaign. his wife sarah being a very public face for the gun control movement. do you think that that's unusual to see a family around this, and will that be something they carry the torch forward on? >> i think that is unusual to see a family united in such a way behind a cause, and so many family members contributing to

it. it makes, as you say, for continuity. sarah brady, i think, will continue the cause, which has been a frustrating one, you have to say, in recent years despite all of the traj dgedies of mass shootings. little progress has been made to prevent gun violence despite overwhelming public support for it. perhaps in death just as in injury, james brady will inspire new energy, new vigor, and maybe getting something done on this issue which the vast majority of the american public want and a small group of special interests are opposing. it's very, very sad. >> let's take a look. we actually have tape from that era of that assassination attempt. take a look. you see it there in washington, that famous tackle. it was, of course, outside the washington hilton. what does that moment represent? it's so seared in everybody's memories. when you talk about the difficulty in the current gun control debate, do you think

that these memories come flooding back will maybe change that conversation? >> you know, as an historian, i wish our memory of tragic past events like this will serve as a light to guide us into the future. that was the legacy of james brady. you know, he was a republican. he served a conservative administration. yet, he turned to become this great advocate against gun violence which is not a traditional republican issue. and maybe the remembrance of two men, james brady and ronald reagan, who came so close to death. we know today how close to death ronald reagan was as well, will inspire americans to think, you know, there is absolutely no reason why we have to allow assault weapons, why we can get around the brady background checks in gun shows. none of this affects legitimate gun owners. we need politicians with

courage, though, to stand up to special interest groups like the nra who are very much enthralled to the gun manufacturers, who have tremendous money, tremendous lobbying organizations. somehow the will of the american people is being thwarted and maybe with a collective memory the american people can reassert their control over this important public issue. >> we actually have some video, you see it now, of sarah and james brady on the floor of the house. they're obviously talking to nancy pelosi there. he was so beloved across the aisle too. what kind of a response do you expect to see on the hill? >> i expect to see an overwhelming outpouring of grief and affection from all sides. you know, we talked today about the polarization in washington which separates a political system into warring factions. james brady was one of the few figures who transcended that.

even those conservative republicans who didn't agree with his positions on gun control respected and some even loved james brady for his dedication, his self-deprecating personality, and a life devoted really to a cause so much greater than himself. >> he was an incredible man with an incredible legacy, both in his tenure at the white house and beyond, all the way into the clinton administration when that brady bill became law. as you say, beloved both on the hill and indeed by the press that covered him for all those years. thank you so much, professor, for helping us sort out his legacy. our thoughts are with his family at this time. >> same here. >> that wraps things up. thank you all for joining me. now it's time for "the reid report" with my colleague joy reid. joy, what do you have coming up? >> thank you very much, ronan. coming up on "the reid report," we will remember james brady. he went from white house press secretary to gun rights advocate after he was shot in president

reagan's attempted assassination. also, palestinians accuse israel of breaking its own cease-fire. we'll have a live report from tel aviv. and new york's chief medical examiner rules the death of eric garner a homicide. we'll take a look at how the ruling will impact the investigation, the nypd and the path forward for a family seeking justice. "the reid report" is next. you n. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends. three jobs. you're like "nothing can replace brad!" then liberty mutual calls. and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ every now and then i get a little bit tempted ♪ ♪ by the chocolate all around ♪ turn around brian! ♪ this bar has protein oh yeah!♪

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visit angieslist.com today. i'm joy reid. this is "the reid report." we begin today with the breaking news that former white house press secretary james brady has died. brady became a strong advocate against gun violence after he was shot in 1981 during an assassination attempt against then-president ronald reagan. he and his wife sarah founded the brady campaign to prevent gun violence. brady was 73 years old. joining us from washington, d.c. is nbc's andrea mitchell. talk about the impact that james brady had after that horrible assassination attempt. he really did become sort of the face of the fight against gun violence in a lot of ways.

>> and, joy, just to say he did that even though he was grievously injured. he suffered ever since that horrible day in march of 1981. we used to call him the bear. he was the funniest, the most irreverent staff member on the reagan team on the campaign trail and then in those early months. only 69 days after taking office he was shot along with the president, of course, on that horrible day in march. he and his two children and his wife, the valiant sarah brady, were just stalwart in the face of such tragedy. sarah and the children with were him and got to say their good-byes, according to a statement from the family. they fought so hard