richard wolf in new york. we'll continue processing the votes and monitor the referendum in scotland. we'llmaddow. stay tuned. we'll have the latest information for you right here. >> all eyes are on scotland. the polls closed about four hours ago at 10:00 p.m. local time, 5:00 p.m. on the east coast of the united states, only the very first returns are in. we don't know exactly when a full result will come in but the count is under way right now, it's expected to go all night overnight in scottland. we'll have live coverage from edinburgh tonight including some of what the coverage looks like on scottish television. we've got that coming up ahead. we'll update you on the poll results as they come in from scotland so that's happening also. the nbc station here in new york tonight broke some big news about the federal criminal

investigation that has dogged new jersey republican governor chris christie for nearly a year now. jonathan dietz reporting while federal prosecutors continue to investigate the shutdown of lanes onto the george washington bridge last year as some still unexplained act of political retribution, federal officials tell wnbc tonight that those investigations thus far have found no evidence that governor chris christie personally had advanced knowledge of the shutdown plot nor have they found evidence that he took part in the plot personally. again, the investigation continues but that is the first substantive leak from the federal criminal investigation of the bridge shutdown in new jersey. the u.s. attorney's office in new jersey has been tights l tight lipped. more on that story in a few moments ago. that's coming up.

there's also news tonight out of washington, news that prompted this perfect headline from the huffington post late today. congress ashamed of congress. members of congress willing to go on the record to "huffington post" how embarrassed they are by their own institution and what it did today as congress makes a surprise and sudden decision today to bale, to leave. they decided today to bale on all their remaining workdays between now and mid-november. they just gave themselves every day off work from now until a week after the election. so they made the surprise announcement today they're canceling all this work for the next seven weeks and then they ran for the exits. while leaving one really important thing undone. president obama changing up his schedule late tonight to make this statement about congress on short notice.

we've got more on that including excerpts from the president's late address tonight. that's all ahead on what has been a pretty amazing day in the news today. any one of those things happening this afternoon and tonight would have made today a really big news day, right? but then not only are all those things happening all at once in, addition to all of them at 6:00 p.m. eastern time tonight, the supreme court in the great state of kansas decided they wanted to make some big national news, as well, news that frankly has turned on its head the national expectations for control of the united states senate. now, what's been going on in the kansas united states senate race so far has basically been this big national surprise, that in such a deep red state where mitt romney beat barack obama by 21 points a state that hasn't sent anybody other than a republican to the united states senate since 1932, it has been a who can to the national republican party and to a certain extent to the whole political system that an incumbent republican senator

in the state of kansas has been in trouble this year. incumbent republican senator pat roberts it turns out is having the race of his life to try and keep his seat in the senate right now. pat roberts is not the most popular senate in the world. his numbers are not great at home. he had to fend off a pesky tea party challenge in his primary this year. but until a couple of weeks ago, it looked like those problems were behind him and he would hold on to his seat in the general election mostly because of this. this dynamic. he had the great fortune of running in a three-way race. so people who want to vote for pat roberts can vote for roberts but people who want to vote against him were splitting their vote between the democratic candidate and a well financed pretty popular independent candidate. that dynamic that, vote splitting among opponents is how pat roberts was going to limp to re-election in kansas this year. that's how they were going to keep that seat in safe republican hands and help the republican party on its way to try to take over control of the

u.s. senate this year. that whole thing changed two weeks ago on september 3rd when that three-way race became a two-way race because this guy, the democratic candidate who had been running, he got persuaded that he should drop out. and if you take away that vote splitting phenomenon, if it turns out there's only one major candidate in the race against pat roberts instead of two, then the polling looks like oh, pat roberts is going to lose his seat. maybe the most republican state in the country arguably but they're about to lose their republican senate seat. and that was bourn out in the polling before the democrat actually made the decision to drop out. it has been bourn out in the polling ever since he dropped out september 3rd and that polling has caused the national republican party to hit it the panic button on this race. they flew in washington campaign staff to replace the long-time local staffers for pat roberts. they started running ads in the race. they got the nra roped into the race for the first time.

and they started paying very close attention to one weird sort of undercover dynamic in kansas. so this is the polling that shows pat roberts losing to the independent candidate greg or man, right? a couple different polls same result in both cases. but what kansas republicans started noticing and grasped on to with all their might is that even though the democratic candidate has withdrawn, the democrat is no longer running, if you put his name back on the ballot and make people think that there's a democrat still running in the race, well that bam boozes voters enough that maybe roberts has a chance. and so the day after the democrat with drew from the this race and had his name taken off the candidate list, his name taken off the ballot, the following day the kansas republican secretary of state, the crusading conservative hero kris kobach put the guy's name back on the ballot. it's more convenient to have the democrat on there and so the democrats on there.

and that led to today's ruling by the kansas supreme court at 6:00 p.m. eastern time, 5:00 p.m. local time in kansas. what this set off tonight is kind of crazy. it's like an outlaw wild west by any means necessary kind of situation right now in kansas. it's nuts. it's like remember the brooks brothers riot in florida during the 2000 recount? it's like that except it's the one guy rioting. it's just republican secretary of state kris kobach. look at this. at 5:00 p.m. local time in kansas, close of business on the deadline, that's when they handed down the ruling. the reason today was the deadline for the ruling is because tomorrow the ballots have to be printed in kansas. so says kris kobach, and the secretary kansas secretary of state. he told the court that's the deadline and explained in his court filings by law kansas's ballots have to be sent out to members of the armed forces serving overseas by saturday which is the day after tomorrow in order to get them sent out on

time by law. that means the ballot has to be finalized by september 18th, 2014. that's today. has to have the final list by today because they've got to print tomorrow and send them out on saturday. that's the law. so says secretary of state kris kobach. that's what he told the court. when the supreme court ruled today, they were right up against that deadline and what they ruled is that kris kobach does have to take that democratic guy's name off the ballot. he properly with drew from the race no matter how much of kansas republicans want there to be a democrat on the ballot, that guy withdrew properly. kris kobach is not within kansas law. so ordered by the supreme court of that state. now, of course, kansas republicans desperately want there to be a democrat on the ballot to hopefully siphon votes away from the independent guy who is challenging pat roberts. that dynamic having three people on the ballot that looks like the only way roberts could hold on to his seat at this point.

we're at the deadline. if the ballots have to be finalizes today because they have to be printed tomorrow, there's really no chance that that could happen after this ruling today, right? kris kobach had been making noise about trying to force the democrats to put another name on the ballot even if their initial candidate was allowed to withdraw but if the ballots are being printed tomorrow, there's no time for the democrats to do that. there's no way kris can force the democrats to pick somebody overnight? quick, convene a convention. because the court ruled today at the close of business at 5:00 p.m. on the deadline the matter pretty much looks settled. it's going to be pat roberts against the independent guy greg orman on the ballot and just so you know, the polling right now makes it look like pat roberts would lose his seat. but after the court handed down this ruling today at 5:00 p.m. local time, 6:00 p.m. east coast time that is when things really got weird because at a press conference following the ruling today, kris kobach announced that actually it turns out

tomorrow's not the deadline. who said it was the deadline? despite everything he told the court, despite this law he's citing when you have to get ballots out to overseas service members, kris kobach is now saying the deadlines when i told the court those were the deadlines, he's now directing the kansas state democratic party they have to pick another name to put on the ballot so it can be a three-way race. he's decided to push all the deadlines back. he's giving them eight days to make this decision because those old deadlines, made those up. now he says he's not going to print the ballots till the 27th of september and he says that will give them plenty of time to pick somebody else so this can go back to being a three-way race. amazing. so what happened to the deadlines that he told the court were so hard and fast and determined by law? i mean on the military ballot's is he now saying kansas is going to have people in the military vote on a totally different

ballot for a totally different candidates than everybody else is voting on in the state? really? i mean, is this as desperate as it looks by kansas republicans. this looks like a by any means necessary move here. to that end, what happens if the democrats just say no here? if they say no, kris kobach, we're not going to pick somebody for that line on the ballot. this is not just a united states senate race. this potentially is the united states senate race that decides who controls the united states senate. and it's total chaos right now. it has become the most important senate race in the country at least right now and it is complete chaos. just insane. joining us now is dave helling political reporter forever the kansas city star. dave, every time we talk, i congratulate you how much fun this race has been to cover. then it gets crazier. >> we don't get any days off covering politics in kansas unlike congress, rachel.

>> the way that -- yeah, another seven weeks off at their own discretion. >> you bet. >> the way i sum this up in terms of the order of those events, the way that kris kobach responded to this supreme court ruling and the changing of those deadlines an everything, am i summarizing that accurately? >> fairly closely. it's a federal law that requires their ballot printing, rachel, are because the national government has some interest in getting the ballots to the military overseas and kris kobach said tonight he's been given a waiver by the justice department so they can wait another week. whether that week will change the fundamentals is not clear at all. you talk to democrats and republicans. you're exactly right. it isn't clear how a, kris kobach can order a political party to do anything. he's just the secretary of state. and b, how they would do it. you know, would they meet in a convention? would it be just party chairs by

county how it would work? it does seem like a pretty desperate move at the end, but you know, he's not ready to give up yet. he's very convinced that there needs to be a democrat on the november ballot in kansas. and so he made the announcement that he did. >> so two questions following on that. one is there any indication of what the kansas democrats will do? is there a chance they just won't go along with this and two, is some of this still due to be decided in court? is this going back to the kansas supreme court or going to be litigated in any other way. >> we'll see it kobach said this evening if the kansas democrats don't respond by his deadline, he will examine his legal options. we reached out to the kansas democratic party tonight. they have no intention of nominating anybody. they're very critical of kris kobach. he cannot be trusted they said. you know, kris kobach has his own race for secretary of state which is also very close. so i do get the sense that kris is trying to pursue whatever

last-minute options he might have, but i think virtually everyone in kansas now understands that this race is greg orman and pat roberts going forward. >> it's fascinating. and the fact that kobach is on the ballot, as well, i mean, i saw recent polling from ppp in kansas, they were polling obviously on the senate race but they also polled on what kansans think how kobach is handling this. he does have his own race. it's a close race. the democrat has a chance of knocking him off for secretary of state. he's underwater by tens of points in terms of how people view his handling of this. is he in a position where he doesn't care about public opinion? this is so desperate he needs to do it anyway or is he susceptible to that sort of criticism? >> if you know kris kobach, plays to the crowd but he doesn't always listen to the crowd. he sort of blazes his own trail. there is a segment of the republican party in kansas and across the country that loves this kind of thing from kris kobach.

i think that's why he pursues it to a certain degree. what you didn't know the in your introduction but your viewers should know is that this opinion today from the kansas supreme court was unanimous or at least there were no dissenting opinions filed. it was per curiam which bush versus gore people will remember of the court. and so even the republicans on the supreme court arguably went along with this decision against kris kobach. that's why i say you get the sense even some republicans are saying let's give up, let's just now focus on the race was greg orman and you will find republicans, frankly, who say this helps us focus now on greg orman. we can now turn our attention to one candidate to really make him the issue and this decision in some ways clarifies the campaign for the next six weeks. >> dave helling political reporter for the kansas city star. i keep thinking it's not going to be as exciting the next time

we talk but who knows. looking forward to talking to you next twist. thanks a lot. as you can tell, there's a ton of news going on. the world is soon going to find out if scotland voted to become an independent country. that's one part of it. we'll have live reports from edinburg. there's major breaking news about chris christie and the george washington bridge scandal. plus congress did something today i'm still choking on. please stay with us.

the wait is over for even faster internet. xfinity is now doubling the internet speed... ...on two of our most popular plans. xfinity continues to innovate, bringing you the fastest, most reliable internet...period. xfinity internet from comcast, now double the speed. as of tomorrow, congress is going to be doing one thing it is really, really good at, that is the thing not done in washington anywhere near the capitol. congress made an amazing surprise decision today, one i'm still choking on a little and i don't feel i'm choking up i mean i'm choking on it like i'm gagging. that story is coming up.

across the country and then they are announced. we are expecting the last few local authorities to announce their results at around 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. local time, which means any minute right now. so far, 26 of those 32 local authorities have already announced their results. so far 45.6% are in fave of leaving the united kingdom, 54.5% are against leaving the uk. now here are some of the key vote totals so far in terms of voters, glasgow, scotland's largest city expected to vote against leaving the uk by some

measures but they defied expectations to vote in favor of leaving the united kingdom by 53.5% to 46.5%. the key battleground area of north lancashire voted in favor of leaving. aberdeen city the nos defeated the yeses by nearly 25,000 votes 56% no and in the yes 41.4%. in midloathian it voted against the referendum 56% to 44%. we're awaiting results from edinburgh, we should be getting results shortly within this 5:00 a.m. local time in scotland. nbc news jal stair jamison is standing by for us and jal stair

we start with where you are right now, give us a sense of what transpired in the last 30 minutes. we were talking how the glasgow vote went one way versus another. >> exactly. we are waiting on the crucial last ones from edinburgh. those were counted here center in edinburgh. the counting is finished. it's merely a case of tallying up the results, checking them, making sure they're ready to announce. we could get that any moment now. it would be miraculous if edinburgh became a major pro-independence area. it's a fairly conservative industry. the no campaign has it in the bag it seems and this could be the declaration that takes the no campaign over the magic 50%

threshold. we can then declare the final result. >> the magical threshold with what 4.29 million voters potentially is again half of that, so 2.15 and we don't know when we'ring if to reach that number one way or the other as of yet this hour, but there's also the mail-in votes. talk about that, how that might impact the outcome tonight. >> reporter: a lot of people chose to vote postally. those votes have been counted so it shouldn't delay us any more this evening. however just the sheer volume of number of votes cast, some areas turnout was 91%. it's a record-breaking turnout overall and in some individual areas and that goes to show you how much the campaign was reignited in the last two weeks by those incredible opinion polls that came out a couple of weeks ago with a yes independence campaign in the lead. that really spooked london, it

spookd the main british political parties, prime minister david cameron coming up to join the campaign to make a plea for scotland to stay in the united kingdom and that intensity of that debate has been perfected in the fact that everybody who has an interest pretty much has come out to vote and you can say one thing about the scottish election, social a lot of passion has been demonstrated in the high turnout figures. >> without a doubt there, allistair. you were mentioning some of the polls. as you were looking at those throughout the weeks and now we're on election night and people aren't sleeping in scotland basically tonight, what has stood out to you? anything that surprised you tonight in the results that have come out or what has been said so far? >> reporter: the rest of britain wasn't sleeping well either. the prime minister will be grateful for this victory because without it, his future was certainly on the line. in terms of surprising outcomes,

there have been some individual yes and no successes. the yes campaign did very well to secure glasgow, not just scotland's biggest city by far, it's one of britain's biggest cities. if the majority of people want to leave britain that is hugely significant and britain faces a constitutional crisis of its politics. it has to face up to how it deals with different parts of britain really not feeling that the political establishment is not representing them, doesn't reflect their choices and their needs and that means we could be in for some significant changes. >> allistair stand by. richard wolfe is it in our studios in new york city, he's been watching what is happening looking at the numbers and various constituencies or counties or local authorities. what should we be eyeing here in the united states as you're looking at some of the numbers? >> first of all just to pick up on what alistair said the polling track as this campaign went along this red line here the no campaign was really ahead for a long time until the last

couple of weeks where the yes people came in very strong in the last-minute polls, took everyone by surprise so that's where a lot of jitters come from, the london politicians and also for the financial markets. we're holding out for edinburgh, the nation's capital, the financial center, closer to gloss gao that voted yes, that's an industrial city. there have been some big wins for yes in the dundee area over here. the rest a lot of disappointments for those nationalists who waited decades for their chance and just to be clear here, just to come back to the overall map, yes we're talking about scotland in the north but politics in london right down here in the southeast of england is going to change dramatically, because what we're going to see really start iing overnight for america but today in the uk is english nationalism, the need to appeal to english nationalist votes

being first and foremost for british prime minister david cameron. >> hitting on the numbers from the polls leading up until the vote it was said it's going to be very, very close and you've been looking at some of those gaps. have they been very far apart as you look from one local authority to another or have they been close in single or double digits to are that matter? >> areas that should have been close like gloss gao ended up being healthy wins for the yes campaign so that's where you're seeing a seven-point margin, a spread. overall this race ended up much like the initial polls, we're looking probably at about a ten-point win for the no campaign, obviously a big shift here. what seems to have happened is as the race tightened, the voters choices became very stark, lots of stories coming out, the don't knows broke against independence and that is where the race widened out in the last few days, maybe the last few hours.

>> i want to get back to al allistair. are any projections being made locally? >> i think the no campaign are fairly confident. we could be in for a surprise. the first result is due any minute now. in the next hour we'll know for certain on the scottish independence. if the numbers go tards the no campaign are there any other areas could swing this the other way? we talk about how edinburgh is so key. >> the big area is highlands over here, it takes in a vast amount of territory so the sporadic population is hard to

count. it is inverness in there but that is not enough to swing the balance. >> it really is edinburgh and that's it. >> that's it in terms of the votes outstanding. they haven't got enough votes as a margin of victory to outweigh all of the other places where they've lost. >> any surprises you've seen? you've been following this all evening and all week. >> there are lots of places here that really have leaned heavily towards the scottish nationalist for quite some time. lot of the central area in scotland is very nationalist, didn't break for the campaign, that's a big disappointment. you look at a separatist and independence campaign much like what we've seen in quebec and canada, where they've come close but as things have got close the general mass of voters have said it's too far for them to go and independence has been rejected. >> msnbc.com's richard wolfe

following its numbers and continues to get the data in new york and analyze it for us. we'll have updates on the vote for you coming out of scotland throughout the night right here on msnbc but through the magic of television, rachel will be back after the break with the other big stories on this remarkable news day, including what she thinks about congress leaving town early for vacation without voting on the u.s. military's role in the war against isis. rachel maddow will be right back. stick around.

on the busiest bridge in the world and what, if anything, governor chris christie of new jersey new jersey had to do with this very fame us e-mail. time for some traffic problems in ft. lee. it was a big development in that story tonight coming up next with the man who has been leading the investigation since the beginning.

yeah, it's that kind of day. more breaking news to report tonight. one of those days in the news. tonight's breaking news from new jersey concerns the ongoing investigation swirling around republican governor chris christie of new jersey. it was almost one year ago exactly that aides to governor christie for reasons still unknown orchestrated a massive traffic disaster at the world's busiest bridge. starting the first day of school last september, members of govern christie's inner circle planned and executed a week long shut down of access lanes heading onto the gw bridge that

gridlocked the town of fort let new jersey, caused a four-day long traffic nightmare on the new jersey side of that bridge. eventually it launched a blizzard of investigations into who decided to cause that traffic jam and why. the who as far as we know turned out to be a pair of chris christie officials, his deputy chief of staff bridget kelly and david wildstein. those two at least are known to have conspired to create that traffic jam on purpose. but there have remained a few key questions. why did they do it, who else was involved, who else knew they were doing it and did someone above them order it? because is he the governor and because this apparently emanated from his office there is the question of specifically whether chris christie knew anything about it and whether he ordered as some sort of political payback scheme. you can see governor christie during that shutdown last year sanding and chatting with david wildstein one of his aides who ordered the shutdown.

governor christie as first mocked the idea his administration had caused this thing. then he was forced to acknowledge that yeah, they did cause it. then apologized for the incident and said he felt betrayed, then he fired his top aide directly involved in it since then he came out and expressed public contrition for the actions, there have been on going investigations to try to find out if something criminal happened here. one of those is the inquiry conducted by the new jersey state legislature, special bipartisan committee tacked with figuring out what happened here and why. that investigation has been going on for months now and not yet wrapped up its work. the other investigation that's been on going is the investigation from federal prosecutors. from the u.s. attorney's office in the state of new jersey. the u.s. attorney in new jersey's is a man named pull. fishman. his office has been investigating this scandal since january and other than confirming they are investigating, the u.s. attorney's office there has not confirmed much else. they've been really tight-lipped

where that investigation stands. kind of a no leak office. earlier this year, we learned that federal investigators have been taking testimony from top chris christie aides including his chief spokesman but we learned that by staking out the courthouse. local reporters staking out the courthouse has been the only real means of getting news about what's going on. tonight though, the first leak. tonight there has been a development in what has been an investigation that before now was essentially leak-free for months. the development tonight is that somebody is now leaking somebody's leaking the news specifically that new jersey governor chris christie is basically off the hook in federal criminal investigation. our nbc affiliate in new york, wnbc broke the news earlier tonight. watch. >> federal sources briefed on the criminal investigation say prosecutors and the fbi have found no evidence governor christie knew or had played any role in the plan to shut down traffic lanes approaching the george washington bridge.

officials caution the investigation being led by u.s. attorney paul fishman is not yet complete, but we're told that the federal investigation on going since january simply put has turned up nothing to indicate the governor had any involvement in bridgegate. >> so again, federal sources now leaking word that governor christie has essentially been cleared of wrongdoing in that investigation. there's no confirmation of that by the u.s. attorney's office. governor christie's office isn't commenting on it formally yet. but federal sources are now putting out word that the governor himself had nothing to do with the bridge scandal, nothing to see here. we spoke with the u.s. attorney's office in new jersey tonight. they told us in no uncertain terms "the investigation is not over." they tend to speak in sentences that short. but governor christie as he's tried many times in recent months is trying right now to put a book end on this scandal. earlier today he publicly called out the state legislature for their on going investigation

into this matter telling them at a press conference today "wrap up your work." and then tonight, the governor for the first time in three months appeared on a local radio call-in program in new jersey where he was perfectly positioned to comment on this new reporting from wnbc. he said tonight "this is a report that comes as no shock to me. i'm not surprised by it," and again criticized the legislative investigation into this incident headed up by john wisnewski. joining us now is democratic state assemblyman, john wisnewski, the chair of the panel investigating this. assembly man, thank you for being with us. appreciate you being here. >> thank you. >> first your reaction to this reporting from wnbc that federal investigators have so far found no evidence that governor christie had any knowledge of or played any role in the bridge shutdown. what do you make of that reporting? >> well, it could be true or it

could not be true. we noticed that we have federal investigators saying that but then mr. fishman's office when contacted had no comment. look, the fact is that this is not an investigation into chris christie. this is an investigation into why these lanes were shut down who authorized the lanes to be shut down because i don't think anybody believes that bridgette kelly on her own decided one morning it would be a fun thing to do to shut these lanes down. we need answers to very basic questions. who gave her the authorization and what did they hope to accomplish? only by knowing those answers will we be able to make sure it can't happen again. >> the other key player in all of this implicated thus far is former port authority official david wildstein. he's alleged in writing through his attorney that in his words "evidence exists tying governor christie to having knowledge of the lane closures. that's been his contention since he got nailed for his role in this basically. we reached out to his attorney tonight to get his reaction and

haven't heard back yet. but has your committee been able to essentially substantiate that allegation from david wildstein? have you been able to figure out what that evidence might be that he's saying exists? >> there's a lot of e-mails out there, rachel. there already documents that we have not yet gotten from this administration because they're relying on executive privilege as a basis to not turn them over to the committee. so it could very well be in documents that they're withholding that there is more proof that would make some conclusive determinations. we don't know that yet. and don't forget, we also have this shifting timeline of when the governor knew what he knew. so we know that on december 13th, he said that he knew into about this but we do know that literally the day before, he had meetings with his senior aides about this very issue. >> i want to play a clip for you if i can, just because it's

specifically about you. governor christie addressed you personally went after you personally in a press conference that he held on this matter earlier today about what you've been able to turn up so far in your investigation. listen. >> unfortunately, assembly man wisnewski is attempting to just keep his name in the newspaper. we have fully cooperated with him and i'm growing tired of him. you know, i've known all along that this is a partisan pursuit. an absolutely partisan pursuit. and the leaking that's being done by about the legislative committee is just further evidence of the fact that this is a partisan pursuit. >> so governor christie saying about you today i'm really growing tired of him accusing you of running a partisan pursuit and i guess i got to ask for your response to that. >> i'm crushed. the reality is that this is a legislative inquiry. i understand why republicans are

unhappy about it. it's embarrassing. it makes the governor look bad. it makes the republican party look bad. so certainly they're going to try to characterize this as a partisan pursuit. this is an abuse of power that started on his watch. the fact that he's claiming to have been fully cooperative doesn't meet with the facts on their relying on executive privilege to withhold documents. i mean, if the governor truly believes that there's no culpability here and take the governor at his word, what's he afraid of? why doesn't he turn all the document over and stop parsing words and holding back documents. >> john wisnewski, chair of the panel looking into bridgegate in the state legislature there. it's nice to see you. >> thank you. >> all right. again, the breaking news tonight wnbc in new york reporting that sources say the federal investigation into the bridgegate scandal in new jersey has as yet turned up no evidence

tying mr. christie governor christie to knowledge of or playing any role in the bridge shutdown. that is the first leak of really any kind from the federal prosecutors looking into this in new jersey. as yet unconfirmed by the u.s. attorney's office, but that's news. lots more ahead. stay with us.

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who have been reporting results as each authority is finalized. we've now seen 26 of 32. a vote that has far-reaching implications not just for scotland and the uk but for europe as a whole and even the u.s. rachel will be back in a moment with what she thinks about congress taking even more days off with the fight against isis intensifying. stick around.

today our strikes against these terrorists continue. we're taking out their terrorists. we're destroying their vehicles and equipment and stockpiles,

and we salute our dedicated pilots and crews who are carrying out these missions with great courage and skill, as commander in chief i could not be more proud of their service. >> president obama making a statement just a couple hours ago changing up a schedule today to make those remarks, praising u.s. military pilots flying air raids in iraq. thanking congress as well for passing an amendment today to okay the administration's plan to arm and train rebels fighting the syrian government, and who hopefully can be persuaded to fight isis, too, while they're at it. the senate voted 78-22 today. house passed the same thing yesterday and tonight president obama said, thank you, to congress for that. the cia's already training rebels in syria but the expanded effort congress approved will start sometimes in nemt thr s s months or so. completely unrelated, the united states military continues to wage a war against isis. centcom announced air strike 176

against isis in iraq. congress has yet to say anything about that let alone the 1,600 troops deployed back to iraq to take part in that fight. congress hasn't weighed in on that at all, and then today, they left. the house announced today, surprise! they're calling in sick for the next two months. supposed to be back at work tomorrow. they cancelled that day of work tomorrow and cancelled all the days of work for the rest of the month and then cancelled all the days of the month they would work in october and not planning to come back to work until after re-election in november plus another week after that. to be clear, they just took five weeks off for all of august and the beginning of september, since their five-week vacation, they've worked a grand total of two four-day weeks and today made the surprise announcement they're giving themself the next 54 days in a row off work. because it's not like there's anything going on they ought to be interested in. right?

air strikes started august 8th. going on five wyches about to expand into syria'sthe president announce add 40 nation coalition involved in the effort, announced france will start dropping bombs in iraq alongside our pilots already doing it'sthere's a war under way already, which congress hasn't said anything about, and today they decided that war will apparently continue another two months while they go home and take two more months off work. the house announced it first. the senate followed suit. they're gone. 1,600 u.s. military families have gotten the call, had their loved ones deployed to iraq, flying those missions right now, but congress, headin' home for another seven-week break, because they can't be bothered to think about that now. they have more important business to tend to, they've got to get re-elected. that's the most important thing they do. right? there's a reason the american public finds this congress repellent. a reason by this congress has the lowest in the history and specter of all institutions in the country.

there is a reason this congress repulses the people of the united states. but a decision like this today? stretches bounds of even the low standards of decency that they have sunk to already. amazing. "first look" is up next. and a good friday morning to you. right now on "first look," breaking overnight. scotland voting no and the kingdom remaining united. scare in mid-air as a jet blew engine, filling the cabin with smoke before an emergency landing. the fib fbi's list add a man that murdered a pennsylvania trooper. breaking news overnight to tell you about. scotland rejects independence and remains part of the united kingdom. tears and cheers of joy. no supporters here. the point won by 10 percentage points in what was supposed to be a close vote. alex salmon, pushed for