and our goal here is to work with the iraqis and with international partners so that these people can get off that mountain and to a safer place. we will look at what the best way and the safest way is to get those people off that mountain and the president will be making decisions after he hears back from the military about what they found on the ground there in iraq. >> i am abby huntsman. as we come on the air this afternoon, 130 additional u.s. troops are joining hundreds of american forces who are already on the ground in iraq. the pentagon is calling it a temporary mission to assess and plan possible evacuations for christian and yezidi refugees who have been driven out by isis. these u.s. marines and special forces are in northern iraq as advisers, not as combat troops. but to isis, that distinction makes little difference. they will be targeted just the

same. we are also seeing a rare cooperation between kurdish peshmerga and iraqi forces, two historic adversaries. they are now united against isis, a common enemy. coordinating attacks and sharing bases. france and the cia are helping arm the kurds but they are still outgunned against isis, which is armed with our heavy weaponry captured from the iraqi army. we start again today inside the kurdish capital of erbil, iraq, with nbc's duncan golestani. duncan, what is the latest? >> reporter: hey, abby. there's 130 u.s. military advisers. they arrived in erbil. they will be helping with the coordination of the humanitarian efforts of the yezidi people and from that briefing you just showed, we understand they will be looking at options for how to get them down from the mountains around sinjar. there are still around 20,000 to 30,000 yezidis on the mountain. they are up there with no food,

no water, in scorching temperatures, exposed to the elements. so what are the options for getting them down? many routes of blocked because of isis fighters. you could carry on airlifting them, but it is not efficient and we have seep what has happened already to one helicopter that crashed killing its pilot. the kurdish peshmerga have managed to open up a 98 owe corridor through which thousands have been able to make it down, but that corridor runs through syria, so it is not without its risks. meantime, the aid effort continues to try and help the people up on the mountains. we've been hearing from the u.s. state department. they have dropped 100,000 meals, 27,000 gallons of water. oar countries helping, the british royal air force dropping lanterns to help them recharge their cell phones and reusable water bottles. but people here, kurdish politicians, are saying much more needs to be done. one politician even calling it a

genocide. and the yezidi people themselves, the ones that have been able to make it down to the refugee camps, they are grateful, but they say they are persecuted. they wonder what is coming next. they don't want to go back to the towns and villages they lived in because they say they are surrounded by arabs. so the question is what is the long-term solution for them. meantime, all eyes on baghdad and prime minister nouri al maliki who is showing no signs of giving up his office easily after a successor was appointed. today nouri al maliki going on television saying it was a breach of democracy, saying he will challenge the decision in the courts of the the problem for him is he is hemorrhaging support among his fellow shiites and the international community. abby, back to you. >> duncan golestani, thank you so much. please stay safe. steven cook is a senior fellow for mideastern studies on the council of foreign relations

and an expert on u.s. foreign policy and politics in the arab world. steven, thank you so much for being here. >> my pleasure. >> the u.s. first got involved as military advisers back in the early '60s. we all know how that ended. is there reason to be concerned about a mission creep if our advisers come under attack? wouldn't that lead us to have to respond? >> there's always that challenge that when you deploy forces to a place that is hostile that you're going to end up deploying more and more forces. as those forces come under fire, you have a spiral. the problem is for the united states and iraq is we have equities there even though we withdrew in 2011. we have allies there, particularly in erbil. the kurdistan government has been a staunch ally of the united states. and the united states does not want iraq to break up and as a result has been deeply involved in the political process in baghdad since june. so, the backdrop against this isis challenge and the humanitarian disaster unfolding

on sinjar mountain, i don't think the obama administration has had much of a choice than to deploy forces to try to buck up the kurds, help the iraqis and the political process and relieve the yezidis. >> but the flip side to that in terms of exposure is that you have a broad international sort of rhetorical emphasis on what the president is calling genocide and this clear line of saying we're not going to do combat troops. doesn't that over time expose the united states here to dialing up risk and pressure on itself to do more if these limited operations don't work and continue to put more personnel in harm's way and create risks that we then have to back them up? >> well, that is one of the pitfalls of the president declaring that there will be no combat. it's kind of like the syrian red line, because as the situation unfolds, as there are unintended consequences of a more limited deployment, there is always the possibility of getting more fully engaged in the fight in

iraq. i think that the logic is that the kurds are a capable force that need american weaponry and intel coordination and some help and that there are units within the iraqi army that are salvageable and we can help them defeat this islamic state of iraq in syria. these are guys who don't necessarily stand ten feet tall and with the proper training and proper equipment it's possible to push them back. >> steven, aren't we seeing a little bit of this same mission creep problem in other countries around the world? first we heard france and the u.k. would provide humanitarian aid. now france today is helping us arm the kurdish military. and now we're hearing from the e.u. finance ministers are calling an emergency meeting for this friday. what do you think the chances are that we're going to have perhaps a new coalition of the willing joining us here? >> thus far it sounds like a much broader coalition than participated in the initial invasion of iraq in march, 2003.

i'll note the irony of the fact that people called the french the -- i think it was the cheese-eating surrender monkeys and they have been actually rather forward-leaning, not just in iraq but in other places in the middle east and north africa over the course of the last year. i think it reflects the fact that along with the united states, the europeans have come to recognize the very significant threat that the islamic state of iraq and syria poses to the region, to their allies and interests in the region as well as ultimately to europe, which is much closer to the middle east than the united states. >> steven, you heard duncan golestani's report there from erbil about how al maliki is showing no signs of giving up, that he went on television and talked about how the naming of a new prime minister is a, quote, breach of democracy. so is there any way that al maliki can leave the prime ministership while also saving face at this point? >> i think it's hard to imagine

that. i think the conventional wisdom that maliki has been frozen out, that he doesn't have support, it's true that the grand ayatollah has told him to step down and the iranians have withdrawn their support but he's been pulling the levers and has a significant amount of patronage at his fingertips. there are still people that support maliki. even if he has to leave as prime minister, as he comes under additional political pressure, he can make a lot of trouble in baghdad, which has a significant impact on the ability of iraqi security forces to battle the islamic state. so it's a very dangerous situation in baghdad right now. >> steven cook, thank you for joining us today. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. up next, president obama and hillary clinton cross paths tonight at a party on the vineyard. ari, there may be hugging involved. >> is that right? plus 200,000 jobs caught in

congress' crossfire because of something you may never have heard of and those jobs are just the start of what's at stake. "the cycle" rolls on. it's wednesday, august 13th. [ female announcer ] aveeno® daily moisturizing lotion has active naturals® oat with five vital nutrients. [ aniston ] because beautiful skin goes with everything. aveeno®. naturally beautiful results™. aveeno®. a body at rest tends to stay at rest...cs... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits

with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, like celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions, or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. don't take celebrex if you have bleeding in the stomach or intestine, or had an asthma attack, hives, other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history. and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. ♪ [music] defiance is in our bones.

defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. easily absorbed calcium plus d. beauty is bone deep.

if you want politics, you've come to the right place. president obama may be vacationing on the cape this week, but he is still hard at work. the president is in constant contact with his advisers about that tense situation in iraq that we've been covering. the white house believes 130 additional military advisers will help address parts of this crisis. nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing traveling with the president on martha's vineyard. good day to you, chris.

the administration briefed the press from the vineyard today. you've been all over it. what is the scope of this new mission in iraq? >> reporter: well, listen, what they need to do is get the people, and there are probably tens of thousands of them still, ari, up on sinjar mountain. not only are they now dying of hunger and thirst but also exposure and the threat of isis terrorists. so the 130 members of the military are going on an evalua evalua evaluatetive mission. how do you have safe passage. the scope of what that will cover is still in question. and a critical question that was asked today at this briefing, does this mean that the president might be reconsidering getting reinvolved in a military manner, boots on the ground, and the answer was, look, any time you're in a dangerous situation like this is, you have something called force protection. of course they would defend themselves, but the president still has not changed his position on this.

this is going to be not a strictly military operation, this is a humanitarian mission to get them off that mountain, ari. >> all right, chris, stay with us with your reporting because we want to talk to you more in this block. i also want to add in josh barrow here to our conversation. josh, when we talk about the politics of iraq, we can also just call it american democracy, vis-a-vis iraq. this congress has been all over the place over the years on iraq. >> right. >> right now we've got criticisms from the progressive side of things saying how skeptical should we be towards this president and this limited mission and conservatives saying there's no strategy here. mccain wants an even more robust commitment. where does congress figure in as it stands today. >> i think at this point congress will try to involve itself as little as possible. first of all, they're in recess and don't want to come back and deal with this. more broadly they have gotten tripped up taking votes they later regretted so people in congress either to the president's left or right on this issue will complain about

it. to the extent that it stays at this limited scope, i think it's very unlikely that a lot of people in congress will be eager to take votes on this. >> josh, ambassador mark ginsburg to morocco was on the show on monday. at the tail end of the segment we were talking about secretary kerry and one of the things he said was that secretary kerry has been all over the place, from ukraine to gaza, that he's sort of taken his eye off the ball when it comes to what's happening in iraq. do you buy that? do you buy that criticism of secretary kerry? and is it a valid criticism? >> well, i think the underlying assumption here -- and mark ginsburg is an experienced foreign policy hand so i don't think he necessarily is making this mistake to the extent some other people do. but the idea is somehow if john kerry involved himself more in the situation through sheer diplomatic will he would be able to prevent iraq from falling apart and prevent situations like this from arising. the thing is we don't have 100,000 troops on the ground in

iraq anymore and so our ability to control what happens there with or without john kerry giving the full court press to the parties involved is limited. so, yes, the administration has been stretched thin with a lot of crises in various places around the world, but we shouldn't assume by focusing their full attention on something they could have gotten a lot more results. >> while the politics here at home are messy about iraq and the other foreign policy crises, at the end of the day isn't the economy what's going to end up driving the midterm elections, the president's approval numbers, the 2016 cycle? >> i think it's the economy and also immigration. these are issues that are driving domestic voters. the country has turned inward over the last six years, partly because of the result of the iraq war and the lesser success in afghanistan than we thought we were going to have. people have grown wary of foreign interventions. also we've seen an increase in problems at home and people are saying we have to focus on what's going on here, why focus on this. so i think domestic issues will carry the day, but i think immigration has bubbled up where

that's going to be a key issue in the midterms as well. >> chris, i want to bring you back now and the white house relationship with hillary clinton rand that recent "atlantic" interview that everyone seems to be talking about. clinton called out the president on his handling of syria. now she's reportedly called a cease-fire of sorts. chris, they see each other tonight out on the vineyard at a party. is the island big enough for the both of them? >> reporter: well, you know what, they say it is. but look, this is not been the best possible time for all of this to be happening. because of what we've talked about, what's going on in iraq and in syria and in gaza and in ukraine. but you're also coming up on an election where the democrats are trying to hold the senate and there's some concern within the white house that the republicans are going to say, look, don't take our word for it that this president has a bad foreign policy, listen to his former secretary of state. so we had all this back and forth. it escalated so quickly, over the period of just a couple of

days, with hillary clinton making a phone call to the president. then her spokesperson issuing a statement. and then the deputy national security adviser coming out to speak for the white house. at the briefing today, them trying to tamp it all down. but hillary clinton has a book signing here taking place at 4:00 eastern time. i'm told it's already a mob scene over there. we'll see what happens under the tent. well, we won't actually see it, we may hear about it. it is close to the press. >> josh, a part of me thinks that the media is making way too much over hillary clinton criticizing the president. but there's another part of me -- >> how big is that part of you? >> it's sort of half and half because the other half of me is wondering if the president were in a situation now where he were not sitting at 40% approval rating an his foreign policy reviewed in a more positive light, would she be out there criticizing him at all and does that speak maybe to a broader problem that democrats have leading up to the midterms having to distance themselves from president obama? >> if you look at the whole hillary clinton interview with jeffrey goldberg she seems less

critical than in the passages people have focused on. she said don't do dumb stuff is not the organizing strategy but she said that's not the president's organizing strategy. >> but we never take anything out of context, the media never does that. >> it almost makes you wonder whether the press that skz you to go out and do deep policy interviews and then cherry picks out of them to twist what you've said, it makes you wonder whether part of this is the press's problem. >> i think it's somewhere in between. there is clearly a foreign policy difference between hillary clinton and the president where she is somewhat more interventionist than he is. people have made it out to be a very pig difference. >> she's never shied away from that, though. >> and it's a difference of degree. she was able to serve as secretary of state in his administration because their foreign policy views are broadly very similar although they disagree on some occasion. i think the president's low approval rating does encourage people to make distinctions from him but it would be strange for

hillary to pick foreign policy where she got burned in the 2008 election. >> i want to say to chris jansing in the cape, thank you for your reporting today. josh barrow from "the new york times," appreciate that. a bit later, i'll share more of my thoughts on the hugging and all of the problems in the coverage of the hugging. but next, the side of robin williams his friends and co-stars saw when he was off the set. there's much more "cycle." stay with us. (birds chirping softly in background.) (loud engine sounds!) what! how's it going? heard you need a ride to school. i know just the thing to help you get going. power up with new cheerios protein.

ugh. heartburn. did someone say burn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. revolutionary by every standard. and that became our passion. to always build something better, airplanes that fly cleaner and farther on less fuel. that redefine comfort and connect the world like never before. after all, you can't turn dreams into airplanes unless your passion for innovation is nonstop. ♪

it's that time of the hour we get you in the news cycle here. a chaotic situation in ferguson, missouri, has gotten more chaotic this afternoon. police shot another man last night in a town outside of st. louis after they say he pointed a gun at them. that incident is not believed to be related to the controversial police shooting of unarmed 18-year-old michael brown. protests in response to that shooting have been going on now for days. turning now to the weather

and a lot of us stunned by what happened overnight up in the northeast, specifically long island, new york. record-setting rainfall. 18 beaches now closed in nassau county alone as bacteria levels are rising and the water spread far from the beaches. flash flooding swallowed cars as the drivers inside rushed for safety. one person was actually killed in a weather-related accident there. we're talking more than a foot of rain in a matter of a few hours. wnbc's meteorologist joins us with more on this historic storm. >> that's right. it has rewritten weather records across many areas. you can see the video and it's because the rain fell so quickly. in the matter of one hour over 5 inches of rain fell in islip, new york. this came right during new york city's rush hour, so that's a big problem. islip about 50 miles north and east of new york city. you can see look at all the rainfall records. that number actually up to 13.27 inches. this storm has a rap sheet that goes everywhere. in the baltimore area, over 10

inches of rain. we've seen those rainfall totals right along the jersey shore down to atlantic city, 5 to 7 inches of rain. even in detroit on monday, they were dealing with some damaging rainfall, where highways and infrastructure was damaged. this storm luckily is starting to move out. as we take a look at the satellite and radar picture, it is moving off towards the north and east. you can see the rainfall totals, luckily much less than what we saw here early this morning and the good news is we'll start to dry things out here starting tonight. a nice, cool refreshing air mass. the summer of comfort. we've only see four 90-degree days in new york city. we would typically see ten by this point, so you just have to love the refreshingness that comes after the pain. >> yeah, some great news there. steve, thank you so much. tonight the broadway community will pay tribute to robin williams by dimming the marquee lights at 7:45 eastern. it's just one way friends, fans and fellow celebrities are remembering the stage and screen star who died in an apparent suicide on monday.

in 2011, williams spoke with "time" about his broadway debut. >> you're playing the tiger. >> yes. >> how does one prepare to play a tiger, prowling? >> a little pacing, biting whenever possible. i'm basically playing the soul of a tiger so i don't have to do a lot of tiger behavior. >> this is your broadway debut in a serious broadway play. >> when i did another it was under broadway. >> and now "time" features memories and musings from those who new williams the best, including birdcage co-star nathan lane who says one day in 1995 while riffing in the character of a snobby french toy store owner, robin made me laugh so hard and so long that i cried. it seemed to please him and yesterday i cried again at the thought that he was gone. jeffrey kluger writes about williams and the winding road to

suicide. thank you so much for being here, unfortunately some sad news. let's talk about this winding road have williams' career because those in his inner circle knew that he suffered from depression. they knew that he suffered from addiction. but it didn't affect his professionalism. he always arrived on time, knew his lines. there's a piece in "the new york times" about this, where one senior movie agent wrote robin was always 1,000% reliable. he was almost impossibly high functioning. talk to us about what appeared to be more of a silent downward spiral. >> well, there are a few ways of looking at it. first of all, all of us can lose ourselves in our work. as long as you like your work, love your work, it's a way to move out of whatever pain you're feeling. when you're an actor, you get to do that exponentially more power fully because you're shedding your skin and it's often a skin in which you're profoundly uncomfortable. you get to adopt the persona of

another person entirely. and not only did he play roles, he played teddy roosevelt, he played a bustling british nanny, a female. he plays -- he completely loses himself in these characters. and i think that provides for however long a period as the project went on a sort of circese from the pain. >> you talk about how the brain doesn't feel pain but it's linked to this deep type of sorrow. i wonder if we make a mistake in discussing this as a dichotomy whereby we say he was so productive and good at his job but was depressed, when we know so much about the science of depression that suggests people do function in all these other ways. >> right. >> that it is not necessarily debilitating and you could have someone in your life who's depressed and witness them and think, oh, they're going about, but inside they have these problems and these symptoms and we have a breakdown. we've been discussing it several days now in the wake of this

tragedy. we have a breakdown in our actual culture and the stigma is around getting people help and understanding this is a burden people can carry, this depression, while they continue to live out what seemed like productive lives. >> that's right. and one of the stats we cite in that story is that 60% of people in america who need mental health care don't get it. now partly that's institutional, partly that's insurance, though that's changing under the aca, but partly there still is that stigma. and as i write at the end of the piece, we have to begin seeing the brain as a fragile destructible organ, just like the kidneys, just like the lungs, just like the liver. if we can treat those without blaming the victims, there's absolutely no reason we can't treat the brain the same way. >> absolutely. and one of the things that i think was amazing about robin williams when you hear these stories is that he wasn't just functioning, he really went out of his way to care about other people. the stories that came in, there were some really touching

tributes in the cheommemorative issue that you have. sarah michelle gellar saying he was the father i always wished i had. talk about his broader impact as a mentor in the entertainment community. >> i'm glad you said that because i think that's one of the greatest, yet quiet legacies that will come from robin williams. people who are tormented and feeling pain can curl in on themselves. they resent the pain, they resent the world, the very last thing they can do is be generous. it takes a very particular kind of soul to be able to say i feel pain and i'm going to look for vulnerability, look for need, look for pain in other people and see if i can't help medicate that. even if i can't do it for myself, i'm going to give back. that's an extraordinary thing to have left behind. >> you know, jeffrey, as you were answering susan's question, we showed a graphic of a story in the magazine about how some of the funniest people are the saddest people.

there's a quote, the funniest people i know seem to be the ones surrounded by darkness, and that's probably why they're the funniest. the deeper the pit, the more humor you need to dig yourself out. and this came to mind as i was watching all the clips, the retrospectives of robin williams and how zany he was every red carpet interview, every sitdown interview. even the interviews where he wasn't sitting down, he was so funny, so zany. and it made me think was he so funny and so zany as a way of keeping people back, masking the pain, and should that have been a warning sign that there was something deeper going on here? >> that's a very good question and there are two answers to it. certainly we all do that. i was thinking before i went on in the early days before i really knew how to do tv, i would always engage in a lot of nervous chatter before going on. it's a way of burning off that emotion. so it's entirely possible that

in a very high octane way that's what he was doing. but the other side is, and it's sort of as freud didn't say but is said to have said sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. well, in his case sometimes zany genius may have just been zany genius. that was just his profound gift and he was able to express it, despite the demons inside. >> absolutely. i look forward to seeing the piece out on friday. jeffrey, thank you so much for being with us. hollywood lost another star last night, lauren bacall died here in new york at the age of 89. she was born in the bronx and began her professional career as a model. director howard hawk's wife saw her on a magazine cover and said she'd be perfect in a movie he was planning, which starred humphrey bogart. that movie, the 1944 classic "to have and have not" so at 19 this scene not only changed her life but also the 44-year-old boga bogart's. >> you know how to whistle, don't you, steve? you just put your lips together

and blow. >> a year later they got married. on and off screen it was bogey and bacall. in 1946, "the big sleep." >> you've got a touch of class, but i don't know how far you can go. >> a lot depends on who's in the saddle. go ahead, marlow. i like the way you work. in case you don't know it, you're doing all right. >> in 1947, "dark passage." >> maybe they'll keep an eye on you for a while. >> i'll be careful. go on. >> meanwhile, god is good to me and i managed to make it down there, i'll be waiting for you. there's a little cafe right on the bay. if you could see your way clear, listen to all those ifs. >> we'll skip all the ifs. iet the idea and that's all i need. now hang up on me, just like that. hang up, darling.

>> and in 1948, "key largo." >> the storm's passing. >> some trash on the beach, in a few hours there's little to remind you of what happened tonight. >> will we ever see you again, frank? >> the storm is passing. >> will we? >> i hope so. >> bogart died in 1957, but betty, as her friends called her, continued on being, well, a star. she wrote two best-selling books. won a tony for her role in the play "applause" and went on to marry actor jason robards in the '60s. in the '70s and '80s became a commercial spokesperson. she has three children. her son, steven, said this about his mother last night. her life speaks for itself. she lived a wonderful life, a magical life. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality

for over 19 million people. [ susan ] my promotion allowed me to start investing for my retirement. transamerica made it easy. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. transform tomorrow. transamerica. we use fillers in our onew spicy pulled pork. it's called... more pork. introducing our new spicy pulled pork pizza. its pulled pork, barbeque sauce, pepper jack, mozzarella, and crushed red pepper.

a large for only $12 dollars. better ingredients, better pizza papa john's [meow mix jingle slowly andright on cue.ks.] [cat meows] [laughs] ♪meow, meow, meow, meow... ♪meow, meow, meow, meow... it's more than just a meal, it's meow mix mealtime. with 100% complete and balanced nutrition, and the taste, textures and variety cats love, it's the only one cats ask for by name. which is why he's investing ain his heart health by eatingw. kellogg's raisin bran ® mom make you eat that? i happen to like raisins. invest in your heart health. now that's what i'm talkin' about. with kellogg's raisin bran ®.

only six weeks left for congress to save a government agency you may not have heard of or may even care about, but you should. it supports thousands of small businesses, more than 200,000 jobs could be at stake right now. here's the butt beauty, it does cost taxpayers a dime. the import/export bank. the business community loves it but some republicans who claim to be pro-business aren't on board. take a listen. >> i'm not against big business but i'm against big business in bed with big government and that's what's going on. >> i think the bank is something government does not have to be rovd in. the private sector can do it. >> given where the import/export bank is today, given the accounts of what's gone on down there in terms of kickbacks and other things, it's clearly time

for all the members to take a serious look at this. >> the bank will close its doors on october 1st. congress has just three weeks working time to stop that from happening. with the deadline looming, let's bring in the chairman and president of the export/import bank, fred hochberg. i've worked with and known fred almost a decade now. fred, welcome. we're delighted to have you on the show. >> good to be here, susan, thank you. >> let's put politics aside and just talk about the role of the agency. a lot of viewers are not familiar with what the bank does and its role right now. basically what's going to happen if it disappears? >> well, it's been around for 80 years. we support u.s. companies. 90% of the companies who work with us are small businesses, many of which i've been seeing this week. when they're exporting overseas, sometimes it's harder to get credit because it's an export, so we step in and fill in when the market is not there, when there's a market failure or the market is just anxious like it was during the financial crisis, to make sure that exports flow

and we support jobs here at home. as you mentioned, last year alone, 205,000 jobs and at no cost to the taxpayers. customers pay us a fee, like points on a mortgage. covers all of our costs and what is left over we send that to the taxpayers for deficit reduction. >> let's get into the politics now a little bit. you hear this and think it's always got to be the republicans fault but in fact it's not all republicans that are against this. you have the business community, including many republicans, who are demanding that the house vote to extend this bill. what it is is mainly tea party members and the house leadership. but what susan was saying earlier is this really doesn't cost taxpayers anything. what is their beef with this? what is it about they can't get on board with? >> probably should talk to some of the republican members about that but i think partly in our country we're having a debate on what's the role of government. we're having a debate what role that is.

we fill in gaps. when there's a market failure or when a u.s. company is confronted by insurmountable foreign competition that's backed by the government of china or korea or japan, you know, we need to step in to make sure that we have a level playing field. company can compete against company. u.s. companies can't compete against china inc. or korea inc. or brazil inc. >> fred, full disclosure, i've never worked with you but i've known you for a very long time. >> i feel out of the loop here. >> fred, what happens if you're not -- if you're not reauthorized? and if you're not reauthorized, what does that do to american competitiveness abroad? >> well, first of all, i am optimistic. we have a bipartisan bill that's been introduced in the senate by senator manchin, senator kirk, senator blunt, a bipartisan bill, so i'm optimistic. however, we've only got 48 days left and congress is not in session for most of that time. so i am optimistic but it's not

done. i think the biggest impact we're going to see is in small businesses where they really rely on us and have no other options and that's one of the things that we do. i was a small business owner myself, a family business for 20 years. small businesses always have a hard time getting capital and getting credit. so i'm most concerned about how that's going to dry up. and already it's had an impact because companies are looking at sales not just in october, november, december, but into next year and we have a lot of uncertainty in the marketplace. >> sure, but it's not just small businesses that you help. some of the argument here from conservatives is a concern that there are parts of american government that seem to always reinforce the advantages that big companies already do have in the marketplace. what would you say to folks in congress who simply would want an ex-im policy that somehow had priorities and was statutorily, say, focused on small businesses or certain companies that don't think when you look at all the

tax benefits and corporate welfare that they don't need to be at the top of the receiving end of what you guys do now. >> well, we have three congressional mandates, small business, renewable energy and sub-saharan africa. we do all the business that comes to us. we don't pick winners and losers. companies come to us if they need our finances in order to compete, level the playing field and support jobs here at home. but our emphasis is on small business, renewable energy and sub-saharan africa. >> fred, thank you so much. here's hoping congress moves quickly. >> thank you so much. up next, do you live in the best town ever? it's probably not washington, d.c. or is it? we have the results, next. this. his doubleheader day at the park starts with back pain... and a choice. take 4 advil in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief.

peanuts! peanuts! crowd cheers!

mom usually throws a gogurt in there. well mom's not here today so we're doing things dad's way. which means i get... two. (singing) snack time and lunch. (singing) snack time and lunch. gogurt because lunch needs some fun. [guy] i know what you're you're thinking beneful. [announcer]beneful has wholesome grains,real beef,even accents of spinach,carrots and peas. [guy] you love it so much. yes you do. but it's good for you, too. [announcer] healthful. flavorful. beneful. from purina.

we're changing the way we do business, with startup ny. we've created tax free zones throughout the state. and startup ny companies will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in jobs and infrastructure. thanks to startup ny, businesses can operate tax free for 10 years. no property tax. no business tax. and no sales tax. which means more growth for your business, and more jobs. it's not just business as usual. see how new york can help your business grow, at startup.ny.gov (vo) ours is a world of the red-eyes. (daughter) i'm really tired. (vo) the transfers. well, that's kid number three.

(vo) the co-pilots. all sitting... ...trusting... ...waiting... ...for a safe arrival. introducing the all-new subaru legacy. designed to help the driver in you... ...care for the passenger in them. the subaru legacy. it's not just a sedan. it's a subaru. if you think people are competitive with their ncaa march madness brackets, like i am, you should see what happens when college teams are replaces with american cities. that's exactly what "outside" magazine did in its new cover story to determine the best town in america. 1.5 million readers voted in a six-round, 64-town tournament and the winner is, drum roll, please, duluth, minnesota. duluth, minnesota, is the best town in america followed by

provo, utah, and of course i must mention minneapolis, not only because it's number three but also because my alma mater, carleton college, the harvard of the midwest, is just south -- is just an hour south of there. that picture is so horrible. we'll get the full rundown and more on how these towns were chosen is sam molden. thanks, sam, for being here. >> it's good to be here. >> so, sam, duluth, minnesota, minneapolis, i mean like i said, i love them, but it's cold! how on earth did duluth become the number one city? >> well, you know, it is cold and we acknowledge that. but it is just really a great place to live. duluth, minnesota, has unbelievable access to the outdoors. in the city limits alone, i believe there's something like 16 trout streams, 175 miles of trails and then, you know, that's just in the city.

it's situated along a north shore of lake superior, which is just beautiful. you know, skiing, sailing, kayaking, white water kayaking, everything right along the north shore. of course you have to endure the winters, though. >> speaking of beauty and nature, i've got to give a shoutout to provo, utah, a place that i have spent a lot of time. >> sure you have. >> described as number two on this list, described as happy valley with more candy stores and ice cream shops than bars. rock climbing, road biking and of course, of course beautiful skiing. but i have to say, sam, what makes provo so great is the people are so kind. >> yeah, exactly. i mean provo was the center of another story in this year's bracket. they were the 16th seed and right out of the gate they had to beat jackson, wyoming, which is maybe the most adventuresome place on the planet and a string of other towns with great adventure cred to make it to the

finals but they really rallied their base and happy valley, really passionate people live there. again, the outdoor access there really great. sits between utah lake and the wasatch mountains and between u wasatch mountains. >> provo totally ruined my bracket. >> on most livable -- >> i was going to say the other great thing about provo, it has very tax friendly businesses. adobe has relocated there. great mayor, great governor. >> and then you have ithaca there at number two, ithaca, number two, most livable. i lived in ithaca for three years so i can fact check you there and say no. >> you didn't like it? >> i had a good time there, but i wouldn't put ithaca at the top of a list for cities about

anything under any circumstance ever. >> ooh. >> wonderful people. love the people of ithaca. but i would say no on the fact checking. but tell us about how a small town like ithaca ends up on that list. and we wanted to give a shout out to asheville. tell us about both of those. >> with ithaca and all the cities really, we put it out online and so the town people rallied their base. so you could vote every round. the people of ithaca, they have a lot of pride in where they live and they came out. the civic leaders rallied the people, they shared it with their friends on social media and they just had a great showing. also, i've been to ithaca and i say i kind of like it there. >> kinda. is kinda like top of the list? >> we like to say the official cycle position is pro-ithaca. sam, you also did your own rankings of the best cities and you came out with boulder, colorado on top, which happens to be a favorite of some of our

"cycle" producers. i've spent time in colorado myself. i've been amazed at how well kept the trails are. part of the culture is being outdoors and outside. tell us how you picked boulder. >> we came up with the "o" score, so next year we'll have something to see the towns in next year's bracket. we looked at population, unemployment rate, median household income, the number of acres of green space, the number of trails, the number of farmer markets per capita. when you look at all those factors, boulder, colorado does blow away the competition. i lived there for a couple of years and the quality of life there is unbelievable. it's ringed by green space, very progressive leaders there and right at the foothills of the mountains there. >> and tons of microbrews. >> coming up, ari describes why

everyone is wrong about the rift with president obama. including me, ari? and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance.

♪ [music] jackie's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today her doctor has her on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an having a perfectly nice day, when out of nowhere a pick-up truck

slams into your brand new car. one second it wasn't there and the next second... boom! you've had your first accident. now you have to make your first claim. so you talk to your insurance company and... boom! you're blindsided for a second time. they won't give you enough money to replace your brand new car. don't those people know you're already shaken up? liberty mutual's new car replacement will pay for the entire value of your car plus depreciation. call and for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch to liberty mutual insurance and you could save up to $423 dollars. call liberty mutual for a free quote today at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance.

washington has been feasting on the supposed feud between hillary clinton and president obama. in politico, a headline that clinton has promised a cease-fire on obama. clint released a state that she said her remarks were not an attack on him. that was after the 6,000 wrd interview in the "atlantic." now, that kind of interview is exactly what the press says it wants from politicians, candid,

thorough discussions of policy, even when it means disagreeing with your own side. but the washington press seized on the criticism in there to obsess over the politics of a clinton/obama rift, not the substance of what the rift might be about. and team obama, they took the bait, pushing back on clinton in the "new york times" and firing off a tweet nailing her for backing the iraq war. what could have been a good faith policy debate developed in a political squabble washington thought it was seeing from the beginning. can we focus on the point here? let's look at what hillary said. she reiterated her view that stronger backing for the free syrian army would have helped develop a credible political opposition in syria. she said she didn't know whether that would prevent today's crises in iraq. when pressed, she insisted she didn't know.

the atlantic press asked "do you think we'd be where we are with isis if the u.s. had done more"? and clinton answered" well, i don't know the answer to that." . that reference to a failure to build a moderate opposition is what drove the headlines about clinton attacking obama's failures. maybe she should have used a word like inability instead of failure. clinton's appeal for the rebels here doesn't go very far today, doesn't totally make sense. even people who wanted to help the rebels more didn't see isis coming back in 2011. that includes hillary clinton. "hard choices," clinton's book about running the state department talks about al qaeda, a little bit a syrian army and doesn't mention isis once. it's a reminder of why jihadist

uprisings keeps happening no matter what the u.s. does. he writes the sunnis constituted more than 70% of the population. one of the top challenges for the u.s., she writes, was helping the opposition unite across the country's many religious geographic and ideological lines. was that a top challenge or is it a trap? the lesson of iraq isn't simply to be a less hawkish. it's also to be wary of alternatives to regime change. with four presidents consumed by iraq, we should remember the restraint of one. most effective, george h.w. bush. he argued hussein was so bad that we had to remove him from kuwait but the alternative was so bad that we had to leave him in power. we need to spend more time

comparing assad to china. that does it for "the cycle." "now with alex wagner" starts right now. >> t-minus three hours until the great vineyard hug-out. it's wednesday, august 13th and this is "now." >> this so awkward. ♪ ♪ >> the president indeed appreciated secretary clinton's call. >> president obama and his former secretary of state. >> the party in martha's vineyard. >> the chance to hack out their foreign policy differences. >> going to be hugging it out. >> the president and hillary clinton have had many hugs over the year. >> clinton using the word failure to describe the president's syria strategy. >> i reviewed her memoir and one theme is that she got