the nats and the os for the world series. i'm with you. i like this idea. i think it would be very convenient. a beltway world series between washington and bald more. baltimore, right? >> pretty good. >> next, a special two-hour edition of jose diaz-balart, including the president's address at 10:00 a.m. if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." we'll see you tomorrow. in one hour, president obama will take center stage at the u.n. general assembly trying to rally the world against a common enemy. this, just hours after a second wave of bombing attacks against isis. the president will make the case for others to join the fight. of course, that's not all the u.n. has on its plate. from global protest over climate change to the ebola outbreak ravaging west africa but at the top of the list, no doubt, isis. the emerging terror threat will be the focus of the president's

address at 10:00 a.m. eastern. it's also the heart of the u.n. security council meeting president obama will personally chair this afternoon. on "morning joe," his national security adviser, susan rice, says today his outreach is the latest step in a long process. >> we've been doing a lot of hard quiet diplomatic work that we didn't advertise publicly, and that culminated in this very important collection of countries coming together yesterday. >> the speech follows a tuesday meeting between president obama and arab leaders who took part in those strikes. >> right now, we have a very severe and significant threat. what we've seen from the world community is a recognition of that threat and we are very appreciative of our partnership with all the countries here. >> and this morning, more air strikes. the military tells nbc that at least five were launched. one in syria, four in iraq.

american officials believe the initial wave of strikes was a success, although they're still assessing the results. one key part of that is determining the fate of the leader of an al qaeda-linked group known as the khorasan. local militants say he died in the air strikes. a report the u.s. is working to confirm. we'll walk through all these developing angles, right up to the moment the president takes the podium. it's a very busy news morning. i want to bring in jim miklaszewski. mik, so good to see you. what can you tell us about the air strikes? >> after the initial wave of more than 20 strikes against a multitude of targets, we're going to see some mopping up. what the u.s. military calls targets of opportunity. and that's what they apparently saw when they saw military vehicles moving around the iraq border there in syria and we're told that at least one u.s. military and one coalition member, you know, there are those five arab nations who have

joined in the air strikes there in syria. which is a monumental achievement on the part of the u.s. to bring in those arab nations in this sunni -- fight against these sunni extremists. but the major point now is to look at the bomb damage assessment of the initial strike of monday night, determine where exactly were they successful and where do they need to mop up or increase their efforts to take out those specific targets that they're after. that bda, they call it, is still in progress. rest assured we're going to see more nights where they'll be substantial bombing campaigns, waves of fighters, cruise missiles. but so far, it doesn't look like they're quite ready to go that root again yet. >> interesting, jim, as you say that, because four of these -- at least four of these attacks were in iraq, telling us iraq

still has a lot of places where isis is very busy. >> that's where a majority of the u.s. aircraft are concentrating their efforts, primarily because those isis fighters are engaged with iraqi and peshmerga forces there in iraq. and after all, that was the primary focus to begin with, until it became quite evident. as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general dempsey said, there is no way that you can defeat isis from the air alone, number one, but certainly without going after isis there in syria, where they have their de facto capital. >> jim miklaszewski, thank you. for more on the ground, i'm joined by nbc's chief fortunate correspondent bill neely. as strikes are still hitting iraq. what's the impact in that country?

>> yes, as jim was saying, of the five air strikes in the last few hours, four of them have been on iraq, near baghdad, and two near where i am in erbil. so weem had 20 air strikes on syria in the last 36 hours, but 198 on iraq in the last six weeks. the big question is, as you say, what's the progress. how do we judge success? is the u.s. counting? are those dead soldiers foot soldiers, commanders? we know they hit buildings in the last hours as well. are those buildings occupied? are they empty? how do we judge isis' losses? is it just in terms of men or has isis' momentum been stopped? it's pretty clear, i think, there has been no knockout blow to isis. but they have been, perhaps,

knocked off thousands, and the u.s. saying degrading isis has been achieved, but the key problem is, in six weeks, we've had nearly 3,000 u.s. missions over iraq. nearly 200 air strikes. in fact, 198. but all the evidence is that isis positions haven't really moved that much. and in syria, isis has been moving its men and its tanks closer to one border town. and the result has been a refugee flow of about 140,000 people fleeing into turkey. so these are early days. as you say, the key thing is the metric of success. how do we judge success. that's what they're looking at, at the pentagon right now. jose. >> bill neely, thank you very much. you bring up these numbers. 145,000 refugees since last friday alone. think about that. the amount of people that are

being displaced because of this issue. for now, america's air campaign continues unchecked. i want to show you live pictures of the united nations. in about an hour, president obama is expected to speak. people filing into the united nations. live pictures. getting ready. it's going to be a very important day at the united nations. people are filing in. i want to talk about the political aspects of this, as well as the national security aspects of this war against isis. joining me now, florida democratic senator bill nelson, member of the armed services committee. senator, good to see you this morning, thanks. >> thanks, jose. >> you voted in support of the president's plan to arm syrian rebels. you also wanted clarification to the president's authority to launch air strikes. do you believe the revelations, for example, the khorasan group has changed the perspective on what's going on in syria now? >> no, i think that's just

another indication of how much of a threat is out there, jose. at the end of the day, we can provide all these air strikes, which i support. but i happen to agree with tom friedman of "the new york times." at the end of the day, this is going to have to be the arab world and the muslim world that are going to have to do this fight on the ground. they're going to have to decide to protect the soul of islam and the arab culture. otherwise, it's going to be taken over by this very radical group, whether it's those that are trying to do harm to us as the khorasan group and isis or isis that is obviously perpetrating all of this violence against their own

people. >> all right. so while we wait for that to happen, and it could be weeks, it could be months, it could be years before there is a real effort under way by those people that live and are from that part of the world, to deal with this issue. we have to deal with what -- the cards we're handed. are that this group, as well as others, according to the administration, are planning to do us harm. what is it that the president should be doing? and let me tell you, what is it that congress should be doing? "new york times" has a great editorial this morning. talking about the fact that congress ran to deal with the elections and maybe should be coming back to d.c. to deal with this. >> well, first, with the president. i think he's doing exactly what he should. building a coalition. he's had intelligence flights over syria since august 25th. he's doing exactexactly. he's turned it other to his

experts, his commanders, to execute the strikes. the president's doing exactly what he should. now, with regard to congress, we ought to be back in session. we ought to be debating war and peace right now and ultimately voting to give the authorization for the use of military force. >> by the way, you would support the authorization to use military force today if that vote was up? >> yes, as a matter of fact, the last speech i gave before we left washington was we ought to stay there and have that debate. in that regard, i agree with senator tim kaine. and he's very passionate about it. what i believe, however, is the president, as commander in chief, under the constitution, has the authority to go ahead and strike in syria, as he already has. >> florida democratic senator bill nelson, it's good to see

you. thanks for being with me this morning. i want to go to the united nations. we have lime pictut live pictur. we have a very busy two hours of news to go through. there's a lot to discuss. a lot of perspectives to bring in. a lot of thoughts to examine. these are, as you can see, the security checkpoints. at least some of the entry areas to the united nations. bang ki moon is speaking as we are right now, broadcasting live. we're going to go to a quick break. there's a lot more to discuss. we'll be hearing from the president live from the united nations at the top of this hour. and a lot more to discuss. but first -- the air strikes. syria. the reaction. >> there will be challenges ahead, but we're going to do what's necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group. for the security of the country and the region and for the entire world.

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a live look at the united nations where president obama will address that body shortly. i'm joined by now nbc's correspondent traveling with the president in new york. what can you tell us about the speech? >> high stakes day. the president does this every year. this year, it companies just a couple of days after the u.s.-led coalition started lasting air strikes in syria. so this is very much about sort of setting the table again. but it's also about expanding that coalition. the five countries that signed on. the five arab nations. unexpected diplomatic victory for the president. this is the largest diplomatic gathering in the world. it's an opportunity for him to speak to the world. so he is going to lay out the justification for these strikes.

the reasons why the world needs to get behind the fight against isis and other extremist groups. including the one we just learned about, khorasan. additio additionally, he'll touch on some of the big topics including ebola, afghanistan. but really this is about expanding that coalition. about 40 nations so far. and there's a lot of things they can do beyond the military. we did see some of those arab nations getting involved in the air strikes. france has been involved in the air strikes in iraq. but they could be everything from intelligence sharing, information gathering, border security, financial help. and of course we've seen a lot of the countries in that 40 doing humanitarian aid as well. what's key is those sunni-majority countries. he's going to be focusing on places in the gulf states that can give this operation what they call regional legitimacy. they have one simple message the white house wants to get out. this is not a situation of the united states against a muslim

country. it's the world uniting against terror. so that's going to be the main message here. a little later on in the afternoon, he's going to be doing something unusual. he's going to be chairing a session of the security council. that's focused on the foreign fighters specifically. the ones would leave the united states, europe, and train in syria and potentially could come back because they have passports and prove a threat to the region. jose. >> in new york, thank you very much for your time. as we continue to wait for president obama's remarks, not far from the u.n., right now, someone we have not heard from yet on these actions, hillary clinton, is at the clinton global initiative. there you see her speaking right now. we have heard from her husband though, president clinton, saying he's expecting an exte extended involvement in syria. when he's working with syria's

leader, for example, he stopped short of giving his thoughts. >> that's now above my pay grade. the more i say about that, the more likely i am to cause trouble for the decision makers. i'm not sure i know enough to make an intelligence comment. i'll defer to whatever the americans say about that. >> joining me now to talk about the clinton political angle to the syrian air strikes is nbc's senior political editor mark murray. good morning. >> good morning, jose. >> now president obama has said he agrees with his wife. now president clinton says he agrees with his wife that we should arm the rebels. why is he making these comments? >> that's the sensitivity issue, that if he does more than that, he causes trouble for the decisionmakers. meaning obama and his administration. also maybe hillary clinton and her own aspirations. we've seen bill clinton be a tremendous communication asset for president obama in 2012. also for hillary on the campaign

trail in 2008. sometimes he's also a liability as we saw in 2008, 2012. the clintons want to keep all the focus on the clinton global initiative. realizes that the more he says about syria, the more kind of daylight he might end up opening with what he wants to do and with the obama administration. >> so that's him. let's talk about her. what do we expect to hear from the hillary camp? will she stay in line with president obama on this? will she comment on this? >> i don't think we're going to hear her moment at all. today's panel, as of yesterday's, is all about empowering women, empowering young girls. that's the message from the global initiative. jose, what hillary clinton has made known in the past, she said it in her book, she said it in her interview with the atlantic monthly and with the atlantic's jeffrey goldberg, is he always favored president obama on arming the syrian rebels. that provides her a little bit of daylight if this remains a big issue in 2016. and if she ends up running.

that's a very smart piece that was in politico this morning about how any kind of daylight that might exist between president obama and hillary clinton is pretty much erased by the fact they both need each other. hillary clinton, if she runs in 2016, needs barack obama's voters in a democratic primary and also general election. barack obama would need hillary clinton as a third term to cement his legacies, particularly the health care law. >> thank you very much, appreciate your time. by the way, the images you're seeing are from the clinton global initiative, hillary clinton speaking with the prime minister of japan, as we speak, i'm being told. we're listening in on it. if she does mention any of these issues, we'll of course bring them to you right now. but coming up, president obama is arriving at the u.n. this hour. where we expect his live address to begin shortly after 10:00 a.m. eastern time. we'll be carrying those remarks live.

first, new developments in two major crime stories we're watching. police insisting they're closing in on a suspected cop killer on the run in pennsylvania. and in virginia, the search for an missing college student turns into a manhunt for the person police are now charging with abduction. i'm going to have those details and a lot more after a quick break so stay with us. ♪ ♪ fill their bowl with the meaty tastes they're looking for, with friskies grillers. tender meaty pieces and crunchy bites. in delicious chicken, beef, turkey, and garden veggie flavors. friskies grillers. for over 19 million people. [ susan ] my promotion allowed me to start investing for my retirement. transamerica made it easy. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real.

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in charlottesville, they're also looking for jesse matthew. the 32-year-old hospital room technician who has now been charged with abduction and intent to defile. here in virginia, intent to defile is essentially the same as being charged with attempt to commit some sort of sexual assault. i can tell you, though, there is a published report, a published news report in "the washington post" that matthew has retained an attorney. we're working to confirm that report now. there are folks on the ground here in charlottesville who are wondering if, in fact, the accused man has obtained an attorney, does that mean that he is right now preparing to turn himself in. police yesterday told me he's got a number of friends and associates in neighboring states. they were not optimistic he is still in the area. again, word right now, that matthew has a lawyer. so that's something we're looking at this morning. but, again, as i indicated, police say they remain optimistic. they remain hopeful that they

will still find hannah graham. that second year uva student from northern virginia, jose, that's the very latest from here. >> craig melvin, thank you very much. an intense manhunt, protests, and a massive fire. this morning, police say the search for suspected cop killer eric frein is narrowing to the rural area where he grew up. new video from a documentary shows frein taking part in a military re-enactment about four years ago. the producers say he was more intent about battlefield re-enactments even though he was a background player. now, he's the main target of a massive manhunt which is taking a toll on people in the area. >> my granddaughter just went back to school yesterday. school was down, what, 30% yesterday. >> the lunch crowd has kind of slowed down a little bit. the evening crowds have

definitely been cut. about 20% to 30%, maybe more. >> frein is accused of shooting two state troopers, killing one and injuring another nearly two weeks ago. tensions renewed in ferguson, missouri, after a fire destroyed a memorial near the site where michael brown was killed. about 200 protesters took ton the streets last night. at least two were arrested. some businesses were damaged. sounds of good shots were heard. no one hurt. the cause of the fire not yet released. police officer darren wilson shot and killed michael brown on the 9th of august. brown was unarmed. we're learning new details about the man who killed two former co-workers and then himself at a u.p.s. shipping. police say he returned wearing his work uniform and entered through a truck dock in the back of the building. his pastor says he was troubled about his work and financial situation. the two victims were managers at the company. the port of los angeles in

long beach is expected to fully reopen this morning following monday's fire. the blaze set down the main channel at the port and several boats had to be towed to safety. several terminals were shut down. fire, sparkeded by a welding operation. no one was injured. turning back to the air assault on syria. you're looking live at the united nations in new york city where president obama will deliver his first major address since the strikes were launched. plus, much more on what's being targeted in syria and the president's plan to gain international support against isis. ♪ i thought it'd be bigger.

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when u.s. fighter jetted targeted isis fighters in syria, they also targeted those in final stages of an attack on the u.s. or europe, according to

officials. strikes hit an al qaeda sprinter group known as the khorasan group. unconfirmed reports on jihadist social media sites said they killed this man, the group's leader. a man so close to osama bin laden, he was one of the few to know about the 9/11 attacks before they happened. >> the united nations added al fahdli to its al qaeda and taliban sanctions committee list. this man is a known al qaeda operative and zarqawi associate. >> the u.s. had a $7 million bounty on al fahdli's head. they have seen reports he is dead but don't have confirmation. >> we can't confirm that. we've seen reports on social media to that effect. we will continue to watch for

signs as to whether or not that's the case. >> is he the new osama bin laden? >> no. >> nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel has more from turkey near the syrian border. >> reporter: it's a crowded battlefield in syria. with dozens, perhaps hundreds of extremist groups, drawing members from across the world. they fight against the assad regime. and against each other. the khorasan group is just one of them. it's a splinter group of al qaeda, which moved to syria to locate and recruit westerners among the thousands of foreign fighters in the country. the khorasan group is considered a threat to the u.s. because american intelligence officials say it wants to bring down airplanes with explosives. a traditional al qaeda objective. the group's leader is this man, al fadhli, age 33, born in kuwait. he ran al qaeda's cell in iran. reportedly fought in afghanistan

and chechnya and was a top aide to osama bin laden. said to be one of the few people to know about 9/11 before the attacks. now, he and his organization are under attack. so is isis. and there are many more in syria like them. >> nbc's richard engel, thank you. khorasan militants have been working on plans to struggmuggl explosives on to passenger planes. behind the new security rules this summer that required passengers to show their carry-on electronic devices will power on. >> the enhanced security measures we took in the aviation sector we took some months ago was based on concerns we had about what the khorasan group was planning to do. we hit them last night out of a concern that they were in a -- getting close to an execution phase of some of the plans that we have seen them fomenting over the last two years. >> so, how serious is the threat that isis and other extremist

groups will inspire terror attacks here at home? new york police commissioner bill braden weighed in. >> those who have been involved in it for a number of years in new york city and the nypd believe this period of time is one of the most significantly dangerous periods we've seen since 9/11. >> nbc's pete williams joins me. how serious are u.s. officials about khorasan striking the united states? >> i think the threats from the u.s. they see as different. the khorasan threat is considered to be centered on aviation. an al qaeda talisman they keep coming back to. the 9/11 plots, the liquid bomb plot. the attempts to put cartridges, printer cartridges with explosives on passenger planes. all focused on aviation. they say this group, in essence,

the al qaeda graduate school in syria, is focused its efforts, on attacking, primarily, aviation. the isis threat to the u.s. is considered to be a concern that isis, through this very slick propaganda it has, will incentivize people here in the u.s. that nobody has any idea who they are to carry out some kind of violent attack on streets. so they're very different threats. >> and, pete, i want to show some -- a video. it's actually live right now at the united nations. we're seeing more arrivals. we've seen some american delegation of u.n. officials arriving. so probably shortly the president will be arriving. just want to remind you that in less than half hour, we're expecting the president to give his speech at the united nations. a very important speech. something that is -- some developing news at this hour also. this is about the supreme court. justice ruth bader ginsburg

apparently says she will not step down. what can you tell us? >> ruth bader ginsburg has virtually been going door to door to tell people for the past several months she's not leaving the court. part of the reason for that i think is that she is nearing a milestone that she had originally set for herself. that she might step down by age 82. she's 81 now. some liberal legal scholars have publicly called for her to step down while president obama is still in office so her successor can be named by him instead of waiting until the next president who might be a republican names her replacement. but in the most sort of forth right statement about this, in an interview to be published in "elle" magazine, she in essence says, i'm not going anywhere. there's nobody that president obama could nominate to the court now who would pick up my mantle. she said, look at the fact you have this very close control of republicans and democrats in the senate. the filibuster is still an option for supreme court nominees.

while it's been remooed for lower court nominees. she said, you have to get over this idea that president obama could nominate somebody like me. so i'm not going anywhere. it's a very forth right statement. >> it is, indeed. pete, thank you so much. it's always a pleasure to see you. coming up, we'll take a closer look at this fragile new alliance in the mideast. w who's helping and perhaps more importantly, who's not. we're building to coverage of the president's remarks at the u.n. general assembly at the top of the hour. something the president said yesterday at the clinton global initiative about the costs paid by so many in the name of freedom. >> the leader of cuba's ladies in white who endured harassment and arrest in order to win freedom for their loved ones and for the cuban people. ♪"boogie shoes" dave's been working on his game... morning double bogie. hey, three putt. and starting each day with a delicious bowl

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the reality is, sometimes, for instance, for the sake of our national security, the united states works with governments that do not fully respect the rights of their universal citizens. these are choices that i, as president, constantly have to make. >> president obama talking, tuesday, about the balance between national security and the nations he forms alliances with. as we continue to wait for him to address those allies and the world at the united nations. the five arab country alliance helping with the air strikes over syria has brought together, as this headline puts it, persian gulf nations at odds. joining me now to talk about the allies is our guest, the senior correspondent for bloomberg news. and colonel avalo, who led the first ever u.s. central command headquarters in qatar. good morning to both of you. how surprised are you at what nations have been a part of this

campaign, particularly qatar where you spent so much time? >> well, i'm very surprised. in the past, back in 2001, they participated. they signed up. the only ones we actually counted on to go into afghanistan was the united arab emirates. they were willing to put boots on the ground. the other countries are fairly limited in their air force and their air capabilities, which makes this situation quite interesting. because they have offered support. none of them have offered troops on the ground. if anybody does, i would think it would be the united arab emirates. it's a fairly loose coalition without too much teeth yet. >> the president is clearly pushing the importance of these five arab countries involved in the air strikes. how important are they, for example, going into the u.n. address? for example, the five is a pretty good statement. >> it shows it's not just the

united states and the normal partners you would think of. this is the united states with five arab allies. predominantly sunni allies. i thought it was interesting he made the point of yesterday speaking specific to the human rights records of some these allies of ours. so upset because of the beheading of the two americans and the one british aide worker. saudi arabia has beheaded dozens of people who were tried and found guilty of crimes, some of them nonviolent. so an ongoing dialogue about human rights with some of these allies of ours. even though we don't have the resolution, the united states has some countries who are not the typical western alliance willing to come forward and participate in this military campaign. we had the minute there aister and saying don't expect the french to participate in this because there is no u.n. resolution and we don't have the

permission of syria. >> the countries that are not participating so far, i mean, france, just talked about france. for example, turkey is not in any way involved. let's talk about militarily what the united states could expect from the countries they already have and other countries that maybe aren't joining. >> well, the united states has to make a decision and it already has. that it's going to lead. i applaud the president for deciding to conduct the air strikes and -- so strongly. the issue is not so much the air strikes and making the decision, the military decision here is what is going to be in the long run. we already know it's going to be a prolonged campaign. the president had said so. there have been general advisers that have advised that to the president. when you talk about prolonged campaign, then you're talking about boots on the ground, the geopolitical effects on the region. turkey has never been a player. since 1991. they didn't help in the iraqi

war. the northern flank was blocked. and now they're doing the same thing. they are more concerned about the situation in kurdistan. so i don't expect them to be a major player. the thing that is quite fascinating from the military perspective is the role of any troops in syria. that is more dicey. because that does have the presence of russia. that does have the concerted, if you will, somewhat agreed role by assad of the united states troops in -- the united states attacks into syria, but it is -- it is very dicey. and what role on the ground in the long run. the question is, who will put boots on the ground. >> indera, to pick up on avalo's point, where does the leader of syria, assad, fit into all of this? >> this is fascinating because

for the past three years since the uprising started against sad, our government has been saying he needs to step aside. as we know, the president has not been willing to engage in air strikes aimed at him, at getting assad out of power. here's a case where we don't have his permission to be doing air strikes over his country. at the same time, even though he has air defenses, we know he hasn't engaged those. in a way, it's very good for him, for the united states to be taking care of this problem for him, because isil is also an enemy for assad. now, the problem is, the united states does not want assad to be able to capitalize on these gains and move his forces into these areas, but certainly, the opposition members, the syrian opposition folks who i have spoken to, are worried about that, they're worried about assad benefiting from this, and they're worried about civilian casualties and people, you know, women and children and innocent people getting stuck in the middle of all this. so there's also the risk that it may cause on the ground more jihadism, more support for isil

out of anger from people who are being bombed from both sides, asi assad and this new coalition. >> more than 200,000 syrians have already died in the last couple of years. to both of you, thank you for your time, appreciate it. a live look at the united nations where president obama will speak just minutes from now. chuck todd will be here with a look at the challenges facing the president as he seeks more support from international allies including some that are skeptical about joining the fight against isis. as always, want to hear from you. in the run-up to the president's remarks and after. tweet me your insights, your thoughts, your comments. there's our show, #jdbnow, use it, i want to hear from you. [ male announcer] surprise -- you're having triplets.

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we have worked to end a decade of war. today all of our troops have left iraq.

next year an international coalition will end its war in afghanistan. the united states, these new circumstances have meant shifting away from a perpetual war footing. >> that was president obama one year ago today. announcing at the united nations if he was on the verge of bringing america back from a perpetual war footing. moments from now the president is expected to give a different speech to the general assembly. you see the president of brazil giving her speech. apparently president obama follows the president of brazil. making his pitch to a far broader international coalition in syria. the white house acknowledges that he speaks at the time when there's clearly unease over a range of challenges in the world. chuck todd is moderator of meet the press. what a pleasure to see you, chuck. >> good morning, jose. >> you pointed out this is the seventh country in which president obama has launched air strikes for military operations. it's a challenge for the president to continue to make case he's a president who is

foreign policy is defined by ending wars. how do we expect him to make the case today that world leaders should join him in a new one? >> i think that's the struggle he's going to do. when you read the 2013 speech he gave one year ago to the today, it's -- it in some ways, is a total contrast to the message he's got to send today and about the threat of terrorism and about how to go about this. so i think you're going to hear him make the case that, hey, the u.s. has to play the lead role. it is going to play the lead role. he's going spend a lot of time on e -- ebola. and almost the same terms as the u.s. is trying to take the lead in dealing with isis crisis. this is sort of the role of the united states, but that the world has to coalesce around and the u.s. is willing to be the lead player but not the only player. jose, it's not the speech the president thought he was going

to be making, you know, in the sixth year of his presidency. >> there are more questions than answers. the war has no time frame, no price tag. there are questions about the legality for some. and concerns about who will fill a vacuum in syria and iraq. will the president be able to answer any of those, for example? >> no, i don't think he's going to attempt to answer those in order to say it's going to be a long struggle. he's not put a time frame on it before. he made the one pledge he continues to make this isn't going to be another ground war. it's not about putting combat troops on the ground. but, again, you know what does this audience want to hear? you know, this is an international audience he's speaking to. this isn't necessarily about rallying the americthe public. it's about rallying the world. i think the biggest fear that many in the administration have, both on the military side and on the civilian side, jose, is that somehow the united states is

more concerned about isis than the region. there's more resolve with the united states than there is in iraq, than there is with the saudis. and that -- if you don't have the resolve on the ground, then you're just doomed to be repeating the same cycle of perpetual war. >> the president will chair a committee meeting on isis later today. >> it's about trying to deal with the foreign fighter issue. trying to get a country like turkey to deal with the borders. how do they stop the flow of foreign fighters going into syria and iraq and joining the cause. what do you do when it comes in the past issues. what do you do on the social media front? there's all sorts of way in this case have to go after this. that's the president's focus of dealing with foreign fighters. in particular, it's a problem on the border there with turkey. >> chuck todd, what a pleasure to see you. thank you so much for being with us. don't miss more.

meet the press this sunday you can check your local listings. you don't want to miss it. president obama stake the world stage at one of the most consequential u.n. gatherings in years. we'll bring you his remarks. they come after the president of brazil completes her remarks here on msnbc. erybody knows tha. well, did you know that playing cards with kenny rogers gets old pretty fast? ♪ you got to know when to hold'em. ♪ ♪ know when to fold 'em. ♪ know when to walk away. ♪ know when to run. ♪ you never count your money, ♪ when you're sitting at the ta...♪ what? you get it? i get the gist, yeah. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. ♪ [music] jackie's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today her doctor has her on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen.

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feet...tiptoeing. better things than the pain, stiffness, and joint damage of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist decide on a biologic, ask if xeljanz is right for you. xeljanz (tofacitinib) is a small pill, not an injection or infusion, for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz can relieve ra symptoms, and help stop further joint damage. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers have happened in patients taking xeljanz. don't start xeljanz if you have any infection, unless ok with your doctor. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz and routinely check certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you have been to a region where fungal infections are common, and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c,

or are prone to infections. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take. one pill, twice daily, xeljanz can reduce ra pain and help stop further joint damage, even without methotrexate. ask about xeljanz. good morning, i'm jose diaz-balart. back for a second hour as we await president obama's high stakes speech. these are live pictures at the u.n. people filing in still. here we go. live pictures. there you see it. the first lady and the president arrive agent the united nations as we speak. and as we speak, on the podium the president of brazil. you see the president just arriving right now. the headquarters at the united nations in manhattan. we're told the president will urge nations from around the world to join the u.s. in fighting the isis terrorist

threat. this high profile speech comes as a turning point for the u.s. which is taking the fight to isis directly inside syria. u.s. central command this morning confirming more air strikes on isis targets in syria and iraq. the pentagon says one of four, one of our arab coalition partners joined the u.s. in one of the air strikes in syria. bringing the total to 20 since monday. this morning's speech begins a busy day of diplomacy for the president who will meet later this hour with iraq's new prime minister, and then later this afternoon the president will make some history. becoming the first u.s. president to chair the u.n. security council twice. the president will make a pitch for nations to stop the flow of foreign fighters to groups like isis. we're seeing the president of brazil. an interesting tidbit. she actually cancelled the meeting with president obama some