of their lives, they were children when they went in brazen, now one is 46 and the other 50. they were never able to get married, never able to hug their mom who's now dead and my answer is the death penalty is not a redeemable penalty, and we need to get rid of it, it's the only way to prevent the execution of innocent people. >> ken rose, thank you very much. >> thank you, chris. >> that is all in for this evening, the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening, thanks for joining us this hour, happy wednesday. we begin with some breaking news, some late breaking political news about the united states senate, and what has just happened to the national republican hopes for winning control of the united states senate in the november elections, what happened tonight was very unexpected news.

the context is that republicans need a net gain of six seats in order to win control of the u.s. senate. and move mitch mcconnell up the ladder from minority leader to majority leader republicans control of the house is not in jeopardy in these elections barring some act of god, and republicans cannot dislodge president obama from the white house in this election, but they really can try to win the senate, that is the big enchilada at stake this year it will have huge consequences for the country and for the rest of the obama presidency. republicans have been focussed on the senate singularly. they have potential ways to gain the six seats they need in order to take over the senate. the republicans do appear -- at least the odds look like they will. they appear to be on the way to flipping senate seats from blue to red in the three states that are marked on this map right

here. west virginia, south dakota and montana. nothing's set in spoken. that's the way the odds look right now. republicans would then need to win only three of these other seven states marked on the map right now that are all considered tossup races in the senate. lags las, arkansas, colorado, iowa, louisiana, michigan and north carolina. that's not the only scenario for republicans taking control of the senate, but it is among the most obvious. because they have that wide of a pathway they can take over, republicans have been optimistic about their prospects of getting the senate this year, on paper it looks good, but that optimism, that confidence, what they see as their rosie odds for controlling the senate. those odds depend on republicans, of course, not just winning seatses they don't already have, and winning the tossup races, they obviously depend as a baseline on republicans keeping hold of the seats they already have.

especially seats they believe to be safe because they're in bright red states where they don't expect to ever find themselves in competitive races. and that is what has just happened in this surprise move tonight and what has just happened broadly to republicans in this next national election. three term republican senator has been leading in the kansas senate race. running for re-election, right? before a veteran senator, kansas's pat roberts has not been doing all that well, all through the primary season he had to fight off these allegations that he doesn't really live in kansas any more. he's become a citizen of washington, d.c., instead. and in fact it turns out that pat roberts does not own a home in kansas any more. he rents a room and uses that as his voting address. that was a very damaging

revelation against kansas senator pat roberts in the primary. in the republican primary where he's trying to hold on to his seat. fortunately for pat roberts, his opponent was kind of a freak show. he was a distant cousin of barack obama, which is funny and gets you booked on news max or whatever. his profession, is that he was a doctor, and it turned out not very far into the campaign, that the topeka capital journal reported that as a doctor, milton wolf, this primary opponent to pat roberts had made a habit of posting x-rays of gunshot victims and other victims of violence on his facebook page along with comments usually mocking the victims. when he was confronted about those images, he said, yeah, they served to show that evil lurked in the world.

>> what about this. do you think there was permission given about this? >> now, this -- if you don't identify a person, then you don't need their permission. >> we need to understand what the thinking is. we don't know -- i don't know exactly how to handle material like this. i'm asking you professionally, is this material professional? >> this is the kind of material you see in medical education -- >> this is facebook. >> this is facebook. having that guy for an opponent was a real gift to pat roberts. who against a competent tea party style opponent might have had a bad time. he had that guy instead, he got banged up statewide over the question of his residency. that's the charge that tends to stick with kansas voters. he's not really been popular in kansas. even with the x-ray freak show guy as his opponent, pat roberts only beat that guy in the primary 48 to 41 points.

he did beat him, though, and in the general election, senator roberts has had the double blessing of running in a three-way race in the general election. he's been polling in this ppp poll at 32%. he's the incumbent, right? 32%, that's not good. that's almost a synonym for vulnerable. luckily for him, it's a three-way race, the democrat and independent in the race, really split the remainder of the vote, pat robert the by virtue of that was still in this thing. looking like he was a winner because that democrat and independent running against him were really screwing up anybody else's chances. that was the lay of the land until today. until late today, until a few minutes before close of business today, which was the deadline for this thing to happen. after today, because of what just happened, this is not a three-way race any more. the democrat has now announced he's dropping out of the race. to give somebody else a better

chance of unseating pat roberts. chad taylor was the democrat in this case, about 45 minutes before the close of business in kansas today, on the day of the deadline, he asked the kansas secretary of state to take his name off the ballot. he is done, he had initially said he was suspending his campaign. he then crossed it out by hand and wrote, his campaign is terminated. the democrats have decided to try to win this race against pat roberts by quitting this race against pat roberts. the statement was kind of amazing, i should tell you about that crossout. the ap posted a picture of it, after much consideration with my supporters, i've decided to end my campaign for the u.s. senate, i have a great love for the state of kansas and the people that live here, i will continue to work in their best interest every day. effective today, my campaign is terminated. you can see the statement first said suspended then it got changed to terminated.

he has terminated his campaign for the senate. thus giving democrats the biggest leap forward they have had this entire year toward holding control of the united states senate for the last two years of the barack obama presidency. this leaves a two-way race against pat roberts who has not been polling all that great. against the guy in the right side of your screen here, his name is greg ormon. he looks comparatively fantastic, look at the polling, check this out. we have pat roberts eking his way to victory with the democrats still in the race. with the democrat gone pat roberts loses that race by ten points. you can bet that pat robert the is not happy about this news today. his campaign released a blistering statement about this decision.

taylor's withdraw corrupt bargain with democrats. ormon choice of liberals. this marks the second time this week and it's been a short week that we have seen democrats decide that the best way to win a race against the republicans was to kwet and try to get there a different way in alaska yesterday, we were able to report that the democratic candidate announced he would win for lieutenant governor. the independent candidate for governor has a better chance of defeating the republican incumbent. they formed an unusual but not unprecedented fusion ticket. democrats made that decision in alaska because the polling shows it's their best chance in alaska to unseat the republican governor the exact same way that

having the democrat withdraw in kansas but in this overall national control of the united states senate. we talked about the polling by sam wong. working out of the princeton election consortium. just so you understand who we're talking about here, he predicted all 33 u.s. senate races. he got zero states wrong in terms of predicting the outcome for senate races in 2012. sam wong has been tracking this race in kansas. what seemed like this pie in the sky chance that the democrat would drop out and clear the way for an independent who is likely to beat pat roberts. with the democrats in the kansas race, he put their overall chances of keeping control of the senate nor the whole country at 55%. the democrats and independents who already caucused with them

have a 50% chance of remaining in charge. but with the democrat dropping out in kansas, the odds of the democrats holding on to the senate nationwide for the whole country, those odds move to 85%. 85% chance of a democrat/independent majority in the senate. the republicans are going to be so mad about this when they finally take a minute to look at what happened here this could be a game changer, that is exactly what has happened. the senate race in kansas doesn't have a democrat in it any more. the republican is suddenly in a competitive race. greg ormon has been a strong candidate. the kansas republicans who had endorsed the democratic

challenger. greg orman got that endorsement today from all those kansas republican leaders even though he's not told anyone whether he would align himself with republicans or democrats if he won this senate race. our own steve core kornacki got a chance to ask him last month. >> if you were elected you could have the deciding vote after this fall's election, which side would you vote for? >> i think that's a great point, steve, and ultimately if i get elected, there's a reasonable chance that neither party will have a majority in washington, and if that's the case, what i've said is i'm going to caucus with whichever party is willing to go to washington and start trying to solve problems as opposed to just pleasing the extremists and their own base. >> of course it was steve kornacki who got that interview. last month he did that interview with the man on whom the prospects for control of the

united states senate now turn. greg orman sounding like a legit moderate in that interest view, he really did just become one of the biggest wild cards in the whole 2014 elections. game on for control of the united states senate in a way it was not a few hours ago. who work with regional experts who work with portfolio management experts that's when expertise happens. mfs. because there is no expertise without collaboration. ugh. heartburn. did someone say burn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews.

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trying to solve problems as opposed to pleasing the extremists in their own base. >> absorbing the breaking news out of kansas with profound implications for control of the u.s. senate. the candidate before tonight was a three-way race between mr. orman and a democrat named chad taylor and the incumbent pat roberts. about 45 minutes before the close of business, before the deadline, the democrat in the race has dropped out. chad taylor says he's terminating his campaign. that means it's a one man versus one man race. and that means the prospects for that kansas senate seat and for the overall control of the u.s. senate are radically different than they were a few hours ago. joining us now casey hunt.

thanks for being here and congratulations on your new gig. >> thank you, rachel. it's great to see you. >> is it a fair interpretation of this news to see this as radically pat roberts holding on to this seat? >> look, this race still has to settle a little bit, but it's clear that democrats at least view this as a place where they really could take a step forward and it's also clear that they maneuvered behind the scenes to make this happened while the republicans are already tagging harry reid as responsible for this i'm hearing from my sources that senator claire mccaskill played a key role in getting chad taylor to drop out of this race, with the razor thin margin that we're looking at here with the senate any one of these races could potentially turn the

map if greg orman is ending up as that person who decides the majority, not only would that put him in a unique position and give him a lot of power potentially, you could see as you say, a tipping of the national balance. >> to questions for you, and i'll try to ask them one at a time, i still feel like i'm trying to wrap my head around this, the first question is about that bombshell you dropped about claire mccaskill. i've been the only person in the pundit class who's been saying she's a likely democratic candidate for president and should be seen as a national figure. this is a national figure kind of move to go into kansas and say, we have to do something strategic here that you may not want to do, but i'm going to talk you into it. why claire mccaskill. >> she gets a lot of credit for

being a political thinker. she wants to play that role in her party. it's yet to be seen what her plans are. seeing this was a neighboring state, my understanding is, this was on her radar screen and she made clear to national democrats this could be in play beyond that, we're sorting out what role harry reid may have played in this, and exactly what role she played, but we do know she was involved. >> fascinating. let me also ask you about mr. orman himself, we saw that incredibly pressing interview a month ago with steve kornacki, who are you going to caucus with, who are you going to vote for in the kansas governor's race this year, tell me something to let me know what kind of senator you would be. he was absolutely very skilled at evading all of those questions and not answering. i know he has told other press

he voted for barack obama in 2008 and mitt romney in 2012. do we have any sense of whether he would make his decision who to caucus with before the majority decision was made? >> it doesn't sound like at this point democrats are confident they know which way he would go, they know he's more likely to caucus with them than pat roberts would if he were to win. and it's also a question of, if democrats do hold the majority in the senate or they have a one seat advantage, this could tip it back to 50/50. they would have a lot of ways to convince them to caucus with him. if you're an independent senator who has to make this kind of decision you have a lot more cards than somebody who comes in with a party labor, you can say, i want that plumb committee post i care about, and he would be

able to say something like that that also gives reid and the democrats potentially some power. we can give you that post, whereas senator mcconnell doesn't have that power right now. >> whoever's in the imagine order has the plums to offer in a way. >> yes. >> i always thought in american politics, there's no greater deflation period than after someone gets elected to be a u.s. senator. and then they become 1 in 100 -- >> just ask cory booker about that one. >> exactly. >> prepare to be taking out everyone's trash for the next several years, being an independent who wants to essentially sell your allegiance and gives you the one way you have in the u.s. senate to leap frog that system. kasie hunt thank you for being with us. as of today, an msnbc political correspondent. you can send her your congratulations as you wish.

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we will not be intimidated. their horrific acts only unite us. and stiffen our resolve in the fight against these terrorists. we will not forget and our reach is long and justice will be served. >>. >> talking about fighting is not the same thing as fighting. words are not the same as

warfare but today the language of the u.s. government at the highest level, the language of the u.s. government toward the terrorist group toward isis got as close as you could get to war without declaring it or waging it. >> we have taken the fight to this kind of savagery and evil before. and believe me, we will take it again. we're doing it today and when terrorists anywhere around the world who have murdered our citizens, the united states held them accountable, no matter how long it took. and those who have murdered james foley and steven sotloff need to know the united states will hold them accountable too, no matter how long it takes. >> it makes you sick to your stomach, but again it reminds us of the kind of brutality and the barbarism that is afoot in some

of these areas of the world, it is our responsibility, the president, vice president, mine, all of us, to do everything we can to stop this now, it won't just recede into the gray recesses of history until we stop it. >> if people harm americans, we don't retreat. we don't forget. we take care of those who are grieving. and when that's finished, they should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice. because hell is where they will reside. >> the bottom line is this, our objective is clear and that is to degrade and destroy isil so it's no longer a threat, not just to iraq, but to the region and the united states. the united states will continue to lead a regional and international effort against the

kind of barbaric and ultimately empty vision that isil represents, that's going to take some time, but we're going to get it done, i'm very confident of it. >> all over the course of one news cycle today. secretary of state john kerry, chuck hagel, vice president joe biden and president obama. all saying the same thing in different tones of voice they're talking about how they're going to get the group that used to be called al qaeda in iraq and now is called isis. this is lisa monaco, this week, the president is dispatching lisa monaco and defense secretary hagel and secretary of state kerry to go to the middle east to put together a regional strategy in the middle east for

acting against isis. isis is a sunni militia group, and it's seen as particularly important that sunni governments and governments in sunni majority states are not just part of an effort that we are leading or tacitly supporting something we're doing, but it's seen as strategically important that sunni governments and sunni states are seen as part of leading the fight against isis themselves. this is going to be really hard to organize, but it's expected to be key to the likely success of an effort against isis. that's why he's sending these people all at once to try to organize that effort. the president also said today that international strategies against isis will be proposed tomorrow in wales. for almost all the countries in nato. part of their strategizing against isis has to include not only thinking about how that group is operating in iraq and

syria, and what kind of threats might emanate from their home base in iraq and syria, but also the prospect of these country's own citizens who have western passports traveling to iraq and syria to fight with that group and traveling back home to mount attacks in the west. that threat is thought to be particularly acute in fwrans and britain. each of those countries have seen hundreds of their own citizens, travel abroad to go fight with isis. but the extent to which that also is a threat to the united states, that extent was brought home today in this exclusive interview. this interview was just released by nbc news just tonight. it's a remarkable piece of footage, this is thought to be the first on camera interview ever conducted with a radicalized american who left this country to go fight with isis. this is nbc news footage, this interview was done in lebanon, it's remarkable, you haven't seen anything else like this, watch. >> isis militants are brutal

killers whose victims include americans. yet there are americans, an unknown number who are isis recruits, including donald morgan. >> my islamic name -- >> what attracted him to isis. >> someone has to defend islam, and someone has to defend innocent muslims. >> reporter: nbc news interviewed morgan in beirut through a freelance journalist. he didn't hide his intention to join isis. >> with the intent of entering syria, joining up with medical or food aid convoys or directly with the islamic state. >> reporter: don morgan was educated at a military academy, a member of the national guard, a deputy sheriff, a bodybuilder, raised catholic in salisbury, north carolina. morgan had been in trouble with the law, and served time on gun charges. colleagues and law enforcement officials describe an angry man

struggling to fit in, and finding a cause in radical islam. >> this is it, this is the path, and this is the way you're going to go. >> morgan says, the change came two years ago, spending hours on the internet, following the wars in the middle east, he got sucked in, and started tweeting radical messages under an arabic pseudonym. >> a push came from buying mistreated by people around me who didn't share the views i had. >> he decided to join isis last june and began to make his way from beirut to syria, but he was stopped on the way by authorities in turkey and sent back. soon after our interview, running low on money, morgan returned to the u.s., knowing the risk. >> i think there's a strong possibility that they'll charge me with supporting terrorist organizations and participating in terrorist activities. >> but does he think he's participating in terrorist

activities? >> based on the definition, yes. >> again, that is the first on camera interview that's ever been done as far as we know with an american who's gone to the middle east to try to fight with isis, that man did come back to the united states. he was arrested he's now in federal detention in north carolina. isis has had enough success in its international recruiting efforts that almost every country in the world is considering the threats by fighters coming back to commit terrorist attacks at home after fighting with isis or being radicalized by isis. in terms of fighting isis, where they are masked right now, those international negotiations are explicitly underway at a high level with a lot of urgency. the wall street journal reports today, it's the one thing that has united the parliament in iraq, since saddam hussein was deposed the iraqi parliament has never agreed on a single thing,

except this. even iraqi lawmakers who were imprisoned by americans in iraq for fighting against the u.s. military. those iraqi lawmakers say they want the u.s. military back in iraq, as long as they're there to fight isis. the iraqi parliament agrees as to whether our parliament agrees, our congress, nobody knows. our congress is still on vacation. fifth week now. but if you want to keep track of which members of our congress agree that they at least ought to debate, they ought to vote against u.s. military action against isis in iraq and syria, we have our rolling whip count against members of congress who agree that they ought to at least vote, it's posted online right now. at maddowblog.com. we've updated it every day since we put it up. [ female announcer ] you get sick, you can't breathe through your nose...

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that fatal shooting by a member of the ferguson missouri police department set off weeks of protests and unrest. it drew the attention to the federal government. one of the days of protest and unrest there, attorney general holder promised the u.s. justice department would conduct a fair and thorough and independent federal investigation into the death of michael brown. the justice department did dispatch a team to investigate the shooting. that investigation was about that one shooting of michael brown. what has been an open question since then, is whether the justice department would launch some sort of broader investigation into the ferguson missouri police. and its policing practices, well, tonight we have an answer to that question. nbc news has confirmed the justice department will launch a federal civil rights investigation of the entire ferguson missouri police department. this is new. the federal government has the

power to investigate local police departments if there's a suspicion of widespread civil rights abuses of their policing practices, we have learned that the justice department plans to launch that sort of investigation in ferguson. an announcement of that investigation is expected tomorrow, but nbc has confirmed it tonight. i should also tell you that tomorrow night on this show, we're going to be joined live by democratic senator claire mccaskill of missouri. she's been front and center among national politicians on the situation in ferguson, she's convening hearings on the mill tarization of police in light of what happened with policing protests in ferguson. also i should say as of tonight, msnbc has learned earlier this hour, that senator mccaskill may have played a key role in engineering this bombshell democratic decision in the u.s. senate race in kansas tonight. so we'll have lots to talk to senator claire mccaskill about. that interview will be live here tomorrow night. we'll be right back. insurance company will only

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last night i had this whiff at the earned of the show of george w. bush visiting albania. george w. bush's visit to estonia is a visit to a balkan country. it's not, it's a visit to a baltic country. while that is hysterical, it's not nearly as hiss tear terikal as the time we labelled the large body of water off the coast of florida as the indian ocean. yes, i once did that. life is amazing and then you die. the president of the united states was in the baltic nation of estonia, and he spoke with some passion about what is inspiring to him about that part of the world. >> exactly 25 years ago people across the baltics came together in one of the greatest displays

of freedom and nonviolent resistance that the world has ever seen. on that august evening perhaps 2 million people stepped out of their homes and joined hands. a human chain of freedom. the baltic way. and they stretched down highways and across farmlands, from ta n talon, they lit candles and sang anthems. old men and women brought out their flags of independence. young parents brought their children to teach them, that when ordinary people stand together, great change is possible. here in estonia, when people joined the line, the password was freedom. as one man said the berlin wall is made of brick and concrete. our wall is stronger. and it was.

>> president obama speaking in estonia today about this, about the baltic way, one day on the 23rd of august 25 years ago in 1989, when the people of estonia and latvia and lithuania, they did this simple and staggering protest in which they just lined up down the middle of the road and became a single file line holding hands all the way across their countries. millions of people in one human line to say that they wanted their independence from what was then dying as the soviet union. and they got it. president obama paying tribute to that today. and then getting a big response from the same audience when he turned to the issue of russia, when he used some of the most aggressive language he has used yet about what he described as the threat that post soviet russia poses right now to its neighbors, including its more skiddish neighbors that border russia directly, countries like

estonia. president obama today naming that threat, emanating from russia, and saying the united states and nato would stop that threat. >> it's been the pro russian separatists who are encouraged by russia, financed by russia, trained by russia, supplied by russia and armed by russia. and the russian forces that have now moved into ukraine are not on a humanitarian or peacekeeping mission, they are russian combat forces with russian weapons in russian tanks. now, these are the facts. they're approvable. they're not subject to dispute. during the long soviet occupation, the great astonian poet wrote a poem in which she cried to the world, who will come to help.

right here at present now? and i say to the people of estonia and the baltics, we are bound by our treaty alliance, we have a solemn duty to each other. article five is crystal clear, an attack on one is an attack on all. so if in such a moment you ever ask again who will come to help, you'll know the answer. the nato alliance, including the armed forces of the united states of america right here, present now. [ applause ] we'll be here for estonia for latvia, we'll be here for lithuania. you lost your independence once before with nato you will never

lose it again. >> with nato you will never lose your independence again. president ball today in the nation of estonia, those words coming today within an hour of vladimir putin, going through a sort of bizarre ritual in which he said that he had come up with a ukrainian russian peace plan. he said he came up with it and wrote it in a notebook while he was on a flight to mongolia, in the middle of giving remarks, he asked if someone could please fetch his notebook, so he could remember what his idea was for his peace plan. what looks like a war is on in eastern ukraine, although russia tries not to talk about it in those terms. president obama said today u.s. troops will be participating in military exercises in the coming weeks inside ukraine. how is president obama's speech today? and that troop announcement today? how are those things going to land in moscow and given the

recent behavior of president putin, what should we expect to happen next here? joining us now is michael mcfaul, a former u.s. ambassador to russia. professor, it's great to have you here, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> what do you think is going on right now in terms of president putin's strategic considerations? am i right to think his display today in which he unveiled a peace plan which he wrote on the plane and then asked for the notebook was an odd display? >> yeah, it was bizarre, without question it was bizarre. i don't know if it was theater or spontaneity, the substance of the plan itself was pretty thin, it basically said, the government of kiev needs to surrender and start peace negotiations, there was no discussion whatsoever of what russia needed to do in order to create the conditions for a cease-fire.

to your bigger question about what he's thinking about, it's actually been a pretty good week for his surrogates. they have opened a new offensive, rolled back some of the gains that the gains that t military made a couple weeks ago, and so i think he's feeling rather confident today, even despite the rhetoric of the president's speech in estonia. >> from a distance, and i'm a layman in these terms and i am prepared to be corrected, but it seems to me just watching this like the russians had propped up pro-russian separatists inside ukraine, including supplying some of them. the separatists in trying to become more ukrainian, fell apart, weren't able to hold themselves against the ukrainian military. and now putin is bolstering them by sending in russian regular forces and making this something that looks more like a traditional war. that's what it looks like to me. is that how you see it?

>> yes, more or less, i think that was an excellent summary. i would just add a few details, that he sent them in because the rebels were on the verge of losing. that's important. there was a moment when we weren't sure what putin was going to do. he's decided to double down and not let them lose. with respect to whether it's a conventional war or not, the russians are playing this very strange game of trying to disguise what is happening. but the results on the ground i think make it pretty clear that he has brought in reinforcements and new arments to roll back those ukrainian gains of a couple weeks ago. >> how important is it that president obama walls so direct about that today? the russian forces that have now moved into ukraine are not on a humanitarian or peacekeeping mission. they're russian combat forces with russian weapons and tanks. these are the facts. they're provable. they're not subject to dispute. is it important for president obama to speak in terms that

blunt? >> well, i've got to tell you, i liked the speech a lot. he was fired up and ready to go today in a way he hasn't been for a while in terms of these foreign policy speeches. i worked for the president for three years at the white house, then represented him in moscow for two years. he does not say things like that unless they are facts. i think he wanted to make that crystal clear to the people of ukraine and to moscow that we know exactly what is going on. with respect to what can be done, that's a harder question. he hinted at a few things. i think we'll hear more out of the nato summit tomorrow. but to define things in the imperial and idealogical way that he did. he talked about this as a fight between democracy and dictatorship. that's a new fay of frame thing conflict we hadn't heard before. >> and to say it in a baltic nation bordering russia gives it

that much more resonance. thank you so much for being here. still ahead, an update on how the man who once thought he really was going to be the nominee for vice president of the republican party, how he spent his day in court today. we'll be right back.

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not that long ago, bob mcdonnell waited to find out if mitt romney was going to be picking him as his running mate. instead, he waited for the jury to complete its second day of deliberations on the fate of his wife and himself while they are facing 14 felony counts. the jury started deliberating yesterday. today was their second day. their first full day i guess. but still no word from the jury in terms of a verdict. interestingly, even though the judge in this case gave the jury 90 separate jury instructions, instructing the jury took over two hours, the jury so far still has not asked the judge for any help. at least in open court the jury has not asked any questions of the judge about the case or about the instructions to them or about how they ought to decide the case despite those extensive instructions. the jury will pick up tomorrow morning to start their 14th hour of deliberations in this case. we'll all still be waiting for the verdict.

there was one small bit of drama that was reported by jeff shapiro. according to him -- >> the jury was released tonight shortly before 6:00 p.m. eastern time. they will be back at it tomorrow morning at 9:45 a.m. for their third day of deliberations. all right. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. but i have to tell you, we're having this weird technical difficulty thing happening in the building right now, which means there's going to be a commercial before lawrence comes on, but i swear on my life, lawrence is going to be with you and live in just a second. you are not allowed to leave. you have to stay right there. promise me. i can see you during the commercial. don't move.

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from an allstate agent. as the unintend ed consequences of president bush's war in iraq continue to mount, the seemingless unintended consequences, today president obama answered the question about what his objective is in dealing with the latest unintended consequence of president bush's war in iraq. >> our reach is long and justice will be served. >> stepped up rhetoric against isis. >> we will follow them to the gates of hell. >> are we trying to contain this threat or defeat it? >> our objective is clear, to degrade and destroy isis. >> the rhetoric is not matching the strategy. >> is this president being too cautious? >> the