"now" with alex wagner starts right now. >> president obama says that rooting out a cancer like isis will be easy or quick but will it bring u.s. military into syria. it is tuesday, august 26th and this is "now qult. >> we'll continue to direct action where needed. >> growing concern over isis militants. >> the u.s. military is flying surveillance flights over northern syria. >> authorized the flights for the purpose of selectsing potential targets for possible u.s. air strikes against isis. the president preparing the american people for a long-term commitment. >> rooting a cancer like isil won't be easy or quick. >> this is a serious threat from a serious group of terrorists. >> it's very important to push back aggressively. >> not going to hold ourselves

to geographic boundaries. >> there's no way isis can be defended without boots on the ground. >> isil is a more serious threat than is the assad regime. >> why do we think military strikes are the right thing when today it's isis, tomorrow someone else. >> our reach along, we are patient justice will be done. >> three years into syria's civil war, almost three weeks into the limited u.s. mission against isis in iraq and american military action inside syria is looking more and more like a possibility. manned drones and surveillance craft began flying over syria. the surveillance flights will focus on border between iraq and syria, one that is largely er e erased due to gains by isis and

any information will not be shared with the government of baschaar al assad. the list could include weapons and equipment critical to the militant supply line that runs from iraq to syria. speaking at the american legion today, president obama did not mention the surveillance flights but did outline once again the threat. >> rooting out a cancer won't be easy and quick. tyrants and murderers before them should recognize that kind of hateful vision ultimately is no match for the strength and hopes of people who stand together for the security and dignity and freedom that is the birth right of every human being. >> the president also had strong words for the militants who killed jim foley and said to be holding three other hostages. one is reported to be a 26-year-old american woman working as ab aid worker at the

time of her capture. >> our message to anyone who harms our people is simple, america does not forget. our reach long. we are patient justice will be done. we will do what's necessary to go after those who harm americans. [ applause ] >> we'll continue to take direct action where needed to protect our people. >> just moments after the president made those remarks about protecting americans, nbc news confirmed that a u.s. citizen and american jihadist fighting with isis was killed over the weekend inside syria. raising concerns over the threat posed by foreign fighters and while officials at the white house and president maintain that a final decision has not been made regarding syrian air strikes there are already plenty of questions as to how effective strikes migtd be in defeating a group that controls territory larger than the entire united kingdom and how to strike isis

without independently helping syrian president bashar al assad. >> helene, let me start with you first, the new reports about american presence over in iraq and syria, both the mcarthur mccain fighting for isis and we've just confirmed this, the 26-year-old female foreign aid worker being held hostage. how do you think those two realities are shaping the white house calculus at this moment? >> both have been known, not that the american jihadist is going to be killed but the white house has known for a while there are americans who have left to join this jihadi group in many of the same mat earn western europeans and people from u.k. and other parts of europe have joined this group.

the whole threat -- whole issue of foreign fighters joining igsis and coming back to their respective countries, has been an issue that's been very much on pt minds of people at the white house and pentagon. the hostage issue is also won that has been kept quiet for a long time because families didn't want information out there about these hostages as they tried to figure outweighs to get people out. the fact that this stuff is coming out in the media now doesn't mean the administration hasn't been aware of this. it's just that now it's coming out and all plays into this ongoing heightened concern about how do you go after isis, both in iraq and syria and what sort of coalition you're able to assemble to do so. >> brian, to helene's concern about the heightened concern, there has been strong rhetoric coming from the administration from officials at dod and state

and white house regarding the threat that isis poess but i guess my question is something the president said today when rehe maintained once again, the reason america is involved in iraq because of concern over american personnel in baghdad and in erbil. my question from a basic security standpoint, if that's the concern, why not just evacuate them as we do with american personnel all over the world in hot spots? >> you and i talked about this before on a previous program. what he's articulating there is more of a legal rationale for operations ongoing and there are more strikes conducted today inside iraq and less so -- i think there are serious concerns and there were serious concerns about u.s. personnel in erbil but point taken. you want to get them out of there, one reason why they might want to keep them there is you have personnel who are quite frankly -- you need people on the ground to help guide and deal with intel to make sure your strikes are hitting target

inside iraq. that might be one rationale. syria is another sort of complete different challenge for this administration. i think they are seriously considering air strikes but they got to answer a bunch of questions. one, do they have good enough intel. two, what would the strikes actually seek to ak flish? what's the goal? in iraq, they had a clearly defined goal on the mosul dam and yazidi community. three, what's the legal rationale, the framework in which they would conduct the strikes. >> helene, to the legal rationale which seems to be a big thing in all of this, when the president last spoke about getting involved in syria, ultimately he gave that decision to congress. and congress didn't really have to make a decision because of what happened syria's chemical weapons supply and agreement there. do you think the president or white house is getting closer to seeking authorization from congress on the subject of syria air strikes? >> i think absolutely they are.

they are going to take pains this time to make sure they get congressional buy in. i think that has already started. the difference between syria and iraq, with iraq right now, part of the legal rationale they are using, the iraqi government invited them in. you are not seeing that case with syria. although the syrian government or president assad has said they would welcome coordinating attacks on isis with the united states, that's the last thing that the obama administration wants to be seen as doing is working in collaboration with president assad. they are going to be taking pains to sort of distance themselves as much as possible from assad who as you already know obama has asked to leave syria. >> yeah, peter -- brian, to the point of bashar al assad and incredibly nuance and complicated operation going inside syria involves, to give him no currency and not support him, at the same time to try to find someone on the ground that

will further sort of the broader goals here, peter winer, before i call you peter, he puts this really well. the challenges we face, from somalia to libya, the problem with america's humanitarian interventions has never been ascertaining the nastiness of the people we're fighting against. it's been ascertaining the efficacy and decency of the people we're fighting for. this is a particular challenge in the case of isis in syria. in the same piece, there's an isis commander who goes on to say that the free syrian army, which potentially could be an ally of ours in syria has been working or some of its fighters have been working in conjunction with isis. so to that question of who are we fighting for or who are we trying to help? that seems almost unanswerable in syria. >> you have multiple fronts and we conducted research late spring, early summer and about

to release a report on this. this is a very localized conflict. meaning that you have more than 1500 armed groups that oppose the assad regime and oppose each other. civil war is too simple and pat of a description. we all need to use it to describe what's going on here but essentially what we're seeing is the destruction of a modern nature state and quite rapid and it's been xre deadly. in terms of who our partners are, there are potential partners and this is the debate who are the moderate opposition. there's a potential for a third way. i don't know that there are as capable as the peshmerga, but there is potential there and president obama at the end of the june proposed an additional 500 million to support those moderate syrian rebels. so let's see how they go forward

on strikes in the absence of anyone working with us on ground means wre still don't have a strategy yet. and not working with somebody on the ground really begs of question where we're going with all of this. >> helene, to the folks we may or may not be working with, where is the european union here? we know on the limited humanitarian missions in iraq, we had partnerships with western europe. to what degree are they forming a coalition to deal with this in a military fashion? >> that's about to start. the brits certainly are pretty much in lock step with the u.s. i was talking with people today in administration that believe they can count on britain. the rest of the european union, it's going to be interesting to see whether this comes up at the nato meeting in wales. in particular, i think the issue of foreign fighters is going to be on the table because there are any number of european

countries who have -- who are very worried about that own nationals have gone offer to join a jihadi group. when it comes to talking about foreign fighters, europe will be very much at the forefront and with that. but it remains to be seen how far european nations outside of britain will be willing to go on this direct threat. >> brian, before we go, in terms of the question of foreign fighters in the news about an american jihadist fighting on the side of isis and difficulty of tracking these folks once they go overseas and radicalized and go on militant jihads. what's your confidence level in our ability to track these folks and stop them before they perpetrate acts of violence. >> it's gotten better than say before 9/11. the fact that these guys are tweeting and facebooking their way to the battlefields to the delight of intel agencies helps us. but the sheer numbers are

alarming. if you look at most estimates, it's 12,000 foreign fighters. most of those coming from the region. about 3,000 coming from western europe and u.s. there's probably 100 or so americans. 100 is a lot to track. but to answer your question, i think we've gotten a lot better at tracking them. they are helping us by what they are doing in terms of using social media. but there's no foolproof system in the 21st century. >> helene cooper and brian from the center from american progress. thanks for your time. >> thank you. >> coming up after much alleged behind the scenes hand wringing, north carolina senator kay hagen greeted the president. it is not democrats that should be necessarily worried it may be people from the other side of the aisle. chris cillizza discusses that next on "now." there's a reason it's called an "all you can eat" buffet... and not a "have just a little" buffet.

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the supposed upcoming republican med term shell lacking may not be a shellacking after all. the president was in charlotte, where kay hagen is in the midst of an air tight race against tom tillas. how did republicans bill the visit? in a statement titled will hagen take a selfie with obama, the party asked after rubber stamping the obama liberal agenda for the past six years is kay hagen finally going to appear in public with the president to let all of north carolina know how proud she is to support him? apparently, yes, she is. kay hagen not only greeted the president on the tarmac but traveled with him to the annual

convention of the american leejology where both hagen and the president spoke about reforms to the va. >> the administration i do believe understands that we need a complete change in culture at the va. >> a presidential visit is not the only sign democrats may feel optimistic about their party pro pekts. here's how the opposition to medical expansion was characterized. >> tom tillis has a proven record fighting against obamacare. >> he stopped the medicare expansion cold. not happening in north carolina and it's because of tom tillis. >> that medicaid expansion which he stopped cold would benefit 500,000 north carolina residents. these days he is singing a slightly different tune. in an interview earlier this month, he told the washington examiner, any repeal measure

needs to be married with how do you provide a landing or transition to some of those on oba obamacare. tom tillis stopped the whole thing cold until he tried to maybe warm it back up on the back burner ahead of election day. what is happening here? larry points out in politico magazine, where's the wave in every single one of this november's toss-up states, alaska, arkansas and louisiana and north carolina, they have not opened up a real polling lead in any of them. democratic nominees have been running hard and staying slightly ahead or close to their republican foes. joining me now is managing editor of "washington post" politics section and author of the fix, chris cillizza. it's always good to see you. >> glad you got ini am itable. >> the show would have to go off the air if i forgot to do that. >> let's talk about what

happened in north carolina today, given all of the hubbub, okay hagen was on the tarmac and sky did not fall and kay hagen still apparently has a chance at winning re-election. >> i think ever since charlie crist hugged president obama when he was a republican governor of florida in the wake of the economic stimulus package passing, there's an idea that being seen in public with unpopular politician and embracing that politician, is a bad thing or means you lose. charlie crist didn't lose the florida senate race in 2010 because he hugged barack obama. he lost it because he switched parties and he was not a good fit for the state. the hug may be civil liesed but not why he lost. same thing here, will republicans use the image of kay hagen shaking hands with president obama in an ad? absolutely. but were they going to attack

kay hagen as a cone of barack obama with or without her greeting her on the tarmac? absolutely. to me that narrative isn't going to change. the only thing she could have done by not showing up here is send a message to the democratic base, particularly african-americans and she's going to needs them, that she's not with this president. it's not a great set of choices, but the idea that the race is won and lost based on a handshake is called the crist effect, way overblown. >> let's talk about tom tillis, under the stew ardship truly of tom tillis, in terms of actual office, governor pat mccory is overseeing this but he's been the engine to the most conser conservative pieces of legislation the state has seen ending the credit for the working poor. there are the very controversial voter i.d. requirements and right to carry concealed guns in bars and parks. there have been moral monday

protests and this is a big deal in north carolina and i wonder if that sort of move to the right does not have the unintended adverse effect of drawing out the democratic base voters you talk about who are furious at the direction the republicans have taken their state? >> i think the fact that tillis is the speaker of the statehouse, if he was just a random businessman, he would be in a better spot solely because of what you talked about. he is going to have -- for a liberal democrat in that state, the agenda passioned by the state legislature is significantly to the idealogical right of where they think the state should be. to the extent they can vent their frustration with that, m tillis is the most obvious person. mckrorry is not on the ballot until 2016. that's the obvious hit there. and i think it will to some extent do that. again, i remind people, the

challenge before kay hagen is different than the challenge before mark bellich or marry lancasterdrew, they are all in states where you have to win a significant number of votes as a democrat to win. kay hagen, the state has changed. mitt romney won it in 2016 but he won it very narrowly. brd won it before that. this is a swing state and this is not arkansas, when we look at it nermz of the challenge before her. >> those other races, chris, we were reporting on this last week. the ad that markbeg itch, talk about the affordable care and markpryor is acknowledging his record on the affordable care act. it feels there is a pretty measurable shift in terms of attitudes about how much this was going to be political krip

tonite, the fact that tom tillis is saying we need to have a landing pad for those on obama care is different rhetoric than this is worse than slavery. >> what's interesting about it, the dichotomy between if you say too people, what do you think of obama care or affordable care act versus what do you think of most -- if you go through the provisions that are in the bill, the provisions are significantly more popular than the idea of the bill, which is obamacare, what you're seeing is a pryor or begich trying to say, kids can say on the insurance until 25, the preexisting conditions is gone. those things that are popular, which again speaks to people who say the words don't matter and policies. the words you use do matter. there's a reason mark pryor doesn't say the word obamacare, he's trying to focus on the parts of that law that sell well

to republicans who might be sort of a little bit more on fence, loosely affiliated republicans. i think you're right though. the massive amounts of energy on the right that were around obamacare, six months, eight, ten months ago are not there right now. >> and tom tillis' statements are representative of an acknowledgement that people actually like parts of this law. a memo to everybody, extending insurance coverage to children, all the same thing. >> alex, just briefly, one thing i would say, i think it's a recognition that republicans have to prove they can be reliable stewards of government, whether it's tomtillis or tom cotton in arkansas, cassidy in louisiana, they have to prove they can be stewards of government, not about repealing and getting rid of things that they have policies or believe policies must be made to manage the government. that obamacare is here mostly to

stay. now what can they do to make it a better law. that's a different question than 12 months ago. >> indeed, it's about actual governance. the "washington post" chris sill li cillizza. >> will new rocket attacks crowd the future. details on that next. when the game's on the line... hit him with a hard count, see if they'll tip their hand. the nfl trusts duracell quantum to power their game day communication. they're blitzing up the gut! get out of the pocket! hut! duracell quantum. lasts up to 35% longer than the competition. why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? this is the age of knowing what you're made of. talk to your doctor about viagra. ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain...

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this is bill. his doubleheader day at the park starts with back pain... and a choice. take 4 advil in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. peanuts! peanuts! crowd cheers! israel and hamas agreed toy a long term cease-fire. palestinians streamed in the streets to celebrate the truce. israel agreed to ease the blockade and allow humanitarian aid and construction materials to enter the region. the calls for the demill tarization of gaza and hamas' demands for an airport and seaport will only be addressed if the cease-fire holds for a

month. israeli air strikes today destroyed two high rise buildings and killed at least half a dozen people. a mortar fired from gaza killed one israeli citizen and critically wounded two others. 64 israeli soldiers and five civilians have been killed. in gaza, more than 2100 palestinians have died. the u.n. estimates three-fourths of those killed were civilians. just ahead, what is an established international border when you're vladimir putin. the details on the latest provocation when simon off strof ski and michael mcfall join me next on now. e rich, never bitter taste of gevalia. we do it all for this very experience. that's good. i know right? gevalia.

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what does an apron have to do with car insurance? every time you tie on an apron, you make progress. and we like that. because progress is what we make, too. amid accusations more russian troops have crossed the border and fighting has spread

to the southeastern city, saw a second day of artillery barrages raising fear that the separatists and backers may control a strip of land linking russia to crimea. they met for peace talks and discussions clouded by ukraine's announcement it captured 12 russian soldiers on its soil. released video of the men that prove they were actively engaged in the fight one day after the government announced a column of ten russian tanks and soldiers disguised as rebels crossed in ukraine. russia maintains they crossed the border by accident, part of a continued pattern in which putin denied meddling in ukrainian affairs.

>> russian backed separatists paraded them at bay onette point, a violation of geneva conventions which prohibit humiliating prisoners of war. that ugly spectacle was followed by a public shaming of an alleged female spy where passers by stopped their cars to get out and spit, slap her face and throw tomatoes at her. joining me now on the phone from kiev ukraine is reporter for vice news, simon ovstrovsky, what is the reaction to the public humiliation of ukrainian prisoners in donetsk? >> well, the reaction has been one of outrage and it's been

real interesting to watch. scenes like the separatists and the russian backers are definitely doing everything they can to pass the point of no return in terms of trying to negotiate an agreement because they made the decision to do such a public and humiliating display of the prisoners that marched and had things thrown at them. it makes it hard to see ukrainian side backing down when they are being provoked so much. and the fact that it's taking place now as putin and poroshenko are meeting in belarus, shows what kind of attitudes they are going to be coming into that meeting with. >> simon -- >> go ahead. >> to that end, that sort of public humiliation on the eve of peace talks, there is also what seems to be an incredibly brazen

russian attitude of complete die nightal there's any meddling going on and litany of excuse making around any accusations of russian armed presence in ukraine. how have the ukrainians responded to that? >> well, you know, today finally we've had confirmation convoluted as it is from the russian side that there are ukrainian troops in eastern ukraine. i think that's a first and landmark. even though the russians are claiming that they are para troopers captured by the ukrainian straight into ukrainian territory by accident, what we have here finally is russian missile that there are indeed russian troops in ukraine, even though they say they weren't meant to be there. but we're getting more and more confirmation now that russia is actively involved in ukrainian

conflict with the artillery activity in the south by the black sea. the speculation in ukraine that the russians again because of those negotiations going on, trying to open up another front in the war so even more freprese on ukrainians to bolster their position with poroshenko now. he's got very tough talks which apparently are actually going to continue into tomorrow according to the belarus president. >> simon os trof ski, thank you. ambassador, simon from vice suggested that these acts of aggression are base beingally to bank as much leverage in advance of any sort of peace talks here. do you think that's putin's game? >> it's part of his game, of course he wants to remind poroshenko that he can come across that border any time he wants, that he can send in aid

trucks and send them back any time he wants, to underscore the fact that the ukrainian have not secured the border and boundaries of the two cities there. i think that's part of the negotiating tactics. >> what of the meeting in bell belarus, do you think it's a legitimate possibility given the humiliating of the ukrainians and really the ugly scenes that the world has been witness to in the past couple of days? >> you know, i don't think the situation on the ground in eastern ukraine is ripe for negotiation right now. and that both sides still think they can wage war to achieve their ends. so until there's a real stalemate, i don't think they will be successful negotiation. that said, it's always better to meet and talk rather than to just transmit messages through the internet or through the air waves. and the fact that the two presidents met for two hours

today, i take to be a good sign. it's always better to talk directly than indirectly. >> and ambassador susan rice tweeted rate last night, repeated inkurgs into ukraine, dangerous and inflammatory. do you think the latest -- repeated inkurgss and the hum i am yags and parading and violation of the geneva convention, do you think that does anything to change america's calculus in terms of the conflict? >> i don't think it changes it for the obama administration, they've been right to push back hard and sanction the regime and support ukraine. next week when the president travels to europe for the nato meeting, you'll see a reaffirmation of our nato commitment. however, in the propaganda, the public discussion of the war, sometimes people forget that

russia is directly involved in violating the territorial integrity of ukraine. and i think national security adviser rice last night wanted to remind everybody what the facts on the ground actually are. >> ambassador michael mcfall, thanks for your time and thoughts. >> thanks for having me. >> high times in california but not the good kind. severe drought is actually ca e causing an entire region to rise. more on that just ahead. okay ladies, whenever you're ready. i got this. no, i'll get it! let me get it. ah uh, i don't want you to pay for this. it's not happening, honey. let her get it. she got her safe driving bonus check from allstate last week. and it's her treat. what about a tip? here's one...get an allstate agent. nice! switch today and get two safe driving bonus checks a year for driving safely. only from allstate. call 866-788-0900 now. hold on man, is that a leak up there? that's a drip.

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we are going to get to bottom of these problems and fix what is wrong. we're going to do right by you and do right by your families and that is a solemn pledge and commitment i'm making to you here. >> president obama's major speech at the american legion today did not just focus on our commitments abroad, the commander in chief announced a spate of new executive actions to fix the scandal plagued department of veterans affairs. >> as long as any service member or veteran is suffering or feels like they have nowhere to turn or doesn't get the support they need, that means we haven't done enough. we all know we need to do more. >> among the new policies, recruiting campaign to fill shortages of doctors and nurses at va facilities automatically enrolling veterans receiving mental health care into va

treatment programs and suicide prevention study involving 1800 veterans. moments before the veteran's speech, va announced the finding into their own investigation. the conclusion, there was no proof that any veterans died because of delays. joining me now is washington bureau chief of mother joans, dave corn. let's start with the inspector general's finding that the va delays did not lead to any deaths. i mean, does this effectively alleviate, if not quash public outcry that has plagued the va for months now and of course led to the resignation of eric shinseki. >> in a word no. i mean, people who have used the va effort to politically beat up the administration will not care about this finding. it's an internal finding and i haven't looked at the report closely so i don't know how strong it seems. but in long wait times and not servicing veterans is an issue

whether or not it leads to death. so the fact there are still war problems and problems remain, is a big deal and something that shouldn't be a political matter but something the obama administration obviously today is moving to try to still deal with. in terms of fixing the problem, lack of primary care doctors gets into the bigger problem of health care in america. while those on the right were really happy to criticize the management of the va, when it comes down to fixing the system as you point out, regardless of whether the delays are deadly or not. do you think there's any bipartisan spirit and energy to truly take on this systemic failures of the va? >> i think the issue you talk about, the shortage of primary care doctors, which is societal wide now. we have half of our doctors over the age of 50 and a lot of people graduating medical school

going into specialties not general practicer. it will hurt us more and more as the population gets older. the one answer for the va is spending more money. you don't have to get more primary care doctors but nurse practitioners and they need more personnel and need to be organized in a better fashion. in olden days, like five or ten years ago, i think you could come up with a bipartisan majority to deal with this. the but the tea party wing of the republican party is going to say, forget the va, let's privatize, privatize. i think it's been hard to deal with this big issue in a bipartisan policy first way here in washington. >> david, when the va scandal came down the pike, it was on -- it was months after the glitches that we're all quite familiar with and house majority leader kevin mccarthy said the election of president obama ushered in

bigger ra of big government and if the president truly didn't know about scandals and mistakes we should doubt his ability to the government he helped create. i wonder whether you think va or some degree health care, whether the right is still going to use these problems as examples of a bloated government? >> i don't think it's going to stop in a lot of places, politically in house races where they think there's an advantage to beating this drum. overall, the republican party stands for only one idea now and that is government is bad. and while on the national level they rach eted back on the repealing obamacare rhetoric. in some of the states and tight races they are out there talking about renot about repeal but cutting back obamacare or revising it. that's all they have left. the republican party used to be the party that would start the

epa or have bob dole work with george mcgovern on dealing with hunger issues. now they have only one thought and that's government is bad. so they are going to use the health care website, example over and over and va website. these are things that made a big impact, big impression when they first broke in the headlines. they'll come back again and again because they have nothing else to offer and nothing else to gin up the base. >> no actual policy prescriptions ats all. let me talk with you the fact the president issued 19 executive actions and there's been a lot of debate of how emboldened he'll be on a host of issues and specifically immigration. sitting where you are in washington, we're ending the summer, here we have the president wielding his quote/unquote septor to make the country a better place. do you think we can glean anything from the moves today, the 19 different prescriptions he announced? >> are the republicans going to

argue we shouldn't have a suicide prevention study in the va? that we shouldn't do something about the primary care doctor shortage in the va? because it's happening through executive action. i would like to see them make that case and i think again i would like to see them make the case on immigration reform the president shouldn't be doing much because they are in such a hole when it comes to the parts of the country who care about immigration reform. so i haven't heard boehner talk much about his lawsuit in the past couple of days. where is that lawsuit? i don't know. again, when it came to the lawsuit, they looked at obama care and put everything else to the side. that was a very half hearted weak attempt -- this whole executive action to get their base rowed up because they think obama is a king. it is part of their story and it's not going to get traction with the rest of the voters and i don't think they even have

their heart in it that much, except for a few of the more extreme tea partiers. >> i think what speaker boehner's office was pushing was a website that featured photos of boehner and various dignitaries with a wind-up monkey that sits in his office. >> and tweeted about the christmas tree that will come to the u.s. capitol in november/december. he's had a busy day. >> very busy day on the international internets. dave corn with mother jones, thanks for your time. >> good to see you, alex. >> californians are getting higher and higher. and not because of what you think. details on that next. 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.

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