welcome back, everybody. let's get a check on the day ahead before tossing over to "morning joe." rick perry dips his toe to be i hampshire today with business leaders attending a gop reception. bob mcdonnell is back on the stand again today in the corruption trial against he and his wife maureen. that is going to do it for "way too early." great week, everybody! know what day it is? payday friday! "morning joe" starts right now! ♪ >> president obama played eighth round of golf of his vacation today. he's played so much golf, i guess he is getting pretty good but still not at the pro level yet and i'll show you what i mean. here is rory mcilroy's tee shot. >> in the hole! >> they are yelling get in the

hole, get in the hole. now see the difference with obama's swing. listen. >> get back to the white house! >> get back to work! >> get back to work! get back to the white house. >> get back to work, get back to the white house. >> that's pretty good. >> that's funny. >> hi. a little bit of a controversy that the president gets for sure. >> every president. >> why did you wear the same sweater? >> vomiting blue on the set. >> blah! >> blah! >> can i just say i want to wear my t-shirt? >> do it. it's friday. why not? >> hello, thomas. >> good morning. >> when you get to be our age, it will be harder for you to get yourself together in the morning. i'm just saying. >> it's hard. >> yes, it is! >> it's friday! >> there is a very blue theme going on over here. >> payday friday!

>> check your apps and pay your bills, people! it's a good day to be an american. >> thomas has been in a great mood since 3:00 a.m. like rambling on. i like it a lot but sometimes it's a little much. >> i got paid! >> mika is bringing it this morning! >> no kids. kids? >> do i have kids? no. a dog. a nice little beagle. >> interesting. kids, no kids. that's all. >> you're staring at me like you're appalled. >> kids? what? >> i can tell by the price tag on your sweater. >> i'm going to just -- listen, if you guys don't get mika like a different color here, i'm going to take this off and just wear my gray t-shirt. okay. >> do i have to change? >> while you go to a clip, i'm going to a great t-shirt. >> i think i should get a blue shirt and we should go all in on

this blue thing. what do we have here? >> a lot of news to cover. >> the press conference yesterday was scary. >> the pentagon, oh, my gosh. we start with that. we are also following the trial in virginia of governor bob mcdonnell and it is getting extremely personal. really big questions about that. first, u.s. officials are offering grim warnings about the terror group behind the beheading of an american journalist. the nation's top general says it may be impossible to stop the militants without them hitting iraq and syria. >> isil is a sophisticated and well-funded, as any group that we have seen, they are beyond a terrorist group and this is beyond anything we have seen. we must prepare for everything. and the only way you do that is you take a cold steely hard look

at it and get ready. >> this is an organization that has an apocalypse end of day strategic vision which will eventually have to be defeated. to your question can they be defeated without addressing that part of the organization which resides in syria, the answer is no. that will have to be addressed on both sides of what is essentially, at this point, a nonexistent border. >> he let's bring in nbc news chief pentagon reporter jim miklaszewski who was at the briefing yesterday. jim, as you've been watching this, we have been talking about this for a week. you got a sense of a week and a half ago that the white house realized that isis was a threat they no longer could ignore. talk about humanitarian assistance and then arming the kurds and bombing and then couple of days later we are going in helping them take over a dam. now we are actually talking about and i don't want anybody to take this the wrong way.

i'm not being critical. i am saying it is remarkable that just a couple of weeks later, we actually have generals going out, obviously, at the white house guidance and talking about the possibility of actually bombing syria. talk about -- >> necessity. >> talk -- out of total necessity. talk about how quickly our focus is expanding. >> well, joe, we talked about this last week. when we talked about the u.s. backing iraqi and kurdish forces with air strikes to take the mosul dam. that was the opening salvo in what was going to be, according to some officials we were talking to, a long running war with isis, at least there in iraq for the time being. nobody is under any illusion that i circumstances can simply be contained there in iraq and the fear, of course, as we have also talked about, is that the

threat from isis there in iraq is going to spread not only through that region, but could eventually find its way here to the united states in terms of terrorist attacks because they do have, for the time being, only a small number, a handful of americans within their ranks. they think that success that isis had in iraq is only drawing in more recruits and their numbers are thought to be about 17,000 right now, joe. >> all right. >> we talked about that news conference being sobering. a lot of people who saw it, i just wonder what your thoughts were, mick. you go to these all the time. yeah. >> reporter: well, the president has said -- you know, he was eluding to the fact this was going to take sometime. i don't think the u.s. government was leveling with the american people. the folks we were talking to said this is going to be a long, hard slog, not to quote donald rumsfeld but this is going to take some time. we had talked about that also

earlier. first you have to contain them in iraq. then you have to go after the leadership as general dempsey was talking about. and he didn't say it was necessarily going to be the u.s. he says this has to be a broad international effort. and, so far, except for some humanitarian assistance, we haven't seen any other of our european allies in particular weigh in and they are just as threatened potentially as the u.s. is because many of those isis members are european. so europe -- european. so that has raised some level of disappointment here in the pentagon. >> right. >> reporter: but, first, they have to deny that safe haven in iraq and just like al qaeda, and just like the attempts over the years to get osama bin laden, they are going to have to cut the head off that snake and go after the isis leadership. >> thomas? >> wow. >> mick, explain to all of us why we aren't talking about bashar al assad when it comes to the equation. i think most people getting read

in on this know the last time we were talking about saeyria, it' president obama against assad and you better not cross that line. now we are talking about syria, no one is talking where al assad stands on isis. is he a trusting partner in trying to eliminate isis from his own country and are we really going to bomb syria and not have bashar al assad on board? >> reporter: it's not clear, first of all, the u.s. is launching air strikes inside syria but it would not be inside syria. technically, geographically it would be across the border but they would be going after what is now considered to be the isis state, the isis nation of terrorism. quite frankly, bashar al assad is sitting back there in damascus watching all this probably with some amusement because the u.s. finds itself in

a battle with the same enemy which assad does. it's a strange partnership. you know, politics makes strange bedfellows of war and sometimes even makes stranger bedfellows. in this particular case, this narrow instance, assad and the u.s. are on the same side and wanting to get rid of this threat from isis. >> nbc has learned new details about the effort to rescue james foley. last november, foley's family received an encrypted e-mail in english demanding 132 million dollar ransom. after a brief e-mail exchange the captors were not heard from again until last week, when a furious message from the group promised foley's death in retaliation for american air strikes. later on "morning joe," we are going to be speaking to the parents of journalist james foley about their son's work overseas and the government's attempt to save his life. that is coming up in our 7:00

hour. nbc, jim miklaszewski, thank you very much. we will be following you on this. we move on to the krups tri -- corruption trial of former virginia governor bob mcdonnell. it was yesterday in richmond where the former governor delved deep in what he calls a troubled marriage. in an e-mail he told his wife this. i want to be in love, not just watch movies about it. i am so spiritually and mentally exhausted from being yelled at. i don't think you realize how you are affecting me and sometimes others with your tongue. and when asked on the stand whether he thought his wife was having an affair with a donor of the center of it all, he said, no. but when asked whether they had a strong emotionally relationship, he said yes. all of this is being used to show that their marriage was so fractured that they couldn't have conspired to solicit

thousands of dollars in exchange for favors. >> sam. >> senior marriage correspondent? >> senior marriage correspondent of "the huffington post." mika is very skeptical. >> who are you skeptical of? >> she is skeptical their marriage is that broken. she thinks they are going to be found not guilty and go out on the courthouse steps and kiss and say, we got them. no double jeopardy. it will be the end of a great movie. >> it's not what i think but okay. >> she thinks it's all a big scam. i don't think it's a big scam. i think you look at what everybody said about his wife and it looks pretty ugly. >> marital disputes have two sides obviously. i would be curious what e-mail she sent him if she ever released those e-mails and i would love to see them. but there is something inherently sad about it. >> yeah. i'm sorry i hurt you?

>> yeah, the whole thing is very sad and unfortunate and it's bizarre it's gotten to this point that this is now the sort of crux of his defense i was estranged from my wife that our relationship is so bad we couldn't conspire could be corrupt. i don't know what the legal basis of this could be and how it will get them off on this, but it goes to show you so many bizarre things happen behind the scenes with politicians' lives that it's not this glamorous thing they put up. >> oh, when you're in such a spotlight like that and you bring your family alone, it really changes the dynamic and things come out in people. >> the alternative universe, this man could have been mitt romney's vice president. >> oh, my gosh. >> we could have been seeing this play out at the old executive office building. >> i think -- >> why are you skeptical? >> i'm going to bring in a reporter who is covering this. what i question and i don't think there is -- i don't know what is going on. but i just think there is such an avid fervent effort to show

how fractured they were. i don't believe it. >> let me say this. you can have a very acrimonious marriage and talk about the nice rolex watches that you're receiving. >> no way he did not know about all of these things. >> maybe. >> that kind of goes against everything that he has proved about himself as a successful person. >> we don't know that. >> i think so. >> listen. his wife seemed to want to have an affair with this jonnie williams guy. >> yeah. >> she probably wasn't sharing everything with him. i'm just guessing. >> listen. there is two sides to this story. i'm curious what her e-mails say. >> let me just -- i have a question for the reporter. >> why don't we hear her side, though? >> exactly! now that -- >> why is she not defending herself? >> you just answered my question. do you know what i'm saying? you make funny of the ruse that might be going on here and yet

there is no pushback? >> that makes me sad. >> let's bring in "wall street journal" valerie bord line. valerie, am i the only one looking at this thinking something doesn't make sense here? >> i think you have the question on the mind of every person in this courtroom which has been packed because for four weeks, the question has been is this just so much kabuki theater we are seeing between the two people and not communicating or is the marriage that fractured? i think a sense especially after mr. mcdonnell gave the chronology of the troubles in their marriage yesterday morning a sense from the people around and friends that this is really a marriage that is as mr. mcconnell describes it in deep, deep trouble. >> okay. and, yet, will we hear, i guess maybe concerns from the other side? is this going to become some sort of divorce trial?

are we going to hear her side in this? i guess that is number one. number two, the other question that i have would be how could he not know about some of these massive sort of exchanges that took place? is that even possible? >> well, i think to your first question, mrs. mcdonnell is not expected to take the stand. her attorneys have said that. she's not on the witness list so we don't expect to hear it from her mourth. mr. mcdonnell said yesterday his wife often didn't write him back. particularly from the labor day in 2011 he tapped that out on his blackberry in the middle of the three-day weekend and they weren't speaking and he said she didn't respond. it wasn't said in opening arguments we would hear extensively on that point. it was bolsters she had a crush on mr. williams if we don't see that content. one of the things that came up yesterday mr. mcdonnell says he

is living with his parish priest. it's a blog that many priests would keep but yesterday he talked about mcdonnell trial by name and he said something i think gets at what you're talking about, what are we seeing? he said is any married person reading this and want to stand in front of the public and tell the whole truth about their life? it's a enriching experience i think for a lot of people to see. >> valerie, for you as a reporter, this has to be interesting to cover because this is not about a celebrity divorce. this is about federal corruption charges that have been brought against a virginia governor and it seems as if the behind the scenes kabuki theater of the relationship of a jonnie williams maybe trying to buy access of the governor through maureen mcdonnell is what is really playing out here and that is the relationship that is being vetted more than what the

governor actually knew about where this flow of cash was coming from. >> reporter: mrs. mcdonnell's attorney say if he was trying to buy her influence, she didn't have influence to sell because she wasn't a public figure. she was not elected to anything. so it's very important for prosecutors to tie mr. mcdonnell's complicity in this arrangement. i think we expect mr. mcdonnell to take the stand again this morning and he is still on direct examination by his attorney. prosecutors on the cross-examination, they don't care about the state of the marriage. they want to know when you hosted a luncheon and appeared at this luncheon, mr. mcdonnell, that honored mr. williams, why did you do that and give people samples of his product? why did you, you know, why did you ask various members of your administration to work with with him? they will say we don't care.

we don't care about the state of your marriage. we care about the acts you took as the governor. >> given that is the question ultimately, i'll try this from a different angle. maureen mcdonnell is being raked over the coals. her reputation is being completely destroyed and, yet, she's not ever going to take the stand? she's not ever going to speak for herself? is her team and is she okay with this? >> she is facing legal troubles in owner own right and they are calculated putting her on the stand is too much of a risk to take at this point. the question that mcdonnell has to answer why did he take these specific actions buying 30,000 share in williams company that he, himself, did. if you're so estranged from your wife and everything is going through your wife, why do you personally buy those shares? that is the question he has to answer. >> "wall street journal" valerie bord land, thank you so much. >> thank you, valerie. >> come back and keep us up-to-date. appreciate it. still ahead on "morning joe," once wasn't nearly enough

for us. we have more on morning -- we have more this morning of the author of the narcissist next door. >> who passed the test with flying colors? 9 out of a 4 that's correct. since i didn't take it, with we must talking about someone else. plus, both american ebola patients have been officially cleared of the deadly virus. we will talk about how doctors were able to pull that off with dr. zeke emanuel. how much could you dead lift? something tells me not as much as hollywood star hugh jackman. the dramatic rescue of the luc luc lucky koala. >> the fuzzy little bear, something like that. >> i actually think that the colors on my tie match your sweater.

>> we are changing. >> we are going to put an end to this. tels tell us about the weather. if you're in the adirondacks this weekend you will be complaining because it's not going warm but the rest of the country bakes in a late august heat wave. the cool air moved in and over from new york to d.c. but the roads are probably a little wet and showers from albany, new york, over to boston if you're traveling on the mass pike. as far as the forecast goes, still additional showers later this afternoon from new york to d.c., maybe a rumble of thunder. look how cool it's going to be. in the s60s for highs in area o new england. we got drenched in chicago overnight. thankfully the rain is over with and flash flood warnings should be lifted shortly but we picked up 4 inches of rain in 40 minutes at midway airport so a lot of water out there near chicago. drive carefully and drive slow. it should improve throughout the day. what is happening with the area

of tropics? no eminent threat to the southeast coast and florida coast but it's a hot forecast from texas to the carolinas to florida. friday, saturday, and sunday, nothing changes there. it's going to remain hot for the foreseeable future. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ wondering what that is?

that, my friends, is everything. and with the quicksilver card from capital one, you earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase. not just "everything at the hardware store."

not "everything, until you hit your cash back limit." quicksilver can earn you unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you could possibly imagine. say it with me -- everything. one more time, everything! and with that in mind... what's in your wallet? ♪ that's a better sweater. thank you. my eyes don't hurt any more. >> okay. >> are you doing okay, thomas? >> i think the blue sweater brought my eyes out better but i'll deal with the red. it will work. >> time to deal with the morning papers. from our parade of papers to "the dallas morning news." two americans are free of the ebola virus after contracting it while working with patients in

west africa. dr. kent brantly was released from emory university hospital on tuesday. both patients went through a series of tests to ensure they are not contagious. >> i wouldn't be hugging this guy. >> in an emotional speech -- well, apparently he is ebola free. that is amazing. he said it was miracle to be standing there. take a listen. >> today is a miraculous day. i'm thrilled to be alive, to be well, and to be reunited with my family. above all, i am forever thankful to god for sparing my life and i'm glad for any attention my sickness has attracted to the plight of west africa in the midst of this epidemic. please continue to pray for liberia and the people of west africa and encourage those in

position of leadership and influence to do everything possible to bring this ebola outbreak to an end. >> both patients were treated with an experimental drug but doctors say it is not clear if it helped in their recovery. that's incredible. >> it was amazing. that was the medical team that worked on him and he gave each and every single one of them a big hug to say thank you. he looks great and we will wait to see if nancy writebol comes in to the cameras. tampa bay times. a heart warming story out of st. pete. a pay forward act of kindness lasted 11 hours because around 7:00 a.m. on wednesday morning, a woman going through the drive-thru paid for our ice coffee and pick up the tab for the driver behind her. the starbucks employees explained to the drive that came up next what happened the driver paid for the drink that came up behind them. this sparked a pay it forward moment because the baristas kept

explaining what happened and the act of kindness being kept paying forward. it happened for 378 people until around 6:00 p.m. a woman just said she wanted to pay for her drink. employees said she did not understand fully the pay it forward idea so maybe they did not explain the concept what took place at 7:00 a.m. >> i don't think that's heart warming but okay. it's starbucks. they are like a couple of dollars so you've got people who can -- that's great. >> a couple of dollars? it's seven or eight bucks! >> so rich, mika. >> no, i don't think that is heart warming! >> it's hard to afford a coffee that costs that much. >> i think it's a starbucks commercial actually. >> hey, the lady ahead of you paid for your drink. wow, that's so sweet. >> that's not heart warming. it's nice but not heart warming. >> you're a cold person. >> come on. i've seen you do much nicer things for people. >> i to.

that's why i believe stuff like that -- >> it's a seed of hope. >> you got to plant that. "usa today" has a story. >> paralyzed olympics -- this is actually olympic swimmer amy van dyke took her first steps on thursday. this this would be heart warming. following an atv accident this summer. the six-time gold medalist posted videos on instagram as she used a bionic exo -- skeletal device. the crash severed her spine and it comes two months after the crash. >> walking! no, actually, i'm walking back into it. >> amy, when you get to the bottom, another step. take this step here. >> now that is amazing. >> so inspiring. >> yeah. that's incredible. >> so positive. >> she is going to walk. >> the technology has taken us

that far and only get better and better. >> she has a little bit of feeling and that is hopeful for her. >> it's great news. >> wish her all of the best. the next store from "the washington post." legislation in new york city looks to crack down on times square, costume characters amid ael allegations of harsh tactics for tourist tips. the bill will require anybody who earns tips and changes their appearance to go through a registration process. so they would then be subjected to a background check and be required to wear a visible i.d. tag while they are in costume. >> molestation charges and groping and stuff like that, elmo. starring as elmo, today, merv, the perv. >> the eyeballs are a little off and a little matted. >> they are dirty. >> if you see an extra tall

elmo. >> but they have been a little aggressive for tourists and some don't understand the concept that you're supposed to tip minnie or mickey moose. >> they get aggressive. a kaola bear was saved after hit by a car crossing the road. where do we get these stories? are re covering this? scurried up a tree where it passed out. it was removed from the tree and attempted to revive it with a heart massage. >> look at the mouth! >> that is mouth-to-mouth! >> a wildlife rescuer gave the koala mouth-to-mouth.

let's find a better story. "the kansas city star" one of the stars of "dating naked" is suing because they aired a clip of her naked. >> that's what it's called, right? >> but they promised her a blurry. the controversial new dating show features contestants who go on dates with strangers totally nude. the cast member said she was told by the network that all nudity was blurbed out but a part of her body "slipped through the cracks." >> what is happening to morning papers? >> it "slipped through the cracks." it happens. >> is that show real? >> it's a real show. >> really, it's not. why are you all saying yes in unison? have you seen it? >> i've seen a trailer for it. >> have you seen it? >> it's kind of funny.

>> just cutting to the chase because they think people just want to see you naked any way. what guys think. >> stop it. >> is that really what you all want to see? >> still aheading , there is something for everybody there. still ahead republicans best hope to take control of the senate may be, may be in new hampshire? that's a shock. we are weighing in on charles krauthammer stack down of isis. they call the group the worst group on earth. we will be right back. >> it's friday! ♪ situations tolerable baby you're adorable ♪ so get out there, and get the best price guaranteed. find it for less and we'll match it and give you $50 toward your next trip. expedia. find yours.

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♪ 36 past. time for the must read opinion pages. joining us from burlington, vermont. >> all right. >> former vermont governor and former chairman of the democratic national committee, howard dean. good to have you on board. >> nice to be back. nice to be back. >> lucky guy. we are going to read charles krauthammer who writes this in. . . stopping the worst people on earth. these are the worst people on

earth. they slave and murder men en masse. these are not the usual bad guys out to land and power. they celebrate slaughter and glory and blood lost and slit the throats of innocence as a kind of sack rah sacrament. for a series rollback campaign obama will need public support. he has to explain the stakes and the larger strategy. his weak and passive rhetorical reaction to the beheading of american journalist james foley was a discouraging missed opportunity. quote, people like this ultimately fail obama said of foley's murderers but perhaps could be a long way and thousands of dead away. the roll of a great power as churchill and roosevelt understood is to bring that day closer. >> howard, when you opposed american involvement in iraq in 2003 and 2004, we were talking about a nation stay and taking out one man.

you offered a lot of warnings that, obviously, came true. it seems to me the president, this president's objectives are so much murkier because the situation is so much murkier. you're not talking about one tyrant and one state. you're talking about a cancer spreading across the middle east. what should president obama do? what should america do? >> i think, a, i think he is doing the right thing. b, i actually agree with krauthammer until he gets to knocking obama which is sri. i mean, the guy is a right wing columnist. so i guess that -- it's too bad because i think the rest of the idea of how bad these people are is exactly right. >> so you would agree they are the most evil people on earth and something has to be done to stop them, right? >> it's not entirely clear to me that they are actually human beings. >> yeah. >> this is about as bad as it gets. these are cultists who murder people for thrill and so they need to be eradicated. i think the president is doing

the right thing. we can't put troops on the ground. we know that. even if we were, we did, it would probably be an enormous tactical mistake. this is what high tech is for to knock the guys off with drones and whatever else we need to do and this is a big problem. i don't want to just gloat because i'm not gloating about something like this but this is exactly what i thought was going to happen 11 years ago when he came out against the war. if you look back at the stuff i was saying at the time i predicted iraq would split in three groups and al qaeda which is gone essentially but these guys are worse, would take over in one of those areas and set up a stronghold and exactly what happened and now we have our hands full. one thing the president said which i think is also true this is going to be, in fact, a long-term effort. these guys are not going away. i think we will win this effort but it's going to be very long term. we have to be committed to it. >> pretty grave concerns from the pentagon 37. the indication here that the

president's words are nonexistent or weak but what is the case we should be doing if this threat is as real as everyone says it is? >> no. that is just right wing rhetoric and let's criticize the president for the sake of criticizing. he said what joe did, this is cancer on the world which is true. he is intervening with ways we can be successfully intervening putting isis back on their heels and supporting the kurds on the ground and knocking off a variety of their assets, including the famous white pickup trucks that are kind of in your face to the west and that is what he is doing. it's very clear to me what his plan is and aapprove of that and i think he continues to have to be aggressive from the air. >> sam stein? >> i mean, i agree with the general sentiment there. i think there is a fair criticism that the administration sort of -- overlooked the significance of this problem up until very

recently. but the problem here is the complexity of the iraq/syria border and, of course, our bizarre relationship with bashar al assad that thomas talked about earlier. >> i don't know whether we cozy up to him but it sounds like we are going to ignore the board. >> this is laid out in "the new york times" piece. if they start a campaign against isis in iraq they scurry across the syrian border and then we have questions not only the tactical operations that we can pursue but the legal officials we can pursue. can we target them in a country we don't have war authorization. >> i think the complexities from the sound of the press briefing yesterday, a lot of those complexities are wiped away and thrown out the window and on the ground when you have a general saying, listen, if you want to get rid of devices you have to go into syria and assad is saying, great, the united states can provide me air pawer to take

out one of my enemies? thank you. why don't you kill them all and then go to the u.s. and talk about it later but please come and do it. >> howard dean, stay with us. an internal investigation into mary landrieu's flight records. one country has officially grown tired of miley cyrus, we can now confirm. >> really? >> i wonder who that could be. is that hollyweird? >> i doubt it.

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going to lose another race and lose it badly. he trailed shaheen by two points. shaheen is headed in the wrong direction against favorables and unfavorables. it determines the president's reputation is what is dragging down her numbers. mike, 37% approval rating in the state of new hampshire and that is obviously having an impact. >> it sure has. as scott brown also has been making a big point about how few town halls jeanne shaheen is doing. scott brown is gifted in the retail campaigning and doing a lot around the state. today, senator john mccain is sending out a fund-raising e-mail trying to capitalize on this poll and talking about the ten-point swing that you just highlighted there. >> mike, it's getting so -- i won't say so bad. it's getting so close up there. again, shocking. i mean, it really is based on what we were seeing a month ago

that san francisco billionaire tom steyer is rushing in with a six-figure bye. >> joe, last night, i was asking top republicans how big a deal is this? this is a huge psychological turning point for republicans. not just in new hampshire, but elsewhere who are wondering can we really take the senate? i'm told that this poll is going to help bring other big donors off the sidelines because they are saying, wow, a senate majority leader mitch mcconnell might be a real thing if scott brown wins, they are very far on the way to that. >> howard, obviously, really bad news for the democrats of this race does become competitive but most of us didn't think that scott brown had a shot a month ago. is the president's approval rating even in new england really a drag on these candidates? >> i don't know. i actually would suspect that poll might be wrong and the reason is that we just -- i just seen a poll here where the

president's approval was at 59%. now, this is have the and that is new hampshire but they are a lot more alike than people think. i'd be very surprised if scott brown got were in near jeanne shaheen on election day. he's an out of state guy and didn't play well with the republicans. if there is a third-party candidate, i don't know if there is you might see the third-party collect a lot of votes but they are not going to scott brown. i think this poll is an outlier. >> we shall see. >> mike allen, thanks so much and have a great weekend. >> you too. thank you, all. the rick perry mug shot tour continues as the texas governor takes a hawkish turn in a big speech yesterday and it will be interesting to see what you think of what he said, joe. plus, we will tell you who owns the copyright to selfies taken by a monkey. what is going on today? we will be right back with much more "morning joe." ♪ started out all alone ♪ ♪

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so we were talking about the senate races and, you know, one of the senate races, other than new hampshire, it's going to be looked at closely is going to be louisiana. i always say mary landrieu wins by 6 1/2 votes but it may be 4 1/2 votes after this story.

i don't know that it's a big story, but republicans certainly are watching. >> they are making it a big story. republicans are criticizing senator mary landrieu for allegely charging flights to her senate account that should have been paid for with campaign money. during an event, landrieu was met by people holding signs that read air mary. >> i love this. >> a pilot's uniform and flight attendants and a guy signaling her as if she was touching down for a landing! oh! >> buckle up. >> that's really funny. >> this is great. >> okay. >> that is kind of funny. sam, you know, the future of american government over the next two years is going to come down to races like that. i'm dead serious. >> comes down to how well he does the -- >> if republicans take over the senate. >> that was a little personal. >> the most vulnerable stuff and they are all democrats, i mean, republicans have a pretty good shot. >> yeah. absolutely. >> and then what is barack obama do for the final two years of

his presidency? >> he does what he has been doing the last two years. >> no. >> nothing. >> stop it! >> come on! >> nothing ever gets done. >> be optimistic. >> i mean, listen. it looks increasingly liking that republicans do have a chance to win the senate here. think the landrieu race is indicative of the tough race that democrats race. i wouldn't take the last poll and make a huge mound of it but if you look at it a problem for democrats trending through republican favor. i've seen democrats want the election to happen now because they are more confident now than a couple of months from now. coming up at the top of the hour, the growing threat of isis and a serious warning from top u.s. officials. why defense secretary -- the defense secretary says the militant group is, quote, beyond anything we have seen. the very latest from bob mcdonnell's corruption trial. the letter that he read on the second day on the stand that has everyone talking this morning. >> like a soap opera.

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the next hour of "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ >> this is an organization that has an "pop poapocalyptic end o. can they be defeated without addressing that part of were their organization which resides in syria? the answer is no. that will have to be addressed on both sides of what is essentially at this point a nonexistent border. welcome back to "morning joe." sam stein is kistill bus and thomas roberts and howard dean and joining us is kim atas. >> pretty good? >> in washington, we have got nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing. it's great to have all of you here. kim, i'll begin with you.

obviously, yesterday this rollout continues. we have been talking about it really in real-time last week. it's a humanitarian crisis. the next day, we get breaking news we are arming the kurds. the next day, something else happens. then we go and we have them take back the dam. now we are actually talking about air strikes in syria. a lot of people out there are going to say nobody said that yesterday. when you have a general in the pentagon saying, well, if you really want to beat this group that we are calling the worse group ever you got to go into syria. it certainly looks like this is expanding quickly and that the pentagon, chuck hagel sound scared out of their mind about this organization. >> yeah. it's been interesting to see the development and the assessment of is circumstances in washington. only in january, the president was saying that they were not the kobe bryant of jihadis. >> the jv team. >> today senior officials from the administration saying this is apocalyptic.

>> can i ask you what makes this group different from all of these other terrorist group that seem to come up with a big plan. >> when you have 9/11 as a perspective. >> yeah. come up with a big plan they hide in caves. these people are out in the open. and tactically you talk to military people, seem to be pretty damn good at what they do. >> they are pretty good. i think it's a combination of two things. one, you've got the problem of european jihadis that are joining this movement. they are very often reject of society. they are -- they feel like losers and they want to hang out. they are the kind of people taking a machine gun and killing kids in a school if they weren't going to this region to do other things like beheading foreigners. and then you've got sunni grievances within the region. you know, both in iraq and in syria. and those grievances tie up with jihadism and that makes people quite fearless about what they

want. >> is there any evidence of any cracks between the sunnis in the region? obviously, i always go back to 2006 zarqawi bombing and say they are fighting back. >> yesterday, the white house put out a statement listing all of the muslim groups and clarkics and high ranking officials in the region in the u.s. who were denouncing these actions. we still need to see more from within the region, because general dempsey was right, you know, air strikes aren't the only solution to this. they might be part of it, but you need to have more than just counterterrorism strategies to deal with this. and it goes back to the point that some people are making -- you know, some people are saying what happens we should alie ourselves with president assad to fight this because we are perhaps on the same side.

you have to remember the sunni grievances in the region are part of this problem and you're not going to address sunni grievances if you team up with the allawis. >> on the pentagon briefing yesterday, here is defense secretary chuck hagel who calls the islamic state an eminent threat to say the least irks . i >> isil is well funded group that we have seen. they are beyond just a terrorist group. this is beyond anything that we have seen so we must prepare for everything and the only way you do that is you take a cold steely hard look at it and get ready. >> sam? >> yeah. just to jump on that last point. david ignatius has a really interesting column this morning that i would recommend to anyone, where he talks about sunni grievances being something osama bin laden himself recognized toward the end of his time that that was a problem

that he had faced and probably prip precipitationed to the downdafa of al qaeda. in the end he recognized he misstepped there. i do think that is a problem and ignatius says this is a problem isis will face down the road. the question is how do we harness more of the moderate sunnis to come in and fight us with the fight on isis? the obama administration made clear they need political reconciliation in iraq if they want to make progress in iraq. governor dean, what can we do not military in iraq to help precipitation turning of the tides against isis? >> i think that is unfortunately, in terms of reunifying iraq that is probably not possible. >> really? >> the new prime minister is also allied with iran, not as knowsably and closely and less authoritarian tendencies that

maliki had. iran is next door name and a shiite and the sunni will resent that. i think the solution often is we have to support the peshmerga on the ground with arms and training but not ground troops. they have to fight their own battle. we can help them fight their own battle but they have to fight on the ground and be willing to do that. until the sunni who are being oppressed by isis in their own territory are willing to do that, this isn't going to succeed. as far as syria goes, there's -- we don't have to alie ourselves with them to be successful. it has nothing to do with whether assad should or should not be in power. we prefer he not be in power. i think the president wisely decided not to intervene there because of groups like isis. we have a battle against terrorism. assad is a different kettle of fish and that is not our concern right now.

>> hhmm. >> chris, let me ask you based on what governor dean is saying we know the white house and president obama doesn't think bashar al assad should be in power. we have been covering a long time about the concerns of this white house and bash ash al assad using chemical weapons against his own people. are there back channels open to april sad or his people of how they think that isis can be best extinguished? >> one of the things the white house will tell you and the president is clear about his first line of defense is always going to be diplomacy. but let's not be mistaken. diplomacy at this point has gotten us to where -- i was on that night in the white house august 9th when the decision was made to start the air strikes and the air drops in iraq. this is a region where this

white house seems to find itself often caught where they are trying to play a little bit of catch-up and they are the first ones who will tell you the president acknowledged this, senior white house advisers acknowledged on that night that it was really only events that happened the day before that precipitated the president's decision. he's got himself in a position now, as you've been talking about, for sometime that these hard decisions are going to have to be made. you listen to general dempsey yesterday. again, nobody was suggesting the fact that air strikes were going to happen in syria. he is certainly someone, the general, who has talked about how fraught that decision is, what the risks are. civilian casualties not to mention the political considerations there. but the conversations are going on right now are i think to howard dean's point. the white house official stance is we have to have a coalition

government in iraq and that's where it has to start. how realistic is that and if thags not playing out, what is the next step? >> kim, can you stay with us? howard dean, thank you very much. chris jansing, thank you as well. we are going to see chris guest hosting ""meet the press" this sunday. >> big time! >> go chris. still ahead on "morning joe," are you kind of a big deal? >> kind of a big deal? >> you know what? >> mika got me that t-shirt after she saw "anchorman." >> when did you see "anchorman"? >> about a year ago. >> oh, come on. >> got joe a t-shirt says i think i'm a big deal. >> do you wear it? >> i don't have to wear it. you know i'm kind of a big deal, which feeds into our tease. later this hour we are brecking down the narcissist problem and how you deal with

narcissists in your life. we will see how doctors pulled off the ebola feat. some call it a miracle. first, we have the honor of speaking to journalist james foley about his work overseas. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. if energy could come from anything?. or if power could go anywhere? or if light could seek out the dark? what would happen if that happens? anything.

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i lost not only a good colleague, but also a close friend. james foley was probably my best cell mate during captivity together. james was just great. he was always supporting everyone. always -- always there to help and to share. >> that was a french journalist who was held captive with journalist james foley. joining us now from rochester, new hampshire, john and diane foley, james' parents. >> we can't begin to tell you

how sorry we are for your loss and, as parents, we have all said we don't know how you go on after this, how any of us would go on after this. yet, you're out to talk about your remarkable son and would love to hear more about him because we hear he had such a big heart and was such a strong, brave man. tell us about your son. >> well, jimmy was all of that. and, as parents, we weren't aware of that as our children grow, they become their own people, but jimmy -- jimmy was challenged when he first met poverty and disadvantage at marquette university. since that moment, his soul and heart grew and grew and group to encompass all of those people who needed help, needed their stories told. he began to love all, and that was his biggest gift to the

people he met, his love and his help. >> diane, he got out of school and he did teach for america because he wanted to help children. he went overseas and then when he came back, he had to go back again because of what he had seen and somebody that knew him said, after going there and seeing what was going on, he couldn't just sit at home, he had to go back and report this story. tell us about that bravery. >> we just -- we found it difficult to understand, truly, as parents. he was home in october of 2012 for his birthday, and he just looked so good. i just said, jim, can't you stay home through christmas? and he says, oh, ma, i have to go back, but i will be home for christmas. and he just had -- made promises

and he just was so committed to the people who was suffering. he was trying to -- >> humanize. >> humanize. he wanted the people to know how people were suffering, particularly the children touched him so much. he raised money because people were bringing people to the hospital in wheelbarrows and carrying them. >> and taxis. >> the more he saw the suffering, the more his heart seemed to grow. and he just had a growing commitment. >> did that drive start early on, even maybe as a boy? i wonder what it was like raising him and watching this grow within inside him. >> jim was just a very joyful, happy kid. >> he was not a --

>> he was the oldest of five. he was just a happy kid! and i think actually when he saw the suffering, first really realized in milwaukee, the inner city of milwaukee working with kids without parents or breakfast. >> he had a privileged upbringing and he wanted to share that. >> so he believed then, john, that as the old saying goes, as somebody told me, you know, to those much is given, much is expected, he really, i guess, in marquette, is sound like he woke up to that fact that he had a responsibilities and he just couldn't stop trying to help people, right? >> yeah. yeah. he ran with it. >> yeah. it was just natural. >> he grew stronger and more commit. >> more passionate. i just -- someone -- oh. >> no. go ahead. >> no. i was just going to say, one of his former students from teach

for america reached out with a beautiful tribute and they said that if only those young jihadists had had a mr. foley, that our jim -- jim had saved his life. and the life of so many others. >> so what are you most proud of your son? and i'm not even talking about at the very end. was there a story? was there a moment? was there a decision he made? like you said none of us are a saint but how remarkable is it when somebody puts their own safety and well-being in the back seat and says i'm going to help other people? >> i guess we were the proudest of jim when we were able to interview the released hostages and they told us of his courage and his commitment to helping all of those people in the box, making sure that as much as

possible they had enough food to eat. he negotiated with the guards, all the time being punished both physically and psychologically. we are proud that he was able to draw strength from prayer and sacrifices. >> we have talking about what a remarkable man pope francis is the past several weeks. i understand he picked up the phone and called you guys and spoke for maybe 20 minutes. we won't ask you what he said, unless you want to tell us that, but tell us what that meant to you and did it bring you comfort in this terrible time? >> huge comfort. huge comfort! because pope francis, like jesus, loves, like jim. he understood jim's heart. pope francis himself lost three family members was in deep grief

himself and, yet, he reached out. well, that was -- so that touched us very deeply. very deeply. we are so grateful for the prayer of so many people all over the world. >> are -- >> jim's strength. >> are you all going to be speaking in the future? personally, i don't think now is the time to ask you these questions. i know a lot of people want to and we don't just -- don't think now is the time. but are you guys going to be speaking out in the future about what david whoad was on our show yesterday. he said jim was let down by america and europe. they really need to get their act together on negotiating with these terrorists. is that something that you're going to want to do to bring this out to the light of day, or are you going to just remain silent about it? >> no, we are not going to remain silent but we have to understand it is a very difficult issue. david is a good friend of ours and of jimmy's and he raises the

appropriate points. we are also going to want to speak out about the things we want to do to make jim -- to make sure that jim's death is not in vain in terms of helping others. we are hoping to establish a foundation in jim's name so that we can -- we can meet some of the challenges and jim's causes. we feel very, very committed to that. but certainly we feel that the negotiation process was very uneven and we pray at this very moment that steven sotloff is spared. >> that our international community must realize we must bond together. good and love and all that free

in the world must be together, you know, to fight the evil and the hatred. it's just -- jim wanted to be there because he really embraced the suffering of the syrian people. we need to embrace one another suffering so that this can be the world where some love in there and some compassion and we want that to live on through jim's foundation and through us. >> jim's sacrifice. >> and jim's sacrifice. and we do pray. we beg the international community to help the remaining hostages. >> any time you need our help, you have a platform here. thank you so much, diane foley and john foley. thank you. >> let us now how we can help in the foundation and know that all of our thoughts and prayers are with you and with your efforts moving forward and also, obviously, with those americans

and others what that are being held. thank you, and god bless you guys. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> we will be right back. i make a lot of purchases for my business. and i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase. like 50,000 bonus points when i spent $5,000 in the first 3 months after i opened my account. and i earn 5 times the rewards on internet, phone services and at office supply stores. with ink plus i can choose how to redeem my points. travel, gift cards, even cash back. and my rewards points won't expire. so you can make owning a business even more rewarding. ink from chase. so you can. the summer of this.mmer. the summer that summers from here on will be compared to. where memories will be forged into the sand. and then hung on a wall for years to come.

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sweater, extra sweater oh and this is the xfinity tv go app. he can watch live tv from over 50 channels and xfinity on demand movies and shows wherever he wants. have fun, make some friends. alright? did i mention his neck pillow? (blowing) ♪ ♪ well, we just spoke to the parents of james foley. john and diane. >> can you believe how strong they are? >> i don't even know if that is

the word. that is the word that comes to mind but they are holding together as best they can and for all of the reasons that drive them. and i think when they talked about, at first, not understanding what drove their son, i think as they talk about his life now, they fully understand his mission. >> kim, you were born in a war zone in beirut. you know about being a journalist and the type of circumstances that james foley was a journalist. i guess you know the risk going in? >> i know the rink and i know the feelings that drove james foley. i didn't know him but i was incredibly touched by the interview you just did with his parents mr. and mrs. foley. when mrs. foley was talking about the fact he felt the world had to know and why he kept going back to syria. i grew up in a war, as you mentioned and what made me want

to become a journalist because i wanted the world to know what was going on and i thought it was important and i was grateful for the journalists who were risking their lives covering my country and a lot of them did get killed. i didn't know james, unfortunately. but i have a lot of respect for his work and a lot of respect for his parents, and i know that people in syria are very grateful for what james was trying to do telling their story. >> it's clear that they are going to have a lot to say in the coming months and that they are going to be very careful about it, but they went through the process of dealing, not only with the pentagon and the white house, but also with the terrorists themselves and they have a lot to say. >> right. let's talk about the uneven application, uneven process of what europe does, what america does. you had david rhoad on our show yet and a piece in atlantic

saying that american and europe let jim down. what are your thoughts being a journalist that, obviously, carries that risk with you all the time? >> well, there are two things here. one is the need for organizations to really make sure they support their journalists on the ground and there are a lot of freelancers who are risking their lives. james did get a lot of support from global post. they were trying to raise ransom money. the other discrepancy is the way europes and u.s. address this and europeans do pay ransom. either nobody did or everybody does. >> since 2008, countries have paid al qaeda and its affiliates at least $125 million according to an investigation by "the washington post" adam taylor leading the pact. france has paid over $58,000

since 2008 to the terrorists. it is worth noting a separate group found france had more citizens held hostage across the globe than any other nation raising the question as to whether or not, you know, the country's history meeting ransoms -- >> i think the question answers itself. it goes back to what i was saying about sudan in the late 1990s. you had evangelical groups going out and children would be held hostage. they would pay $30, $35 to free those children. six months later, those children would be taken again and they would be paying 60 and a hundred. i certainly understand it. i said yesterday i would have hated to be in president obama's position of deciding whether you pay a ransom and save an american's life or not. but, obviously, paying that ransom the way france does just encourages more -- >> that is what we were talking about earlier on in the show. how are they so powerful and so

well-funded? part of it -- >> not only that. there is an embassy report they thought it was absurd and not serious offer because it was so much more whereas usually demands are $5 million or $3 million euros. the question is how valid do you take that offer and do you see it as an honest negotiating effort or not. >> would it make a difference if the ransom had been made? perhaps or perhaps not. if you don't stop your air strikes we will kill him and no ransom after that. the choice has to be made again with steve sotloff. president obama has to weigh the national security of the united states and europe and put that in the balance with the life of one man. what do you do? i don't envy his position. >> i had no idea, until this story broke a couple of days ago, that i guess i read a

report in "the washington post" or "the new york times" that al qaeda primarily gets its funding now from this. $15 million. >> yep. that and isis has been swooping up funds and actually machinery and movement across iraq so they are getting a ton of money that way well. >> all right. up next, texas governor rick perry continues what appears to be a march toward running for president in 2016. now he is showing off his foreign policy chops? kasie hunt was at his speech yesterday. she joins us next. bob mcdonnell tells the court his marriage is on hold, but prosecutors look to keep the focus of his actions as governor of virginia on center stage. we will be right back with much more "morning joe." ♪ don't go away you can call me another day ♪ so i can reach ally bank 24/7, but there are no branches?

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6 past the hour. live look at capitol hill. joining from us capitol hill is associate editor of "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst, eugene robinson. also with us nbc news political reporter kasie hunt. good to have you both with us. >> if governor rick perry is taking his recent indictment battle. >> no, he's not. >> you wouldn't know it. not based on his trip to washington. >> i think the indictment looks look goo on him. >> he came in an a conquering hero for american conservativi m conservativism. he slammed the president's approach to the middle east and took up a muscular interventionist stance on how to stop the spread of isis. >> others take the view that no matter what comes next in iraq, it's no concern of ours. their attitude is we gave it our

best effort, but now we're done. in syria, as well as iraq, this terrorist army must be confronted with overwhelming force appear. as for the many iraqis trying to defend themselves and their country, they need to seek more help from us. air power is a major part of it. but it's also going to take more special operations, intelligence, and advisory support than we have offered so far. three ukrainian individuals were apprehended in a ranch in far west texas within the last 60 days. so i think there's the obvious grave concern that the cause of the condition of the border from the standpoint of it not being secure and us not knowing who is penetrating across, that

individuals from isis or other terrorist states could be, and i think is a very real possibility that they may have already used that. >> three ukrainians now on a ranch in texas, maybe the ukrainians grew up watching john wayne and liked "true grit" and said i want to be a ranchhand. >> i thought you were going to tell me to play this straight! >> no, i'm playing it straight. i mean, i don't know. >> who want to leave ukraine? >> exactly. versus texas. to work on a ranch for the summer? maybe they are college students. kasie, you were there. was rick perry a conquering hero or was he warmly received? tell us the reaction what you heard before and after the speech. >> this is totally rick perry's crowd. i think it showed how this indictment could play, especially with the base. i mean, people were really excited to see him. the indictment was the first thing out of the gate that he mentioned. he seemed almost defiant and

like he was enjoying himself before he took this deep dive into all of this foreign policy with isis. to me he sounded, in his speech, a lot more like george w. bush than like a senator rand paul or like some of the other people with we have been hearing from in the republican party who are worried about this interference. in his speech, ed we need to be more aggressive in all of these different ways and he stopped short of saying we should put combat boots on the ground. i asked him about that and he said, well, all options should be on the table. >> all options on the table, okay. >> all options on the table? >> i think that is almost what the pentagon is saying right now, but no doubt he certainly is not sounding like rand paul. hey, gene, let's move from texas governors to virginia disgraced governors. the bob mcdonnell trial, we have been talking about a good bit and, obviously, it's just getting ugly down there. mika does not buy the defense at

all. she thinks they are going to get off and go to steps and kiss each other and sing no double jeopardy. >> you write in "the washington post" how far would you go to stay out of jail? would you publicly hue mail i didn't think -- humiliate your wife and put the secrets of your marriage on display? mcdonnell's testimony this week in a federal courtroom in richmond about his wife's psychological turmoil has been both cringe worthy and compelling. it has been clear for some time that mcdonnell's strategy for winning acquittal amounted to what could be called the crazy wife defense. but only when he took the stand did it become apparent how thoroughly he intended to humiliate the soulmate he still claims to love. you know, something doesn't add up here, gene. >> okay, so, mika, you're into the, you know, it's a big

conspiracy theory and they are in this together and she's just kind of suffering through this temporarily, and they are going to kiss on the courthouse steps when they get acquitted and that is a possibility. it's not quite sounding like that right now. i mean, if that is what they are doing, they are certainly taking it to an extreme, because it is really -- it's painful and compelling to watch this testimony as he just trashes her left and right. >> here is the disconnect for me is if this marriage was so fractured, if this woman was so out of control, why is it that now he is mustering the might and righteousness to speak out against it? >> a lot of people don't just put their problems out on the front pages of the newspaper. there's no reason -- okay, i'm sorry. let's just say. gene, you've lived in washington

long enough. do we really want to talk about all of the scam marriages that are still in effect in washington, d.c. by people who care a hell of a lot more about their political careers than they do about their personal life, and they will literally lilve with people they hate and they won't talk to and describe as beasts? it happens all over washington, d.c. from people that are a lot more concerned about their image than they are about, you know, fixing up their personal lives. >> if you have a political -- that is a business arrangement or whatever, you can have that, right? or marriage for convenience or just inertia keeps a marriage together, whatever it is. they have been married for 38 years. it is not usual that one spouse will go on a stand in a trial that is being watched certainly around the nation. it's being live tweeted every

minute of testimony and just completely trash the spouse as a crazy woman who was spending like crazy, who had this emotional involvement with another man. >> yeah. >> who i don't think they had a physical relationship. my goodness, you know? >> i would just -- >> it's unseemly. >> maybe i'm missing something in the testimony, but if this is some sort of fractured scam situation, i would love to hear about the effort to rein her in on the part of bob mcdonnell instead of i didn't know anything. i didn't see anything. it just all happened and i just was sitting here as governor. it doesn't work. >> i think we saw a press -- or an e-mail yesterday. >> he didn't know about $50,000? he is wearing a rolex watch and sitting in a ferrari and she is carrying around these purses and going off with vitamin guy? are you kidding me? >> as i was starting to say, mika -- >> he is blaming their financial problems and saying she was spending too much. well, actually, it was he was the one who made these lousy

real estate investments that put them under water. >> hold on. joe, finish. >> the guy gets into this process and, obviously, we have heard everybody talk about what -- i'm sorry. what a holy terror she was and they were threatening to all quit at the same time. you don't hear anybody saying that about bob mcdonnell. you know, i don't know his wife. i know bob. bob has always been a soft-spoken guy. everybody that i know that works for bob says he's a good decent man. everybody that i've known that knows bob throughout the years -- please let me finish. i'm getting to a point. he is a good decent man. i've heard the opposite about his wife. do i feel comfortable talking about his wife? no. i have heard repeatedly as we hear about spouses or as we hear about some members who are just absolute terrors that this is

not a scam. this fits in with everything i have heard about these two people since they first came on the national scene in 2009. let me just say if bob mcdonnell is getting this and he is finding a lot of stuff out he may not know for the first time. like, for instance, his wife had an emotional connection with this man, this donor of his and it sounded like she wanted to have a lot more than just an emotional connection with this man, then i think a husband in the middle of a trial may decide to go this way. >> so that may all be true. there is an inherent risk to this defense which is that will the jury look at someone who is so willing to throw his wife under the bus? will they say this isn't a man of strong moral fiber or good standing and perhaps cloud their own opinion of bob mcdonnell as someone if he willing to do this to his wife -- >> if there is a he said/she said and heard the testimony on the other side that bob mcdonnell was a rude son of a bitch and driven by this and

that, then the jury could go back and say that. what the jury has heard all of these stories about her. >> and i don't know if this could be possible at this point. it might not be because she's not on the witness list. i wonder if they are regretting or trying to get her to testify. >> mika, you said you don't get that. >> yeah. >> maybe just because it's the truth. have you heard anybody in all of our years in washington and up here and in the middle of politics tell you about bob mcdonnell's bad temper or throwing things around or screaming or yelling? i have it. i can say hell of a lot about a lot of politicians that i've heard that about. you just haven't heard that about him. >> i agree. the question is still why did bob mcdonnell spend his own $30,000 on this man's stock? the question still becomes why did he use his own resources? if it was all siphoned off with his wife and she was doing without any of his knowledge, i get that and that might be the case, but he was still spending

his own money. >> i'm only going to the question mika is saying why are they just going after her and bob mcdonnell? maybe that is the reality. you talk about the did 30,000 stock and i've heard about that. actually, that cuts against the prosecutor's case because you're supposed to be getting money, not giving money to somebody else. again, at the end of the day, thomas, what the prosecutor has to prove is he got these gifts and in exchange for these gifts, he said, okay, i'm going to help you out. >> the whole reason, why we are even talking about this is because at the core of it, it's political. this is not a celebrity divorce. this is because he is the governor of virginia. >> on hold. >> this is not about maureen. she's just the first lady of virginia. she was not elected by the people, the good people of virginia. >> right. >> this is about bob mcdonnell and was the governor on the take? >> real awkward. i think it's really awkward. >> it is really awkward. we can all agree on that. >> she has all of the power and he has none of it.

gene and kasie, thank you. >> at louis vuitton, she had a lot of power. >> exactly. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] when you see everyone in america almost every day, you notice a few things. like the fact that you're pretty attached to these. ok, really attached. and that's alright. because we'll text you when your package is on the way.

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breath-taking hiney. i mean that thing is good. i want to be friends with it. >> well, you certainly know how to compliment a woman. now, if you'll excuse me. >> do you know who i am? >> no. i can't say that i do. >> i don't know how to put this, but i'm kind of a big deal. >> really? >> people know me. >> i'm very happy for you. >> the greatest ever, ron burgandy, one of hollywood's favorite narcissists. here with us now from miami, "times" editor at large jeffrey kluger who's the author of "the narcissist next door." also with us, just happens to be here -- >> this better not be related. >> we're putting you on the

couch, doctor. we've got dr. eezekial emanuel. there are people who are confident and then there are narcissists. what are the tell-tale signs of narcissists? >> well, narcissists, there can be what's called a malignant narcissist which is exactly as bad as it sounds. now, some of the elements of narcissism are very good, a sense of confidence, a sense of assertiveness, a sense of high self-esteem. we call this the lower case end narcissist. you're on the spectrum, you could be moving up into the danger scale, but so far you've got it under control and you're using it to your own good. where you keep creeping up is when you lose empathy, when you lose impulse control, when you lose the sense of delayed gratification then you get into

capital end clinical narcissism. that's nasty bad stuff. >> and the nasty bad stuff is when you do lose empathy, the whole world revolves around you and you're incapable of empathizing with the pain others are in. >> i think all of us have been next to someone like that. >> can i say i have a brother or two. and you had two brothers who were narcissists, but go ahead. >> no, i would deny that. and i do think actually one of the issues is that it's helpful for success. i mean this gets on to the whole evolutionary thing. it's very helpful for success and then there's the tale end of the curve where people have just gone overboard and are actually malignant and destroy work site its, destroy lots of relationships. >> destroy the world they have created. >> exactly. some of it's good, too much of it's bad. >> that's right. when you speak about evolution, by the way, the deck is stacked

in favor of narcissism. one thing narcissists do is charm the pants off you, sometimes quite literally, which mean narcissists have a greater likelihood of breeding than people who aren't narcissists at all. >> i knew this would get back to darwin. thomas. >> well, there is a 77% inheritable trait rarate with narcissism. so once you get the genes out there, you've got a lot of narcissists. >> so we can all tell in our children early on whether our child lacks empathy or not, whether he or she shouldn't -- doesn't have as much empathy as they should. what do you do as a parent for a 5-year-old, 6-year-old,

7-year-old that's already exhibiting -- and i've seen children that have exhibited this and you can see it at 5, 6 or 7? how do you get empathy? how do you push that on them? >> and that's a very good question because kids come factory loaded as narcissists and they have to be. they have absolutely no other way of getting their needs met other than to demand their needs be met, to have absolutely no tolerance for impulse control. they're babies, they're just a squirmy mass of needs and hedoistic impulses. the question is when do they grow out of it? >> i think actually -- >> those damn kids. >> there's two points you're making, which are great. one is narcissism is a natural part of development and we all pass through a stage of narcissism. >> absolutely. >> and that's essential. the second is that there are environmental efforts. and i think that one of the answers to your question, make them care about other people. >> exactly. >> help serve the poor. go see how other people live.

>> jeffrey kluger, thank you. >> jeffrey, come back. how many kids do you have, jeffrey? >> i would love to be back. i'm a narcissist, what can i say? >> how many kids do you have? >> i have two daughters and we work very, very hard. one of them has now moved into adolescence, so that's phase two of narcissism, unfortunately. >> thank you so much, jeffrey. come back. you have every right to be a narcissist. we shall return. and asked for less. there's a reason it's called an "all you can eat" buffet... and not a "have just a little" buffet. because what we all really want is more. that's why verizon is giving you even more. now, for a limited time, get more data! 1 gb of bonus data every month with every new smartphone or upgrade. our best ever pricing with the more everything plan and 50% off all new smartphones. like the htc one m8 for windows or android. built to inspire envy. come get your more with verizon.

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today is a miraculous day. i am thrilled to be alive and to be reunited with my family. >> dr. kent brantly, high fiving his medical team today. >> discharged from hospital, free from the ebola virus. >> please, do not stop praying for the people of liberia and west africa and for a quick end to this ebola epidemic. >> is it tough to be up there? >> i'd rather be fishing. >> behind the portrait of bob mcdonnell was the emotional wreckage of a troubled, dissolving marriage. >> things got so bad with wife maureen they couldn't communicate enough to trade their position for privilege. >> the islamic terrorists who e beheaded the american journalist james foley had demanded $132 million. >> we begged the international community to help the remaining hostages. >> the president authorized a

rescue mission. >> the operation in northern syria was textbook, but the intelligence out of date. the western hostages had already been moved. >> they're beyond just a terrorist group. this is beyond anything that we've seen. >> the secretary of defense acknowledged today what armies in syria and iraq already knew. isis is a force to be reckoned with. >> then what risk does isis, perhaps, pose to the united states? >> because of open borders and immigration issues, it's an immediate threat. >> what other bad actors are coming here or for that matter have arrived already. from a certain angle the cartels, as vicious and as brutal as they are, might be the least of our worries. >> you've got to change -- >> this is embarrassing. >> vomiting blue. >> sam, you should have just done the show. >> can i just work in my t-shirt? >> no. >> it's friday, why not? >> hello, thomas.

>> good morning. >> you know, when you get to be our age, it will be harder for you to get yourself together in the morning, i'm just saying. >> it's hard. >> yes, it is. >> it's friday! >> there is a very blue theme going on here. >> check your apps, pay your bills, people. it's a good day to be an american. >> well, thomas has been in a great mood since 3:00 a.m. i like it a lot. >> i got paid today. >> sometimes it's a little much. >> i got paid. >> same here. >> mika is bringing it this morning. >> no kids. kids? >> do i have kids? no. i have a dog. i nice little beagle. >> interesting. >> kids/no kids. >> you're staring at me like you're appalled. >> i think that the price tag is still on your sweater, but that's okay. >> i am so tired. i'm going to just -- listen, if you guys don't get mika a

different color here, i'm going to take this off and wear my gray t-shirt. >> i have to change? >> while you all go to a clip, i'm going to the gray t-shirt. >> i think we should go the other way. i think i should get a blue shirt and go all in on this blue thing. >> what do we have? >> that press conference yesterday, you're like, oh, kind of scary. >> which one. >> the pentagon. >> oh, yes. we are going to start with that. we're also following the trial in virginia, governor bob mcdonnell, and it's really getting extremely personal. >> it's really personal. >> some of the questions about that. but first, u.s. officials are offering grim warnings about the terror group behind the beheading of an american journalist. defense secretary chuck hagel calls the islamic state an imminent threat, while the nation's top general says it may be impossible to stop the militants without them hitting iraq and syria. >> isil is a sophisticated and

well-funded as any group that we have seen. they're beyond just a terrorist group. this is beyond anything that we've seen. so we must prepare for everything. the only way you do that is you take a cold steely hard look at it and get ready. >> this is an organization that has an apocalyptic end of eyes vision and which will eventually have to be defeated. to your question, can they be defeated without addressing that part of their organization that resides in syria, the answer is no. that will have to be addressed on both sides of what is essentially at this point a nonexistent border. >> let's bring in nbc news chief pentagon important jim miklaszewski who was at the briefing yesterday. jim, as you're watching this and we've been talking about this for a week, you got a sense about a week and a half ago that the white house realized that isis was a threat they could no longer ignore.

we started talking about humanitarian assistance. the next day we heard we were arming the kurds. the next day we heard there were going to be bombing runs. a couple of days later we're going in and helping them take over a dam. now we're actually talking about, and i don't want anybody to take this the wrong way, i'm not being critical, i'm just saying it is remarkable that just a couple of weeks later we actually have generals going out, obviously at the white house's guidance, and talking about the possibility of actually bombing syria. talk about -- >> a necessity. >> talk about -- out of total necessity. talk about how quickly our focus is expanding. >> well, you know, joe, we talked about this last week when we talked about the u.s. backing iraqi and kurdish forces with air strikes. to take the mosul dam. that was the opening salvo in what was going to be, according to some officials we're talking

to, a long-running war with isis. at least there in iraq for the time being. nobody is under any illusion that isis can simply be contained there in iraq. and the fear, of course, as we've also talked about, is that the threat from isis there in iraq is going to spread not only throughout that region but could eventually find its way here to the united states in terms of terrorist attacks because they do have for the time being only a small number, a handful of americans within their ranks. they think that the success that isis had in iraq is only drawing in more recruits and their numbers are thought to be about 17,000 right now, joe. >> all right. >> we talk about that news conference being sobering. a lot of people who -- i just wonder what your thoughts were, mik, you go to these all the time. yeah. >> well, you know, the president has said -- he was alluding to

the fact that this is going to take some time, but i don't think the u.s. government was leveling with the american people. the folks we're talking to say this is going to be a long, hard slog, not to quote donald rumsfeld, but this is going to take some time and we had talked about that also earlier. you know, first you have to contain them in iraq. then you have to go after the leadership as general dempsey was talking about. and he didn't say it was necessarily going to be the u.s. he said that this has to be a broad international effort. and so far except for some humanitarian assistance, we haven't seen any other of our european allies in particular weigh in and they're just as threatened potentially as the u.s. is because many of those isis members are european. so that has some raised some level of disappointment here in the pentagon. but first they have to deny that safe haven in iraq and then just like al qaeda and just like the

attempts over the years to get osama bin laden, they're going to have to cut the head off that snake and go after the isis leadership. >> thomas. >> mik, explain to all of us why we aren't talking about bashar al assad in the equation when it comes to syria? i think most people just getting read in on this know the last time we were talking about syria, it's president obama against bashar al assad and you better not cross that red line. now that we're talking about syria, no one is talking about where bashar al assad stands on isis. is he a partner in all of this? is he a trusting partner in trying to eliminate isis from his own country? and are we really going to bomb syria and not have ba shaush sh assad on board? >> it's not clear, first of all, that the u.s. is going to launch air strikes inside syria, but it would not be inside syria. technically, geographically, it would be across the border but they would be going after what

is now considered to be the isis state, the isis nation of terrorism. and quite frankly, bashar al assad is sitting back there in damascus watching all this probably with some amusement because the u.s. finds itself in a battle with the same enemy which assad does, so it's a strange partnership. politics makes strange bedfellows. >> certainly. >> of war, sometimes even makes stranger bedfellows. in this particular case, this narrow instance, assad and the u.s. are on the same side in wanting to get rid of this threat from isis. >> nbc has learned new details about the effort to rescue james foley. last november foley's family received an encrypted e-mail in english demanding a $132 million ransom. after a brief e-mail exchange, the captors were not heard from again until last week when a

furious message from the group promised foley's death in retaliation for american air strikes. we're going to move on now to the corruption trial of former virginia governor bob mcdonnell, which is playing out like a script from a soap opera, and more court testimony is expected today. but it was yesterday in richmond where the former governor delved deep into what he calls a troubled marriage. he showed the court an e-mail dated in 2011 telling his wife, maureen, this. i want to be in love, not just watch movies about it. adding, i am so spiritually and mentally exhausted from being yelled at, i don't think you realize how you are affecting me and sometimes others with your tongue. and when asked on the stand whether he thought his wife was having an affair with the donor at the center of it all, jonnie williams, he said no. but when asked if they had a strong emotional relationship, he said yes. all of this is being used to show that their marriage was so fractured that they couldn't have conspired to solicit

thousands of dollars in exchange for favors. >> sam. >> senior marriage correspondent. >> this is ugly, man. it keeps getting uglier. >> it doesn't make sense. >> and mika is very skeptical. she thinks this is all part of a ruse. >> who are you skeptical of? >> she's skeptical that their marriage is that broken. she thinks that they're going to be found not guilty and go out on the courthouse steps and kiss and say, hey, we got them, no double jeopardy. >> that's not what i think, but okay. >> she thinks it's all a big scam. >> it would be a good movie. >> i don't think it's a big scam. i think you look at what everybody said about his wife, and it looks pretty ugly. >> well, marital disputes have two sides, obviously. i'd be curious what e-mail she sent him if she ever released those e-mails, and i would love to see them. but there's something really inherently sad about it. if you real the whole e-mail --

>> i'm sorry i hurt you. >> the whole thing is sad and unfortunate and bizarre that it's gone to this point that this is now the crux of his defense, i was so estranged from my wife, there is no way we could have conspired to be corrupt. i don't know what the legal basis of this will be and how it can get him off on this, but it goes to show you that so many bizarre things happen behind the scenes with politicians' lives that it's not this glamorous thing. >> oh, when you're in such a spotlight like that and you bring your family alone, it really changes the dynamic and things come out in people. >> in an alternative universe, this man could have been mitt romney's vice president and we could have been seeing this play out at the old executive office building. >> so why are you skeptical? >> i'm going to bring in a reporter who's covering this. what i question, and i'm not -- i don't think there's -- i don't know what's going on, but i just think there's such an avid

fervent effort to show how fractured they were. i don't believe it. >> also let me just say this. you can have a very acrimonious marriage, i guess, and still sort of talk about the nice rolex watches that you're receiving. >> no, there's no way he did not know about all these things. that kind of goes against everything that he's proved about himself as a successful person. >> we don't know that. >> i think so. >> listen, his wife wanted -- seemed to want to have an affair with this jonnie williams guy. >> yeah. >> she probably wasn't sharing everything with him. i'm just guessing. >> listen, there's two sides to this story. i'm curious what her e-mails say. >> let me just -- i have a question for the reporter in richmond. >> why don't we hear her side, though? >> exactly. now that -- >> why is she not defending herself? >> well, you just answered my question. i mean that -- you say what i'm saying? you are making fun of the ruse that i think might be going on here. >> i'm not making fun of you.

i would never do that. that makes me sad. >> let's bring in "the wall street journal," valerie borline. valerie, i guess, first of all, am i the only one looking at this thinking something doesn't make sense here? >> mika, i think you've got the same question on the mind of every person in this courtroom, which has been packed. because for four weeks the question has been is this just so much kabuki theater we're seeing about these two people not communicating or is the marriage just that fractured? i think there was a sense, especially after mr. mcdonnell gave a chronology of the troubles in their marriage, there was a people from people in the elevator, in the cafeteria, attorneys and others that have been watching, and friends, this really is a marriage that is as mr. mcdonnell describes it, in deep, deep trouble. >> okay. and yet will we hear, i guess, concerns from the other side? is this going to become some sort of divorce trial? are we going to hear her side in

this? i guess that's number one. and number two, the other question that i have would be how could he not know about some of these massive sort of exchanges that took place? is that even possible? >> well, i think to your first question, mrs. mcdonnell is not expected to take the stand. her attorneys have said that. she's not on the witness list. so we don't expect to hear it from her mouth. and the e-mails, one of the issues mr. mcdonnell identified yesterday is he said his wife didn't often write him back, particularly in that wrenching e-mail from labor day of 2011 that you guys referenced. he tapped that out on his blackberry in the middle of a three-day weekend, they weren't speaking. he said she never responded so i don't think there's the expectation. it wasn't said in opening arguments that we would hear from her extensively on that point and it really bolsters her position in a lot of ways that she had a crush on mr. williams if we don't see that content. but i did want to say, one of the things that came up yesterday is that mr. mcdonnell

says he's living with his parish priest, father wayne ball here in richmond. mr. ball is well known in richmond. he keeps this blog. it's just a blog of devotions like many priests would keep. yesterday was the first day he really talked about the mcdonnell trial by name and he said something that i think gets at what you're talking about. what are we seeing. he said is there any married person reading this who would want to go to the public and tell the truth, the whole truth about their life? it's a riching experience, i think, for a lot of people to see. >> valerie, for you as a reporter, though, this has to be interesting to cover because, again, this is not about a celebrity divorce. this is about federal corruption charges that have been brought against a virginia governor and it seems as if the behind the scenes kabuki theater of a jonnie williams maybe trying to buy access to the governor through maureen mcdonnell is what's really playing out here, and that's the relationship

that's being vetted more than what the governor actually knew about where this flow of cash was coming from. >> and the -- mrs. mcdonnell's attorneys say if he was trying to buy her influence, she didn't have influence to sell because she wasn't a public figure, she was not elected to anything, so it's very important to prosecutors to tie mr. mcdonnell's complicity in this arrangement. and i think that we're expecting mr. mcdonnell to take the stand again this morning. he's still on direct examination by his attorney, so we'll hear more questioning from a friendly inquisitor but prosecutors on cross examination, they don't care about the state of the marriage. well, when you hosted a luncheon and appeared at this lunch on, mr. mcdonnell, that honored mr. williams, you know, why did you do that? why did you give people samples of his product? why did you, you know, why did you ask various members of your administration to work with him?

they're just going to say we don't care. we don't care about the state of your marriage, we care about the acts you took as governor. >> exactly. so given the fact that that's the question ultimately, i'll try this from a different angle. maureen mcdonnell is being raked over the coals. her reputation is being completely destroyed, and yet she's not ever going to take the stand? she's not ever going to speak for herself? is her team and is she okay with this? >> she's facing legal troubles in her own right and they might -- they obviously have calculated that putting her on the stand is too much of a risk to take at this point. the question that mcdonnell has to answer is why did he take these specific actions, buying $30,000 a share in jonnie williams company. if so you're estranged from your wife and everything is going through your wife, then why do you personally buy those shares. that's the question he's got to answer. still ahead on "morning joe" reality tv finds its religion. we'll talk to one of the mega pastors featured on the new series "preachers of l.a." about

some of today's most pressing faith issues. plus, we'll explain why this giant rubber duck is making a splash on the west coast. >> i'm sorry. and up next, two americans have been cured of ebola. in a related story, two americans have been cured of the ebola virus. how could that radically impact the rest of those infected patients in west africa and help us in america if the virus comes here. dr. zeke emanuel is going to join the question and we'll ask him. we'll ask him about narcissists too. i really think he needs to talk to you about it. first let's go to bill karins, the great bill karins with a check on this weekend's forecast. bill, what's it going to look like? >> in some areas it's going to be so perfect, in other areas a struggle with the heat, humidity and thunderstorms. last night we got supersoaked near the chicago area. it was overnight at least so we're not driving in it this morning but it did leave its mark. we had about 4 inches of rain in

40 minutes at midway airport in chicago. so that's like that much rain in 40 minutes. that's why we dealt with the flooding. now you can see the thunderstorms continue south of chicago. driving across northern indiana there's a lot of water out there also in central portions of illinois. as we look at the tropics, we were watching this tropical wave. right now it doesn't look very impressive. very ragged, not organized at all. if it does get its act together and that's a big question, it may never do it, but it would likely be sunday into monday somewhere over the bahamas, the central bahamas or just off the east coast of florida. it could bring large waves to the east coast and squally weather next week. we have yet to determine how strong it could possibly get. we'll watch it for you but right now does not look like a huge threat as far as this weekend. as far as the forecast for the weekend goes, each and every day looks similar. cool in new england, very warm from texas all the way to the carolinas. by the time we get into saturday, we're watching the same weather pattern across the nation. the northeast will be gorgeous,

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today is a miraculous day. i am thrilled to be alive, to be well, and to be reunited with my

family. above all, i am forever thankful to god for sparing my life. and i'm glad for any attention my sickness has attracted to the plight of west africa in the midst of this epidemic. please, continue to pray for liberia and the people of west africa and encourage those in positions of leadership and influence to do everything possible to bring this ebola outbreak to an end. >> that was dr. kent brantly, one of two american doctors released from the hospital after being cured of ebola. let's bring back former white house adviser for health policy, dr. zeke emanuel and also on set with us, alan murray. thomas as well. so, zeke, first of all, is this a story of a miracle drug or just a miracle or incredible luck? >> probably none of those. you know, ebola is very serious. it has a 50% mortality but half

the people -- >> but to get up and walk out and hug people, is it okay to be a little surprised by what we're seeing? >> yes, because he was very sick and has walked out. but whether the drug worked or not, no one knows because you really need a trial. some people get the drug, some people don't get the drug, to know if it's effective. >> has this happened before? >> oh, yeah. half the people roughly or 40% of the people who get ebola get cured and are able to leave. >> is cure the right word here? the chances of a relapse are not -- >> no, this is cured. >> he's done. >> and again, part of the drugs -- the experimental treatments are based upon antibodies that people who had ebola react to the drug -- i mean react to the virus and protect people. so it's like a regular viral infection. but i think the real issue here is we still don't know whether the drug works. separate from the drug, in west africa, as dr. brantly said, there's still havoc there

because of ebola and the big issue there is it's not the drugs that they need, it's basic stuff. it's gloves, it's knowing how to treat people in isolation. it's the basic public health measure. >> and the tragedy that we've had to pull out, the western doctors who know all those things, many of them have had to pull out. >> right. and the local doctors got infected or health care workers, first of all, are very few, got infected because they didn't know what they were dealing with early on and the whole infrastructure is terrible. >> thomas. >> we talk about the basics here, just from the q & a, dr. bruce ribner, these were the reporters asking questions about brantly's release. they asked dr. bruce ribner who runs the infectious disease unit whether or not there was an immunity created for brantly and writebol. he said there really is no danger to a relapse. he would anticipate an immunity to this virus. i want to ask both of you guys just from a business perspective and put on your business cap, if

they can figure out this was a cure and then they can go ahead and work with big pharma to get this out and to western africa and distributed, obviously there is a humanitarian need and then there's a business need that's filled. >> you first, zeke. >> first of all, it's not going to happen in six months. the experimental agents they were working on were exactly based upon this theory of immunity that people got infected had antibodies that could neutralize the virus and protect you for life. between that observation and a drug or a by biologic that works or can be marketed, very long gap. remember, these experimental agents had never been tested in humans before, so that's a long path of discovery years and years, and it's not going to solve west africa. >> mika, zeke knows 100 times more stuff about this than i do. but the challenge is not finding some kind of a miracle drug. the challenge is getting basic health care practices in place

in west africa. this is not a huge threat to the rest of the world but it is a tragedy in west africa. what, 1500 people, close to 1500 people now have died. more than 2,000 have been infected. and what you need is just basic health care practices to keep it from spreading. >> and we should put it in context of lots of other illnesses that kill, diarrhea, pneumonia. >> the focus changes. >> which is 100 times more deadly than ebola. this does capture us because it's a very illuminating problem. >> dramatic. >> and dramatic. i guess that's the right word. >> dr. emanuel and alan murray, thank you so much. coming up, our interview with the parents of james foley. what they say about their journalist son who sacrificed his life to report on the struggle of the syrian people. "morning joe" will be right back.

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he died a hero. journalist james foley spent his life trying to help people less fortunate than himself. his career took him to one of the most dangerous regions of the world, and colleagues who spent time with james in captivity say he was courageous to the end. this morning, we spoke to his parents, john and diane foley, who talked about the legacy that their son is leaving behind. >> john and diane, we can't begin to tell you how sorry we are for your loss. as parents we all said we don't know how you go on after this,

how any of us would go on after this and yet you're out to talk about your remarkable son. we'd love to hear more about him because we hear he had such a big heart and was such a strong, brave man. tell us about your son. >> well, jimmy was all of that. as parents, we weren't aware of that. as our children grow, they become their own people. but jimmy -- jimmy was challenged when he first met poverty and disadvantaged at marquette university. since that moment his soul and heart grew and grew and grew to encompass all those people who needed help, needed their stories told. he began to love all and that was his biggest gift to the people he met, his love and his help. >> diane, he obviously got out of school and he did teach for

america because he wanted to help children. he went overseas and then when he came back, he had to go back again because of what he had seen and somebody that knew him said after going there and seeing what was going on, he couldn't just sit at home. he had to go back and report this story. tell us about that bravery. >> we just -- we found it difficult to understand, truly, as parents. he was home in october of 2012 for his birthday and he just looked so good. i just said, jim, can't you stay home through christmas. and he says, oh, ma, i just -- i have to go back. but i will be home for christmas. and he just had made promises and he just was so committed to the people whose suffering he

was trying to -- >> humanize. >> -- humanize. he wanted the world to know how people were suffering, particularly the children touched him so much. he raised money for an ambulance because people were bringing people to the hospital in wheel be wheelbarrows and carrying them. the more he saw the suffering, the more his heart seemed to grow. he just had a growing commitment. >> did that drive start early on, even maybe as a boy? i wonder what it was like raising him and watching this grow within side him. >> jim was a very joyful, happy kid. >> he was not a saint. >> no. he was the oldest of five, and he -- he was just a happy kid.

i think actually when he saw the suffering, at first really realized in milwaukee, the inner city of milwaukee, working with kids without parents or breakfast -- >> he had a privileged upbringing. he wanted to share that. >> so he believed then, john, as the old saying goes, as somebody told me, you know, to much -- to those much is given, much is expected. he really -- i guess at marquette it sounds like he woke up to that fact that he had a responsibility and he just couldn't stop trying to help people, right? >> yeah. he ran with it. >> it was just natural. >> he grew stronger and more committed. >> i just -- someone -- oh. >> no, go ahead. >> no, i was just going to say one of his former students from teach from america reached out with a beautiful tribute. they said that if only those

yongjie haudiung jihadists had foley, that jim had saved his life and the life of so many others. >> so what are you most proud of, of your son? and i'm not even talking about at the very end. was there a story, was there a moment, was there a decision he made? like you said, he wasn't a saint, none of us are a saint, but how remarkable is it when somebody puts their own safety and well-being in the back seat and says i'm going to help other people. >> i guess we were the proudest of jim when we were able to interview the released hostages. they told us of his courage and his commitment to helping all those people in the box, to making sure that as much as possible that they had enough food to eat. he negotiated with the guards. all the time being punished both

physically and psychologically. we're proud that he was able to draw strength from prayer and made sacrifices. >> we've been talking about what a remarkable man pope francis is over the past several weeks. i understand he picked up the phone, called you guys, spoke for maybe 20 minutes. we won't ask you what he said, unless you want to tell us that, but tell us what that meant to you and did it bring you comfort in this terrible time? >> huge comfort. huge comfort. because pope francis, like jesus, loves, like jim. he understood jim's heart. pope francis himself, having lost three family members was in deep grief himself, and yet he reached out. well, that was -- so that

touched us very deeply. very deeply. we're so grateful for the prayer of so many people all over the world. >> our interview with the parents of james foley showing amazing strength in the face of unspeakable loss. up next, inside the lives of one of l.a.'s most popular men of cloth, bishop noel jones. jones is next.

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respond to the way that you're feeling. >> to see a bishop coming out -- >> wow. >> and help us. >> pretty emotional stuff right there. that was a scene from oxygen's "preachers of l.a." here with us now for our faith of fridays is the co-star of the docu-series, the city of refuge church in los angeles, the bishop noel jones. sir, it's great to have you with us. >> it's my pleasure. >> and that was really an emotional scene there. obviously we're showing probably one of the more emotional in the docu-series. when you signed up to do this, what was your thought about trying to put faith on tv, on cable, and to draw in audiences to look at it from a different aspect? >> one of the things that i thought was significant, and i still do, is to lower the

iconiclastic proclivities people have toward leaders because i wanted to lessen the significance of putting people on pedestals that they can't live on. ultimately what happens is because you put the preacher on a pedestal, you put people who are your icons -- >> like yourself, like a bishop would be. >> they can't live on it because they're human like you are. part of what i think is significant in touching people's lives is to be able to say that i have the same struggle that you have. so i'm not in a glass house, i'm not separated from the issues that you deal with. so when i make a presentation, it's not you, you, you, you, you, it's like we. because i have to deal with the same kinds of things that you deal with. >> so accessible -- >> that's what i wanted to do. >> aspirational, making it so it's possible -- >> exactly. >> -- for people to find what they need and hope for, and the

comfort. >> definitely. one of the things i say about life is that it's important to understand this. if you wait until your life is totally straight, it's pristinely excellent, and you need that before you start helping people -- >> you'll be waiting a long time. >> a long time. >> because oftentimes you take robin williams, you take people like that, they are making you happy while they're hurting. >> is there a contradiction, though, because this docu-series takes a look at the power of influential religious leaders like yourself. also shows the more glamorous aspect of it. made influential by some of the money that you have. is there a contradiction between rich and influential bishops, pastors, those leading churches that are talking, you know, to their faithful that are much less than them that would be considered poorer than them?

is that a contradiction from your angle? >> one of the things you've got to understand and i think it's very important to understand this is that many pastors have different money streams. now, for instance, my sister grace and i imported gray cars, so all the cars i have i bought when the dollar was bullish against the mark. of course you had to lobby, so many people don't understand that you have multiple income streams. but i think another thing that's very important is that most of the guys who are significantly big, and girls, ladies and men, and gentlemen, who are significantly big, if they started this business when i started in your early youth and you're not coming from corporate america, you're not coming from ceo of some company, you started preaching when you were young and you had to deal with issues, i mean i have preached with

people and i had hamburger helper without the hamburger. so i've come -- in many instances it's a supply and demand situation with me. i go all over the world and somebody says, well, we want the bishop to come. well, they're going to make sure that they take care of you financially. >> so you don't make apologies for being wealthy? >> no, you don't make apologies because you have multiple income streams and you do many things. but i will say this and i think it's very important to say this, that most of the fellows who are significantly big today, who will say on tv i don't have to deal with anybody, i have money because i came -- because i do my books and my books pay for me, well, somebody paid for your tv and somebody made you so popular that now you don't need the people. so i would say it like this. they helped you in your early life or they helped you to get to where you are, so now you don't need them. but don't ever say that no one helped you to get to where you

are. so it's not a contradiction, but you have to understand how it works, the mechanics that go into it, because you bless people, they bless you. i'm one person, there's millions. >> the season premiere of "preachers of l.a." airs on oxygen next wednesday at 10:00 p.m./9:00 p.m. central. bishop noel jones, very nice to meet you. >> it's my pleasure. >> thank you very much. all right, up next, it's man versus monkey? in the fight for selfie ownership rights? >> changing rules about photography. >> all right, we'll be right back.

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all right. what have we got here, thomas? >> we have an age-old question. if a monkey takes a selfie on your question, do you own it or does the monkey own it? this photographer named david slater told "the washington post" he planned legal action after wikimedia commons posted photographs a monkey took on his camera in 2011. look at that face. slater claimed that he owned the rights and stood to profit from these photos, wikimedia claimed they were part of the public domain. >> this is a real story. >> the u.s. copy write office says neither slater nor the monkey can copyright the pic.

the office will not register works produced by nature, animals or plants. >> oh, my god. okay. it's a beautiful photograph anyway. up next, what, if anything, did we learn today? >> you learned that. >> anything? ♪ ♪ start a team. join a team. walk to end alzheimer's. visit alz.org/walk today. the summer of this.mmer. the summer that summers from here on will be compared to.

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couple years ago, joe said, hey, i got this kid from alabama, he's really talented. talks a lot, but he's really talented. clayton collins, he's leaving us. >> i know, it's a sad day. >> and you, young man, surpassed even joe's greatest expectations. you have been a dynamo on this show, a great asset. we're going to miss you. >> you're not going too far. you're staying in the nbc family. >> anything quick you want to say on joe? he's on a plane. >> i couldn't be more thankful for the opportunity. i love everyone here except for sam. >> right, perfect. perfect. excellent. if it's way too early, what time is it? it's time for "morning joe." but now it's time for "the daily rundown." craig melvin is filling in. it was a hot, muggy day but temperatures did not heat up on the streets of ferguson. tonight because of the calming influence of good people. >> no more