> next on "meet the press," today president obama returns from vacation to face a crucial national security question. how to defeat isis terrorists. and what can be done about the hundreds of isis fighters with american and western passports? i'll ask mike rogers, chair of the house intelligence committee. and healing the racial divide. calm is returning to the streets of ferguson, missouri, but this morning new concerns about whether the police officer who killed michael brown will face criminal charges. i'll be joined by the governor of missouri and the reverend al sharpton. plus, exclusive, rising political star senator rand paul on a mercy mission to guatemala. i travel with the senator who wants american voters to see him in a different and perhaps presidential light. will it work? i'll bring you my report as i host "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press."

>> good morning. i'm chris jansing. the pressure is mounting on president obama to authorize more military action, including air strikes in syria to defeat isis. top u.s. officials are escalating the rhetoric about the threat posed by the group. the fbi and department of homeland security issuing a bulletin warning of attacks by isis sympathizers and intelligence services on both sides of the atlantic are getting closer to identifying the jihadist with a british accent who executed the american journalist james foley. our keir simmons joins me now from london where he has been hearing firsthand the chilling words of british citizens supportive of isis' mission. good morning, keir. >> good morning. the intelligence agencies view this as not just a hunt for the killer of james foley, but as a race to save the life of a second american hostage threatened with death. it's made more difficult because that gruesome video has clearly been edited. there appear to be two knives and one senior official speculated to me that the tape

may even be dubbed. but they are convinced a british man is at the center of it, a man they are close to identifying raising uncomfortable questions about extremism in europe. these are the soldiers of isis, calling for more recruits. >> this is the land of jihad. >> reporter: many with european accents and passports that would grant direct travel to the u.s. >> ask yourself is this how you want to die? >> this is james wright foley. >> reporter: it was a british voice that accompanied james foley's murder, a citizen of america's closest ally, apparently administering death to a u.s. national on a foreign battlefield. >> we have a british citizen beheading an american citizen in syria in some vain attempt to try and pressure the united states government into changing its foreign policy. >> reporter: out of an estimated 2,000 western recruits to extremist groups in syria and iraq, at least 70 are thought to be u.s. citizens, but more than 500 have been from the uk.

half have returned home, and in a basement in an area of london where james foley's killer may be from, i meet an extremist fringe group who actually defend isis. >> this time of, you know, states is very attractive to many people. >> we believe in the fact that one day the islamic state will come to bra tin and implement the sharia even to america. >> reporter: they know people who travelled to syria where british isis recruits boast of their brutality. here one holds a severed head. another photographs his bloodied hand. my first time, he tweets. they use iphones and a laptop to produce propaganda. >> this is where also the media works. >> they want to create this generalized sense of panic, of fear about their own barbarism. >> reporter: last year on the streets of london, a british soldier was hacked to death. and in the same city a minority blame the killing of james foley on western foreign policy. >> this execution of this man

was obviously to send a message to america to say mind your own business. >> his blood is fairly and squarely in the hands of the americans. >> people will be sick to hear you say that about the murder of an innocent man. >> are you talking about the innocent men in gaza or the innocent men in afghanistan or -- >> james foley, you know who i'm talking about. european women have even traveled soo year to marry isis fighters. a london jihadist wife asked on twitter for links to the video of james foley's killing. she said she'd like to be first women to do the same. the european recruits are drawn to isis for many reason, some appear to be psychopaths, other thing they're freedom fighters. many are simply naive. all are dangerous. >> so it raises the question are the british intelligence services able to take advantage of any connection between those extremists in the uk down in a basement that you talked to and the isis fighters in syria and iraq? >> reporter: well, that is the

irony. it may not be those particular men, but it does help british intelligence that there are people here with connections to isis. they can machine ter communications. they can question them. that doesn't mitigate the concern, chris, even one senior pakistani official in the past six months told me that he had warned the british about rising extremism in britain. >> keir, thank you very much. i'm joined by congressman mike rogers, republican chair of the house intelligence committee. welcome. >> thank you. >> from your perspective we have heard a ramping up of the rhetoric by the administration. how significant a threat is isis? >> it's a very real threat. you saw the barbaric behavior. one of the problems is it's gone unabated for nearly two years and that draws people from britain to across europe, even the united states to go and join the fight. they see that as a winning ideology, a winning strategy, and they want to be a part of it. that's what make it so

dangerous. they are one plane ticket away from the american shores. >> the pentagon says right now they are not in a position to launch an attack in the united states. is there any credible intelligence that isis is either planning that or has the capability to do it? >> i'm going to dispute that. so we know that in the number 2,000 with western passports is low. intelligence has a very different number and it's much higher than that. the very fight between al qaeda that allowed isis to separate from al qaeda in syria was the fact that they wanted to conduct western-style operations. zawahiri, the leader of al qaeda said, no, we want you to focus on syria. that's what started the fight. this notion that they were too barbaric is almost laughable given that al qaeda flew airplanes and slaughtered 3,000 people on 9/11. it was all about direction, control of those individuals. what the they were saying at the time was we have a lot of people who have passports that could go to europe and then to the united

states without a visa waiver, meaning they wouldn't have to apply for a visa. the only way we would know is by looking at who was riding on those airplanes, and that might not be enough. so they were believing at the time that they could be aggressive in that and they still talk about that. even the rhetoric is, we're stim going to conduct a western-style attack. remember, al qaeda wants to put some points on the board because they want to be -- they want to be the jihadist organization that tracts people and money and isis has said they are and want to be the al qaeda -- or the terrorist organization that attracts people and money. >> aren't we significantly safer than we were on 9/11 in terms of being able to keep those kinds of threats out of the united states? >> well, we have a better system of trying to do it, but we're just not configured. we, the united states intelligence services and department of defense and administrative policy is not configured in a way to continue a tempo that allows disruption. the reason isis is so successful is there was nothing tdeferring them for years. they recruited, financed,

trained, all of that was happening. yeah, we might be okay if we can continue the posture we're in from a defensive posture, but, remember, they get new recruits every day. and think of this, if that's a british citizen, we believe it was, you have somebody that was watching and participating in the whole exercise of making that video. that individual goes back home and is, again, buys one plane ticket, they're in the united states. we may or may not know who that individual is. that's what's so dangerous about this and why we can't let them continue unabated. >> so what do we do about it? we've seen what the uk has done, for example. they've been revoking passports of uk citizens who have gone over to syria to fight so they can't come back west. obviously the president is considering a whole range of options. we already have air strikes in iraq, questions about whether there should be air strikes in syria. should there be more small teams of special ops on the ground. >> there's no mulligans in

foreign policy. if you look at the way the administration last year changed the bureaucratic role of our operators engaging in dissuptrun activities, it's caused a problem. we need to regroup. we are not configured, our intelligence services and our department of defense, to be more disruptive. so we have to back up. we need to engage our arab league partners who have as much a problem and as much a stake in this as we do. they will still cut their heads off and put them on spikes as well. we need to engage them in a more robust campaign against the safe haven in eastern syria and again continue to engage in iraq. it can't be about the dam. it can't be about an individual who was so brutally murdered. these are individuals who have killed thousands of people, summary executions, beheading. they've cold women into slavery. they're going to continue to do that because they believe they're winning. that disruptive activity is critically important. this is an opportunity for the

president to take a step back, change his presidential guidance on how we disrupt terrorism around the world, including al qaeda, that has been slowing down. we have missed dozens and dozens of opportunities to take really bad people off the battlefield in the recent two years. >> are you confident that the united states is in a position to defeat isis? >> we have the capability to defeat it. we now have to have the political will and we have to have the policy to do it. we have the first, we don't have the second two. >> chairman mike rogers, always a pleasure to see you. thank you so much. as you just heard this has gotten a lot more complicated because you have these westerners who want to aid isis and are doing it right now. we saw them in the basement in keir simmons package. i'm joined by the british ambassador to the u.s. sir peter westmacott, nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engel who is just back from the turki

turkish/syrian border. heal lean cooper is the white house correspondent for "the new york times." she has been writing extensively about how the u.s. is trying to counter the isis threat. good morning to all of you. let me start with you, ambassador. how close are we to identifying the perch wson who executed jam foley, and what else can you tell bus the threat of isis? >> i think we are close. i have been in touch obviously the last day or two with my colleagues at home. we're not yet in a position to say exactly who this is but are is some very sophisticated voice identification technology and other measures we've got which should allow us to be clear about who this person is before very long. let me underline it's not just about one brutal murderer. there are a whole lot of other people, there are other hostages who are under threat. as you have just been mentioning. we think that there's probably as many as 500 people from the united kingdom have gone to join jihad and isis. we're focusing our efforts on

how to counter this terrible threat which is a betrayal of all we stand for and a betrayal of what the teachings of the prophet stand for. >> as someone who has stand so much time in the region, tell us specifically about these people, richard, about this threat. i have heard the head of isis described as a narcissistic psychopath. >> you're dealing with a group of people who have been successful, who believe that they are winning, that they are creating ans s islamic caliphat and they call themselves the islamic state and they now have a state. they have a big area across northern syria. they have a large section of iraq. they move freely between these two areas, between the part of the iraq they hold and the part of syria they have. they have heavy weapons seized from the iraqi army, u.s.-made weapons. and they have thousands and thousands of fighters, not just foreign fighters but local fighters as well. we're dealing with a little

failed state that doesn't see itself as a 235i8d state. it sees itself as a triumphant state that's bringing the islamic battle to the world. >> and the key question becomes, helene, what do they want? do they want to just expand this? do they want to take over israel and jordan? do they want to essentially control the middle east or do they have a plan to come into the united states, to come into western countries and attack? >> no, it's called the islamic state in iraq and syria or the islamic state in iraq or the la vant. before american air strikes began, there were no -- you did not hear isis talking about coming to the united states. you didn't hear them talking about attacks on americans. it wasn't until after the american air strikes began that you saw them taking advantage of people -- americans who they had kidnapped years before. their mission has been to establish a caliphate within this region. they're a huge threat to iraq and to syria and to jordan and

to even israel. you heard general martin demp y dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, during a press conference with chuck hagel, the defense secretary, on thursday talking about their aspirations, their end of days, but they have been limited to that specific region. but things now have changed, and i think that's part of why you're seeing the response that we're having here in the united states. in january president obama compared them to a junior varsity -- al qaeda junior varsity basketball team. now all of a sudden we're talking about can they attack the american homeland and that's where i think you're sort of seeing the rise in awareness of americans because of this horrible image of james foley and that video that's sort of showed up on front pages -- >> there's no doubt that ramped up the emotion that we felt and the awareness of what isis is and what they're willing to do, ambassador.

what do we do about it? what is your country willing to do either militarily or in cooperation with the united states? >> let me just underline this is a threat in a whole different series of ways to us. it's a threat to citizens in the region, it's a threat to the stability of those countries, but it's also a threat in terms of returning radicalized jihadis who have left and are coming back with specific missions and instructions to create acts of terror at home. which is why in the uk we've picked up over 70 people in terrorist related offenses to do with activities in iraq and syria. so we're very conscious of the threat that there is back at home. what can we do about it? we're doing a bunch of different things. we have had to address a humanitarian disaster as a result of the depredations of isis in the region. we've been active with air drops and aircraft and ariel surveillance to help drop things there. we are transporting military equipment to people who are fighting back against isis,

particularly in the kurdish regional government in northern iraq. we are involved with the provision of intelligence and training and equipment in a number of different ways to those who would like us to help. we've been providing refuel lli tankers and we're doing a complex operation in terms of trying to identify, detect, and obstruct terrorist activity by individuals going to and coming back from the region. so we're doing a very great deal. we're using diplomacy, using development funds, we're using military strengths and equipment -- >> how far can military action go though and how much does it need to go do you think if isis is not to be a threat anymore. >> i think helene was right to say that the brutal murder of james foley has to some extent galvanized opinion and maybe governments to make us feel we have actually got to look fresh at what more we can do with our regional partners, not just on our own, to fight back. i think there are a number of different options on the table. we are not at the moment being invited to do more than we are

at the moment. they want training, they want equipment, they want political support. we're trying to help the iraqi government get established. but i think we've got to look afresh at what it takes to push back against this brutal organization give what they do and the threat they pose to the local countries, to our friends, and to our own national security. >> we can't forget, richard, other than american journalist is hanging in the balance here. you had been taken hostage and it was the same group that originally took james foley that then handed him over to isis. tell us a little bit from your perspective about what happens now and the whole conversation about whether paying ransom and some other countries do, the united states doesn't, is an incentive for more hostage taking. >> well, first, you mentioned my case. i was taken hostage in syria roughly at the same time as james foley and two years ago,

and don't forget that james foley was executed after being in custody, being terrified, being abused for two years. so at the time two years ago when he was taken when i was taken, there were lots of different groups that were rounding people up. and then isis started to collect those people, and now they're really the only group or the main group that is holding foreign hostages. it didn't seem on the negotiation front that isis has any real intention of negotiating americans. it doesn't want to give them up for ransom. in the case for james foley, it wasn't really seriously negotiating. it was using the europeans to try and raise between $3 million and $5 million ahead. that was the going rate. for james foley they asked for $130 million which is not a realistic number. it's like having -- saying you want to sell him -- if you pay this, you can buy him. what's important to understand

is how we got here and where we're going. you were just talking about what can be done. the u.s. is carrying out strikes right now in northern iraq, and they're stopping at a border, but they're stopping at an invisible border. they're stopping at a border isis doesn't recognize. so it seems likely in the next few days, few weeks, we're also going to be carrying out some strikes in syria. that's what u.s. officials seem to be hinting about. we'll see if that is enough for if it's too little, too late. >> richard, it's always good to see you. helene cooper, ambassador westmacott, thank you for being with us. up next, if you think washington politics is complicated, how about performing eye surgery? kentucky senator rand paul like you have never seen him before. i had exclusive access to him on his hue man tar yan mission in guatemala but were his political as well as surgical skills at work there? >> i think that's what scares the democrats the most is that in a general election were i to run, there's going to be a lot

of independents and even some democrats who say, you know what? we are tired of war. we're worried that hillary clinton will get us involved in another middle eastern war because she's so gung-ho. reasond 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. of independents and even some

and now to a "meet the press" exclusive. a journey to guatemala with kentucky senator and doctor rand paul. top republicans eyeing a run for president in 2016 have spent a lot of time in two key battleground states. 20 visits to iowa, 10 more to new hampshire.

but so far only paul has turned a foreign country into a unique photo-op. i accompanied him on his humanitarian mission to salama, a remote town three hours north of ga what mat la city. but his trip to central america might have been as much about the white house as it was about medicine. >> you look good in red senator. >> reporter: in a makeshift operating room, a side of senator rand paul most people have never seen. the eye surgeon on a mission to help the blind and near blind see in a country where more than half the population lives in poverty. he's one of 28 american volunteers organized by the moran eye center in utah. >> this is an amazing enterprise. we have a surgery center. we have a dental clinic, and we've got a place doing glasses. >> reporter: scores of people line up every day for a week hoping american doctors can give them their sight and their lives back. a 79-year-old great grandmother

hasn't been able to walk for nine years. then cataracts plunged her into darkness. a farmer just wants to see again so he can work in his fields. a mission to restore sight and hope to the poorest of the poor. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: and if it all plays well to american voters, it could further rand paul's personal mission, too. to position himself for a race for president. >> i have been doing, you know, this kind of stuff for 20 years. >> reporter: but not in a foreign country. >> i have been operating on kids from guatemalguatemala. i think the first kids were 1996. this isn't something new we're doing. a fashiphysician is who i am an represent who i am, that's who i am. i'm a physician. >> reporter: but you just won't always bring camera crews. >> well, you know, depicting who i am i think is an important part of presenting a face to the public. >> reporter: there is no doubt about the humanitarian aspect of this trip. paul performed dozens of pro

bono cat tract surgeries over three days in a region where there are only two eye surgeons for 800,000 people. chronically it all are paul's advertising team. >> i'm rand paul and i approve this message. >> whose commercials helped win his upset win for senator. also along a film crew from citizens united. it's co-founder and president dave bossie. does having citizens united make it look more political? >> having citizens united's documentary unit following around whether i was there or not was going to do it. and so, you know, i went to oversee it. i went to experience and see exactly for myself what rand paul was about. >> reporter: bossie did some charity work of his own helping to install a water filtration system. but he spent many hours with

senator paul and gave advice to the film crew. for paul, too, long hours in ththe o.r. were interspersed with interviews multiple conversations where nothing was off limits including the death of michael brown. >> let's say none of this has to do with race, it might not, but the belief -- if you're african-american and you live in ferguson, the belief is you see people in prison and they're mostly black and brown that somehow it is racial even if the thoughts that were going on at that time had nothing to do with race. so there's a very good chance that this had nothing to do with race but because of all of the arrests and the way people were arrested, that everybody perceives it as, my goodness, the police are out to get us, you know, and so that's why you have to change the whole war on drugs. it's not just this one instance and i don't know w45hat happene during the shooting, but i do know what's happening far as you look at who is in prison. >> reporter: it's vintage rand paul.

the sometimes commercialal free market, small government, low taxes libertarian with view that is can also appeal to the left pushing for the demilitarization of police days before president obama called for a review. >> homeland security gave $8 million to fargo to fight terrorism in fargo, north dakota, and i say if the terrorists get to fargo, we might as well give up. i say that as a joke but, i mean, it's like what are we doing spending $8 million in fargo. what are we doing sending a tank -- there's an armored personnel carrier in in keen, new hampshire. >> reporter: and he's quick to provide a contrast to the democratic presidential front-runner. >> i think the american public is coming more and more to where i am and that those people like hillary clinton who -- she fought her own war, hillary's war, you know, people are going to find that -- and i think that's what scares the democrats the most, is that in a general election were i to run, there's going to be a lot of independents and even some democrats who say, you know what? we are tired of war.

we're worried that hillary clinton will get us involved in another middle eastern war because she's so gung-ho. if you want to see a transormational election in our country, let the democrats put forward a war hawk like hillary clinton and you will see a transformation like you have never seen. >> reporter: back inside the hospital less than 24 hours after surgery, bandages are removed and the reactions are heartwarming. even tear inducing. >> it makes it worth it. >> reporter: just a day before, a farmer couldn't see through cataract clouded eyes. then the eye patches come off. one of more than 200 success stories in a week. lives transformed. >> now you know why we do it. >> reporter: for all the successes here, rand paul was effective but not emotional. something that worries even supporters who know winning primaries is often as much as about kissing babies and making

policy statements. >> he's very matter of fact. he cease a problem, he's trying to fix it, and he moves on. >> reporter: you wonder how it will translate on the campaign trail. >> it could be really difficult. >> do you go to iowa and not shake hands? >> that's the next test. >> his enthusiasm for medicine is palpable and he likes the odds when he's controlling the outcome. when he runs for president it will be because like here in the o.r., he thinks he has a real chance of winning. before leaving he had a closed door meeting with the president and prime minister of guatemala and talked immigration telling them the immigration problem is not the fault of guatemala city but of white house policies. he's also pushing to allow more americans to adopt guatemalan children. let's get some reaction from the round table. gwen ifill from pbs news hour. david ignatius from "washington post." kasim reed, democratic mayor of

atlanta and michael gerson, former speechwriter for george w. bush now a columnist for "the washington post." david, could you see some of this in a convention bio, maybe in a little infomercial. juke see in the piece you just did why rand paul is going to be a dynamic face in the republican nominating process. the rap on rand paul is he's an isolationist and to see him out in guatemala helping people, not talking about carrying guns or dropping bombs but fixing people's eye problems, that's the part of the pitch he's going to make. whether the american people will trust this man who says, you know, i'm speaking to a country that's tired of war with national security at a time of growing crisis is a big question. >> yeah. a question i asked him, michael, was whether this changed his opinion about giving more foreign aid to countries in need, whether it changed his opinion about immigration. i don't think we'll see a sea change there. >> it is wonderful what he's doing. >> it is. >> but he's a senator and a

possible presidential candidate and his policy views matter. he's called for the gradual elimination of all foreign aid. i've seen its effect in sub-saharan africa and other places. this would cause misery for millions of people on aids treatment. it would betray hundreds of thousands of children receiving malaria treatment. these are things that you can't ignore in a presidential candidate. this is a perfect case of how a person can have a good intention but how an ideology can cause terrible misery. he will need to explain that. this is his policy views. >> and there's substantial and there's style, gwen, and his style is pretty reserved, and you wonder if in 2016 if in the modern era you can be the candidate who doesn't have that political charm, who doesn't do the retail politics. >> are you saying he's not charming? he certainly looked more at home in his scrubs than the suits he wearing on capitol hill. it's interesting to look at, for instance, what he had to say about hillary clinton and what we heard you say to mike rogers earlier. i or mike rogers say to you.

he thinks we should be doing more, more forward leaning the chairman of the intelligence committee. rand paul is saying hillary clinton is a hawk. there's a lot of people in his own party looking at him saying, ho hold on a minute, brother. including the fact that guatemala is where a lot of the children are coming from. so by being there at this moment in time with that debate still bubbling under the surface is not insignificant. i want to turn to the latest on ferguson, missouri. president obama called for a review of federal programs to militarize local police. joining me is the democratic governor of missouri, jay nixon. governor nixon. >> good morning. >> as you know, a lot of concerns were raised when we saw the heavily armored vehicles rolling into nergson. we also saw police in camouflage carrying heavy weapons. let me ask you about the president's decision to review these pentagon policies of giving this equipment to

localities. do you think it contributed to the unrest that happened in your state? >> it's certainly appropriate to review all that sort of thing and i'm glad the president and others around the country will do that discussion. there are things you need protection on bomb units but it's a good and worthy discussion and we ought to have it around the country. >> when you look at what happened in ferguson, should it have been done differently? >> when you look at this, you can certainly see things that you could have done and worked with that you hoped would focus things a little bit better, but when we came into here, we were focused on three things, making sure people had the right to speak, making sure that they were safe in that community, and also making sure that the dual prosecutions that were going would get to justice and truth. in that regard we've seen a lot of progress over the last week. >> let me ask you about that prosecution particularly the one in your state as opposed to the federal investigation. you made a decision in the last week not to replace the controversial prosecutor robert

mccollough. in fact, what you said in making that decision, that to do would potentially jeopardize the prosecution. how? >> well, first of all, you have an elected prosecutor. he should do his job, do his duty as the attorney general. i think you focus on making sure they live up to the high standards that are out there, making sure they get all the information so justice can be served. >> do you believe he has the trust of the people of your state and the people of ferguson? >> he was elected overwhelmingly by the people a number of times. he's been through a lot. certainly with this level of attention i think everyone will work hard to do their best work. >> how concerned are you, and this has been expressed by a number of people, that if there is not a decision to prosecute in this case, if charges are not brought, that there will be more unrest? are you prepared for that? and give us a sense of your level of concern. >> well, as i said before, we've been working hard over the last two weeks but especially the last eight or nine days to

really see progress, and i'm heartened by that. and that's really come from the people here. i mean, the policing strategies and all that sort of stuff is important and captain johnson and his team on the ground have done a great job but really what's happened is the people of this region have said, we want to speak but we want to do so peacefully, and i think that transition is a positive transition. they just want to make sure that what has happened over the last two weeks is not swept under the rug and forgotten and that, instead, it's used to get positive action not only in the community of ferguson and around st. louis but around the country. >> so let me ask you what you say, not just to people in missouri, but to people around the country. 6 in 10 blacks in a new poll say that they don't believe that they have confidence that the investigation will be handled fairly. what do you say to them? >> well, first of all, i think with a lot of attention on it and a lot of focus on it and dual efforts going on at the same time, one in the federal and one at the state and a lot of public attention, i think

they have the chance to get it right and the justice system with that much focus, these folks just need to do their duty, that includes prosecutors and jury members and grand jury members and everyone and citizens who have things to say that can be helpful in those cases. so we have to work hard to make sure that everybody does their best and is strong in this effort. if they do, then it's our best hope justice will be served. >> governor jay nixon, thank you. >> thank you. then the question becomes what does it mean to do your best, mr. mayor? what do you do going forward and starting with how do you make this a fair investigation? >> well, i think the thing that you do is to start seeing this case through the eyes of a mother and father who lost a child who got shot six times and left for four hours in the street. that's really the issue right now. we're laying all of our feelings about race and class and all of the rest and it's really moving away from the dignity that should have been shown to a mother and a father whose child got killed. and to the extent that we can

start handling this case through that lens, ferguson is going to be better off and so is the united states of america. we need to stop layering our issues on what is happening there and make sure that justice is handled equitably for this mom and this dad who lost their son in the street because he was killed and shot six times with four witnesses. so we have an obligation and i think the attorney general's visit there was vital to ensure transparency to all of the people of ferguson but most to this mom and this dad, to make sure that this prosecutor is going to use all of the resources available to make sure that this is done in a transparent fashion. we also need federal oversight to move simultaneously so that in the event that we have an adverse decision, there certainly is another path to seeing that justice is done here. >> certainly the reaction in the

community and the interviews we heard, the fact that the attorney general went there, what he had to say, his own personal experience that he shared about being a young black man and being stopped helped to calm the fears, but there is a question that's still out there, gwen, about whether the president should do more. questions raised about the tone of the remarks he made. what do you think is the president's role in all this? >> i think that we get caught up -- the mayor used a term layering, layering on our issue. in washington we're used to layering on questions about governance and process and what happens next before the grand jury and what happens next with, you know, the trial. we like to cover it like a soap opera, but there's something else that's been exposed here which no president, no attorney general can get to which is there's this bruise that we keep poking at in this country about race. we don't know how to deal with it unless there's a flare-up. what we've seen is that we're dealing with it again and again. you can name the list of names that spark it but also more

important is watching what's happening behind it. there's a new civil rights movement which has sprung up. we've been looking backward 50 years for the last couple years, 50 year signings of bills and laws. these young people in the streets, these young people who created the social media movement around michael brown, they're not saying pass a law. they're saying enforce the current ones. they're not saying we're going to wait for a single, singular leader to tell us which way to go. they're saying we're going to lead ourselves. and there's something which we can't miss in what feels different to me than trayvon mart martin, different than rod ney king. it feels to me like americans, not just african-americans, are picking themselves up and saying the first pictures we saw out of ferguson, the common response was, is that america? people are saying let's address that. >> we did have this sense though that the president in coming to the microphone and being such a

great communicator might be able to sort of move the needle. i want to read to you what was written about this by ezra klein. do we have that? we have that there. the problem is the white house no longer believes obama can bridge divides. they believe, with good reason, that he widens them. president obama's speeches polarize in a way candidate obama's didn't. obama's supporters often want to see their president leading, but the white house knows that when obama leads, his critics become even less likely to follow. what does he do going forward? >> i have to disagree a little bit. i think the president's tone has been very presidential. this is a case where the facts are not established. we're still looking at what the facts are, and there are limits to what a president can do in a circumstance like that. i think the president has shown appropriate grief. has shown some outrage. but, you know, this is difficult for him and it was right for him

to send eric holder, the guy that can bring the fbi, that can bring, you know, the forces of the federal government to this, to send him to that circumstance. you know, i disagree. i think he should at the right moment give a framing speech on this set of issues which he's good at. >> thank you all. coming up more with the round table. defense secretary chuck hagel certainty wasn't holding back about the threat posed by isis. >> this is beyond anything we've seen. so we must prepare for everything. >> but can the ice lambists be defeated without putting u.s. traps troops on the ground in iraq and syria? m of the open road? syria? ot my first car" feeling. presenting the buypower card from capital one. redeem earnings toward part or even all of a new chevrolet,

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next, the isis menace is president obama doing enough to defeat the islamist militants? i'm j-a-n-e and i have copd.

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breo is not for asthma. breo contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. it is not known if this risk is increased in copd. breo won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden copd symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. breo may increase your risk of pneumonia, thrush, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking breo. ask your doctor about b-r-e-o for copd. first prescription free at mybreo.com welcome back. i want to talk more about the threat posed by isis with our round table, and let me read what vice president biden wrote in "the washington post" in an op-ed. there is no negotiating with isil. we have seen its appalling murders of u.s. journalist james foley and counselless other innocent people, its cruelty and its fanaticism. that was followed up by chuck

hagel saying this is more than just a terrorist group. is he right? >> well, it's a terrorist group that now controls about a third of iraq, so, yes, it is. it's a particularly potent, well organized, mobile, ambitious terrorist group. president obama has been trying to walk a very fine line between a gradual escalating response to isis and reassuring a country that is weary of war, especially in iraq, that he's not going to take american troops back. so far i think he's basically gotten that about right. we are stepping up to protect the kurds, to stop the massacre of the yazidi minority, to take isil control away from this strategic dam. >> but the brutality, does that escalate the pressure on him? >> it escalates the tightrope. i don't quite know now he does this. we saw the intelligence chairman

saying we have the kcapability e just don't have the will or policy. i haven't heard anybody saying what we ought to be doing instead. they're hinting we're going to go inside syria but to what end? that's a complicated situation right now. i don't know that there's an easy answer. >> in the meantime he's taking hits, so is david cameron. you can take a look at the covers both of "the daily mirror" yesterday and "the daily news" on thursday. criticizing these two leaders for going out in the case of the president and golfing, in the case of david cameron, out on the water. i guess the question is raised about whether we're sending the wrong message maybe to europe, maybe to the middle east with this. even if most people who live in britain and the united states may say, you know, they have a hard job. they should be able to take a break. >> having worked for a president, i don't really criticize presidential vacations. the presidents need this and they also like a turtle carry their house with them.

i mean, the white house comes with the president. he doesn't escape any of these problems. so i think that's true. but symbolism does matter and the juxtaposition of beheading and golfing is not a good symbol. that's what he's being criticized for. i think that that shows bad staff work or the president doesn't really care. >> well, i don't think it's that. i think that we have a will problem in europe and in the united states that's going to have to be addressed. and it has to be dressed right now. i think the president certainly is willing to do what is required, but we have to have congress come along and we have to have the parliament in the uk come along, and the last time we were in a position where we were going to have to be more muscular candidly, we did not have that kind of support. so it's not just the president. the country has to be ready to deal with isil and the country has to be ready to do what is required. the attorney general and the secretary of defense has said that the kind of threats that

isil is presenting are unprecedented. so no one can say that they're not focused on it or having conversations about it. but a war-weary nation is going to have to understand that if we're going to address these acts, it's going to take the will and congress and us coming out of this fog of not being willing to do what is required. >> mr. mayor, all of you on the round table, thank you so much for being here this morning. coming up, the racial flash point in ferguson, missouri. healer or divider? the reverend al sharpton joins me next. way to "plus" our accounting firm's mobile plan. and "minus" our expenses. perfect timing. we're offering our best-ever pricing on mobile plans for business. run the numbers on that. well, unlimited talk and text, and ten gigs of data for the five of you would be... one-seventy-five a month. good calculating kyle. good job kyle. you just made partner. our best-ever pricing on mobile share value plans for business. now with a $100 bill credit for every business line you add.

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like the htc one m8 for windows or android. built to inspire envy. come get your more with verizon. welcome back. as we look ahead to the coming week in ferguson, missouri, the funeral of michael brown will take place tomorrow. reverend al sharpton, civil rights leader and host of "politics nation" will deliver the eulogy at that service and he joins me now. >> thank you. >> there has been a dramatic shift in the mood in ferguson. what can you say tomorrow to help that along? >> i think what we can say is we must turn this moment into a movement to really deal with the underlying issues of police

accountability and what is and is not allowable by police and what citizens ought to be moving toward. i think we need to deal with how we move towards solutions, how we deal with the whole aggressive policing of what is considered low level crimes, and that goes from ferguson to staten island, new york, to l.a. we see it occurring all over the country and we need to move in that way or we will end up only repeating ourselves every incident. >> we talked a lot, reverend, after the verdict in the trayvon martin case. you said that needs to be a moment. many others said the same thing. we have also seen, as you alluded to, you led a march yesterday after another black man died in an incident involving police in new york city. now you're going to be eulogy f in ferguson. what is it going to take to

change things? >> i think it will take legislation. we need federal legislation and we need the criminal justice system which is why the federal government coming in is so important. i think the attorney general, eric older's unprecedented trip sent a signal. we didn't see bobby kennedy go to the south. we saw a sitting attorney general go to ferguson and i think that's historic. i think these moves will lead to real change. our chance must lead to change, our demonstrations to legislation, and we'll get up there. you must remember the montgomery bus boycott started in 1955. we didn't get civil rights legislation until '64 civil rights act. change takes time, but those of us that are committed are willing to put in the time because we cannot tolerate not having the change. >> there's a big article on you in "politico" magazine. it talks about how close your contact is with the white house, how you often serve as a kind of surrogate for the white house.

but let me ask you about the president and in the case of ferguson in particular, race relations in america in general. is he doing enough? >> first of all, i'm not a surrogate. i have access to the white house in every era going back to lincoln with frederick douglass, presidents talk to those who were leading at that time. that's nothing unusual. i went to ferguson because the family, the grandfather, called and asked me to come. the white house called while i was there, talked to me, the head of the naacp and others. so it's not a surrogate, it's a customary traditional role. i think the president by addressing it twice while he was on vacation, not a statement but coming out live, and yet not compromising the right of the family because where i was nervous because i have been in this a while. i'm not a studio activist or someone in an ivory tower. i have been in this. for the president to go further,

then it would be used in a legal context as saying, oh, the president ordered an indictment rather than letting the process go fairly. i'm reading this morning he said we're going to deal with the military equipment and expenditures on citizens. we in terms of those that are talking to the family and the lawyers involved in these cases don't need the president to politicize it and give an escape from the criminal justice system from those that need to be investigated and possibly brought into the criminal justice system, so a lot of people talking are not talking to the victims who don't need their rights violated by politics. >> we have just a few seconds left reverend, but what would be justice in this case? >> justice is a fair and impartial investigation, and let the facts go where they need to go. but too often with local prosecutors we don't get that. >> reverend al sharpton, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> that's all for today. we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the

press." press." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com it was a very strong jolt that was felt about 3:30 this morning. >> lk at the devastation of the mobile homes. >> went on forever. my daughter was screaming her lungs out. >> just -- it just hit me, this is not good. we'll be fine. >> rocked awake. a powerful 6.0 magnitude earthquake strikes early this morning in the heart of california wine country. there's damage. dozens of injuries, some serious. we will go live to the scene with the very latest. it's a very real threat. they are one plane ticket away from u.s. shores, and that's why we're so concerned about it.