we'll have bears tomorrow and more, man. thanks, chris. and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. maybe we will have bears. maybe you should stick around and see. president obama chaired a meeting of the u.n. security council today. he personally chaired it. he asked the security council to pass a resolution, a legally binding resolution that would require all member countries to take domestic action to stop their own citizens from traveling abroad to support foreign terrorist organizations or from raising money for those groups or anything else that would give them material support. the u.n. security council was created after world war ii. they first met in 1946. since that first meeting, today was reportedly only the sixth occasion at which this many actual heads of state were sitting there around the horseshoe-shaped table in the rooms of the security council when they make a decision. usually they send minions. not today. there are 15 members of the security council. 13 of the 15 member states

actually said the head of their government today. the only two that didn't were russia and china. they sent their foreign ministers instead of their top political leader. yes, that was meant to be catty and superior but only because international diplomacy really is just like high school and it always has been. but even with the chinese and russian mean girls flair for insult today, nobody there voted against this resolution from president obama. president obama personally made the ask for this thing and he got it. that success at the security council today followed president obama's other big moment this morning with his big speech on terrorism. a major address from president obama today in which we heard something new from him. he did talk about terrorism in some of the same ways that he has in the past, but he also went much further in terms of sounding very much like a president who is waging a war right now and not a war that he

inherited by somebody else and he's winding down, but rather a war that he has decided to engage in in his own right. listen to this. >> terrorism is not new. speaking before this assembly, president obama put it well. terror is not a new weapon, he said. throughout history it has been used by those who could not prevail either by persuasion or example. america will not create an entire foreign policy by reacting to terrorism. belief in permanent religious war is the misguided refuge of extremists. we must take concrete steps to address the danger posed by religiously motivated fanatics. the terrorist group known as isil must be degraded and ultimately destroyed. this group has terrorized all

who they come across in iraq and syria. mothers, sisters, daughters have been subjected to rape as a weapon of war. innocent children have been gunned down. bodies have been dumped in mass graves. religious minorities have been starved to death. and the most horrific crimes imaginable, innocent human beings have been beheaded with videos of the atrocities distributed to shock the conscience of the world. no god condones this terror. no grievance justifies these actions. there can be no reasoning, no negotiation with this brand of evil. the only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. so the united states of america

will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death. today i asked the world to join in this effort. those who have joined isil should leave the battlefield while they can. those who continue to fight for a hateful cause will find they're increasingly alone for we will not succumb to threats and we will demonstrate that the future belongs to those who build not those who destroy. >> president obama today making remarks different than anything i think he said in the past calling isis a network of death, with whom there can be no negotiation. he called them evil. he said the only language killers like this understand is the language of force. after that torrent from the president today, remarkably he 2 then pivoted in his remarks and he devoted one of the final big sections of his speech to speaking, in his words, directly

to young people across the muslim world. the president said, you come from a great tradition that stands for education, not ignorance, innovation, not destruction, the dignity of life not murder. those who call you away from this path are betraying this tradition not defending it. president obama speaking today at the u.n. last spring, may 22nd, there was an attack on the streets of london that was absolutely unimaginable before it happened. even once it did happen, it was still almost unimaginable. a young british man, young british soldier, 25 years old, an afghanistan veteran, a drummer and ultimately an army recruiter in britain, he was apparently randomly attacked on the streets of southeast london just outside the army barracks where he served. two assailants began the attack by deliberately running the young man down in a car and then as he laid in the street they attacked him with multiple weapons apparently in an effort

to cut off his head. >> we have to go overseas to a thoroughly twisted and disturbing story out of london today. fair warning, this is tough to look at especially when you realize what it is we're looking at. a british soldier in plainclothes ambushed and killed on a city street while his barbaric attackers wait for police to come while they take -- allow people to take video while they vent their message about religion and politics and, for reasons you'll see, this is now being treated as an act of terrorism. we get our report tonight from nbc's michelle kosinski in london. >> move back, move back. >> reporter: in the middle of the day in a busy working class neighborhood right next to an army barracks, near an elementary school, a seen of such raw violence few could believe it. >> the guy's dead now. >> reporter: people here say a young man who nbc has confirmed was a british soldier wearing a

charity help for heroes t-shirt was walking along the sidewalk when two men in a car apparently drove into him, then got out and started stabbing him with multiple large knives. >> they were hacking at the poor guy, chopping him, cutting him. >> reporter: some eyewitnesses say the victim was decant at a timed in attack and that the two suspects then approached people in the horrified crowd. one made a long political statement weapons still in his blood covered hands. >> we swear by the mighty allah we'll never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. >> reporter: when police arrived the men charged at officers who opened fire. both were hit. now the hospitals. that was make of last year a terrorist attack targeting a soldier in plainclothe bus he was chosen at random on the streets of britain. both those attackers just waiting around for apparently what was up to 20 minutes before police arrived after the attack and they took advantage of that

time while they were waiting around to make these political statements about the ideological terroristic motivations for what they did, standing there with their hands covered in blood. both of those attackers were arrested. they're serving life sentences in britain. that was last may. almost exactly one year later, one year and two days after that, may 24th of this year, a young frenchman who had traveled with syria and fought with isis in syria, he found a way to return home to europe. he went to belgium, went to the jewish museum in downtown brussels and mounted his own low tech attack, he killed four people at the jewish museum and then calmly walked away.mh:l he was arrested six days later in marseilles. last week in australia, police launched the single biggest terrorism raid that ever happened in that country. a huge number of people involved. but the plot they were trying to

stop was very small scale. not a 9/11 style spectacular attack, but an attack of the size of that attack on the streets of london. a jewish museum shooting style attack. watch. >> good evening. it's an attack that would terrify and horrify australians. one that has no place in our country. but early this morning police launched the biggest terror raids in the nation's history. thwarting a chilling plot to behead a member of the public in sydney. simon boda begins our coverage. >> reporter: before dawn, 800 police activated, their mission to stop a terrorist attack on our streets. armed to the teeth, carrying search warrants, counterterrorism police hit 15 addresses across the city.

ten cars were searched. they were taking no chances. the targets allegedly presenting a clear an present danger. >> police believe this group had the intention and started to plan to carry out violent acts here in australia. >> reporter: that violence, it's alleged, involved random abductions and beheadings, demonstration killings. >> very much about police disrupting the potential for violence against the australian community at the earliest possible opportunity. >> that was last week in australia, the largest terror raids in that country's history. they said trying to head off, as it were, the efforts to mount some sort of demonstration killings inside that country. again, that was last week in australia. and then in the last 24 hours in australia there was this. >> our top story. the acting prime minister has praised the bravery of two police officers injured after being attacked by a known terror suspect. the 18-year-old was shot dead

with police saying they had no option but to open fire. meanwhile, police, political leaders and religious leaders are all calling for calm in the wake of the incident. >> an 18-year-old is dead after pulling a knife and stabbing two officers. >> none of us really had no choice other than to act in the ain which they did. >> just after sunset the teenager met with two countertask force members. he had promoted the flag at the terrorist group islamic state and had his passport canceled a week ago. the meeting fan with a handshake between a federal sister and a victoria police officer. then the fight erupted, the teen produced a knife and repeatedly stabbed the federal officer leaving him with life threatening injuries. the terror suspect then jabbed the victoria police member in the forearm before the wounded officer drew his gun and fired a single fatal shot.

>> this is an incident resulting from the actions of one individual. it is not about faith. it's not about ethnicity. it's about the alleged behavior of an individual. and it's important that our community continue to work together. it is critical that no particular group within the community is singled out or targeted. and it's important that victorians remain calm and go about their business in the usual manner. >> i understand that this and the events of last week in sydney will have made many people in our state feel deeply unsettled. it is absolutely natural to feel concern about what is happening. it's a dynamic and challenging security environment we find ourselves in. dealing with new threats that stand so aggressively and at odds with everything we value and we stand for.

>> local authorities and the national government in australia urging australians to remain calm in the face of that raid last week and then this shooting after this attack on police in the last 24 hours. the local press in australia judging from headlines like these, they're not particularly remaining calm about this. this is the age newspaper in australia reporting that the man who was shot after stabbing police officers, quote, planned to behead them and then drape their bodies in an isis flag. within 24 hours of that incident today in australia, while those international proceedings against terrorism were still under way at the united nations, another terrorist group in algeria released a video showing the beheading of a french civilian. the group that killed the french tourist and posted this video online today, they used to be part of al qaeda in the islamic magrib one of the groups that's pledged allegiance to ayman al zawahiri, the head of al qaeda since osama bin laden died. last weekend this group in algeria that posted the video

today, they changed their allegiance and they announced instead of ayman al zawahiri and al qaeda central they now consider themselves to be allied with isis, affiliated with isis, the group that the united states is now fighting in iraq and syria.ç isis put out an audio recording a few days ago calling for their supporters and sympathizers around the world to take action anywhere on earth where they can target civilians from any of the countries that are joined with the u.s. in trying to fight isis in iraq and syria. that's what happened today to end the life of a french tourist, a french hiker who had the misfortune to be kidnapped in algeria just this weekend. the khorasan group and isis are now learning how the u.s. fights groups like them. the pentagon announced more than a dozen air strikes on isis in syria. a dozen air strikes targeting

what the pentagon describes as modular oil refineries. the belgians and the dutch announced they'd be sending their own fighter jets to fight in iraq if not in syria. army chief of staff ray odd easterno said that to support those u.s. air raids we might expect that a u.s. army headquarters group might also get called up as well. there hasn't been a headquarters group stationed in iraq since the u.s. war ended there in 2011 but apparently another headquarters unit may be getting ready to go. 100 to 500 more american soldiers. and we still do not know how long this campaign is going to go on or if the u.s. congress % will ever authorize it or what the ultimate effect will be on these terrorist groups or on the syrian civil war or on the iraqi government or on global

terrorism, but as those targeted groups in iraq and syria, that's are learning what it feels like to face this u.s.-led international military effort against them, the rest of us civilians in the world are also learning what it means to face a terrorist group that does have international sympathizers. enough that it's attracted something like 15,000 foreigners to go to the hell that is syria to fight with them. it's asking for sympathizers around the world to now target us. to pick random civilians anywhere they can anywhere in the world as their way of fighting this war. so we will see what these groups do on the battlefields of iraq and syria now that u.s. air strikes are adding to the mix of all the combat in iraq and syria, but these groups that the u.s. and all of our allies now are fighting there, they don't see the battlefield as just iraq and syria. they see this as battlefield earth.

they're not the first to have done that. as the president said today terrorism is absolutely not a new thing, right? but what have we learned about fighting terrorism in the past? to help us build a defense against a group that wants and is now soliciting and is now starting to get lone wolf low tech one by one knife and gun attacks against random civilians all over the world? joining us now is mia blum, at the university of massachusetts. she studies terrorists and their tactics. thanks for being with us. >> thanks so much for having me. >> do we have any good models for dealing with the threat of dispersed intermittent small scale globally inspired terrorism? do we know anything about what works for countering those kinds of threats? >> we have at least ten years of lessons learned at the community policing level where police

officers and, you know, all the agencies have coordinated their efforts to learn as much as possibly from the experiences of places like minneapolis, los angeles, boston, chicago. what has worked and what hasn't worked with regard to working with communities to prevent radicalization and recruitment from those communities. but what will end up happening is it will be impossible to ever control lee rigby woolrich kind of attack who there is an individual who engages in violence. we're up able to do that in american schools, we're unable to do it on american streets. that will always be difficult to control. >> from the perspective of these groups, when they decide that this is going to be their strategy, then they put out a call, global sympathizers do this on your own, freelance and we'll take credit for whatever you do and we hope that it will contribute to our overall

us getting what we want, why does a group pick a strategy like this and what can be done to make that less attractive for them? >> one of the reasons this group is doing it is, in my opinion, it's desperate. trying to project power in such a way that it looks like it has a global reach which in fact isil or da'aesh, isil, whatever we're calling it this week really is located specifically in syria and iraq. its ability to project power in places like algeria with junda calipha, the group that committed beheading today, is rare. so people in australia and north america, it's very limited as well as the people who would be inspired wouldn't have the training to do significant damage.

>> do you think that the u.s. air strike campaign that's being targeted at what they describe as isis headquarters facilities in syria but also in iraq, do you think that those overseas air strikes will have a knowable effect on the ability of them to carry out local attacks or to inspire local sympathizers around the world to carry out these attacks? >> i think that it's already having a positive effect in the sense that isil is no longer able to hold territory like the mosul dam. they're losing their infrastructure control. they're also losing hearts and minds in places like raqqa. two days ago they had to cancel the smoking ban they had instituted because people in syria like to smoke.8 and they're losing hearts and minds, you know, widely. so i think that the bombing campaigns, especially the fact that it's coordinated with local actors, with, i think, the jordanian air force is going to get involved, you have european

air forces. you have the air forces of the combined arab countries and the arab league and the u.n., i j;qs think the fact is isis is being increasingly isolated, which is a good thing, and the appeal will decrease especially as we have religious authorities across north america and europe and across the world who have said that if you join isil, you are actually contravening islam. these people do not represent islam, and you will get no benefit from it. so it's a multi-pronged approach. >> mia bloom, professor of security studies at umass lowell, thanks so much for helping us understand this. >> thanks very much for having me. >> lots more ahead. dexter philkin will join us tonight. you'll want to see that. first, the rachel maddo show deep dive into women's magazines, which broke a lot of important news stories today.l e. [ female voice ] yes? lactaid® is 100% real milk?

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a mess? i don't think -- what's that? snapshot from progressive. plug it in, and you can save on car insurance based on your good driving. you sell to me? no, it's free. you want to try? i try this if you try... not this. okay. da! when it comes time to vote for the best news photo of 2014, i personally hope that this is at least in the running. this is a photo taken by a reuters photographer this past february. it shows a ukraine protester staring in absolute wonderment at a duck-footed toilet in a duck-footed bidet both of which appear to be partially gold. and that wooden panelled duck-themed bathroom one of the lavish touches left behind by viktor yanukovych when he fled.

ukraines playing a pretend round of golf on victor yanukovych's private golf course. earlier this year after months of protests ukraines managed to oust their president from power. viktor yanukovych fled to russia and when he did ukraines of all stripes descended on his estate and discovered the level of luxury he'd been enjoying in secret, his petting zoo, opulent dining rooms, the private church he had built himself. they also discovered troves and troves of documents. when ukraine's president took off he tried to destroy all of his documents on his way out the door but there were a lot of them. he didn't get rid of all of them. enterprising protesters saved lots of those documents by, say, plucking them out of the reservoir at the estate he'd thrown them into. they dried them out, scanned

them, then posted them online. they detail the immensely corrupt financial dealings of ukraine's now former president. when dictators are forced to plea, when they're forced to leave in a hurry, you can often find kind of a treasure trove in material in what they're forced to leave behind. call it dictator detritus. in 1991, the united states declared victory in the first gulf war. >> kuwait is liberated. iraq's army is defeated. our military objectives are met. kuwait is once more in the hands of kuwaitis in control of their own destiny. we share in their joy, a joy tempered only by their compassion for their ordeal. >> the first iraq war did not topple saddam hussein's government but did leave his regime weakened at least for a time. gave groups that saddam tried to

target and wipe out, the kurds in the north and the shiites in the south, it gave them momentary space to strengthen themselves, to try to reclaim land from saddam's forces. after the first gulf war at the urging of the bush administration, the kurdish forces in the north, which had long been oppressed by saddam hussein, they were able to reclaim land taken by saddam's government. when they reclaimed that land, the saddam forces left behind deck tater detritus. they left behind videotapes and orders from the saddam regime that showed an ethnic cleansing that had been conducted against the kurds in the north including documents related to saddam hussein's un-fall campaign which was a systemic effort to wipe 'ó out the race of the kurds in iraq, it documented the gas attack. the kurds had who had gathered

30 tons of documents they said proved ethnic cleansing, they agreed to turn all those documents and videotapes over to us. in order to assure that those documents would be preserved, the kurds turned them over to the american military. the military working with secret rights groups and the staff they smuggled those documents and videotapes out of iraq. that was march 1992, 30 tons of documents in total. some were later used by the justice department, a now defungts doj office called the regime crimes liaison office was set up to advise the iraqi government about how to bring war crimes charges against saddam hussein. some of the documents were used for that. they relied heavily on the documents smuggled out of iraq in 1992. these are some of those documents. many reside at9r,f university of

colorado at boulder. get this, next week a kurdish delegation is going to travel to colorado to receive a copy of that archive. those documents that have been in american hands all this time for safe keeping for the first time since 1992, they will be back in kurdish hands. and that history between saddam hussein and the kurds, that's now very, very relevant to world affair. because parts of the saddam hussein regime are now back. back in the form of isis. the sunni militant group that the u.s. is waging a war against in iraq and syria now they're in part headed up by former high ranking generals from saddam hussein. and that fact helps explain the willingness of the kurds to fight against isis in northern iraq even as the iraqi army has certainly melted away in parts of that country. to the extent that the u.s. strategy to defeat isis is going

to succeed, it will largely depend on the kurds, and their sort of legendary fighting force which is known as the peshmerga. the u.s. fighting force has been a strategy of air strikes in iraq and starting this week in syria. the strategy does not call for u.s. ground troops. so the question has been what force on the ground is going to be able to secure any gains made by these air strikes? who can capitalize on strikes like this? west of the border in syria, there's this effort from the u.s. to create a hardened force of some kind. there can be neither the regime for isis. they want it to be a third group. that effort to arm and train syrian rebels that hasn't really started yet on any large scale. u.s. officials say it was just approved by congress. it will be three months until that training even begins. so that mission has been authorized but is not operational. on the other side of the border in iraq there is the iraqi army which we're trying to shore up against after spending eight or so years working on that.

but there's the strategy of directly arming and funding and shoving weapons into the hands of the kurds. the kurds are a special case. they're these legendary fighters and maybe they'll have a big impact. but there's something to know about the kurds and what they want and that is not at all what we want. and that is key to figure out if america's strategy the going to work. the new yorker's dexter filkins just returned, he spent plenty of time on the ground with the kurds. he joins us next.

joining us tonight in new york for an interview is one of the world's most accomplished war correspondents. he's been covering the wars in iraq and afghanistan since 2001w he's the author of the acclaimed book "the forever war." he just spent time in iraq with the kurds in northern iraq. the group that will be central to the united states strategy against isis there. joining us is dexter filkins. >> thank you, hi. >> it seems like the kurds are absolutely crucial to the american idea of how success might happen against isis. >> right. >> do the kurds see themselves strategically the same way that the u.s. government does? >> no. >> what's their big idea? what's their strategy. >> the u.s. wants the kurds to fight isis and they want them to

stay in iraq. but the kurds don't want to stay in iraq, they want the leave. they're pretty close. they're sitting on an ocean of oil. they're land locked, the big problem is getting the oil out and getting it on tankers so they need another country to do that. but they're heading for the exit. so there's a lot of tension there in that relationship, but they need our help. >> so as the u.s. is now really ramping up all this military -- and lots of countries ramping up military support to them because they want them as a bulwark against isis. >> yes. >> the knock-on effect of that the same guns work just as well against the iraqi army. >> right. the other thing to say about that is i think the curds are happy to fight isis if isis tries to come into kurdistan. but i don't see the kurds going into the isis area. because really what yoo you are talking about, isis has had all of its success in arab-speaking areas and the kurds don't want to go in there. so i think they're happy to keep isis at bay, form their own

country, but i think i'd be very surprised if they show any willingness at all to push into isis areas. >> if they are successful at defending their own territory and isis, therefore, doesn't go there. >> right. >> does that hurt the overall dream of isis? can their dream survive without also taking over kurdish territory? seems like they can. >> probably. without bombs raining on them. the question is will they. i think that when i was there as i was leaving, isis was getting pretty close to some of the oil fields around kirkuk which is now a kurdish city. and there was some concern that isis, which i think now is making 5 million or $6 million a day shipping oil, smuggling oil out, they want to keep expanding. and that's like groups like this. they only really survive if they keep growing.

and so i think it's going to be a challenge for them or for isis. >> are americans in the way that our own government our own media is characterizing isis, are we essential mischaracterizing them as cavemen? are we misunderestimating them in a sense? not to say that there's anything to admire about them, but when you talk about them as barbarians, it's hard to believe that they could manage refining oil in modular units, getting that oil to market and running governance in all these places they're holding. they're a pretty layered, complex, sophisticated organization. >> i think those two things which is being a caveman and cutting somebody's head off and running oil refineries, those things are not mutually exclusive. abu backer al bag gaddy has a ph.d.. i think the fighters at the bottom are pretty uneducated guys.

but the thing to remember about isis is this is the product of a society -- two societies, two states in total chaos. total anarchy. so it's kind of out of this, this thing has come together. and somebody described to me, they said, these are the guys that, you know, isis is a direct outgrowth of al qaeda in iraq. and somebody said to me, these are the guys we didn't kill. it's combat darwinism. to answer your question, i think it's really strange that you can get guys who are as brutal and savage and bloodthirsty as these guys but at the same time be as sophisticated as they are, but they are. >> but for us reporting on this and politically for people describing it accepting both barbarism and capacity is a hard thing to communicate but i thinc that's where we're at. dexter filkins. it's really hard to report from these areas. so you coming here after being

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and now we come to the part of the "rachel maddow show" that's about women's magazines. we've never had this part of the show before, not in six years on the air. then this happened. you should have put a vote on it. save the date, november 4th. four is beyonce's favorite number. this is from "cosmopolitan" magazine which is doing something called cosmo votes this year. they're endorsing politicians in senate and gubernatorial elections every tuesday between now and the election. they've never done something like this before.í99h and, yes, all the most read articles at cosmopolitan.com are still like six reasons you should sleep naked, should you stop shaving, waxing,

whatevering down there, and uh -- anyway. alongside all that cosmo is not messing around with this politics thing. they're doing a lot of coverage and they're being quite aggressive on politicians that they thing are on the wrong side of issues that cosmo thinks will be of interest to young women voters. this is not an insignificant thing. if young women voters defy history and decide to actually turn out in big numbers in the midterm elections this year even though they don't in most years not to put too fine a vote on it, if they do turn out in november, democrats will win the elections. and so behold, the first of two really significant politics stories that were broken today by a women's magazine. this was "cosmopolitan" please stand by. this is not an insignificant

thing, right? if young women voters defy history and decide to actually turn out in big numbers in the midterm elections this year, even though they don't in most year, not to put too fine point on it, but if young voters turn out in november, democrats will win the elections. and so behold, the first of two really significant politic stories that were broken today by a women's magazine. this was cosmopolitan magazine's sexiest man's center fold model in 1982. he was then a fashion model, but he went on to become a united states senator from massachusetts for about five minutes before she was turfed out by elizabeth warren. scott brown has kept the modeling thing surprisingly central to his political campaigning over the years. when he was running against elizabeth warren, when the on boston talk radio and said how unattractive he thought she was. he said thank god she didn't take her clothes off the way he had as a model. he's running again, and even though his friends from "cosmo" were friendly to him at first, they're abandoning him. quote, while we wish we could support the man who once posed news in our page, his policy positions just aren't as solid as his abs were in the '80s. scott brown said he disapproved of cutting family planning. when reporters tried to ask him about his views on contraceptive access, he literally hid in a bathroom to avoid answering the question. quote, jean shaheen doesn't hide

in the bathroom." scott brown ran into a bathroom so he wouldn't have to answer questions for a reporter from the guardian. i found brown at a table at a restaurant. i introduced myself as a reporter and inquired if i could ask him questions. brown replied, what do you want to ask me about. hobby lobby. i'm all set, we're enjoying ourselves right now. but it's routine for journalists to ask you questions. he stood up, walked to the back of the diner and went to the bathroom. his aide looked bewildered. he introduced himself, then joined his boss in the bathroom. that led to cosmopolitan magazine giving up on their former poster boy.

literally i think you were supposed to use him as a poster. quote, scott brown may have been cosmopolitan's sexiest man in 1982, but in 2014, we're picking brains over brawn. and believe it or not, that is the first of two potentially big political stories broken by women's magazines today. and the second one, which was not in "cosmo" that is the single most talked about political story in the country today, particularly on the left. and that bombshell story is next. but it won't cause me discomfort. exactly, no discomfort, because it's milk without the lactose. and it tastes? it's real milk! come on, would i lie about this? lactaid®. 100% real milk. no discomfort. and try lactaid® supplements with your first bite to dig in

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>> if you want to talk about not just politics but real power that really matters for the country in big ways over the longest periods of time of everything in washington, it's the supreme court. at least that's the perspective of the biggest democratic donors in the country. you hear it over and over again from democratic bigwigs. they say what the donors care about more than anything is the supreme court. apparently if you're a big democratic fish, that issue if

nothing else, that's the reason you do everything you can to put a democrat in the white house and make sure the democrats have a majority in the senate. the senate nominates supreme court justices but it's the senate that has to confirm them. the oldest justice on the court right now is ruth bader ginsburg. when bill clinton nominated her for the court in 1993, she was confirmed by the senate 96-3. that wasn't that long ago, but confirmation votes do not go like that anymore. if ruth bader ginsburg steps down from the court while president obama is still in office, it will be president obama who chooses a nominee to succeed her. if she doesn't, from there's a possibility that the next president will choose her successor. and there's a possibility the next president might be a republican. and that very thing drives democratic donors into a frenzy. both in terms of their desire to see a democrat elected president in 2016, but also their desire to see a democratic majority hold on in the senate. even though justices used to be

confirmed 96-3 like ginsburg or scalia, votes like that don't happen anymore. and there's a real worry if president obama does have to make a nomination, if republicans are in control of the senate, there's a worry they won't confirm anybody who president obama nominates. constitutional crisis? sure. totally possible? absolutely. if you're a glass half empty kind of pessimist about democrats and republicans and the trajectory of congress in washington right now. you know who not that kind of a pessimist? justice ginsberg. check out in optimism. do you think the pendulum might swing back in a more progressive direction in your lifetime. i think it will when we have a more functioning congress. she believes that will happen in her lifetime. when it comes to abortion right, does the pendulum have to swing in a more conservative direction

before it starts to swing back? answer, no. i think it's gotten about as conservative as it will get. see, that's why she can do more push-ups than i can at twice my age, the optimism. but here's the kicker. question, i'm not sure how to ask this but a lot of people who admire and respect you wonder if you'll resign under president obama. if i resign this year he would not be able to appoint anyone that i would like to see on the court. if they think he could get somebody like me, they're mistaken. she doesn't think there are enough democrats in the senate to beat an inevitable republican filibuster of any truly

progressive nominee. we're on the' of an election, after which we are virtually guaranteed to have even fewer democrats in the senate than we have right now. so that road to confirmation for the next nominee is about to get harder, not easier after the 2014 elections. after the 2016 elections, no one knows what will happen, but ruth bader ginsburg is a lodger machine and she knows these things. she must think that in 2016, not only is there going to be another democrat ir president, but there will be enough democrat elected with enough democrats in the senate to either beat a republican filibuster or kill the filibuster all together. ruth bader ginsburg is an iron woman. thanks to this remarkable new interview, we know that she is more bullish on democratic election prospects than anyone

else in washington right now. if she is right, progressives, rejoice. if she is not, well, that is a big, big bet to lose. that is a big bet to lose. good thursday morning, everybody. right now on "first look" massive flooding creating waterfalls in texas while causing major damage and headaches. military strikes pound isis terrorists overnight as president obama vows to crush their network of death. >> the language of force. major development. an arrest in the missing university of virginia student. plus, derek jeter's final night at yankee stadium. good morning, thank you for joining us. the national weather service says more than two inches of rain fell on lubbock in under two