>> it's a huge threat in the states. we need to stay on top of it. >> we've got to bomb them. we've got to sgeo get in. >> we have to get in and get out. >> is he going to go into syria? is he going to draw a line? the sand? >> on defense, the nfl admits to dropping the ball on the ray rice case, but won't rule out his possible return to football. and now a leading women's rights group is calling for commissioner roger goodell to be sacked. meanwhile, in ferguson, protesters plan to shut down a major interstate this afternoon, this after city council members were met with outrage and anger at last night's first meeting since the fatal shooting of michael brown. we start with president obama's speech, delivered exactly seven hours from now, in front of a prime time audience. the president will lay out how the u.s. must fight isis. he and secretary of state john kerry have been pressing allies around the world today and making the case with lawmakers

in washington to back a plan believed to include air strikes and other assistance to moderate forces on the ground, but not american boots on the ground. for his part, secretary of state kerry just landed in jordan, after meeting with leaders in iraq earlier today. where he discussed in general terms how the president will frame his rationale for confronting isis. >> this is is a fight that the iraqi people must win, but it's also a fight that the rest of the world needs to win with them. >> meanwhile, both houses of congress held hearings today on terrorism, including the isis threat. one of the key questions being asked, just how imminent a threat the group isis is to americans. while new nbc/wall street journal polls show practically all americans are aware of the group that beheaded two american journalists and that most believe a response inside iraq and syria is necessary to confront isis. with the anniversary of 9/11 just one day away, they also

appear ambivalent on the subject of going beyond air strikes in the region. nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing joins us from the white house. give us a bit of a preview. the president is trying to do two things, rallying the country and rallying allies. >> reporter: and rallying congress. working on the speech. they're on the third or fourth draft. he was going to spend some time in the oval office alone working on it after seeing several draft of it. it's something he signaled at the end of the nato summit, signaled at it in his interview with chuck todd on "meet the press." we're going on offense. we're not going to wait for them to come to us. we're going to them. to make that case, es is going to lay out what administration officials say is a short term and long-term strategy. one of the most difficult jobs he's going to have is convincing the american people that we're going to have to be in this for the long haul. because there is still a war

weariness. they think timing is crucial because you've seen the polls. the american people want something done. in fact, there's an additional poll that's out today from pew that says 50% of americans say u.s. anti-terror policies haven't gone far enough. that's almost the exact opposite of where that poll was a year ago. the other thing that you're going to hear is talk about that international coalition. you've heard the president over the last several months saying, we cannot fight isis unless we have a strong iraqi government. days after that government was formed, john kerry was in baghdad today. he's now gone to amman, jordan, and from there he'll go to saudi arabia, which has been fundamental in funding the syrian opposition. when you see the president tonight, they say it's going to be a determined speech. it's going to lay out very methodically what the president plans to do. and also to rally congress because he has asked them for the authorization, something called title x, to allow u.s.

troops to train some of the syrian opposition on the ground, most likely in jordan. joy? >> chris jansing, thanks very much. chris matthews is the host of "hardball" right here on msnbc. thank you so much for being here. really wanted your perspective today. it seems to me the president has an almost impossible task, which is to get the american people to understand his messages, we're going to get isis, which the american people, the polls show, want to hear, but we're not going to go in in a big way military. how does the president do that just reer toicly. >> there is a gut visceral reaction to seeing fellow americans having their head chopped off. they're thinking that. the other guys on isis knew what they were doing. they were enraging us, humili e humiliating us, getting us to react. after the president gives his speech, they will react. this has been a chain reaction

since we put troops in saudi arabia, the holy land of mecca, tens of thousands of troops back there in 1990 because dick cheney told us to do that. he talked the royal family into letting us desecrate the holy land. we knock out the iraq government, throw the sunnis out, de-baathitize. in comes isis. we attack by air isis, they behead our people. the president will talk about the steps, necessary, essential. the question is, what is our reaction to that? this will continue as it has since 1990. >> that's the point, you and i agree on that, because we have this sense there's this great military action that our military can make a change in the middle east, that they haven't been able to do for generations. you mentioned dick cheney. he's back on the hill, talking with lawmakers, talking with republicans. harry reid very skeptical of

that saying he thinks lawmakers need to be careful taking advice from the ultimate neocon. is it alarming, i guess, people are still listening to this guy on capitol hill, at the same sometime the president's trying to rally them to his side? >> all these neocons have come out from undercover. they hid for a while during the iraq war. robert kagan is back on the review seconds of the wall street journal. bill crystal is on "morning joe" popping up his head. dick cheney has come back from hiding. they're back because here is their chance to escalate. their answer to every problem is escalate. more firepower, more attacks, more arabs dead on international television. somehow out of that will be an end to that. one thing we know how to do is escalate. we know how to escalate in kuwait and saddam hussein. we know how to escalate that. it led to al qaeda. from 9/11 we go, we can escalate that.

don't go back just to get al qaeda. let's go into iraq. that will escalate it further. now we're going into syria. do we really think a bombing campaign of isis isn't exactly what they wanted us to do when they started beheading our people? that's what they want. they draw us into more warfare. this is tricky because even though i can analyze it sitting here, it's easy to do what i'm doing, the hard thing is for the president to analyze it and also deal with the tremendous, visceral, gut reaction of americans to the sight of americans being beheaded which we declared in our polling to be the biggest news story in five years. certainly, he's reacting to that. we better be careful here. don't react all the time in the same mechanical way that's expected by our enemy. they will come up with a new set of tricks. this is going to keep going. one thing we've got to get over, i know we're the first world and they're the third world, we're somehow smarter than the enemy. that's not necessarily through. they are very smart. they will figure us out. they will use americans who have joined them how to get us, how to work us.

i think they're working us into a larger bombing campaign. what they haven't succeeded and we haven't succeeded in doing, is figure out how to do the next step from our side. we need to get somebody to take on isis on the ground. jordanians won't do it. the saudis will pay for it. that's what they're good at. who's going to get on the ground? on cording to secretary kerry this afternoon, we're promising now the iraqi government, the new iraqi government, no foreign soldiers will come into their country and we won't come in. somebody nobody's going to fight isis in iraq except the iraqi government, which has been losing to isis since the beginning. who's going to fight a war we somehow are going to win? this is a strategy that's never been heard of. how to win and fight a war without anybody getting hurt, without anybody engaging? this is, as i said earlier today, an immack you lent conception. i've never heard of a war where there are no casuals, no actual ground fighting but somehow the other side gives up at some point. are we kidding ourselves here? are we really kidding ourselves?

>> that's what a guess a lot of people, principally will are some democrats on the hill that expressed it, not that very many lawmakers want to be heard on this, so far, but we do have this arc moving toward more war, because as you said, you know, you can't lay out a position with pinpoint operations that don't get anybody killed or put americans at risk actually solves the problem. is there a sense that you have, chris, maybe i'm speaking for myself here, that the thing that's lacking now as opposed to the 9/11 situation, is a sense of national unity or even the possibility that the congress, that the opposition, that the country could get behind this president on anything no matter what he says? >> well, they don't want him to succeed. we know that. are they totally unpatriotic? i don't think that's true either. they recognize they're in a bit of a conflict. what's happening, let's be political here for a second. mitch mcconnell loves this, loves this, because this war always increases the chance of incumbents because they go to

the people in charge, rally to them, think experts of people who have been there a while. they think new people aren't as strong. we kept roosevelt throughout world war ii. that's the natural tendty si to keep the people at top because they're more seasoned, i suppose. there will be some advantage for people like mcconnell. in the en, the president has to call the shots. all he has to do is call the cards, call their bluff. i'm willing to submit a resolution to congress of the united states for their approval. i need it in a week. see what happens. >> i would love to see that. i would love to see this debated on the floor of congress. >> i want a vote now. i don't want more information. some of these guys would be asking fdr, now, where are we going to land on the french coast? can we have that information now? give me a break. normandy, i wanted to know that. we can't expect that kind of information, but the president's promise, how to defeat the enemy without getting hurt yourself? how do awe void a second reaction? there will alleges be a reaction to what we do. in the past those reactions have

been much worse than what we confronted in the first place. we got into the al qaeda war by going into the holy land of mecca and putting thousands of troops there. we got into the fight by isis by throwing the sunnis out of the government in iraq. we know how to cause and create enemies. our challenge is how to de-escalate. not to get even but bring the wars to a lower heat so we can live with them. >> chris matthews, no better voice. thank you, sir. we'll be watching tonight. be sure to watch chris matthews tonight at 7 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. then at 8 p.m. we'll have special coverage leading up to the presidential address at 9:00. stick around for analysis after the speech. next, we'll go inside the strategy. a reality check as chris just laid out, i think, brilliantly, how can america do anything about isis without confronting the two big regional elephants in the rm -- iran and syria with its dictator bashar al assad. still ahead, as public fury over nfl and ray rice

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but anyone can help a foster child. in the days ahead, i will be meeting with leaders from across the region and beyond in order to discuss how can we best build on the work that has already been done and to assemble the broadest possible coalition for this fight. >> welcome back. that was secretary of state john kerry explaining what happens next, after president obama's speech tonight. when it's believed he'll commit the u.s. to defeating isis. as almost every person with an opinion on the subject has effectively ruled out u.s. ground troops to help wage the fight, the question becomes, how will the u.s. support elements in two countries where the unanimity is rare and defeat at the hands of isis has been all

too common. lawrence corb is fellow at america for progress and served as secretary of defense in the reagan administration. lawrence, always good to talk to you. this conundrum the united states has of wanting to put forward a plan to defeat isis without committing u.s. troops in a very robust way. how is that even possible strategically to do? >> well, it's not. that's why you shouldn't use the word defeat. i think what the president should say is you want to degrade them and contain them, and then work with the other muslim countries in the region to undermine their -- undermine their narrative. once you use the word defeat, that means you use all of the military power that you have. we know from history that air power alone cannot win a conflict. so, i think that's correct. i think chris matthews was correct in talking about the fact that you have a lot of these unintended effects because they can up the ante if you go

in. >> and, lawrence, the new nbc news/"wall street journal" polls shows americans feel we are safer than than 9/11? 47% say we're less safe. has there been a direct connection drawn? the beheadings of two americans is horrifying and what is angering americans and wanting them to go in, but has a connection been drawn between what's happening in predominantly syria and iraq and the americans here and the united states? doesn't that have to be made if we're going to do military action? >> it should. some people have lept to the conclusion because you have some hundreds of americans who have gone over to fight isis, that that increases the danger at home, that they could come back. you'll never get rid of terrorism. before 9/11 the biggest terrorist attack was a former army soldier, timothy mcveigh, who was upset about the branch

davidians or the marathon bombers upset about kech knchec. people will use that to try and rally support for not only the increased military action, but the increased spending for this. this is not going to be inexpensive. >> hashtag dick cheney, back on the hill talking about upping our conventional forces. i want to play you what john kerry had to say about this, mythical moderate opposition in syria. let's hear what he had to say. >> we support the syrian moderate opposition. we have talked about plans. >> how did we get from the president saying this was essentially the rebels were a collection of farmers to not

being sure if we wanted to arm them because we weren't sure if they were mixed up with isis-like elements to us saying we know who they are and we're going to help them? >> that's a great leap of faith. when i say the free syrian army, that's like the holy roman empire. it exists in people's mind, but is it on the ground? hopefully over time if we're willing to send in special forces to work with them or in jordan to help train them, it might grow. but the fact of the matter is that the president was right. can you imagine if we had sent arms in like the saudis did back a couple of years ago, things like man pads to shoot down planes and the isis got ahold of them? so, the president was right and i think you can start now, but you're not there. and i think it's so important to recognize that you're going to have to partner with some people you don't like. i mean, the iranians are helping us in iraq. have you to be so careful if you go into syria that you don't

become de facto allies of assad. >> i remember there was a time we armed mujahideen and that didn't turn out. lawrence korb, thank you. three things to know on this wednesday. police say the father of five kids whose bodies were found in alabama yesterday has confessed to the killing. the kids were aging 2 to 8. timothy ray jones is now in police custody in mississippi. detroit's bankruptcy trial is on hold until at least monday while the city tries to cut a deal with a major creditor. that bondholder stood to lose $400 million under the city's original plan. they are trying to negotiate a settlement. if they agree to the termsdz, a bankruptcy trial could end sooner than they expected, perhaps bit end of this month. a report by "atlanta journal-constitution" says a georgia state senator is vowing to end sunday voting at a location he says is dominated by african-american shoppers. and near several at-large

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domestic abuse case of former ravens running back ray rice. in an interview with krbs news, roger goodell was asked about the nfl's reaction about the first video posted by tmz months ago, showing janay palmer being dragged unconscious out of the elevator. goodell's response, quote, when we met with ray rice and his representatives, it was ambiguous about what actually happened. we did not know what led up to that. we did not know the detakes of that. the national organization of women is asking for goodell to resign and some are accusing him of willful i guess foerns for failing to secure the security tape tmz says it was able to obtain and release this week. the commissioner maintains no one at the nfl saw the tape but he did admit the existence was not a surprise. >> we did not see anything that occurred in the elevator. we assumed there was a video. we asked for video but we were never granted that opportunity. >> shawn gregory, senior writer

at "time" magazine and he's covered sports extensively over the last decade. any movement in this question of whether or not the nfl could possibly have not known of the existence of this videotape? >> yeah. there's no real proof right now. i mean, you have either you say willful ignorance or just ignorance. either way it's not a good look for the nfl, for roger goodell, really lack of leadership. the nfl prides itself on punishing, on being strict, and investigating. and here there was a tape. why didn't they have the tape? or they saw the tape and they just -- they saw the tape before the other day and they're saying that they didn't. >> yeah, because the lawyers for ray rice presumably had the tape. our understanding is they had it. is there anything in the contract negotiated by the player's union that would have prevented roger goodell and nfl from obtaining that tape from ray rice's lawyer? >> no. if he's going to give it over, he could give it over. tmz got the tape.

doesn't look like the nfl went to the casino, the original source of the tape. so, obviously, again, if roger goodell didn't see the video, he should have seen the video. >> the ravens' owner, steve bisciotti, has a new statement out and he says, seeing the video changed everything. we should have seen it earlier. we should have pursued our own investigation amore vigorously. we didn't and we were wrong. >> roger goodell's job -- you know, there's a lot of public pressure for his job right now. whether he's going to survive is a real question. you know, he's pretty confident he'll be okay. the owners are saying he's done a good job. but you know how public pressure has built up in this case before. remember, ray rice originally got a two-game suspension. and thenl roger goodell came back and said, i messed that up. there's been response to public pressure in the nfl. let's see what happens when it's

all going toward roger goodell. >> shawn gregory, thank you very much. one positive thing to come out of this week's discussion of domestic violence has been an online conversation taking place mainly under twitter #whyistayed with more than 2,000 mentions per hour. the topic is still trending today. the huffington reports the national domestic hot line has seen an 84% increase in phone calls in the last two days. beverly gooden, a domestic survivor who starte startestarted #why started #whyistayed. thank you for being here. beverly, why did you star start #whyistayed? >> i didn't see the video at first with the full footage. i saw the reactions. overwhelmingly the reaction is, why didn't she leave him? why did she stay with him? i started the hashtag for one to give all of us survivors a voice, when our voice has been taken away.

two, to change the conversation to why did she stay to why did he hit her? there's a million reasons why people stay. there were several reasons why i stayed. while that's important, the focus should be on the offender and not the victim. >> there's a piece in "the daily beast," inspired by your hashtag, and she used it in the title of it. she had no bank account, car in her husband's name, pregnant with her second child and she going home would feel like a failure to go back to her mom. that's the thing that's been disturbing in the beginning of this because you had people defending ray rice by saying, well, if janay stayed with him, it can't be that bad. >> and that's -- i mean, it's so incredible how repeatedly whenever there's an incident of abuse, well-publicized abuse, the focus is always shifted toward the victim. that's universal. in regards to why do victims stay? again, there's a myriad of reasons. i can speak for my own personal

experience and actually it's an honor to meet you. i didn't even realize you created the hashtag because i did participate. but you are facing social stigma. i mean, look at what janay rice is dealing with just as a high-profile wife of an nfl player. think about it on a microcosm now. you're a woman, in your community, typically already isolated from your family, your friends, possibly at work. your perpetrator or your abuser has already brainwashed you and told you you're nothing. why do you stay? because he's typically told you he'll take the kids, he'll kill you, he character assassinates you. there are so many reasons. what i really want to see come out of this entire experience is what my friend roland martin said about what happened in ferguson. can we take this from a moment into a movement? because clearly, just based upon

the constant comments on twitter and on facebook, there are a lot of people who are completely ignorant about the dynamics of abuse. and just constantly attacking the victims shows there is so much more work that needs to be done. >> and even every time now that we've heard from in very limited ways and we don't know how orchestrated hearing from janay rice has been, but whenever you hear from her, she's defending her husband. but that isn't even necessarily unusual because even if you take it to your community, you're defending the father of your children, you're defending the bread winner. that doesn't mitigate it either. >> she was me. four years ago i would have said the exact same thing she did. i'm going to stand by him. we have real love. this is us. that was me. so i understand where she's at. i don't want to speak for her, but i get it. that shouldn't change the fact that she didn't hit herself. he hit her. so, he should be the focus. we do this all the time.

we do this with domestic violen violence. we say, why didn't she leave? we do this with rape. why did she wear that? we blame the victim as if being -- existing and being a person or wearing clothing means you deserve some sort of violence and you have to explain it. she doesn't have to explain it. >> and then be attacked -- not be attacked but floyd mayweather saying the nfl should have kept the suspension -- >> but he's an abuser. >> i want to talk about the broader statistics. percentage of women who have experienced domestic violence is alarming. 29.7% of women report having been slapped, shoved or pushed. 13% hurt by pulling hair. 10% beaten. burned, 1.2%. attacked with a knife or gun, 4.2%. we're not talking about a tiny percentage of women. we're talking about a substantial share of women in relationships. men go through it as well. but it's something that broadly

occurring. is it surprising to either of you it took this for us to finally focus on it and start to talk about it? >> we focus and, again, the focus is there. every so often when there is a high-profile case. when you're talking about statistics, i want to talk about something that has not been broadly talked about, which is racism and the sectionism that is -- sexism that is not being discussed. i truly believe that if janay race had been a white woman, that if ray rice had been a white player, there would have been an entirely different outcry over the video of her being dragged out unconscious sfr that elevator. secondly, another issue that needs to be brought up, black women suffer disproportion atly higher violence than any other race. black woman is 35 times more likely to be battered than white

woman. our teen girls have the highest rate of teen dating violence. they're within our community, our culture, there is a serious problem with our attitudes towards domestic violence. and this is an opportunity for us to highlight that and then to take specific actions to counteract this cultural acceptance. >> absolutely. thank you so much for starting that hashtag. started incredible dialogue. thank you both for being here and to understand this issue a lot more. 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. enjoy the relief. [guy] i know what you're you're thinking beneful. [announcer]beneful has wholesome grains,real beef,even accents of spinach,carrots and peas. [guy] you love it so much. yes you do. but it's good for you, too. [announcer] healthful. flavorful. beneful. from purina. mom usually throws a gogurt in there. well mom's not here today so we're doing things dad's way.

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>> frustration and determination, as you just heard. those are the emotions that were palpable during ferguson, missouri's public city council meeting last night, the first since unarmed 18-year-old mike brown was shot and killed by police officer darren wilson. grand jury deciding whether or not wilson will be charged with a crime is meeting today. in hours from now, a group calling for a special prosecutor in the case will hold a rally and march across interstate 70 in st. louis. msnbc.com national reporter lee is back on the ground today in ferguson. we've heard some of the emotional sound from last night's city council meeting. what did you hear inside that auditorium and what was the response from the people -- the city counscilors? >> reporter: the young man said, this is just the beginning. it's still like that. the energy is still there. people have not waned in their

desire for real change in this community. it was interesting the panel sat stone-faced. only one was taking notes when people were giving their testimony about being harassed, discrimination and the mounting debt on their shoulders from all the warrants and sticky trap of fees. so the response fueled some of that anger. they wanted answers, they wanted solutions and they didn't get much in the way of either last night. >> the police chief was presumably there. i was watching some of this on social media. police chief there, members of the city council. anything put forward that sounded like solutions they're at least proposing for the community? >>. >> reporter: i think of all the proposals and ordinances they're proposing, the one that sounds like it has the most teeth is the cap of 15%, the fees and income generated from warrants and court fees, that going to the general purpose funds. as it stands now, all those arrests where they were giving out more warrants than people in this town, all the money generated from that was going into the city's general fund. of all of it, that seems to make

the most sense for people. even the proposed warrant recall program, no one knows the details. the civilian review board, no one knows the details. 15%, that's a pretty big deal. >> you'll cover the rally and march this evening. any reason to believe the prosecutor would ever consider stepping down? at this point he hasn't shown he has. >> reporter: there is no indication he plans to. he said as much. the governor said he would welcome him stepping down but he won't be any pressure on the prosecutor to step down. in his own words are any indication, he's not going anywhere. >> he's up for re-election in november, unopposed. that's happening in november. appreciate it. next, our generation to generation series continues with a look at the new advances in the fight for same-sex marriage. you know.... there's a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious and an excellent source of fiber to help support regularity. mmmm. these are good!

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time now for our series generation to generation which brings together current leaders and people who influenced and inspired them for frank conversations with politics and the state of our culture. we spoke recently to gavin newsom who defied state law in 2004 by ordering city clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex koim couples. we talked to my girls, a married couple who also happen to be national spokeswomen for marriage equality. >> iesha moody mills. >> we met through a mutual friend. >> i never believed in love at first sight but i do believe now in love at first conversation. i don't know what we talked about that night, but i do know that it was fate that brought us together and it is love that keeps us together.

>> who said i love you first? >> you did. ♪ >> well, gavin newsom -- >> only one month into his term as mayor of san francisco, it was gavin newsom who defied state law when he told the county clerk's office in san francisco that he wanted them to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. >> oath of office is crystal clear not to discriminate. >> a conservative group is calling for the arrest of san francisco's mayor. >> the whole idea was to advance a lawsuit against our laws here in the state of california. >> and some gay rights advocates, including massachusetts congressman barney frank and barbara boxer believe the aggressive tactics by san francisco's mayor, who this week hosted a marriage for rosie o'donnell, may be causing more harm than good. >> the unions were just taking

shape but people weren't even ready there. the idea of leap-frogging it was tough for elected officials. >> it's about equality and our relationship is no better or worse than a straight marriage. >> 87 couples lined up that first day. 300 more the next. >> 4,036 couples from 46 states, 8 countries around the world, all came to san francisco and certainly created a lot of controversy. not just within the democratic party, certainly the other party, republican party, but aren't the country. >> iesha proposed to me in 2009. everything changed from that moment. it was brilliant. >> and i really hope struck a chord in people's minds and their hearts to start thinking about this issue. not as an academic issue, not as a legal brief, but about human beings. >> i now pronounce you spouses for life.

>> and her mother said the sweetest thing that anybody has ever said to me outside of danielle in my entire life. she she, when danielle told me she was gay, i was so afraid for her life. i was upset. i didn't know what her life would be like. she's already black. already a woman. now this. but she said, you know, since you have come into our lives, i could not imagine a more perfect partner for my daughter. danielle's father was equally as charming. he's just like, well, she loves you. >> we got married. >> personal vows and a political gesture after president bush called for constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. >> he saw something wrong with the constitution. he wanted to explicitly state marriage was between just one man and one woman. >> i had always known from being a little girl that i wanted to get married. and when i realized that i was

gay and i came out to my friends and to my family, it was still a dream i had. >> a lot of people ask me, would you do things differently? a lot of people are very critical that it was too fast, too soon. wasn't the right way to do it in 2004. it was a shock to the system. i look back and i wouldn't. life's too short. our system is too limited. >> for most heterosexual couples when you get together, marriage is instant. for us, at that time, i think maybe only six states that had legalized same-sex marriage -- five states that had legalized same-sex marriage at the time. >> we thought, my good ngs, out of 7 billion people on this planet, if you find one person that will love you unconditionally, you should be able to shout that from the rooftop, celebrate that and legalize that. >> you know, at end of the day, if you believe in something, stand for something. >> and danielle and i ended up

becoming the spokes people and national spokes people for marriage equality. >> breaking news now from the supreme court -- >> the court has struck down federal defense of marriage act. >> a major ruling from a federal appeals court makes it more likely the supreme court will have to decide whether gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to get married in this country. >> right now we have 19 states, the district of columbia, that have sanctioned legal same-sex marriage. >> a federal judge in detroit struck down the state's gay marriage ban, calling it unconstitutional. >> same-sex couples can marry in new jersey. >> it's a string of lower court and appellate court decisions that have basically upheld the fundamental right to marriage same-sex couples. >> one by one, federal agencies are finally acknowledging marriage equality. >> progress is like a speeding train. and it can't stop and it won't stop. >> i just don't see there being a contingent of people over the next 50 years who still want to

fight this fight. >> eventually we'll move on and right this wrong as we did with interracial marriage in 1967. i expect in 2015 the united states supreme court to do the same with same-sex marriage. >> a nice note to end the show on. both iesha and danielle and garch newsom will be answering your questions online. you can visit thereidreport@msnbc.com. that wraps thing up for "the reid report." shift us online. a reminder, we'll have complete coverage of president obama's address to the nation on his isis strategy tonight at 9 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. "the cycle" is up next. hey, cyclists, i'm in a great mood. that story put us in a great mood. >> put us all in a great mood. we're all anticipating the big speech tonight from the president on isis.

we have two former presidential speechwriters on. that will be very interesting to get a sense of what's going on behind closed doors right about now. we also have salon's blake zefron hosting the show. >> i see that. >> is that put me in a good mood. >> do what i can. >> i'm not going to comment on that. blake, good to see you, man. welcome. i'm sure it's going to be great because "the cycle" up next. ly. you can do anything... if you keep a good head on your shoulders. my son knows it. my cousins know it. and of course, mami. that's why we use head & shoulders shampoo and conditioners. it keeps me 100% flake free and helps stop them from coming back. so i just have gorgeous hair. i use it... my whole world uses it. you mean you don't? head & shoulders. the world's #1 dandruff shampoo. some people think vegetables are boring. but with green giant's delicious seasonings and blends,

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final preparations right now at the white house. let's face it, this isn't just any speech we're going to hear tonight. this is a speech that marks a new chapter in america's war on terror. good afternoon. i'm abby huntsman. as we come on air, president obama is behind closed door talking with allies and meeting with national security council. tonight's speech comes with back drop of devastating new poll numbers. 32% approval, an all-time low for the president. it's all dems getting hit hard. republicans have an 18% point lead. when our pollsters asked which party is better at handling international affairs. here's the good news for the president going into tonight. nearly three-quarters of the u.s. support some sort of military action against isis. and that will be the main focus of tonight's speech. zeroing in on the exact strategy. updating the progress of the global coalition the president and secretary kerry have been working very hard to build. kerry has just arrived in

jordan. he spoke from baghdad with an optimistic tone earlier this morning. take a listen. >> iraq has not asked for american forces on the ground nor other forces. and iraq doesn't want those other forces here. >> we stand by iraq as it continues to build a government that meets the needs of each of iraq's diverse communities. and we stand by them as they fight to overcome the single greatest threat that their government, their families and their neighbors face today, and that's isil. >> it was nearly 13 years ago the word terror became a household phrase. today the congressional gold medal was presented to the various museums that honor each of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 9/11 attacks. perhaps, one of the best ways to honor them is to ensure an attack on the homeland never happens again. as we face down this new enemy, isis.