early." great week. check your bank accounts, it's payday friday and "morning joe" starts right now. i ran for this office in part to end our war in iraq and welcome our troops home and that's what we've done. as commander in chief i will not allow the united states to be dragged into fighting another war in iraq, and so even as we support iraqis as they take the fight to these terrorists, american combat troops will not be returning to fight in iraq. because there is no american military solution to the larger crisis in iraq. good morning. it is friday, august the 8th. katherine's 11th birthday. happy birthday, kate, with us on set to set brat. you always want weird uncle john around for the birthdays sara

eisen, and the washington columnist for the "weekend update," david ignatius. a shame we have david in this morning, absolutely nothing going on overseas. we may be asking him about the washington -- and huge news. "new york times" headline of course talking how the president's allowing air strikes against iraq rebels. a force that continues to grow. and threatens instability obviously not just in iraq but across the middle east. so american planes are back over iraq with packed food and water. others armed with weapons of war. it's the first in a new u.s. mission to provide to refugees help, and also to strike terrorist targets. should american lives come under threat, president obama authorized the operation following new advances by the islamic militants poised to attack one of the biggest cities in the north, an american consulate and hundreds of u.s. citizens and military advisers. the potential air strikes coincide with a humanitarian

push to help thousands of iraqi citizens hiding on a mountaintop from the suni gunmen below. they forced women into marriage, left women dying of thirst in the dying heat. president obama says it's genocide waiting to happen. >> i've therefore authorized targetedary air strikes if necessary to help forces in iraq as they fight to break the siege and protect the civilians trapped there. already american aircraft have begun conducting humanitarian air drops and food and water to help these desperate men, women and children vivsurvive. earlier one iraqi cried to the world, there is no one coming to help. >> david ignatius, "new york times," peter bake. great analysis right off the top says in sending warplanes back over the skies of iraq president obama found himself exactly where he didn't want to be, hoping to end the war in iraq, becomes the fourth brpresident

a row to order air strikes for the president of imbusiness. so it goes and so it goes. i don't think with isis he had any choice. >> exactly right. this is a day president obama must have hoped would never come on his watch. he spent so much in the extraction of the united states from iraq, and from the wars overseas, talked repeatedly about turning a page in american history and now that page flips back again. he spoke emotionally about the potential danger of genocide, strong language for a president, emotionally about people stranded on that mountaintop who were waiting for someone to come and help them, and i think in military terms, what happened over the last few days is that the kurdish peshmerga, waiting to do along the islamic state

forced into retreat, outgunned by isis militants and that has forced the u.s. to take action, both humanitarian air drops and preparing to air strikes on the kurdish center of erbil will u.s. forces are based. >> this is an extraordinary fluid terrorist operation that the "wall street journal" said this morning they call it the islamic, it's a dynamic messianic outward moving force. bring in from beirut bbc correspondent kim katassp one of the reasons the president can't sit back is because these terrorists we certainly would call them here in the united states are ruthlessly efficient. they are just moving and swallowing up everything in front of them, and there's, doesn't appear to be any end in sight, unless america gets involved. just how much of a threat, growing threat, is this operation?

>> reporter: well, there's been a real sigh of relief in the region, i can tell you. particularly in lebanon where we've seen a few very bloody incursions by isis over the last ten days. the army, the lebanese army fought back, sustained heavy losses, but it does fear have pushed them out of lebanon for now, but there has ban real see sigh of relief in lebanon, in iraq and no doubt other places as well to see that finally something is doing something about the advance of these blood-thirsty rather savage militants, and it has been quite perplexi perplexing, i have to say, joe, to watch the lack of action and apathy over the last few weeks and months since isis first went on a rampage and took mosul. so there will be a sigh of relief, but as david pointed out, as the "new york times" wrote, this is a very reluctant

move by president obama and to some extent it is also a half measure. this campaign, whether it's air strikes or humanitarian drop, is not going to solve the problem. the problem is much more complex which is probably while it took president obama a while to make this decision. >> and so much going on across the world. we have planes being blown out of the sky over the ukraine. of course, the middle east, all eyes were fixed on what was happening in gaza. all the while, you talked of foreign policy leaders who would say these are all tragedies, but the real danger is what's going on in iraq right now with isis. this is a dangerous force. one other thing the "wall street journal" says this morning, perhaps history will mark this as the week that president obama recognized that evil unimpeded will devour everything before it. gideon? >> the thing that i am trying to understand is, how come the u.s.

didn't see the collapse of the peshmerga? now they're outgunned. why wasn't it predicted? now isis is threatening the only remaining peace at that part of the middle east which is iraqi and what could be a u.s. ally. >> how did the world not see any of this coming? they moved with such speed out of syria. it is extraordinary. you're right. there was a false hope over the past several weeks somehow the kurds were going to be able to hold them off, but they're tearing through. >> right. so i think -- the action the u.s. is taking now is a no-brainer, throw in air strikes and try to support the kurds but the about the only no-brainer there is. after this, how do you

reconstruct the iraqi government or try to account a counterforce and the influence in iran in all of these areas is going to be a spoiler. >> and what we talk about, talking about israel, gideon, the three-day cease-fire between israel and hamas obviously over. that started up. the president has to worry about that today. >> i don't know if hamas is thinking about being too distracted to think of hamas in gaza. it agrees to the cease-fire. sat down, tried to, held the talks in cairo. got nowhere. >> a place they don't want to go, by the way. >> of course not. israel has kind of got what it wanted out of the first round of fighting, to destroy the hamas tunnels. hamas got nothing, and the israelis are able to say, look, hamas broke the cease-fire but have given no concessions on the conditions hamas wanted removing the troops. >> before all this began in july, the terrible month of jubl began, the question, at what

point does it make sense for netanyahu to give not hamas because the palestinian moderates something to keep the extremists in check? >> i think that moment has arrived, joe, in the-of-that at talks it of cairo, thousahow to the palestinian authority, more moderate headed by mahmoud abbas, in control of at least some of the governance in gaza to control the crossing points from egypt into gaza, for example. that's been a real push by secretary of state kerry, and he's right. and it's been resisted by israel, i think unwisely, because the only way you're going to break from the status quo in gaza so you don't end up with another war in another year or two is to some some different non-hamas authority in charge there. so we'll see. the fact that fighting is resumed today has to make you pretty pessimistic that that kind of breakthrough is

possible. >> sara, the chaos in the middle east, obviously harks to impact the markets, has to impact the economy, has to impact energy costs. is this all factored in by now or is it a bad situation getting worse have an impact what we'll paper at the gas front? >> having an impact. brent rising. kurds have oil. most of the output is in the southern region in iraq and not disrupted. why you haven't seen an absolute spike in the price of oil, but clearly the negative impacts are making their way into the markets. the dow closed yet at its lowest level since april. s&p 500 -- >> 80,000 something. >> may -- we're pulling back. the market is you haver ab ervu. look at gaza, ukraine does have an economic impact, sanctions on russia and countersanctions, there's uncertainty, and there's not a quick end. it only seems to be escalating, getting further and investors

don't like uncertainty, and we're seeing skittishness and the markets and, yes, the price of energy is going higher. >> because of this. and may only get worse. let's go from foreign policy to domestic politics and the question this morning everybody in washington has to be asking is whether we're seeing the death of the tea party. senator lamar alexander completed the clean sweep for establishment candidates first time since 2008 that no gop incumbent senators lost in a prime marry. alexander received more than 49% of the vote against joe karen and six or candidates. beating seven incumbents including the top two republicans. establishment went 6 for 6 against tea party challengers. the only bright for the tea party came in june, upsetting eric cantor. unfortunately, john heilemann, the tea party didn't get involved in that. all of these people. are karl rove was standing on the likes in 2012, give me a gazillion dollars and we will

beat barack obama and a complete failure. look club for growth, all of these other organizations what they did, they were going to take down these establishments. guess what? we should be playing "the empire strikes back." this is haley barbour, they won. >> we asked that this morning. is this victory the sign of something larger or an anomaly. now we can say with confidence, an anomaly. eric cantor had specific problems in his district with his style of leadership. dave bratt took advantage of those -- >> but not -- saying john cornyn's in trouble, they're all in trouble. none of them lost. >> and part of it is that the tea party may turn out, again, look back on this, within the grand ark of history -- >> by the media.

>> and the tea party itself. >> why not? if the media's bidding you up, the lady saying i'm not a witch has a chance at being senator she's going to take that publicity. >> all true. going to your haley barbour point, all of these guys saw what happened in 2010 and 2012 in some of the primaries and were ready this time. an establishment girded for war. the tea party wa no longer an alien force that could strike in the night. >> girded for war actu. >> actually, business got more involved, doubling down on some of the establishment, they look at these pro-business republican businesses and say we want to fund the establishment party and make sure. look at the number, senator alexander, $9.9 million. way more than his challenger, just a little over $1 million. >> the chamber played a huge role. the key moment, the shutdown. much of the business community looked at that and said --

>> they blamed the tea party. >> we've had enough of this and are now going to do something and flex our muscles and make sure that -- >> they really did, and you probably remember it. >> yeah. >> but the alabama race, went down to bradley burn, just complete crackpot running against bradley burn. everybody thought he was going to win. the chamber, i think the rickets, everybody says, enough is enough. >> enough is enough. >> we're takingary par arour pa and they won. undefeated. pretty crazy. did you see this? do you have any plagiarism in your -- do you write your own stories? if you do, don't run for senate. right? >> yeah. >> holy cow! >> wikipedia has become a giant killer, or even a non-giant killer. just a killer. >> democratic senator -- the times came out with an

exhaustive look on the paper incorrectly or failed to contribute material. one page lifted from a harvard paper and more passages from the carnegie endowment for international peace and the senator backed away postcombat stress may have been a factor. from washington, you've got the editor-in-chief of "roll call," christiana belatoni. thanks so much. the top ten most vulnerable senators up for re-election, number one with a bullet is no more. go through the list? >> reporter: right. i don't know that arkansas senator mark pry zer aor is hap about it. >> the new number one. pryor number one. >> reporter: exactly. john walsh always in a precarious spot, appointed to fulfill the spot. a more republican state. you have a member of congress in

steve danes, represents the at large seat running against him. so the republicans liked their chances here in, as you've been talking about, a pretty favorable year for them anyway. they have the candidate that they like. but when this came out, you know, and credit to the "new york times," this was a very big deal, and "roll call" noticed, our partners at the cq members team noticed discrepancies on his education as well. something we put out there when he was appointed. he eventually just says, i'm not actually going to run for the seat. democrats have maybe a fighting chance if they get a candidate in there that they like. this was right at the end of the deadline. so now you've got the rest of the top ten. we're going to bump that up. we'll have the person who would have been number 11 and number 10, probably that's going to be senator mark warner in virginia. again, that's pretty, a long shot, but you never know. >> put up the list again. john heilemann. you see the list, pryor at number 1 now.

mary landrieu, kay hagan. mark bagitch. >> in a real fight, the smart money says mcconnell holds the seat. always the case, democrats had a lot more of these seats vulnerable, why people think republicans have a chance of taking back the senate. on that list, pryor, landrieu, hagan, tough races. >> we're living in two ultimate realities, in this show and many other shows in the past month, chaos that could come to our doorstep. out in every one of those races over the past month, nobody was talking about gaza. nobody was talking about what's going on with the isis. you heard kim from beirut say, everybody's kind of glad -- i mean, it's surreal that a decade ago, everybody said, get out of our business, and now it seems

like, a lot of people are thinking, america is sleepwalking through history. >> how do you think this is going to play out in america's foreign policy if the democrats do get weakened in the senate race? is it going to change anything? >> i don't know. i really -- right now the republicans are having a battle between themselves, to try to figure out whether they're going the way of rand paul or the way of dick cheney. david ignatius, i don't know that either party's going to have much of a choice as the entire fabric of the middle east unravels before our very eyes over the next year and we can have people on tv saying, these lines weren't real. they were drawn by winston churchill in 1918. doesn't really matter. it's international chaos, and i love this line that the "wall street journal" basically says -- chaos is coming to our doorstep whether we like it or not. i always accuse the europeans of taking a break from history

after 1991, thinking that was the end of history. it's not. >> joe, we're still here. >> it's getting worse, by the day. >> i think -- the u.s. is riding the tiger right now. we'll have partisan recriminations about who's to blame, but i think in terms of policy, the responses are going to be pretty much the same. republican and democratic. >> i also can't see this winding down anytime soon. look at the situation george bush face add decade ago now infinitely more complex and unstable. at least bush was dealing with dictators who ran countries with structures. isis is more like a poison gas. kind of floats throughout the meefrt and destroys everything in its path, and as the "wall street journal" said, the problem is going to come knocking and the question is, just how much can the u.s. sit back and wait until the problem comes knocking at its door? or does it have it guts to do

something fanned and if so what do? >> we've seen two sectionive presidencies, democratic and republican president haunted by iraq, and the bush presidency by the end almost destroyed by iraq. barack obama capitalized on it and now is plagued by it. in the broader can area, democrats and republican, at what point is this an isolation, clearly a rise of it -- >> we really don't have that choice. >> i just mean in the -- >> listen, i'll be honest with you. barack obama is going to be remembered -- george w. bush will be remembered for a president who engaged in military adventurism, the mark against him and barack obama is going to be that general always fighting the last war. he's overcompensated. he retreated. he has been -- he has been on, like, for instance, worried about what's going on in iraq right now for good reason. you've got 100, 150,000, 175,000

people dead in syria, and it's not like we weren't talking about that number when it was 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000. we said what it's going to have to get to? 50000. got 100,000, still sitting back. why? the specter of george w. bush and dick cheney caught in the middle east. he's overcorrected, and i think at this point, as peter baker writes in the "new york times," as the "wall street journal" writes, in their main editorial. the president figured out finally, he's got no choice. >> the reluctant warrior, the phrase in the "journal." >> right. reluctant warrior. >> easy to say he overcorrected but show me what he could have done even if he started acting earlier? as i said, this situation is an endless, endless problem. he's gotten involved in syria and tried to fix iraq, it's hard to say he shouldn't have done those things you but i would be skeptical we would be in a

better situation. >> the history books can debate that, allies to work with six months ago or a year ago in syria. obviously there isn't now. greatly appreciate you being with us, gideon. still ahead on "morning joe," richard haass, richard krystal, eugene robinson here, plus, could hot brownies land one teen in jail for life? we'll explain -- this kid, obviously, not from colorado. would you eat at a restaurant run by a former corningman named anthony weiner. let me answer that, no. his project coming up, and what can four presidents golf games tell us about leadership styles? a lot according to politico apparently with bill clinton. that and much more when "morning joe" comes back. when folks think about what they get from alaska, they think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well:

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it's a subaru. wow. talking about lamar alexander's race last night. talk about that a little more in

a minute. first, let's look at morning papers, from the "washington times" president obama signed the veterans health care system, the high profile scandal of the v.a. months ago. boof boosts benefits and fund to speed up appointments across america. vets may receive private care, appointment wait time, too long or if they live more than 40 miles from a v.a. facility. >> the "weekend update" a pint siz -- "the washington post," pint-sized got away slipping slew the fence and making his way on to the lawn. the child apprehended and return pd to his parents. >> okay. the "detroit free press," in two weeks the grand jury will hear the case of a teenager facing life in prison for making pot brownies. arrested in april. police found brownies made with

hash oil and weed. the brownies weighed in at 1.5 pounds and the actual amount of drugs found going through the lab analysis, significantly less. the teen's lawyer is taking a reduction of his -- i don't pay a lot of attention to the news, in my business, you don't really have to, but isn't this like getting legalized everywhere and they're talking about sending a kid to prison for life for making pot brownies? >> truly insane. i mean, at the -- life in prison is the kind of thing reserved for violent criminals. not for people indulging in this, whether making it or just consuming it. the most absurd thing i've seen all day. >> and a pot browny -- >> still, life in prison -- >> the thing is, they're waking the chocolate, for god's sake. >> no kidding. a lot of filler in there. not like he's eating a pound and a half of pot. >> that would be something. >> now, that's a meal. >> like the stuff you use. >> not like my normal sunday

brunch. >> what happens when you do eat a pound and a half? how do you -- do you behave like you're behaving now or more bizarre? >> well -- >> turn off your mind. relax, and float down the stream. >> i can't really -- >> i couldn't comment on that, at least not right now because i'm only a pound in to my pound and a half of the day. "usa today," a california man -- >> mom and dad. >> feels disrespected after receiving a $21,000 settlement from an insurance company in buckets of coins. the 78-year-old man's lawyer says the insurance company sent the settlement in more than 16, 5 gallon buckets full of coins. >> hateful, mike. >> it is. stemming from a lawsuit in 2012. the lawyer says the company told them they not plan to issue a check. the coins were taken to a bank where it's expected to take a week to count everything. i'd be careful taking anything to a bank these days. >> yeah. >> wow. i would, too.

gosh. so sara, what's your favorite restaurant in new york? where do you like to go eat? >> i'm a downtown girl. lower manhattan. >> any favorites down there? >> abc kitchen, was hot a year ago. it's still hot. john george, and little plates and healthy. that's my kind of food. i don't eat meat. why? you looking for restaurant recommendations? >> got one for you. >> john, your favorite place downtown? >> i'm not allowed to choose among my favorite children. make too many people mad at me. i can't name one. >> you probably would like abc i. love abc. great restaurant. >> for our foodies, you're going to love this. >> go. >> "new york post" former congressman anthony weiner hasv restaurant. rockway section of the queens hoping to bring healthy food and job training to the neighborhood

devastated by hurricane sandy. the restoration kitchen still in the planning process. it even sounds good. the rockaway restoration kitchen. a place, you all would go? right? >> from anxious anchors. >> i wonder what the cuisine? healthsy what we know. rye? >> what we hear. >> who presents health more vividly than the image of anthony weiner? >> he's skinny. >> he's healthy? and kathie lee and hoda talk purchasing in the magazine's first annual freebie issue. >> fantastic. >> who doesn't love a freebie? >> i don't know. still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> wow. close. >> i don't think it's just the united states. i think the international community has simply failed to recognize the seriousness of the disease, the magnitude of it and lethality of it. haven't got it, haven't seen it. >> bringing dire warnings to

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hey -- [ laughter ] >> do you have any friends that speak in third person? hi, i'm only suggesting i speak in third person at all times. "morning joe." "morning joe" is going now to get a drink of water. >> "morning joe" is happy! >> "morning joe" is mad. >> just to make joe kernen mad. no, not doing that. joe would file a lawsuit against me e. let's not contribute a. great guy. >> an angry guy in a wonderful, wonderful way, much like mark haines, god, i miss him. such a wonderfully angry guy. right? and a cincinnati guy, too. >> west side of cincinnati. >> oh, doesn't count. >> we have a little rivalry, but he's very proud of his cincinnati roots. most of the action, though is happening on the east side.

>> of course. that's -- >> down by the river. >> just telling us. with us now, not to talk about action happening on the east side of cincinnati -- >> correct. >> east side of cincinnati. chief white house correspondent here with the morning playbook. fascinating. mike, first, give us a happy friday. >> first things first. happy friday! >> second thing, politico, you guys report that bill clinton cheats? >> in golf. >> i know, you're shocked, shocked. >> i'm shocked and stunned and deeply saddened. tell us about it. >> bill clinton was a notorious cheater, mulligan, extra shot, noern at billigans when he was out playing golf. every president back to eisenhower has been into golf except for jimmy carter. the only one of our last 11

presidents who wasn't into golf. with president obama we calculated every golf game he's had. partners with his trip director, marvin nicholson 117 times. he's been partners with the speaker of the house one time. the president -- you might call this, neoisolationist golf. one of the most notable characteristics of this president's golf, like we've taked how he likes comfort food in his staff, in the west wing, also comfort food with his golf partners. he switched from, his first love, of course, basketball. he's worried about getting hurt. switched to golf. but -- we talked the other day about his no new friends policy that also applies to golf. >> mike barnicle, it's true. we're coming in, make no new friends. the last thing you'd want a president saying as getting sworn in and talk to advisers, former chiefs of staff, you talk to -- like i mean senators. you talk -- you name it.

they all complain. all complain about the fact he is so isolated, and they use his golf game as a metaphor. >> listen, i don't blame him for the no new friends thing. i kind of issubscribe to that myself. >> we would never vote for you for president of the united states. >> and marvin nicholson, used to play with john kerry before he played with president obama. i want to defend bill clinton. bill clinton, hooks, slice, president of the united states, for security purposes, can't have the president going into the woods looking for a ball. so drop one in the fairway and hit a second shot. >> that's what i do. play it where it lies. i'm not searching around for, like, forever. >> obama has good skills. doesn't he? >> yes. >> yes. >> does he? >> how's kerry as golfer? >> plays not frequently enough. to play golf, you have to be like the president of the united states. you have to play at least once or twice a week. >> who's the best presidential golfer, mike allen?

>> well, a great golfer was jar gerald ford. athlete, didn't get credit for it. and president obama's golf, of course, headed out this weekend two more weeks in martha's vineyard. an honest golfer. no billigans for him. >> no obamaigans. >> and a calm golfer. not a lot of bending of clushs, shouting, because had yeuses it escapism. does it to get away from people that had he has to persuade. doesn't want to work when out there. >> i got you. on the golf course. >> george w. bush. great golfer. speed golf. an hour and a half, 18 holes. >> if you can plain 18 holes in an hour and a half, sign me up. if going on 14, four hours in, sorry. put the bags down and walk into

the clubhouse. who has that much time? >> the problem, if you just would not bring a bottle of tea k -of-tequila in the cart, it wouldn't slope the game down. >> i wonder if hillary clinton if she becomes president will take on the golf -- >> we shall see. >> i wonder if bill and hillary have played together? >> i wonder. i bet not. and coming up, favorites for next year's title. why a huge trade may bring the title to long suffering cleveland fans. here's a question. shue make jokes about whipping people when you're in front of african leaders? now, i'm not good at politics. okay? so i've asked steny hoyer to answer that question. and he will. holy cow! do you believe what he said?

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time for sports. excuse me. "morning joe," john. we'll just -- >> "morning joe" and -- >> nba season is over basically over. >> is it really? >> yes. >> good. so i don't have to watch it again. >> no, you don't. kevin love is going to the cleveland cavaliers. upset? bothered? >> concerned who many -- who's going to play center for the cavs? >> can kevin love play center? >> i really know nothing. told me to say that. >> he played center? >> they need rim protection. >> so kevin love is really good. joining lebron james's in cleveland. silver crunching numbers predicts the cavaliers will won 65 games with lebron and love on the roster. >> already crunched the numbers? >> yes. >> same guy that said brazil would beat germany? >> same guy. >> didn't turn out really well,

but say his record has gone down a good bit on the sports stump amplgts hard beat there in the world cup. i'll say this is a huge deal. this kevin love thing. it's the dream that people had when lebron went there. people thought, a chance, get kevin love without giving up too much that team is, i think -- >> cleveland's going to -- >> cleveland is now immediately the favorite to win the eastern conference. west is still very strong. >> ray allen will sign with the cavs. >> the instant favorite to win the eastern conference now, undoubtedly. >> crazy stuff. still ahead on "morning joe," a bad side for humanity. bears walking on two legs. we did not doctor this video. >> oh, my god. come on. >> we doctor most videos. we did not -- we did not doctor this video. >> that is not -- humanity is doomed. >> yes. bill crystal here to talk about walking bears and dogs and cats sleeping with each other. we shall return. >> i like the fact went from humanitisy doomed to bill

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catastrophe of iraq is growing subtly worse for weeks on thursday became impossible for the united states and other civilized nations to ignore it. blood it thirsty, ex-temperaturenating those who refused to join the fundamentalist islamic state terrorists want to create. wasn't surprising to hear president obama announce thursday the united states was dropping food and water in iraq. the authorized targeted air strikes against isis if needed. mr. obama made a wise call and showed proper caution by keeping his commitment not to re-introduce ground troops to iraq but humanitarian assistance for the imperilled civilians was necessary. david ignatius, i don't think it's going to be that clean at the end of the day. again, another great line from the "wall street journal" editorial this morning talking about isis. it is a dynamic messianic outward moving force. it's tactics make them, well,

like gideon said earlier, poison gas spreading across the region, joe, this fight is just beginning. as i talked to administration officials, what they're struck by is the military's sophistication of isis. this is not your grandfather's al qaeda. this is an organization that's capable of a war of mobility, of moving quickly in northern iraq. senior administration official told me last night, struck by this sophistication, their rapidity of movement, able to use equipment they've captured, the people they've taken out of prisons and mobilize them into a force that just beats us to the punch. beats our allies, the kurds, to the punch. so people need to see this as a, more of a military threat than ye we're used to from the al qaeda-linked groups. >> david, could you sfeek a couple of things in speaking to some people myself yesterday, i was impressed with their

assessment of isis' command and control capability, unlike any other organization supposedly terrorist organization, we've confronted in the recent pass. they have enormous sums of money, based upon the fact they have cap colored so much territory and so many banks in northern iraq and with regard to the bombing that is about to take place or perhaps is going on now, the people stranded on that mountain, no matter how much we bomb at the base of the mountain, or bomb supply depots for isis, they are going to have to come off the mountain at some point in time, and they're going to need us to get them off the mountain. >> mike, those are all the key questions for the next 24 hours. it is reported that the u.s. with its kurdish allies has been helping to clear an escape route for the refugees that are trapped there. the bake point about isis is that it is a disciplined structure.

its leader, who you kas himself abu abahdadi has an ability to win conducts and fuse them into a force that moves with coordination. al qaeda often had internal disagreements. you see them in papers taken. doesn't seem to be that same kind of tension. they mix the brutality how they operate with a kind of tactical cunning in the field that impresses people who have been watching them. >> all right. david, thank you so much. coming up at the top of the hour, the world health organization now is calling an international public health emergency, the ebola outbreak around the globe is causing panic. nbc's kate snow is live at the center for disease control. she joins us ahead. and hopefully, you didn't want the book that once in a lifetime trip to hawaii this week, a major storm strikes a popular vacation spot. an update on the situation there

in a minute. plus, the big question this morning -- if you're giving a speech to a room full of african leaders is it a good idea to joke about not being there to whip them? well -- >> what does "morning joe" think about that? >> "morning joe" will get the answer from congressman steny hoyer. and your cringe-worthy sound bite of the morning, perhaps of the week. and and much more, the anticipated return of hollyweird, when "morning joe" returns. everybody's excited about the back to school

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i'll ask you to grin and bear it. >> oh! stop it. >> because i am "unbearable" this morning. an update on bear that's become a youtube sensation. this black bear, hanging around a new jersey suburb. not louis in a bear suit. >> it's t.j. >> visiting with residents in the backyards walking as if he is human leading to a question whether this was really eve andrew bear or just a guy in a bear suit. >> right. >> lacht night new jersey officials say the bear's most likely injured on its two front paws but appears to be makes a recovery. guys, it can't "bear" wait. >> oh, shut up. >> bear with me while we talk about that. >> you know what? a pick anything basket. >> you are a disgrace to your kind. >> people of baltimore. >> apparently i am. >> shut up already. >> we heard about steve jobs

being a tough boss. now, facebook employees telling quite the story about ceo mark zuckerberg. >> what? >> in a new e-book, former facebook product manager claims zuckerberg once threw water on an engineer's computer because he didn't think the work was good enough. also a story about the then 23-year-old walking around the office with a samurai sword. >> bill kristol does that. what's wrong with that? >> he'd come around and pretend to cut you joking if you take down the site, he'll chop your head off. >> okay. >> another zuckerberg line. employee quote, if you don't get that done sooner, i'll punch you in the face. >> that's phil griffin talk that is. quick, thomas -- >> i don't understand why this is news. >> well, i don't know. you want news, we got news. steny hoyer is talking to leaders from africa. >> right. >> what's he talking about? economic -- economic opportunities. >> not so much. a joke that went horribly wrong on wednesday. >> yeah. >> the maryland democrat

speaking at the u.s. african leaders summit and tried this attempt at humor. >> first of all, let me tell my friends from africa i do not whip people. and if you'd watched "house of cards" it is not accurate. >> oh, my god. >> that was scripted, too! oh, my god. >> swe >> sweet jesus, he scripted it, guys. >> i liked the reaction from the crowd. >> play out on the democratic whip. >> you can't explain it. this is as bad as ross perot going down to the naacp and referring to the people as you people, i wrote this speech and you people need to understand -- come on, steny. >> can we get the uproarious laughter? >> the krouz reacticrowd reacti

best. >> i don't think he'll try that one again. >> he needs vinnie's bear to write his jokes. >> stuck on that bear. >> i love that -- who doesn't love that bear? >> it's not a bear. >> we got to go. we actually have serious news. right now, next hour of "morning joe" starts -- right now. i ran for this office in part to end our war in iraq and welcome our troops home, and that's what we've done. at commander in creef i will not allows united states to be dragged into fighting another war in iraq. so even as we support iraqis as they take the fight to these terrorists, american combat troops will not be returning to fight in iraq. because there is no american military solution to the larger crisis in iraq. >> that, of course, the president talking about chaos breaking across the globe. john heilemann talking about the bear still. with us in washington, pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate eder for "the washington post" and political

analyst eugene robinson and editor and chief of "roll call," christina billatoni and bill kristol. a lot to talk about. american planes back over iraq again. some for food and water, some with weapons to provide aid to refugees and strike against terrorist targets should american lives come under threat. president obama authorized the operation after new advances were made by islamic militants poitzed to attack one. biggest cities in the north, an american consulate and hundreds of u.s. citizens and military advisers, religious minorities attacked and killed, christians persecuted. potential astrooix barack obama is talking about coinciding with a humanitarian push to help thousands it of iraqi civilians hiding on a mountaintop from the suni gunmen below. a horrid scene. bill kristol, the "wall street journal" editorial page starts, the jihadist march in iraq, what

happens history will mark this the week president obama recognized that evil unimpeded will devour everything before it. gideon litchfield on last hour and said they're like a poison gas. i think that's a very apt description. i love what peter baker wrote this morning, though. a return to action front page of the "new york times," sending warplanes back to iraq, obama thursday night found himself exactly where he didn't want to be helping end the war in iraq became the fourth president to odor military action that that graveyard of american ambition. it is a graveyard of american ambition and yet this president, and i think the rest of the world knows, we no longer have a choice. we no longer can sit idly by. >> can't govern policy where you'd like to be, or bush fought a difficult war there. i'm not getting involved, that's driven him over the last three, four years in an unfortunate way. david ignatius says to you half hour ago white house officials were struck by the military sophistication.

obama, a big interview with "the new yorker," he said -- what about al qaeda? decimateded? yeah. terrorist groups left like the jv who put on lakers uniforms. they're not serious. like al qaeda was before 9/11. maybe he's learned -- for two moss seriously people in washington saying, isis is a serious threat, controls hundreds of square mimes in iraq and syria. thousands, actually. isis controlled mosul, city of 2 million people for a month. got all the money, looted banks, and control it. one thing president -- i'm for him and hope he does more than he said last night, it's a strategic threat. a mistake to say we're going to help. i feel terrible about the mountaintop people, but can't say we're going help them, protect americans. it is a strategic threat to the united states for them to control that territory i. think that's just the president cracking the door open. everybody knows what the president has to do. >> you don't explain to the american public, don't sdplin

the allies -- >> the problem, bill, we could be critical of the president not doing enough in iraq, american people overwhelmingly didn't want -- they have a president that reflects their feelings about ten years of what they consider to be military venturism. it's a sort of rand paul approach to foreign policy that, yes, it's having discover ras result now across the middle east. john heilemann, it's not like the president didn't promise americans this is exactly the type of president he would be if he got elected. >> exactly what he promised. >> he's dragged into this kicking and screaming. his reluctance a obvious. >> and reflects the american people. >> it does. i'm curious. bill, about one thing. which is, forget about the last two months, people pointed out how serious isis is. and as vicious as david ignatius says, didn't pop up in the last

few moss, a failure of the american intelligence system that -- no one was talking, no one talking right or left about isis, six months away. >> even two weeks ago we were told and we believed, the kurds would be strong enough to stop them. they have driven straight through. through the kurds. >> i wouldn't make them ten feet tall either. they can be stopped. intervene with air power, a few advisers on the ground. we're not dealing with the soviet army here. syria, though, the answer to john's good question, syria. the people did say in 2011, 2012, you let the civil war get out of control, let jihadists get well trained, start trolling territory, these things can morph more quickly than you think. this is the way foreign policy works. it's not incremental. tipping points. suddenly -- they gained mosul, wealthy, capture arms and suddenly have tanks. >> they keep building, growing. gene robinson, look at the president of the united states. look at his approval rating for

foreign policy. at george bush levels at this stage of the presidency. in fact, only one point off from where george bush was at this minute to 2006, yet the american people are schizophrenic. they don't like how things are going across the world. you ask, do you want involved across the world? they will say, no. what's the president to do? i think presidents going have to make unpopular choices moving forward, he's going have to get a lot more involved. >> first, just like anything he does will be unpopular. that approval rating affects the fact things are not going generally well in the world. it's not happy news from that part of the world certainly, and it reflects that. you're right. the president is doing what the american people say they want. which is to stay out of these conflicts to the absolute extent possible. the question now, though, is that now that you've decided, we

have to provide air cover for the israelis and have to hit isis as it advances on erbil and to protect american interests ostensively, but really to protect erbil, so there is a serious question about where do you stop? seems to me, if you're in and if you're doing air strikes, you're in. right? you can't let the -- >> that's the thing, gene. you're never half in. the president, i understand exactly what the president was doing last night by saying, hey, we're going in to protect americans, going in to stop genocide. i understand that. but that's really just a prelude to, like you said, going in more, because you can't be half in over there. >> i don't see how you can be. you know, what if isis continues to advance on erbil but says, don't worry. we're going to leave the american embassy and consulate alone, just take over the rest and kill all the christians and

other non-believers, and just continue our march. >> right. >> so what do we say? okay. that's fine? no, we don't. >> can't do it. bill to your point, i understand exactly what you're saying. i'm talking about the incrementalism that presidents, talk about fdr. they all -- will slowly move that direction, to get ahead of the american people, but to your point, though -- let me finish here. to your point, the president has been criticized time and time again for not being the explainer in chief. not being the leader in chief. leading from behind. perhaps that's one reason why the polls reflect that americans don't want to get involved. they don't -- they haven't been told about the gravity of the situation. listen, you and i have been fighting for a long time about foreign policy. i'm on colin powell's side. less is more. but in this case, we can't -- we

can't hide from this poison gas. >> well, in the real world, war is sometimes war and it's a foreign policy matter and colin powell would agree. if yew getting in, get in big and decisively now. go in incrementally in this way you don't have the affect you want on isis. not the affect on bolsters allies or the affect you want in the region. >> do you really think, do you really think that we are not in there in nearly, full force, as far as we can go with full force right now? do you really think we have no spatters on the ground now? do you think the president of the united states would have gone on tv last night, here's what we're going to do isis, take notes. of course we're in there. and -- >> we're not in there, seriously. 300 advisers, used no air power to speak of. >> how do you know that? >> i think we know it off of our u.s. government that the air force assets aren't launched without our knowing. i think we're capable of stopping isis if we're serious about it.

>> you have to have spotters on the ground. you want to take fast-moving vehicles out on the ground you have to have lasers -- >> i sat here and john and i had a discussion about this -- >> i just have the to say i'm the interpreter. from south boston. thought he says sparters three times. you're saying spotters. you're saying spotter. >> why do we want spartacus? >> are the greesks coming in? >> the spartans are great. they were great. the spartans were great fighters. >> spotters, spotters. anyway, go ahead. >> spartans were great fighters and bring some in. revive them. >> get them in. i had this discussion a few months ago. send in ground troops for this reason. john correctly said the president doesn't want to and the american public isn't for it. sent in a couple hundred advisers. i agree, but tell the american public you're doing it in a serious way? >> no. you tell the american public last night on tv you're telling isis. you know? >> fine.

i agree with that. >> let's knock a few of them off before we -- >> oh -- okay. >> we have agreement. >> if doing, covertly doing all kinds of amazing things we don't know about, his national security advisers said a month ago, susan rice sent a letter to congress, that authorization for war in iraq, let it expire. we're not going to fight in iraq. if congress followed her advice would the president have the constitutional authority to interjean interveerning i take it under the 2002 -- >> go from foreign policy to domestic politics. is the tea party dead? >> no. >> lamar alexander wins last night. the haley barbour side is like 8-0. at the beginning of this campaign year, and we heard that john cornyn was going lose. lamar alexander would lose. they have, they've struck out in every single race. >> lost almost all the big races. had inferior candidates. voters are discerning. a marco rubio, they decide to elect him.

mcdaniel in mississippi, almost elect him. my message would be the opposite. respected republican incumbents never challenged ever in a primary elected three, four, five times staid wide in their states losing 40% of votes. pat roberts, lamar alexander. ed that cochran, 55%. a lot of unhappiness with republican leadership among republican voter at the grass roots. unhappiness in washington among voters of both parties of the grass roots. if republicans want to do well in 2014, especially 2016. grass roots, forget about them. we're the party of dole, mccai mccain,ed that cochran, that's not going to win in 2016. a healthy dose of intelligent tea party activism remains the way to go. >> i'll say to bill's point. talking earlier this morning, it shows the anti-lamar alexander vote actually a majority of the vote. he luckily had six challengers

in that race and faced maybe one might have been in more trouble. the question i have for bill, i know we want to go some place else, whether the tea party is ever a real thing to begin with, or not. seems to me now moving forward there's always been a populous part of the republican party in the grass roots and the tea party phenomenon, look back on it, seen as overblown, discreet but -- >> the national media and tea party leaders says, yes, we've done it, when this is just part -- happened in the '64 convention and in '66. always happened. >> if you said 2008, marco rubio would beat, you would say, really? that's not our father's republican party. grandfather's republican party. i think parts of it were whipped up. but the populous was strong. the republican party in september and in the house pass legislation removing the bailout for insurance companies from obamacare, go in a populace

direction. smallish thing, medium sized things but symbolic. interesting to have the republicans against the -- back of whose money goes to boeing and democrats and obama defendering it. obama said campaigning in 2008, just corporate welfare. he was right about. now the democratic party defending corporate welfare and republicans, i hope, actually going after it. >> christina, same question. what's the state of the tea party right now? >> you have to look at how they've really shifted what's happening in congress. this last debate before they got out of town is an excellent example. conservative members of the house republican conference really shifting an entire debate that had been sort of benefiting the democrats and saying to senate democrats by the way we're going to take you out too. in addition to that seeing a generational shift. all the names you're talking about in addition to being a representative of a differ kind of republican, also older republicans. so these tea party activists are

feeling energized by what they're seeing as bill as saying. forcing some of the members to really have to take on some of the messaging from that tea party side and republicans are in a good position. >> it's an absolute mess, if you look at both parties. not just the republican but the democratic party. you guys i'm sure all saw the cbs news poll from earlier this week, most americans in congress just absolutely it stinks. only 29% a favorable impression of republicans. 62% unfavorable. views of the democrats, 41% unfavorable. 50% view of congress, 15%, by the way, those number, democrats are much higher than the republicans are, but both, just one point off in the cbs "new york times" poll, all-time los. you look, talk about our republican party. look at the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll this week, barack obama at his all-time lope at 40%. the republican party at 19%. now, the establishment is blaming the tea party. the tea party's blaming the establishment.

we're in a mess. 19%? >> i think politically, analytically, where we are. barack obama is unpopular. that means republicans do well in november 2014. >> despite themselves? >> despite themselves, but if they take the message from that that all is well with the republican party, they're crazy. the republican brand is very much damaged. >> why is it so unpopular? bill, why -- >> that's why you need to be a reformed republican. a populace, an agent of change, all of that stuff. >> why is the republican party -- who do you blame for that 19% number from the "wall street journal," nbc news/"wall street journal" poll? >> look, a two term president that fairly on unfairly leaves office with 35%, even that? >> no. >> approval rating? 29%? a republican president. greatest fiscal financial crisis happens on his watch. you then have a lot of internal republican fighting on the hill, which people see and whichever side you're on you get disgruntled. an established moderate, lunatics are taking over the republican party.

populace grass roots, we want a majority in 2010. they're thwarting our hopes. mitt romney 20shgs 12, all do respect, not a fresh, new republican face embodying grass roots sentiments or reform or change. add it all up, you got, done a lot of damage. >> gene robinson -- >> a presidential candidate can change the image of a party as bill clinton showed. if we'd been sitting here in 1990, said, oh, my god. mondale, dukakis who were the democratic leaders of that time? >> even 1991, talking about the -- gene, though, i think the bigger problem for the republican party, remember paul riding this way back in 1996-1997 saying if mr. gingrich doesn't want crazy people like me going after him all the time, keep them busy weren't aagenda. keep them busy with new ideas, keep them busy. you know, fighting for something bigger than themselves. what does the house gop stand

for? what message do they take out there? >> good question. >> there is -- as vapid as harry reid, in the senate. >> yeah. >> there. i said it. >> no their, there, joe. they particularly want to do except pass useless bills that go inwhere, repealing obamacare. a couple of points to bill's analysis of why the republicans are kind of in the tank. number one, one of the reasons that you didn't mention, bill that bush was so unpopular was the war in iraq. and you know, that had a substantial impact on his unpopularity and we should note that as we perhaps go back into iraq, and the second thing is that, you know, this question of, whether the republican party -- it's got to stand for something but also got to get broader. it's got to -- because the country is getting broader and it's got to speak to different

kinds of people that it doesn't speak to now. and if it doesn't, then i think the republican water continues to sink. long term, it really does. got to speak to latino, african-americans and people who are not southern whites which is, that's what it's becoming. >> bill, follow me. 15 seconds. go. >> the quality of republican candidates is very high this time, though and it will -- elect ben sass in nebraska, arkansas, iowa. lankford in oklahoma. sullivan in alaska. they're younger, not career politicians. i think it really changes the -- it adds to rubio, lee, cruz, you could look at the republican party in mid-2015 and think it's much better unlts don't follow directions. >> 14 seconds. i was watching the clock up there. >> maybe. all right. now to hawaii where hurricane, what is it iselle this morning down graded to a tropical storm. but you still packing winds of 60 miles per hour and bringing heavy rains.

just behind it, hurricane julio bearing towards the islands. with us now, weather channel meteorologist reynolds wolf. >> right, my man. keeping a sharp eye out. winds at 60 miles per hour. not looking that gray on radar. seeing it get closer. a lot of wave action. the biggest threat we'll deal with, joe, specter flooding. rain could be especially heavy in many locations. in fact, a flood warning in effect for parts of the big island. we zoom in and also have damage reports. hawaii paradise park, winds fairly strong. some up to 60 maybe 70 miles an hour. getting stronger the higher up, higher elevation. roof damage, see in that area, trees down. get this, guys. over 20,000 customers now without power. we're going to see those numbers increase. the other thing we're going to see increase, rainfall. take a look. over a foot possible north of hilo. tell you what, that might be conservative. if this system slows down a bit, that means the rain will pile up a bit more. that means seriously widespread flooding.

okay. you know what's going to do? question is, where's it going to go? grow some leg, make its way off towards the west moving south of the islands. by the time we get into friday morning, friday evening, well south of honolulu, weakening, too, winds of 45. again that going for us. quick strike for today then moves away. for tomorrow, keep tag closer look at julio. good news about this. it is a powerhouse of winds with 120 miles an hour. quickly, watch it, guys. this one moving well north of the islands. looks like in that regard hawaii may be fortunate with this, more of a northern passage. >> all right. reynolds, thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. >> thanks, guys. christina, thank you as well. loved having you on. >> thank you. >> and bill and gene still around. attending a country music concert could be hazard outside to your health. a new phenomenon have be officials seriously worried. and rendering a verdict in a trial that has detroit residents up in arms. plus now classified as an

international public health emergency. why this ebola outbreak is compared to the swine flu outbreak and recent polio outbreak. kate snow will be with us. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. machines will be sprayed to be made. and making something stronger... will mean making it lighter. one day, factories will work with the cloud. one day... is today.

the director of the cdc sounding alarm of the ebola virus causing a panic. nearly 1,600 people sickened in guinea, libya, sierra leone. with us now from the cdc, nbc's kate snow. fritenning and obviously the cdc very, very alarmed? >> reporter: yes. people are alarmed, joe. even this morning, news overnight in liberia family members associated with the u.s. embassy there evacuated now, told to come home. meantime, dire warnings on capitol hill from aide workers

also from the cdc talking about just how bad this epidemic is right now, and what could still be to come. if there's an image that show what's things are like in west africa now, it's the man who collapsed on a busy street in guinea for five hours no one dared help or touch him fearful he might have ebola. >> i could give you descriptions of people dying that you cannot even believe. >> reporter: on capitol hill thursday, blunt warnings from a leader of the aid organization, the two americans worked with. >> we will fight this disease an it in other multiple countries around the world and the truth is the cat is most likely already out of the bag. >> reporter: the head of the centers for disease control, far less dire. >> we can stop ebola. we know how to do it. it will be a long and hard fight. >> reporter: the government is trying to fast track production of the experimental medicine the two americans have had. >> i heard you actually -- >> reporter: here add cdc

headquarter, xpets are monitoring every new case, numbers that just keep climbing. >> those lines don't look very good. >> indeed we're in theers phase of the response. >> reporter: at emory university hospital, dr. kent brant li and nancy write bobol steam get bet every day. >> talking a long time recovery. >> reporter: from liberia, her husband david reflected how hard it's been. >> it's a singular experience to look upon a loved one, you know, we were junior high sweethearts, to see her on the brink of death, and knowing that there was nothing i could do to prevent that. >> reporter: cdc director frieden says not to worry about the united states. he says there will not be a large outbreak of ebola in the u.s. and we're prepared for it

here, know how to isolate patients. i can tell you in tcdc, getting phone calls every day from hospitals around this country worried that they might have an ebola case. joe? >> kate, obviously, this outbreak continues to spread across africa. panic sweeping through africa. what dop aide workers need to stem the tide of this disease? >> reporter: the first thing they need is protective gear. there was a lot of testimony on capitol hill yesterday that they're running out of medicines, the doctors without frontiers, working in liberia, they say they don't have enough of those protective suits, dupont did say a couple days ago they're going to ramp up protection of those. also medicine. yesterday there was news out of the fda saying they would try to fast track that experimental drug that the two americans have gotten and try to get more of it over to africa, but you know, as one of the aide workers said yesterday, the man you saw in the piece, isaacs, he said nobody was really pay be attention to any of this until

the two americans got sick. >> all right, kate. thank you so much. we greatly appreciate it. frightening stuff. bill? >> it is bad. terrible, really. the fda, got to say, this drug that seems to offer hope, used it to treat the two americans. the idea we're going through normal fda processes, doing trial, might have bad side effects. people are dying. residents should say forget the fda nonsense and tell the drug companies if need be the federal government will reimburse you, please, make a ton of this stuff? >> you would think, one of the things i find fastcinating abou this, ebola is not a new thing. book was written in the late '80s. "the hot zone" 1982. people were aware of it potentially for a long time and no one made the we need to eradicate it. seen as an african thing and not something that would affect white western society.

>> and as kate said, americans got it, brought it back home, suddenly everybody is paying attention to it. coming up next, live to pentagon for the overnight air drops in iraq. are air strikes not far behind? stay with us. this is the first power plant in the country to combine solar and natural gas at the same location. during the day, we generate as much electricity as we can using solar. at night and when it's cloudy, we use more natural gas. this ensures we can produce clean electricity whenever our customers need it. ♪ (water dripping and don't juspipes clanging)ncisco. visit tripadvisor san francisco. (soothing sound of a shower) with millions of reviews, tripadvisor makes any destination better.

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iraq and afghanistan, and i have been careful to resist calls to turn time and goen our military, because america has other tools in our arsenal than our military. we can also lead with the power of our diplomacy, our economy, and our ideals. with us, msnbc news chuck todd, nbc news chief and pentagon chief jim miklaszewski. start with you. not about dropping food and supplies to desperate people that is going to lead to much more. what are you hearing inside the pentagon? >> reporter: this humanitarian crisis with these ref jiff ugee the top of mountain starving and dying of thirst, a perfect entree for the white house to actually get involved here, and the prospect that this is a humanitarian mission, but officials here were looking very

closely at erbil where there's a u.s. consulate, u.s. military forces that are serving as advisers. look, we could have evacuated all of those people, but there's a much larger issue here. over the past week, that isis militant operation that swept across the north and is now like therapy 30 minutes outside of erbil was done with such precision discipline it was such a well-executed and planned operation, that everybody's wakin'ed to the fact that we're dealing with a whole different kind of terrorist force here that presents a very serious threat, not only to iraq but that entire region, and so this -- this was the entree to allow the u.s. to get involved to allow the threat of u.s. air strikes, if there's any kind of threat against americans. so it looks now like we're getting dragged into this. >> jim, could you talk about one factor in the rapid pace of

isis' movement, in addition to having superb command and control capability, we're told. the american weaponry, american vehicles, american equipment they're using that is helping them xpap diexpedite things? >> reporter: right. mostly sunis at that point when they first went in laid down their weapons in part in sympathy because they were getting no support from the maliki government. they swept in. they grabbed all of these american weapons, rocket launchers, are tillery, some tanks, mraps, armored vehicles. for a long period, several months, like a trail of answer going northward with all of that equipment into syria, and the syrian military has taken serious blows in isis out in armed whip these advanced weapons. that is definitely one of problems. and i want to point out, too, it was sort of lost in all of the excitement of the air drops

yesterday. but the iraqi government essentially threw maliki out, and installed ibrahim gentlemjaa the new president. that was one of the conditions of president obama to getting involved. isn't that a coincidence that would happen on the same day that the u.s. military begins their operations over iraq? >> yep. >> some call it sooner diplomatdiplomat call it serendipity. magic, and came together at the end. todd, the president, what the president is doing is understandable. look at polls. americans don't want involved in syria or the middle east. don't want involved in iraq or involved in afghanistan. we understand this. but this president is going to be looking -- just like -- they didn't wan bill clinton to go after osama bin laden in 1998. he admitted, had a shot, didn't take it. isis, it's a nightmare that continues to grow. poisonous gas again. it's poisonous gas spreading across the middle east.

is barack obama going to look back at the moment he could have done something sooner? >> you you've got to wonder. i've talked to folks, former administration officials, a couple of former democratic senators who look at it and say, okay. you can actually say the moment the mistake he made was getting involved in pushing mubarak out, saying that was a mistake. from that moment on that set the expectations that the united states was going to get involved in every arab spring uprising, and then we didn't. in syria. then syria becomes this civil war. that's the rise of isis. and then you look at this, and there is going to be various moments in time when people are debating how did we let isis get out of control? if the president had done, you know -- there's going to be some "what ifs" gone in sooner, done something in syria. e you point out, the politics of it were not in favor of this, and he's reluctant to do it it.

there's a question, once you start, how do you stop? however, isis has only gotten stronger. waiting, not like a wine that gets better over time. >> it's a nightmare. >> could have acted four months ago, a year ago. he's acting now out of reluctance. >> bring up mubarak. fascinating you bring that up. i just remember three e-mails that i got in the span of, well, one weekend. i still remember driving around in my hometown, talking on the phone early one morning to a diplomat from the middle east. saying, you americans are fools. you do not know -- seriously, when you said that, i got chills, forgot about this call. he said, you neamericans are fools. you do not know what you're letting out of the bottle. >> a senator said this to me. we lifted the rock. when he moved mubarak out, looking under that rock and went, whoa. it unleashed something that we

couldn't control. >> by the way, jim miklaszewski, not like barack obama did this all on his own. yes, the commander in chief, but a reluctant congress. a lot of republicans from the rand paul wing of the party and i'll just say it, the joe scarborough wing of the party, didn't we try this last decade, didn't work out well? a lot of generals where you are now that wouldn't want to be going off, you know, starting, going after what appear to be this brush fire or that brush fire, but i think everybody's looking around going, oh, my god. we waited too long and look what's happening. the entire region is unraveling. >> you know, back to the mubarak and even gadhafi for that matter. each time president obama says mubarak must go, gadhafi must go. collective jaws dropped here in the pentagon, because there was a real understanding of what kind of controls over these kind of islamic militants were being exerted in both of those countries, and even if libya,

there's essentially no government control there now either. so -- but chuck touched on it a second ago. the big question leer at the pentag here at the pentagon is, what happens next? these isis commandsers are so experienced and are good at carrying out these kinds of operations. now, the kind of operations that not even the iraqi military is capable of carrying out. so nobody's sitting back thinking, oh, yeah. you know, we can handle this with air strikes. nobody wins wars according to the u.s. military with air strikes alone. >> all right. jim, thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. chuck, man. what a show you've got today at 9:00. 1,000 things to talk about as far as last night, is the tea party dead, et cetera. we don't have time but watching at 9:00. lamar alexander. >> tea party. >> did you see the stat? $135 million spent inside -- for

republican party in-fighting. >> yep. >> money women spent, guys. heck of a job. >> and -- >> what's that approval rating of republicans? >> 19%. >> $135 million. that's what it gets you. >> move over, deleting e-mails. explain straight ahead. plus, where can you find ashton kutcher? arno swartzen negor? straight ahead when we return.

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need of help. 19-year-old renisha become bride, drinking, crashed her car in a detroit suburb. left the scene walking to a home of 55-year-old theodore w5i6er. there he confronted mcfwrid on the door step and shot her to death. she was unarmed. the jury heard the case and yesterday rendered a verdict. national correspondent peter alexander has the details from detroit, michigan. peter, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. the jury needed less than two days to reach its verdict convicting here to dotheodore wafer. mcbride's mother walked outside and told us speaking of her daughter, her life mattered and we showed that. leaving the courthouse, renisha mcbride's mother said her daughter is finally at peace. >> god is wonderful. he's great. >> reporter: moments before, sat expressionless as the verdict was read. >> guilty of murder in the

second degree. >> reporter: the jury found him guilty on second-degree murder, manslaughter and felony firearm charge. mcbride's parents are relieved and overwhelmed. >> came to the door with the shotgun and he shot her. you know? and he didn't even know her. we learned he was a cold-blooded killer. >> senseless. all he had to do was call 911. >> reporter: throughout the two-week trial, wafer said he was acting in self-defense last november 2nd i. knew high to get my gun. >> reporter: felt threatened of someone banging loudly on his front door. >> i just shot somebody on my front porch with a shotgun. banging on my door. >> reporter: mcbride was unarmed and prosecutors say looking for help after returning into a parked car several blocks ay way. an autopsy showed she was drunk and high. >> this poor girl, she had her whole life in front of her.

i took that from her. >> reporter: mcbride's relatives found comfort in the jury's decision. what does this mean for your family and for your nice? >> my family can rest, start living their lives again knowing that renisha is resting now. >> reporter: no word from jurors who left court immediately without comment. theodore wafer is behind bars, sentencing august 25th, facing life in prison. legal experts tell me it will likely be much less than that. back to you. >> peter, i'm take it. thanks. your reaction, you were watching that, had a pretty honest reaction to thinking how somebody in this circumstance would normally react. >> yes. i think most people, this is what the jury clearly -- look, the story, this woman knocked on the door in the middle of the night. a frayed afraid of a home invasion, shot through the screen door and killed this girl. the jury rightly wondered, why if you were afraid of a home invasion which he might have been, why your reaction wouldn't

have been to keep the doors locked. why open the door at all? why not keep the door locked and call police? what most people, many people, most people works do in that circumstance if you're afraid o would do if you were afraid of someone intruding on you. possibility of an armed invader outside, keep the door shut and call the cops. >> certainly we can see the reaction from mcbride's family that they feel justice is being served in a way but a devastating loss for their family and devastating impact for wafer, for his family, so it's a lose-lose all around. seinfeld's larry david is making his broadway debut. but can he live up to the curb appeal? don't go away, we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe." it's never been easier to find a dentist.

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and so listen, john heilemann just told me something. one of the greatest albums of all time, certainly my favorite album, the swan song of the beatles. something happened 45 years ago today. >> 45 years ago today shall the famous photograph on the cover of abbey road taken outside abbey road studios in london. they are celebrating that today in london with people dressed up

as the beatles reenacting that famous crossing. "let it be" comes out after "abbey road" but comes out before it so it concluded with the song "the end." >> "let it be" was such a horrific experience for all the beatles. they said hey listen, we did a terrible job, we want to do it one more time. george martin said will you let me produce you. will you guys actually work together. and they had to tell him we'll be good. they weren't good, they were great. extraordinary. there's a wonderful moment in jeff emrick's book. yoko was there the whole time with a bed down there in the studio, caused this anger and resentment. paul mccartney said, you know what, we should have been a lot cooler about it. we were guys. we were guys, we didn't get it. but that amazing guitar solo at the end, they all did it live.

>> just pause on that for a moment. they wrote their ending. they knew that the band was going to break up. i think they intuitively knew that. the last song is dueling guitar solos between the three. >> and the amazing thing about that is they did sense it. they knew it. they all walked down. yoko, it's the only time, where john turned to yoko and he said, hey, love, let us do this. it was kind of like john saying this is our time, we need to do it. what an extraordinary ending to an extraordinary album to an extraordinary story. >> about 70 miles outside pittsburgh where they're having a fierce political fight over fracking, there was a huge billboard as you travel along the interstate with a picture of yoko ono on it and the billboard says would you take advice from someone who broke up the beatles? >> you just totally crapped all over this great segment. i don't even know what that means. >> yoko ono. you were talking about yoko and

the beatles going down the tubes? she still lives. >> yeah, of course she still lives. >> what's he doing? >> he's saying that if you -- >> i don't care. you know, i should have never gone to barnicle. we should have ended it with the swan song and them woalking dow and john sweetly telling his wife leave it to us. let's go from bad to worse with entertainment news you don't need, that you don't want, but we're going to give it to you anyway. our entertainment correspondent, louis bergdorf, brings you the return of a segment that we were just celebrating, this is what fans have been screaming for for years. hollyweird. >> i'm louis berg dorf and let's get holly weird. >> where's my website? mila kunis' main squeeze is being accused of ripping off

content from top sites around the world. his own web outfit has been caught with its hand in the computer cookie jar, ripping off content from sites such as buzz feed and the huffington post. when confronted about the potential praj ricplagiarism, t took it down. terminator genesis is the not-so-original title and will featuregovernator himself. you may remember this picture after the rapper was trying to sneak marijuana onto a plane. dumb move, right? not as dumb as not showing up in court wednesday. the judge in el paso issued a warrant for his arrest. finally seinfeld co-creator and comedy god larry david is broadway bound. he will make his debut as an

actor and play wright with "fish in the dark." scott ruden who helped shepherd "the book of mormon" to its holy sights, talked him into the production. it starts in march, 2015. thanks for getting holly weird, now back to your regularly scheduled joegramming. >> oh, my god. >> i thought that was funny. so if you're going to stand up a texas judge, a west texas judge, do not be on jimmy fallon that night. >> it's a little bit of a slap in the face. >> megan fox was there. what are you going to do? >> okay, very good. we'll be right back. and thank you for your bravery. thank you colonel. thank you daddy. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance can be one of them.

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those militant fighters are taking control of iraq. where america has a key outpost. >> when the lives of american citizens are at risk, we will take action. when many thousands of innocent civilians are faced with the danger of being wiped out, we will take action. >> the religious sect is stranded on a mountain surrounded by militants threatening to kill them if they do not convert to islam. >> in baghdad there was a powerful appeal for intervention. >> one iraqi in the area cried to the world there is no one coming to help. well, today america is coming to help. >> the cease-fire ending between hamas and israel. >> this morning, however, hamas opened fire. >> we respond to fire with very

heavy fire. >> israel has kind of got what it wanted out of the first round of fighting. the israelis are able to say hamas broke the cease-fire but they have given no concessions at all on the conditions hamas wanted for a truce. >> republican senator lamar alexander has defeated his tea party challenger, joe carr. >> we're going to have to roll up your sleeves, work with each other and get something done. >> we should be playing "the empire strikes back." the establishment won. >> i am declaring the current outbreak of ebola virus disease a public health emergency of international concern. >> ebola has jumped from guinea to liberia to sierra leone and nigeria. >> if we do not fight and contain this disease in west africa, we will be fighting this disease in multiple other countries around the world. and the truth is, the cat is already most likely out of the bag. >> welcome back to "morning joe." mike barnicle is here back with us. we're not going to have him saying random things about yoko ono stepping on what john heilemann and i are talking

about. can you still believe that? like we're talking about the most iconic moment in rock history. mike barnicle is, yeah, i was driving outside pittsburgh. saw a billboard. >> every once in a while with mike you get one of those awkward free senior moment association things. it's like oh, cramps, come on, man. >> unlike with you. >> it's a total brain freeze. brain freeze, pot freeze, hash freeze, along with sara eisen. cnbc's sara eisen. joining the set, of course, the man that you loved as a child and trust as a mother, the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass. in washington, bloomberg columnist, al hunt. al doesn't know what all the kids say about richard haass in d.c.? >> that's what i've always said about richard, as does the lovely susan. >> loved him as a kid, trust him as a mother. >> we're not going to talk about that editorial. i want to go first to you, al hunt, because i think one of the

most fascinating things about what happened last night, obviously a tragedy unfolding on an international scale but peter baker put it best in his analysis. sending warplanes back to the skies of iraq, president obama on thursday night found himself exactly where he didn't want to be. hoping to end the war in iraq, mr. obama became the fourth president in a row to order military action in that graveyard of american ambition, and it appears, al, that he had absolutely no choice but to finally get involved. >> yeah, joe, i think that's right. ethnic cleansing was going on. it was brutal. i think what really has shocked this administration the last couple weeks is the effectiveness, the brutality of those isis forces. they have just run over the iraqi army and they rallied the kurds the other day. they had no choice but to do what they did. but i still think there's a great fear this is a slippery slope. nancy pelosi put out a statement last night saying yes, we're going in there for humanitarian

reasons but for goodness sakes, mr. president, we can't go any further. i think that's a great fear in washington today. >> mike barnicle has been reading foreign policy with a poichblgt yo point. even people close to barack obama say his foreign policy looks ad hoc at best. you can't connect the dots to a bigger foreign policy agenda and what you have now is chaos, absolute chaos, and an american public that doesn't want to get involved in cleaning up any of that chaos because of the past ten years. >> you're right. the world looks to be unraveling. the american people seem to think they can run and hide. the answer is they can't do either. what happens there is not going to stay there. if a group, for example, like isis were to get a real base in iraq and syria, why does anyone think it would stop there? why do they not think ultimately it would move on to jordan, saudi arabia and other places that were not sufficiently pure. why don't we think their

graduates would travel to europe and the united states and do some mayhem here. >> they are not to be confused with the taliban. i remember dr. brzezinski saying don't confuse al qaeda and the taliban. al qaeda wants to blow up buildings in the united states, the taliban wants to be left alone. this force does not want to be left alone and retire. >> i think this is an important distinction here. the taliban had largely an afghan agenda. al qaeda had a largely negative agenda. they wanted to do things like blow up airplanes and penalize the west. these guys are much more dangerous. they have a positive agenda. they actually are creative and they are capable. so we ought to take these guys a lot more seriously about what it is they are potentially -- which is why, by the way, what the president said last night, i've got to tell you so odd the disconnect between the nature of their agenda and the narrowness, the way he articulated what we were going to do, simply humanitarian and protect the americans in erbil.

there is a strategic argument here and the president clearly is sensitive to where the american people are. >> i think he is but i think the president is saying a lot less than he's thinking right now and in part it may be because he doesn't want to tip off isis on our plans and it may be he knows the american people don't want other war in iraq and he may not have any choice. sara eisen, obviously the world is so interrelated right now, interconnected right now, that vladimir putin moves troops to the border of ukraine and we feel it in the stock market here in new york city. this chaos is going to come home to americans at some point, isn't it? >> the global economy was just starting to recover from the financial crisis many years ago and you have this threat. this there is an escalating trade war with russia right now. russia is a large economy, the eighth biggest economy in the world. we feel it here, they feel it in europe even harder than that. when it comes to iraq, the spiral effect that you talk about, when you talk about places like saudi arabia, if

this gets even worse, then you're talking about the global energy supply in the world and that obviously represents a huge economic threat. so you hear these headlines and it really shakes up investors. it hurts stocks yesterday. we're watching oil prices, which are elevated right now, and you see things like gold and oar safe haven kind of assets are really becoming much more favored right now because you have to worry about global growth, which was already so fragile. >> that's really interesting because for five years we were focused on the recovery from the financial crisis. then it was the eurozone crisis. just when things began to stabilize economically, geopolitics have intruded. this now is what investors and markets have to worry about. >> investors like globalization. they like things connected. they like when american companies can sell to markets like russia. pepsico had a big frito-lay business in russia and now they have to look whether their products are being sanctioned. just a small example of how this affects us. >> john. >> i want to stitch together a

couple of things together and ask al about what he thinks about this. you know, the phrase was used a second ago by you, joe, or morning joe, was that -- >> morning joe says -- >> what morning joe has to say. >> is that barack obama's foreign policy is criticized by a lot of people for being ad hoc. you mentioned people are worried about a slippery slope. do you think the president is making this particular policy with respect to to isis in an ad hoc way or do they have a notion of a short, medium and long game that the president isn't telling everybody about but that is all pretty well calculated in the white house or they're just making it up as they go along. >> john, i fear it's closer to the former. i think events have forced their hand here. i want to see what richard thinks about this. but the steps they have taken so far are one thing. if they start engaging in air strikes, that takes it to another level. that's where i think people fear a slippery slope. on the other hand, i don't know any american president that

could have looked at the situation the past couple of days and said i'm sorry, we're staying out. >> no american president, no american president could look at what's been happening. i say this as a guy again, we've talked about it for years. i wanted us to get out of afghanistan in 2009. against military adventurism, but i don't see, richard, that we have any -- you know, we have seen a complete chaos spreading out of syria, spreading across to iraq, now spreading into jordan, spreading across the middle east. this situation is bad. it's going to get worse. assayer as sara said, it's related with the economy of the world and we've got to be involved. >> absolutely. i think the difference is now we're thinking about using military force not to remake societies but potentially we'd be using military force to do things that military force is meant to do, which in this case is to stop a group of people

from overwhelming a society. so this is not afghanistan, this is not even iraq several years ago. this is a much more traditional classic use of military force that we would be undertaking so people ought not to be worried in the same way that we're, quote unquote, getting back into iraq. the idea is not to make it a shining city on a hill, it's to prevent these characters from essentially overwhelming iraq and through that the middle east. let's move on to domestic politics. lamar alexander won last night. give me a good baseball analogy, mike barnicle. the tea party has been just absolutely shut out. haley and his type have thrown a perfect game. how about that? >> that's not bad. my question would be, and i'll ask you, john, in terms of talking about the tea party earlier, the lamar alexander race and other races that have occurred in the recent past where the tea party has been involved, how would you define the republican party today given the context of the tea party within it? >> well, i would define the republican party as a republican

that is driven by dissention. >> alex coursen just said in my ear that he was afraid mike was going to compare the tea party to yoko ono. >> i was getting there. >> just stop. leave it behind, okay? polls left it behind. >> i think the fundamental fact about the republican party is that it is a party in a state of deep dissention and something close to civil war. $145 million have been spent on this internal battle. the chamber of commerce and republicans trying to beat back the tea party insurgency. it appears on the basis of the results from these primaries this season that they have done a pretty good job of doing that. as bill kristol said, the populist flinfluences are still very strong. lamar alexander managed to win but he was running against six opponents. he was just lucky that he had a split field. so the establishment has not

definitively won but the tea party is certainly on its heels. >> to use your words, do you think the division within the tea party today is as bad -- >> the republican party? >> within the -- yeah, is it as bad as it was within the beatles when yoko ono -- >> oh, god, will you just please stop. let's talk about wall street for a second and their involvement. i remember the alabama one race where finally wall street, the chamber of commerce, the rickets, it was enough. enough with the shutdown, enough with the crazy talk, we're taking our party back. the chamber of commerce, wall street, a lot of forces that the populists can't stand in the republican party, they have gotten involved and spent a hell of a lot of money. and unlike heritage action and some of these other groups, club for growth, they have gotten returns on their investment. >> money and advertising. you saw that for sure in tennessee. the other thing i would bring up, i wonder whether the

economic climate has changed since the tea party really rose to power. they had a pretty sharp economic message but that was not at a time when this economy was creating more than 200,000 jobs month after month after month, which we've been seeing. longest stretch since 1997. i wonder if that vulnerability in the economy sort of helped their cause, smaller government economic message. >> the big bank bailouts. >> we're recovering. >> and two years ago we were hearing about how these banks have been bailed out, were making all this money. now every single day it's either jpmorgan or it's bank of america -- >> $17 billion. >> you get -- the headlines are now about how these banks are just being pursued with a vengeance from the justice department so it's kind of hard to whip up populist frenzy and say, gee, nothing is happening to the big banks. you could two years ago. you can't now. >> the way in which this dissention has translated to the national electorate is the republican party has become to

most people the party of no. that's why the party is so unpopular because they have no -- as morning joe has said, they have no positive -- they have no positive agenda and most people in the country look at them and say they're offering nothing. >> lamar alexander spoke to that. he said we have to go to washington and we have to pass laws. we have to get something done. >> after the -- al hunt, after the republicans lost to barack obama in 2012, which is seen as a nightmare, i was invited to go to the national review symposium in washington, d.c. there were a lot of great conservative thought leaders there. bill kristol was one of them. but everybody said the same thing, they need an agenda in the house. because they know that we'll have people looking at this going, oh, gee, they're hammering on conservatives, why is scarborough hammering on his own party again. no, this is what happens when you do absolutely nothing, and this was a storm, just like isis, this was a storm that you could see coming.

kristol warned about it, the national review warned about it. they said you need an agenda. no agenda has been taken. instead we're left here with two numbers. are you ready for this? two numbers, al. $145 million. that's how much money the republican party has spent destroying itself over the past year or so. and 19%. that's the republican party's approval rating in "the wall street journal"/nbc poll. those are two pretty damn bad numbers for my party. >> they're terrible numbers. i think john is right, the republican party is viewed as the party of no. some people like paul ryan are trying to correct that. it's an uphill slog. i think if we look at the battle between the establishment and the movement conservatives, we are exaggerating the demise of the tea party conservatives. to be sure the establishment won important victories and it means they'll be able to win in the fall, unlike last time when they had todd akins on the ballot. i don't think they have scared

the tea party. i don't think they have scared the movement conservatives. one of the objectives in the beginning was so these members in the house and senate wouldn't feel intimidated by the prospect of a primary. i don't think anything has changed this year to affect that. >> the thing is we had bill kristol talking about, you know, if you have smart insurgents, smart insurgents win. thad cochran drove me crazy bh i was in congress. what's the alternative? lamar alexander. i love lamar but does lamar come from my wing of small government populist republicanism? no. but what's the alternative? the thing is there has to be an agenda other than no roads, no airports, no foreign policy, no this, no that. listen, i've been talking about the debt for years. there's a way we can take care of the debt without basically shutting down this country and what the federal government

does, but it's called entitlements. until the republican party is willing to talk about entitlements, they're not going to be any different from the democrats. it's just -- and so here we are. we're left with a civil war, $145 million civil war and a republican house that's sitting at 19%. richard haass, 15 seconds, if you don't mention the name yoko ono in a negative light. >> i will let that be. >> oh, my god. seriously, he just did. coming up on "morning joe" we'll give you an update on whether in hawaii -- okay, richard, i'll give you ten seconds now, go. >> plus now you can have foreign policy added to the republican debate. questions about whether you're prepared to increase defense spending against the backdrop of what's going on in the middle east, ukraine and asia. up to now so much of the republican domestic debate was against a world that looked to be more tranquil. those days are over. let's move on now to hawaii where hurricane iselle has

downgraded to a tropical storm, but hurricane julio is on her heels. with us now weather channel meteorologist reynolds wolf. reynolds, a guy that we like to call america's meelgs. what's going on, baby? >> feeling the power. feeling the love, man. >> okay. >> this is really a mess but it's still a big rain maker for a lot of people in hawaii. some locations could get up to a foot of rain. you know, i've got to tell you it's going to be really rough the next several hours. wind also fairly strong. the higher up you go you'll be dealing with more of the potential damage. 20,000 customers without power right now. would not be surprised to see those numbers go up. we have reports of some roof damage and even tree damage in parts of the islands. what we're going to be seeing in terms of the rainfall, we already told you, but i'll tell you, this system has closed down and it appears that might be the case. you may see greater amounts than 12 to 18 inches of rainfall. what we're going to be seeing with the system is that it should sweep its way south of the rest of the island chain, but then you've got julio. julio still farther back out

towards the east. what we expect with julio is that winds of 120 miles an hour, this system will stay clear north of the islands but still heavy waves, possibly some rain and at the same time could have some damaging winds and parts of the big island saturday, sunday, monday and tuesday. all right, guys, you're up to speed on the tropics. we'll send it back to you. >> thank you so much, reynolds. great ly appreciate it. al huntin, we always like havin you here. we have to apologize for mike barnicle. coming up on "morning joe" world health officials are declaring the ebola outbreak an international public health emergency. how officials are fighting to contain the virus and how one computer program was able to predict the outbreak before scientists had a clue. plus a, quote, mass casualty incident. that's how officials are describing one scene at a keith urban concert this summer. we're going to explain a new

disturbing trend at country music concerts. you see this, john? people are getting killed, they're getting raped. and there's a reason behind it. we'll tell you what that is when we return.

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>> oh, i didn't -- well, that's terrible for those countries, i didn't realize. all right. i guess i won't be needing this. i'll just cut it up for parts. >> there are new fears tonight about the ebola outbreak right here in new york city. doctors at mt. sinai hospital are performing tests on a patient who is showing possible symptoms of the virus. >> mother [ bleep ]! [ bleep ]. >> okay. there's going to be a tough transition. that was funny. with us now bryan walsh. he is overseeing the website's coverage of this crisis. jon stewart making light, obviously, of how americans think about these things. as kate snow reported earlier from the cdc, it's not an international crisis for us until americans are involved, and of course we've got some americans involved. what's going on? >> basically you heard the world health organization did label an international public health emergency but that doesn't

exactly mean it's a threat for the united states or a lot of other countries. this is right now still a major, major threat for west african nations. other countries have to look out for it but it's not something we really have to worry about ear in the u.s. quite yet. >> so what's the situation, though -- we knew this was obviously a possibility. john was talking about how the ebola virus is not something that was -- that came about two weeks ago. why do we have such a hard time right now containing it? >> well, it's a new place in africa it's never been before. usually it's in isolated villages out in rain forests. now it's in major cities raging out of control. health workers are getting infected. these countries' health care systems are completely overwhelmed so there's no way to stop it. now you're seeing people getting on a plane, going to other countries and potentially infecting there as well. >> i'm curious about the status of how they are treating this. as i understand it, there is no fda approved treatment for ebola

so they're trying this experimental drug that's based on tobacco. i know a lot of wall street is trying to look for which company will be behind the cure because obviously these numbers are growing. >> yeah, you have that experimental cure, zmapp it's called, and it's being used on those americans brought back from africa. it seems to be working. this case fatality rate is 50% so they could be getting better just with better care on their own. this is by far the biggest outbreak when you're talking about 1600 people. now we're looking into what can we do about a vaccine and about a treatment as well. >> let's try to minimize the fear factor here that always has great potential given the way we broadcast things. how is this disease transmitted and what is the danger of infection? >> the disease is transmitted by very close bodily contact. you're talking about blood, vomit, things like that. it's not airborne. it's very different than the cold. i can't cough on you. if i had ebola, you'd be okay. so it's particularly dangerous for people in health care because in a hospital, you're

dealing with a sick person or taking care of someone at home or handling a dead body, which is happening a lot in africa. for here in the u.s., it's extremely, extremely unlikely. even if you did see a case being brought in from outside, for instance. >> bryan, thank you so much. we greatly appreciate you being here. >> thanks. an obama official under scrutiny for deleted e-mails that republicans are demanding for their congressional investigations and we're not talking about lois lerner, the irs. it's happened again and we'll explain why. honey, look i got one to land. uh-huh (announcer) there's good more... honey, look at all these smart rewards points verizon just gave me. ooh, you got a buddy. i'm like a statue. i just signed up and, boom, all these points. ...and there's not-so-good more. you're a big guy... huh. oh no. get the good more

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welcome back, everybody. listen to this, the irs is not the only government agency where missing e-mails are posing a problem for the obama administration. the department of health and human services also facing scrutiny now. msnbc has learned that one of the department's top officials likely deleted e-mails related to the flawed rolledout of healthcare.gov last year. >> we can just go to the backup, right? >> they saved them, right? >> go to the nsa, they could have them. officials say there is no evidence that the e-mails were intentionally deleted but it appears the department had poor record keeping in place. >> of course, of course. >> health and human services, they believe that most of the

e-mails will be recovered. here with us now from washington, the political reporter who broke this exclusively for msnbc.com, alex seitz-wald. this is great reporting on your part. what tipped you off to start digging around and figure out exactly what happened. >> thanks. well, after hhs realized that this problem -- they were going to have this problem, they were going to have to report it to the archives administration and they were going to have to report it to the committee and knew this was going to blow up into a huge thing so i think they wanted to make sure that it got out there in a way that was fair and reported accurately because a lot of the reporting about these scandals has been sensationalistic and there's a possibility here to blow this up into something it's not. there's no evidence of wrongdoing. that doesn't -- we don't know for sure there hasn't been any wrongdoing. but to me after everything that i've reviewed, this looks like more of a case of sloppiness than any kind of nefariousness

or intention aal obfuscation? >> but they do think they can recover most of these e-mails? i would like to destroy a lot of my e-mails but it just can't happen. >> it's kind of incredible. reporting this story exposed to me something i didn't even realize. there's a massive problem within the government in e-mail recordkeeping. there's a federal law that you have to keep records, but it's almost universally not followed to a t across the entire federal government. you have a totally inadequate infrastructure -- >> but i just don't understand. like -- this is like playing pong on your computer and it breaking down or something. i'm not being facetious. but i've had yahoo! accounts, i've had g-mail accounts, i've had mac accounts, every type of account you can have and you can always find those e-mails.

>> you've got to search under "morning joe." >> of course you do. >> what they're supposed to do, and it's kind of incredible in 2014 this is the system that is still carried out by most of the federal government, you're supposed to take your e-mails, print them out and file them physically, which is kind of insane. a lot of these officials at the department of health and human services have one gigabyte of storage, that's all they can keep. lois lerner had 500 megabytes, even less. there are backups only kept for a short period of time. >> while she was working she had this awesome 8-track player. she had the pet rock up there so everything was kind of cool. >> as alex points out, this hackett of trying to print stuff out, normally we print stuff out when it's cya, when you want to cover your ass on something. it's an 8:00 hour, who's watching? >> no, come on, a lot of moms. >> a lot of cya stuff is going

on if people want to do that, print them out and save them, but it's ridiculous to think that we have many of our agencies that are operating by what they think is snap chat, like it's just going to disappear. >> there is a reason why snap chat and what's app exploded. it's because e-mails can always be traced. they can always be followed. >> can you imagine a corporation that's being investigated and gave this excuse and the wasn't able to find e-mails? >> i was just going to say the irs, i'm sorry, i don't have the e-mails. i would be in a federal penitentiary in atlanta, georgia. >> playing pong, apparently. >> no, but seriously, why is snap chat popular? morning john? why is what's app popular? because you can follow e-mail trails. can you believe the biggest, most powerful government in the world is like in 1989? >> it's inexcusable to think that we don't have proper tracking going on when we're doing stories on the nsa and the

fact that they're building these multi billion dollar complexes in bluffdale, utah, a big hole in the ground to suck all of our personal information to go through it and vet it. how come they're not saving all theirs. >> alex, where does the federal government go to get the floppy disks? >> i think your pointing is an important one. there's a cnn poll out today that showed trust in government is at an all-time low. when you have the person responsible for oversoeeing healthcare.gov now can't recover their e-mails, it certainly doesn't look good. >> alex, thank you so much. great reappreciate it. still ahead, violence, tragedy and miscellaneous are . arrests. we try to figure out what's going on at country concerts. fox woods, the keith urban concert, a lot of violence, rapes, some murders. it's terrible. we're going to explain why next.

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we're safe, barnicle is off the set. right, john heilemann? barnicle is off the set. >> there was just a lot to deal with with that guy today. >> we tied such a beautiful bow on "abbey road" 45 years later and that wonderful moment when they go down and play the guitar solos and do the end and then he just -- there's a word that i need to say but he did something all over it and i can't say it. well, i could say it, i've said much worse. >> he yokoed on you. >> we're going to talk about music. we're going from "abbey road" to country music. thomas, it's been a violent

summer. >> it's really odd. there's a trend we've been watching that's disturbing at summer concerts. as billboard magazine is asking does country music need an alcohol intervention? it's one of several recent articles noting the surge of booze-filled incidents at shows across the country. it's not just the binge drinking, there's fights, there's arrests, there's even reported rapes going on. there were so many people needing medical help at a keith urban show in massachusetts that it was declared, quote, mass casualty event. officials blaming preconcert tailgating for the trouble but others pointing to popular songs like "sunshine and whiskey" and "drunk on a plane" for fueling the hard party atmosphere. joining us right now, the one, the only, toure, who is also the author of "i would die for you. why prince became an icon." hi, toure, good morning. >> thanks so much for being with us. a lot of this has to do with straight demographics of the country music audience, doesn't it? >> i'm not going to blame the

demographics of the country music audience, certainly not right out of the gate. >> "the washington post" does point to the fact that it used to be like sort of middle class housewives. >> sure. >> and now it's teenage guys. >> the country music audience is national. it is both genders. and country music has changed and has grown in terms of bringing in elements of pop and hip-hop so it's a music forum that lots and lots of americans can get into. everybody is into -- lots of people are into country music. country music's live touring business is growing faster than any other music segment. this is the biggest summer for touring f touring, for stadium touring we've had in 20 years. >> what's the problem at the concerts? >> look, i want to note that we are talking about a tiny sliver of really unfortunate bad incidents that have happened when we have hundreds and hundreds of concerts that go off without a hitch, right? but one thing that we have in

the country music culture is people are tailgating. they aren't doing that in hip-hop concerts. they're not doing that for most rock shows. >> they don't take their rvs to concerts at the barclay center. >> they are spending hours drinking, just like before a football game. nothing wrong with that, you know, per se, but a sliver of people are getting too drunk and things are happening. but the vast majority of concerts, joe, are safe, right? we could still feel comfortable to take our kids to the vast majority of shows and know that everything is going to work out. >> but something has changed, right? i mean this is a -- this is a new phenomena that's getting a lot of attention. is this a media creation or has something actually changed. this is not a story that we've been reading three years ago, five years ago, seven years ago. >> a little of both. it's a little bad bias in media. we focus on a plane that goes down, as we should, but air

traffic, air travel is safer than it has ever been, right? so there is something of that. but yes, because the touring business is in general better than it has been in 20 years and the country business is growing faster than anybody else, you see a lot of people who haven't been going to shows in the last several years are now going to shows, and a sliver of them don't know how to behave. >> that actually points to another interesting thing that's slightly off topic but the touring business, as you know, is now where the money is made. >> absolutely. >> you don't make money selling records anymore or downloadable songs. it's not about the content, it's about the performance. >> that's right. and the recession had a huge impact on the touring business. the average person said i can't afford to go. the big, huge artists are always going to be fine, just like the 1% is always fine. the people who are going to go do a little tiny show at irving plaza, a little tiny venue downtown that you go to all the time, they're going to be fine. but that middle class group, that's why the roots are working upstairs with jimmy fallon

because the touring business that they had couldn't sustain itself. >> thomas. >> real quickly, though, when we talk about someone like keith urban and they're using his show as an example, massachusetts medical saying that this show was declared a mass casualty event. we've got keith urban, a guy who's a judge on "american idol," playing to a much more diverse audience that's making up this concert-going public, to john's point, is this just the media making too big of a deal? >> yes, i think we are spending too much time thinking about something incredibly unfortunate that happened at one show. the vast majority of shows are safe. >> all right. toure, thank you so much. we'll watch "the cycle" at 3:00 p.m. eastern. coming up next, passing the buck. customers are outraged how a minnesota restaurant is handling the state's new minimum wage increase. keep it here on "morning joe."

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this is a really interesting talk coming out of minnesota where a restaurant there is coming under fire for the way that it's protesting the minimum wage hike there. the new minimum wage went up by 75 cents, so oasis cafe in stillwater has started slapping

a 35-cent minimum wage fee on all the customer tabs and they put it right there on your bill. it's in response to the new $8 an hour minimum wage that took effect last week, the first increase in the state since 2009. one person wrote on facebook, shame on your protest over a small increase in pay required by law. hopefully customers will not continue to patronize your cheapskate establishment. another comment read $8 for a bacon cheeseburger and you can't pay your employees a decent wage? you ought to be ashamed of yourself. a manager said that it's appalled at the response for just protecting its employees. so they're passing it on. they put the surcharge of 35 cents right there on the bill for everybody to see. >> i don't know if that's the best pr move. i mean, listen, these small business owners running restaurants, we all know we've had friends that have done these, it's horrible. it's hard to do. you know, i understand the

difficulty of any extra burden. with the minimum wage as low as it historically is, you may not want to advertise your contempt for raising it a little bit on the bill. >> it seems like it's a revenge tactic but they were honest about putting it out there and not making it something that they were hiding from people. people had a right to their own reaction to it and people have taken to social media to talk about it and they are making a storm about it, so it isn't a good pr move for oasis out there. >> is that all you got? >> that's all i got. >> morning joe is disappointed. >> i know. this show, i'm tuckered out. i'm just spent. >> i am too. i'm going to take a month off. coming up next, what, if anything, did we learn here. you're tired? we've only been doing this for three hours! you're finally here. long way from the sandlot. first game in the majors? you don't know "aarp". because this family is enjoying a cross-country

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hey, welcome back to "morning joe." american officials tell nbc news that two u.s. navy planes have dropped two 500-pound bombs on enemy forces outside erbil this morning, just east of mosul. fighter jets flew off the uss george h.w. bush aircraft carrier in the persian gulf. now it's time for what we learned. what did you learn? >> i learned the situation in iraq as witnessed by this news, things are going to get, i think, ugly fast.

uglier, i should say. >> the fact that the debate will continue between the doves and the neocons exactly what we're doing because this is a sectarian war in iraq and we're stepping our foot right back into it. >> i learned we're losing mikayla and camille. come on up and say good-bye. >> two of our greatest people that we've had. part of our intern team. >> so you're going to disneyland next, right? >> yeah. >> well, thank you so much for everything you've done. >> it was a pleasure. >> definitely. >> all right. thank you so much. if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's time for "morning joe." but i think right now actually it's probably time for chuck todd and "the daily rundown." breaking news. the pentagon just announced that the u.s. dropped two 500-pound bombs on isis enemy forces outside erbil in iraq, northern iraq this morning. that's, of course, after the president announced late last night that he had authorized those limited air strikes.

those air strikes have now begun. to prevent isis rebel fighters from taking erbil, the capital of kurdish northern iraq. on thursday the u.s. also began a humanitarian effort simultaneously air dropping 8,000 meals and 5300 fresh gallons of water to tens of thousands of yezidi refugees. this is a religious minority who have fled to the mountains to escape execution. they have been trapped there. many are dying of thirst and starvation. the president said he will authorize combat air strikes if necessary to help free the yezidis from this siege. >> when we have a mandate to help, in this case a request from the iraqi government, and when we have the unique capabilities to help avert a massacre, then i believe the united states of america cannot turn a blind eye. >> joining me