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tv   MSNBC Live  MSNBC  August 31, 2014 12:30pm-1:01pm PDT

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is the u.s. taking too long to act against isis? many democrats and republicans are calling for the president to move forward. and there's a victory between the u.s. and air strikes to help break the isis siege in an iraqi town where residents have been trapped for more than six weeks. is this a sign that the tables are turning on the terror group? the nfl commissioner announced tougher penalties regarding domestic violence. just days later a san francisco 49er is the first one to test the new policy. good afternoon, i'm milissa rehberger. we'll begin with fast moving developments in the battle against isis. earlier today the u.s. launch
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another u.s. air strike in northern iraq. there are new fears 48 hours after officials warn a terror attack there is highly likely. back at home, lawmakers sounded off on the threat posed by isis. democrats and republicans worry the administration is taking too long to act. >> i think i've learned one thing about this president. and that is he's very cautious. maybe in this instance too cautious. >> there have been plans on the table. the president just did not want to get engaged in any way. that is a decision. that is a policy. that is a strategy. and it's not working. >> we can't wait forever. and the longer we do wait, the stronger isis becomes. more people and more america and britain become at risk. >> kristen welker is at the white house. you heard them say president obama is too cautious. what is the administration approach going to be moving forward on this isis threat? >> we know president obama is
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working with the pentagon, his national security team to develop a strategy for dealing with isis in syria. the administration signaling that it will be a broad multi-pronged approach. secretary kerry wrote an op-ed in "the new york times" this weekend suggesting as much. among the operations, the president is considering air strikes, also possibly providing more military support to the opposition forces there. we know that whatever the president decides will include and depend on having an international coalition, so the secretary of state john kerry is going to travel to the middle east at the end of this coming week where he'll start to build that coalition in that area. president obama for his part traveling to nato on tuesday where he'll be talking to his european allies about trying to build an sbinternational coalition, trying to get on the same page about isis and syria. there's mounting pressure on the president to do something. and now today with the comments by senator dianne feinstein,
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democrats are joining the course of voices saying they want to see decisive and quick action. >> kristen, there are also reports that many liilitias hav seized a compound, what do you have to say about that? >> officials in libya are saying they seized the compound. the state department has not confirmed that, but it is believed they have not seized the main part of the compound but rather the annex. and just today we are getting youtube video of a pool party, a reported pool party. now nbc has not confirmed the authenticity of this, the state department is looking into this video as well, trying to confirm whether or not this is actually authentic. but certainly it would be a slap in the face to the u.s., u.s. policy there if, in fact, this is video of militiamen having a pool party there in the annex of the compound. one important point to note, though, last month all u.s. personnel were evacuated from
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the embassy in tripoli because the situation there is so volatile. because of the violence there that has been raging with these various militia. so there are no u.s. personnel in danger. still, again, it is a symbolic low to the u.s. foreign policy in that region if, in fact, this video is authentic and if, in fact, the militiamen have seized that annex of the compound. back to you. >> kristen welker is reporting from the white house. thank you. we'll bring in arizona congressman raul geralva. president obama said at a fund-raiser, quote, i promise you things are much less dangerous now than they were 20 years ago, the 25 years ago or 30 years ago, so which is it? >> yeah, i think that the president's done the decisive thing in the humanitarian support that he's provided people. and also the military
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intervention through the bombings to try to stop isis and the atrocities that are being committed against civilians and americans. but the next step is the plan that's being developed. and i think that we are thinking of not doing anything. as we know from history, the unilateral action in iraq has put us in a quagmire for a decade-plus. the middle east has to be partners in this effort to stop isis. the international community, france and europe, have to be partners. and to build up that coalition and to assure that this is not a unilateral america going at it alone, another area in which in the middle east in which we become part of a war of attrition, i think is not the policy we should have. being deliberate is the way to go right now. >> you've been highly critical
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of president obama and his decision to launch air strikes without going to congress first. what do you see congress doing going forward in this battle? >> i think all the people that have been talking about the president being too cautious, that he doesn't have a plan, you know, and i happen to believe that as this issue escalates, that every member of congress needs to be in a position to either validate that next direction or not. and so if leadership that's talking about this issue, you want to vote before congress, i agree. if we escalate, bring this to a status much more than it is today, than we are fully engaged in another huge military operation in the middle east. i think the american people deserve to know where their representatives stand and to the war powers action should be where congress takes a vote as to validate the direction and validate the plan to go forward. but the president is using a
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deliberate coalition building strategy to stop isis. i think it has done, slowed it down tremendously, but that threat is real. it's -- the atrocities are real, and it's more than the united states in order to stop this and deal with this effectively. and if congress wants to escalate any further, than there should be a vote before congress. >> let's turn to immigration. reports today suggest a lack of consensus inside the white house on what to do with millions of undocumented immigrants. you are a member of the hispanic caucus. so what are the good options here for the president? >> the good options are the template that his staff, secretary johnson, secretary legal counsel, the attorney general have been looking at that are constitutionally and legally defensible. and those options are before the president. and it's now when he is going to use his executive authority to provide administrative relief
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for millions upon millions of people and how long this is going to take. >> do you see anything getting done before election day? >> i would hope so. i think it's an important enough issue that some important decisions regarding relief have to be made before the election. the calculation is that it will hurt certain democratic candidates, particularly in the senate. i think that has been cast. the people who are going to be against any formal reform, my colleague peter king, ted cruz in the senate, a delay is not going to be any point of satisfaction to them. they are not for any relief. and i think the president has raised expectations on the part of many people that support immigration reform and support humanitarian relief for many families in the country. and i think he needs to act before. >> arizona congressman recall grijalda, thank you very much.
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another victory for iraqi u.s. forces as they break a siege where residents have been trapped for more than a month. is this a sign that the tables are turning there? and have had mir pvladimir wants to work on the crisis in ukraine. we'll lay out his plan, next. oh no, we couldn...okay thanks, hebrew national. a hot dog you can trust. after seeing everything, but let me take one last look. sure. take your time. built-in nav, heated seats for mom, dvd with wireless headphones for the kids! and tons of room for the golf clubs! golf clubs, and strollers. shhh ... i love this part. so what do you think? i think it's everything we wanted. great. discover for yourself why more people find their perfect car at carmax. carmax.
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shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. russian president vladimir putin is calling for talks to end the conflict in ukraine. and he talks about a political solution to begin immediately. this comes after the european union gave russia a one-week ultimatum to scale back its intervention in ukraine or face more sanctions. earlier today the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee robert menendez told alex whit the lack of more action on europe's part may be one of the factors in the increasing conflict. >> the european union's renaissance to vigorously pursue
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sanctions and our renaissance to provide the ukraine ans with the ability to defend themselveses so the cost to russia would be so significant they would have to think twice about continuing this aggression has, i think, invited putin to pursue the actions that he has done to date. >> according to the u.n., almost 2600 people have been killed in the conflict so far. the six-week siege of the northern iraq town is over in amirli. they started the operation earlier this year. this morning they entered from two directions. they call it an important victory. they did suffer from casualties but the exact number has not been given. kelly is joining me from london, is this a sign that the iraqi forces are turning the table on isis? >> well, it's a big victory no doubt, but isis fighters are in control of a large part of
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western iraq, including the country's second biggest city mosul. the air strikes hit three humvees according to the pentagon, a tank and a checkpoint. a kurdish fighter said it wouldn't be possible to free amirli without the air strikes. the u.s. planes struck isis targets near the mosul dam. that dam was retaken by kurdish and iraqi forces two weeks ago but clearly they are still battling isis in the area. and yet another reminder, melissa, today a suicide bomber killed 37 people at a building used by security forces in ramadi where they have been fighting forces aligned with the state for months now, so not exactly turning the tables with a lot of work to be done yet still. >> a 16-year-old girl is suspected of trying to get into syria to join the islamist rebels and was arrested yesterday at an airport in france before she left for jihad. a man accused of being her recruiter was also arrested.
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what more do we know about what's happening here? >> well, what we are hearing is french border police arrested the 16-year-old as she was trying to board a 5:00 flight to turkey yesterday evening. it looks like she has been recruited bay 20-year-old, a man who bought her ticket for her. the french interior minister said that her parents were not aware of her plans and credited the police at the airport with spotting her, questioning her and helping to track down the 20-year-old who the interior minister described as a recruiter and a smuggler. he's been arrested as well, melissa. >> kelly reporting from london, thank you. i want to bring in medal of honor recipient and msnbc military analyst colonel jack jacobs. colonel, i want to pick up on that, here is a look at the territory that isis already controls. so how big of a threat are they here at this point? and as a future threat directly to the u.s.? >> well, let me take the second first. because everybody's been talking
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about it. they are a threat to the united states. we have fairly porous borders, people without passports have come in and out. the bigger threat to jihadists of us, the bigger threat is to europe with no internal borders whatsoever. people can come and go as they please and they have lots and lots of your pieuropeans con standpointly fighting, consta constanting fighting. the british raised their terror level to severe. we do know who some of the people are but don't know much about their movements. you take your eye off the ball just for a second or two and the next thing you know it will be a genuine threat here in the united states. something needs to be done. >> the political magazine talked to several military and pentagon
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officials about what they think the president should do to combat isis and here's how it went down in a breakdown. the suggestions include bombing the islamic state, striking the army and and arming the rebels, and getting america's friends on board, leading a diplomatic and economic offensive and nearly all of the above approach. also this morning, i want to play what former commander and chief anthony zinni said on "meet the press." let's listen to this quickly. >> very simply put, if you put two brigades on the ground right now with u.s. forces, they would push isis back to syria in a heartbeat. >> when you put them all together, what are your thoughts on that? >> well, i think general zinni is right. tact tickly speaking, a couple brigades aught to do it, but it is not just a question of putting people in iraq to send isis back to syria. you have to stay in iraq long enough to prevent them from coming back. we may even be able to have the
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political will to second troops and put them on the ground in iraq again, but i tell you, we don't have the political will to keep them there. i don't think this president is going to do it. i don't think that congress is going to approve it. and by the way, to that list that you read about what needs to be done, what can be done, not only do you have to do all of them, there was one thing missing there, and that is also engage your enemies. that includes assad. we are not going to be able to defeat isis by merely sending bombs to attack their formations. and not just in syria and iraq, we are also going to need people on the ground, and that includes the irony of getting into bed with al assad. >> how concerned are you about the recruitment of civilians, most of them very young from france, apparently hundreds of them, and from places like britain? >> that's a real problem. you have a large community of muslims in europe, in every country in europe, who are, a
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lot of them are unemployed, disaffected, they are not plugged into the political sphere. they have no voice. they don't want a voice. and they are actively -- at least partially because of their economic circumstances, they are easily recruited to jihad. it's a real problem in europe. >> colonel jack jacobs, thank you very much. following the death of michael brown, missouri senator claire mccaskill says she wants police officers to be required to wear body cameras. an officer shot and killed brown as an unarmed teenager earlier this month in ferguson, missouri. our partners at now this news have a look at mccaskill's call for action. >> first, i think that the police responds needs to be demulcherized. this has become part of the problem as opposed to being part of the solution. so factors liken negatively impact good bacteria?
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ray mcdonald was arrested on domestic violence charges early this morning. the 29-year-old nfl pro was taken into custody after san jose police responded to a domestic incident call in a residential neighborhood. mcdonald posted bail and was released this afternoon. 949e the 49ers general managers say, "the 49ers organization is aware of the recent reports regarding ray mcdonald and we take matters seriously. as we continue to gather facts we'll reserve further comment." last week nfl commissioner roger
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goodell announced tougher penalties for players accused of domestic violence. here's a look at some of the other stories topping headlines today. michael sam, the first openly gay player drafted by the nfl, has been cut from the final roster of the st. louis rams. sam was a seventh round pick back in may. other teams could pick up the defensive end or the rams could sign him to their practice team. sam tweeted yesterday, "the most worth while things in life rarely come easy. this is a lesson i've always known. the journey continues." nascar driver tony stewart returns to the racetrack tonight for the first time in three weeks. it is his first time competing since he struck and killed driver kevin ward at a race earlier this month. and comedian joan rivers remains in serious condition today. the 81-year-old rivers was taken to a new york hospital thursday after going into cardiac arrest at a doctor's office. in a statement her daughter melissa today thanked fans for their support and said, "we're keeping our fingers crossed."
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a heat emergency has been declared this afternoon in the nation's capital. temperatures topped 90 degrees with a heat index of 96. washington residents have been warned to take precautions there. in southwest louisiana, residents are trying to recover today from a devastating storm that dumped up to six inches of rain in the lake charles area. other parts of the nation may also get drenched while some may be in for some dangerous weather. yes, we are track being the threat for some localized severe weather in parts of the mid-atlantic and also sections of the northern plains and central plains as we head throughout the course of this sunday afternoon and sunday night. in the mid-atlantic states a cold front is coming in from the northwest. interacting with the heat and humidity coming up from the south, we are now looking at a line of thunderstorms pushing into the philadelphia area. new york city will be looking at some thunderstorms shortly. there is still the threat for localized strong downpours that could produce flooding concerns and also gusty winds this evening. that will be the concern perhaps into early tomorrow morning in
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parts of the mid-atlantic. in parts of the northern plains, severe weather. damaging winds. tornadoes could be a threat as well. certainly some heavy downpours and hail. this is the case for minnesota down into kansas. here's a quick peek at labor day. some severe thunderstorms getting into the chicago area and in the northeast, some thunderstorms especially early in the day. so is washington going to see any relief from the heat so far today? >> not today. actually it is going to stay hot and humid tomorrow and the heat is going to stay for pretty much the next couple of days. >> maybe it is going to be a movie day for labor day there. well, thank you. that is our show. thank you for watching this sunday afternoon. we will see you here next weekend. until then, weep it here for the latest news updates and have yourself a great afternoon. if i can impart one lesson to a
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