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it's high noon here in the east. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." new today, the uk says its warplanes have taken off for the country's first combat mission against isis. it's just one day after parliament approved air strikes targeting isis in iraq. it's happenings a u.s. warplanes hit a syrian town near the turkish border. kelly joins us. how big a part is the uk playing in the fighting? >> reporter: so far it's limited. six tornado jets will be going up today. so far two have taken off from a base in cyprus. they've returned from that mission. they went along with a fueling plane. we're not yet sure what that mission was about, whether they

performed any air strikes, whether they launched any missile strikes over iraq. we're still waiting to hear from the defense department on that. they have been performing surveillance and reconnaissance missions over iraq over the past six weeks. it's only after yesterday's vote in parliament when they were actually going forward with air strikes, alex? >> let's talk about the british public. i'm curious about the reaction there to parliament's vote. is this a popular decision over there? >> reporter: it is in the sense that it's just iraq at this moment. i think there is some political will when it comes to air strikes over iraq. when you then start talking about syria, things change completely. and the difference here -- first off, alex, is that the iraqi government has requested air strikes, has requested help in battling isis. the syrian government, bashar al assad, has not.

so i think ever since we saw this beheading of a british citizen by isis, there has been a push toward joining the military fight in iraq against isis. but, again, it's very fraught politically when it comes to battling isis in syria for a whole host of reasons, not only because of this idea of an invitation in versus no invitation at all. >> kelly, thank you so much for the live report from london. authorities in oklahoma have released the chilling 911 call after police say a man who was fired from his job attacked his co-workers, beheading one woman with a knife and then viciously stabbing another. >> lock everybody in there if you can. >> yeah, we're trying. can you hear this in the background? >> is that him? he's back? >> yeah. it sounds like he's running around out here. >> okay.

>> 30-year-old alton nolen is being treated in a local hospital right now. joining me now a jim cavanaugh. police in oklahoma, they've asked the fbi to help investigate after his former co-workers said he recently tried to convert several employees to islam. is there any indication at all to suggest that this is related to the isis violence we've seen overseas? >> well, i think partly, alex. this is a guy who's operating with mixed motives. a violent crime has various motives, greed, revenge, hate, power, escape. and this guy is operating with a couple of motives. one, revenge on his employer. and he's been radicalized in prison. he's posting pictures on his facebook page of osama bin laden. so he's been infected with the al qaeda virus. he's trying to propagate that. he has a tattoo on his chest of

jesus christ. that doesn't make him a christian. he's certainly not a muslim. but he has been taken up with al qaeda's version of the death cult. and he's certainly tried to use that -- did use that in oklahoma city. >> inspired to some degree. let's take a listen to a bit r many of that 911 call. here's that. >> and that, that's a gunshot. >> units responding to vaughan foods. we do have gunshots. do you know where he's at now? >> he's in the hallway outside the center of the building. >> he's in the hallway in the center the building. how many more shots have you heard? >> we heard three. >> there have been suggestions that this was some sort of a suicide attempt by him. but to this degree, was there more to it than just that? >> well, i think this guy's a pretty troubled guy.

he'd been in the penitentiary. he assaulted a state trooper in 2010. he has some other criminal records for drugs. and he had fired certainly out of revenge. and he's been radicalized. that's a true fact. he's been radicalized likely in prison and probably on the internet. but that's al qaeda, what he's radicalized with. it's not islam. and he's not a christian because it says jesus christ on his chest either. yes, he's been radicalized to a point and caught revenge on his employer for being terminated. so his motives were mixed. it's a vulgar case. yes, i think there's a lot of things going on in his mind and in that case. >> you've got to wonder if there were any signs with him working in that workplace because he was trying to convert co-workers reportedly to islam. can that be a, i guess, a red flag? >> well, right, alex. you hit on an important point.

but somebody trying to recruit people to their religion -- >> that's simply not of itself -- >> right. of course. it depends on what he said to the people if they were able to realize that he was radicalized and not really trying to convert them to islam but rather converting them to this radical view, this death cult of al qaeda. did they recognize that? he might not have said enough for them to know that. he might have just talked about the preachings of islam, trying to suck them into the radical cult. we see it with the ku klux klan. they use a cross as a symbol. they have a drop of blood on their sheet robe that they say represents the blood of jesus. they read from the bible. they also try to recruit using religion. so that's not unusual with terror groups or hate groups. maybe the employees just didn't recognize it and it didn't mean anything to them. 8 it's a horrible case. >> horrible case. jim cavanaugh, thank you very

much for speaking with us about it. other news now, four members of a texas college softball team are dead after a terrible crash on an oklahoma highway. a tractor-trailer was on interstate 35 when it crossed the median, veered into southbound lanes and plowed right into the side of that bus carrying that team. when police arrived on the scene, they knew there was a two-vehicle crash but it took them an hour before they found the tractor-trailer. the driver of the semi was injured but is expected to survive. the nation's air travel system is struggling to get back to normal after a case of sabotage that brought chicago's two international airports to a grinding halt. so far today, more than 600 flights in and out of o'hare and midway airports have been canceled. more than 2,000 were canceled yesterday. authorities say a contract employee started a fire friday morning at an faa center in suburban chicago. the clinton dynasty has a new heir.

chelsea clinton gave birth to a baby daughter named charlotte on friday. the new addition inspired this tweet from chelsea, mark and i are full of love, awe and gratitude as we celebrate the birth of our daughter. let's go to the weather. we're getting a taste of summer here in the northeast during this last weekend of september. but for the rest of the country forecast, let's go to mark elliot from the weather channel. >> a couple of big stories we're following for you across the country. we start out west where a big dip in the jet stream and this big spiral of energy, this area of low pressure is going to be kicking up some nasty weather. this low is picking up moisture out ahead of it. and the combination means the chance for some very heavy rains. this corridor of rain from arizona into utah has already been sparking off flash flooding, including along the i-45 and the i-15 corridors. that's definitely an area of concern. much of northern arizona into utah underneath flash flood watches because of this very reason.

we could even see some severe weather across this area, including isolated tornadoes. it's not just the flood threat, hail, wind, isolated tornadoes possible. and then over the next couple of days as this system slowly moves, the severe weather threat moves along with it. monday it's the eastern side of the four corners. by tuesday, the center of the country. wind, hail and isolated tornado threat as well. meanwhile, we're looking at the eastern united states. a slow-moving system as we go through the next several days. we'll be picking up gulf moisture. throwing that into the southeast u.s. and several different kind of spirals of moisture and spirals of low pressure will be coming on through. increasing that chance for nasty weather in the southeast. 3 to 5 inches of rain anywhere in yellow through tuesday. you want the nice weather, head toward the northeast. the next several days will be absolutely lovely with temperatures in the 70s and 80s. cooling down a bit as we go into monday and tuesday. it's really going to feel like fall in the northeast. back to you. >> i appreciate that, mark, thanks so much.

expect more republicans in attack mode as we enter day two of the values voters summit. happening right now in washington, d.c. much of the sharp criticism directed at the president and his policies. it came from some in the gop who may be positioning themselves for 2016. let's take a listen. >> we are going to sign legislation repealing every word of obamacare. >> the president acts like he's a king. he ignores the constitution. >> do you think it's time to abolish the irs? >> then there was the trillion-dollar stimulus. i guess that didn't work so well. >> joining me now from washington, d.c., msnbc digital producer jane tim. jane, we have the straw poll. that's the big news to be held there later today. who are you predicting to win? >> reporter: this crowd loves ted cruz. the 2,000 people here were hooting and hollering and so

engaged with ted cruz's speech. he looked very at ease with this crowd. he won last year's straw poll. he was walking around, very comfortable, quoting the bible. he did not use a teleprompter which most of the speakers have used. and he really did well. i heard someone out in the crowd saying, ted cruz ate everybody else's lunch today. i think that's a pretty good summary. >> so you have ted at the top. can you predict who might come in second? is that where the real race is? >> reporter: that's going to be interesting. a lot of people are making bids to the social conservative crowd here as they look at 2016. people like rand paul tried to tell them that his sort of libertarian politics are crucial to the virtues that family values voters really care about. so how he does will do well. he got 6% last year. that's an interesting thing to look at. the other surprise that i think we might see is bobby jindal.

he came in, very quiet in the beginning. but as he was telling family stories and jokes, he gained a lot of momentum. and people were engaged with him by the end of his speech. >> we'll see how that vote goes. jane, thanks so much. new alarm, why america's top aviation official is voicing major concerns about air travel. ? create things that help people. design safer cars. faster computers. smarter grids and smarter phones. think up new ways to produce energy. ♪ be an engineer. solve problems the world needs solved. what are you waiting for? changing the world is part of the job description. [ male announcer ] join the scientists and engineers of exxonmobil in inspiring america's future engineers. energy lives here.

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new alarm about khorasan, being called a clear and present danger to commercial travel in both the u.s. and europe. kristen welker is at the white house for us. what kind of details is the head of the tsa revealing about this group? >> reporter: they're really terrifying details. the head of the tsa saying that khorasan has been working on developing explosive devices

that can get around airport security. and the head of the tsa essentially saying that they are determined and capable. in fact, back in july, they asked for beefed-up security at some airports overseas to try to crack down on this. pretty terrifying. here's a little bit more of what he had to say. take a listen. >> we know what al qaeda in the arabian peninsula has done over the years with the underwear bomb, with the cargo bombs, all these different iterations. another group has been looking at some of those issues and doing the research and development and testing of devices that they believe will be successful in getting through some airport's security en route from someplace to a location in europe or the u.s. >> reporter: the tsa director also saying they are working to mitigate the risk level at overseas airports. this all comes as the united

states continues to launch air strikes in iraq and also in syria. and yesterday, the british parliament voted to approve joining in air strikes but only in iraq. not in syria. the u.s. trying to build up its coalition. it does have assurances from more than 40 countries and five arab nations have joined in air strikes in syria. but the key is going to be to get assurances from arab nations that they will be willing to commit boots on the ground in a combat role. the administration hasn't given any details about what nations might be willing to do that. but that is certainly a key part of president obama's strategy. and of course there's been a lot of debate about whether or not u.s. combat forces are going to wind up going into the region. president obama insisting he's not going to put u.s. forces on the ground in a combat role there. at this point, there are about 1,600 american troops there in the form of advisers. alex? >> kristen, thank you very much.

joining me right now from a capitol hill perspective, democratic congressman jim hines. let's listen to the tsa administrator who's saying the khorasan group present this is clear and present danger. the intelligence you've seen, sir, does it tell you that it is at that point? >> we've known for a long time, alex, that al qaeda is a learning organization. they adapt to our defenses. as the gentleman from the tsa said, the underwear bomber, the shoe bomber were their attempts to get around the metallic centers we have. it's a frightening thing but not a new thing. with the khorasan group, we had credible threat information and we had a location and that allowed the president to make the decision he did in terms of going after personnel there during the air strikes in syria. but, again, we shouldn't think

of khorasan as a dramatic aberration. terrorist groups are learning and adaptable organizations. >> how confident are you, though, in our ability to stop terrorists from doing harm because we have 275 airports around the world that have direct flights to the united states, of which the intelligence that i'm seeing says that they are right now focusing on a couple of dozen to beef up security across europe and the middle east, northern africa. that leaves a whole lot of other ones there. would you be worried that khorasan or any other group would have access to the other ones that don't necessarily have that stepped-up security right now? >> of course you worry about that. and not only do you worry about that, but you worry about whatever technology they might develop that might be able to defeat the security systems that they've got at airports. we've got a real obligation and we've devoted a lot of resources and we've had some successes. the disruption of the plot that was trying to put explosives

into a printer cartridge, the security services around the world are doing their part and spending the resources necessary to do this. but it raises a broader question. we shouldn't be under the misapprehension that we're always going to be 100%. what happened in the boston marathon bombing with what we've called a lone wolf attack, in that the tsarnaev brothers weren't trained by al qaeda fighters but they managed to pull off an attack, that threat, no matter how good our security services are will be there with us. >> you said you support air strikes in syria but you are against arming the moderate rebels. if the moderates are not strengthened, it would seem the assad government is going to reap all the benefits of these air strikes, right? is it at the point where assad staying in power is potentially the best case scenario? >> of course it's not a best case scenario. i would characterize it as perhaps a least worst-case

scenario. at this point in time today you have two choices in damascus, which is assad and the status quo and assad as a monster. no two ways about that. or assad goes away and who do we think is now in charge in damascus? would it be isis or some hezbollah-oriented shiite group? more likely, it would be a combination of the two battling each other in damascus. so we need to call a spade a spade here. the attacks we're leveling against isis of course are in the indirect interest of the assad regime. we need to recognize that. it just so happens that i think isis is a much more direct national security threat to the united states than president assad is at the moment. >> it's interesting you said in your letter, it would be bad enough to be on one side of the middle eastern civil war, now we appear to be on both sides. how much do you hear that sentiment echoed throughout the halls of congress? >> unfortunately, we didn't have the debate i would have liked to have had in the congress.

in my opinion, it would have been better to step back and have an authorization for the military activities in the area. though i did vote against the arming and training of the syrian so-called moderates, i completely support the air strikes and the very aggressive activities we're taking against isis. my concern with the moderates is we talk about these moderates as though they're some kind of team that will always remain the moderates, right? these are 18, 19, 20-year-old young men in the middle east, of course. 's not unusual to see a moderate on monday to be a non-moderate on tuesday. factions and whole militias move to whoever has the momentum, to whoever has the money. it's put us on both sides of the civil war. we have to acknowledge the very aggressive actions were taking the air strikes and whatnot against isis are indirect serving the interests of the assad regime. i think most people would agree that isis is a more significant national security threat. but that dynamic is there. >> did congress want to have to

vote on the air strikes before the midterms or were they actually happy to avoid putting their fingerprints on this? >> well, that's a very good and apt question, alex. i don't want to be perceived as saying this is all the white house's fault. i don't actually agree with the white house's belief that they have all the authority they need to do these new hostilities. but what you point out is absolutely right. there were plenty of members in both the house and the senate who i think were happy to get away before the election and not have to take a difficult vote, which is unfortunately putting politics before what is pretty close to a sacred constitutional duty. >> representative, i always appreciate your candor. thank you so much. >> thanks, alex. a chilling exchange during a bizarre stand-off. what isis militants said to kurdish fighters during a temporary truce. "hello. you can go ahead and put your bag right here." "have a nice flight." ♪ music plays

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introducing synchrony financial, bringing new meaning to the word partnership. banking. loyalty. analytics. synchrony financial. enagage with us. time now for headlines at the half. the death for number of deaths from ebola has climbed past 3,000. w as many as 1.4 million could become infected by january. a clean-up is under way after a water pipe bursts on sunset strip in los angeles. nearly 10,000 gallons a minutes flowed out on friday. at least 40 injured climbers are stranded on a japanese volcano after it erupted unexpectedly. 200 hikers were climbing down the mountain during the eruption. one woman is reported dead. seven people are missing. that volcano last erupted in

2007. just one day after getting the approval from parliament, british fighter jets are flying over iraq right now. they're waiting for isis targets in their first mission as part of the international coalition against those militants. in his weekly address out this morning, president obama spoke about the coalition as well as his goals to combat extremism at its roots. >> at the united nations in new york i worked to build more support for this coalition, to cut off terrorist financing and to stop the flow of foreign fighters into and out of that region. and in my address to the u.n., i challenged the world, especially muslim communities, to reject the ideology of violent extremism and to do more to tap the extraordinary potential of their young people. >> and we have chilling new footage today from nbc's bill neely who's reporting from the front lines of the battle where troops are hunkered down. >> reporter: under their black flag behind their front line,

the faces of a ruthless enemy. isis fighters, one dressed in black, armed and ready to kill. what is breathtaking here is that the isis fighters are less than 200 yards from me here. we're watching them. they're watching us and yet there seems to be a truce here. at least for now. another fighter appears through sandbags, across a canal at the kurdish fighters america is arming. both sides are dug in for miles. we move along the front line to more isis fighters, holding ground they took in a murderous advance. american air strikes nearby haven't moved them. we call out to them. they call back, peace be with you, chilling from a group that has beheaded two american journalists. we will beat them, says the commander, even if it takes ten years. for now, there is no end in sight to this bizarre stand-off

with the masked murderers of isis. bill neely, nbc news, near kirk kirkuk, iraq. >> joining me now is washington bureau chief. he writes about what he sees as the collapse of arab civilization. with a welcome to you, sobering is absolutely the word here. it's sparked great debate and discussion within my producers circle here. it's a depressing column you write. you say, arab civilization such as we knew it is all but gone. the arab world today is more violent, unstable, fragmented and driven by extremism. the extremism of the rulers and those in opposition that at any time since the collapse of the ottoman empire a century ago. every hope of modern arab history has been betrayed. >> how did it get to this point? >> as the french would say, this is a cry from the heart calling on the arabs to first recognize

that they have a huge problem and then to own that problem and try to solve it. and unless they solve it politically and culturally through reform, through radical reform, a review of their assumptions, including religious thought, they will continue to roam aimlessly in a political wilderness of their own making. and this was misunderstood by some people. it was welcomed by a lot of people. after the '67 defeat, we engaged in a great deal of self-introspection and self-criticism. we're not doing enough right now. and the president of the united states had to call on the arabs to do the same. the arabs should not wait for the president of the united states to call on hem to reform their own societies. unless they reform their own societies, they're going to continue this slow, painful collapse. and we see syria in flames, iraq is in flames. egypt is marginalized. libya is in flames. yemen is in flames.

there's a dearth of leadership, political leadership as well as cultural leadership. that's the problem. >> here's what you write. you write the arab world is not going to recover in your lifetime. what does the future look like to you? >> it's bleak. i'm 64 years old. i'm not going to see the positive change that i hope for. i hope my kids and the young generation in the arab world, people who should own the future will see a positive change. unless we own this problem, we're not going to see positive change. the united states can help us maybe degrade isis militarily. but the arabs have to defeat isis politically as well as culturally. and that mission has yet to be undertaken. that's the problem. that's the call, really. >> here's something that you write about. strong man arab nationalism and political islam, can you look at egypt, the egypt of the last four years, as being a test case

for both of these styles of government? >> and we see failure on both sides. the solution in egypt is not the military coup or killing people in the streets. but the short experimentation with islamism for one year under morsi was a total disaster. the problem is egypt has been living in the shadow of military men for too long. the problem is the military and the islamism destroyed the other alternatives, liberalism, secularism, people who believe in women's rights and minority rights. these groups were shunned, intimidated, harassed by the military when they were in power and also harassed by the islamists when they were in power. that's the problem. there's a dearth of secularist thinking, of liberal thinking. and although some of these people led the revolution in egypt in 2011, unfortunately

they were overrun by the military and later on by the islamists. that's the tragedy of egypt today. there isn't a single good university in egypt today. egypt got its independence by the time india got its independence. india has bangalore. what does egypt have? that's the problem. 1960, egypt was similar to that of south korea and they had the same almost number of populations. today, there is a huge gap in gdp and productivity between south korea and egypt. and the reason is bad governance in egypt and much better governance in south korea. and arabs have to deal with this. >> it is a very interesting article. thank you for coming on to talk with us about it. thank you. >> appreciate it. ahead, concert in the park. thousands are gathering right now to rock out and create some change. we'll check in with one of the

leaders of the global citizen festival next. and later, blue mind, why humans are so attracted to the water. ♪ i woke up at a moment when the miracle occurred, heard a song that made some sense out of the world! everything i ever lost, now has been returned, in the most beautiful sound i'd ever heard! ♪ your voices will be heard! ♪ your voices will be heard!♪

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the goal of this concert? to end world poverty. joining me now, the uk director at the global poverty project, steven brown. welcome, steven. the start of a long, exciting, fantastic day for you here. >> it's going to be amazing. i'm excited about it. >> let's talk about this ambitious goal. you want to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030. i know it's going to be a real challenge but how do you go about it? >> we've made incredible progress already. in my halftime, we've halved extreme poverty. 1.2 billion people live below

$1.25 a day for everything. still a big number. but we're making incredible progress. we have to be absolutely focused on what we need to do. we have to build a movement of people, of businesses, of governments coming together to call on political leaders to make better decisions in the future because if we put our finances and our policy behind it, we can make a real difference and we can end extreme poverty by 2030. >> who are different pockets around the world where the extreme poverty, those that live there are most at risk? >> sub-saharan africa. sanitation, 1 billion people around the world who don't have access to clean water and sanitation. most of those in terms of sanitation are in india. so we've got the prime minister modi showing up to the festival to make a commitment. the world bank is making a

commitment around sanitation. the thing around sanitation as an issue, obviously it spreads disease. if you openly defecate in public, it can be deadly for your children. diarrhea is a big killer of children. but it's more than that. it's a gender issue, too. if you don't have toilets at school, girls don't go to schools. sanitation is a key issue, not just for health but right across the board. i'm really excited about the commitments we've got today around sanitation. >> i should think. you're doing something that's extraordinary but you're having a lot of fun doing it, too. not you, you're working your tail off. but everybody else who comes. it's a huge communal voice. it puts it on the map so that people, you're listening to performers, aren't they donating their time? >> absolutely. >> is that what it's all about? getting mass groups of people together around an event like this and that's what sends the message? >> absolutely.

if we want decision makers to make better decisions, we have to call on them to do it. and we need a mass movement of people to do it. we go out to them with things they understand. what we really want is people to be inspired by the impact they can have on their actions. 60,000 people in central park today, they've all taken five, six actions on extreme poverty. they will see world leaders, businesses come on stage and say, we heard you and we're going to do this about it. that will inspire people to stay part of the movement and grow it so we can end extreme poverty by 2030. >> i should think you would have to turn performers away from coming to something like that. i'm hearing sting is coming? >> that's exciting. he came on this week. he's going to be doing a song with no doubt. i heard the rehearsal yesterday and it was excellent. >> who are you excited about? >> i'm excited about gwen

stefani and no doubt, personally. she's a great performer. they haven't performed together for two years as a band. it's an exciting moment for us as well. >> congratulations. best of luck. we'll be watching, broadcasting it here on msnbc. we're excited about that. steven brown, get some sleep tomorrow. our coverage begins today at 3:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. can simply being near the water help calm you down and make you more creative? joining me now, wallace nichols, a marine biologist and author of "blue mind." wallace, love this book and the concept. i'm a southern california girl. did a lot of time at the beach. i want to talk about what you write, three states of mind. red state, gray state and blue state. can you explain each one? >> red mind is where we mostly live. wake up in the morning to the sound of our phones. we're busy, on deadlines, answering e-mails, answering text messages and phone calls. we are stressed out. there's war.

there's a bad economy. things are changing. that's red mind. blue mind, however, is when we step back, when we go for a float down the river. when we go to the beach, when we just simply disconnect and relax. and we access a different state of mind. gray mind is in between. red mind is important. blue mind is very important. gray mind is troublesome. that's that disconnected, uninterested -- >> lethargic. >> lethargic and complacent. that's a bad place to be. >> you talk about water being able to induce a meditative state. i get the sound of waves crashing on the shore that can do that. but is there more to that? >> yeah. it's both auditory and visual. so when you step up to the ocean or to a body of water, it simplifies what you see in your field of view. it also simplifies what you hear. so your brain has to work a lot less at figuring things out. there's less distraction. there's less information. so it switches into a different

mode called the default mode network, which is good at a different kind of thinking. it's good at insight. it's good at self-referential thinking. it moves from a sense of me to a sense of we which increases empathy and compassion. >> can you explain the compassion part? i get relaxation, but compassion? >> yeah. when we relax and get into that blue mind state, it takes us out of ourselves. it connects us to something bigger than ourselves, which allows us to think differently about the world, to think about the other, to think about the whole, to think about the future in a very different way than when we're very focused on the task at hand in that red mind state. >> so that also inspires the creativity, i'm guessing? >> yeah. it all leads to creativity. and it's a different kind of thinking. the neurologist oliver sachs

says his favorite place to think is in a lake or in a swimming pool. and he keeps a waterproof notebook on the dock so he can dump his new ideas into his notebook. scientists, engineers, big thinkers throughout history have gone to nature and to the water to get their creativity going. >> wallace, is there any sort of study that shows people who lived a rather landlocked life, that when they get to the beach or see beautiful lakes that they are compelled to go back, that they are drawn to it despite not being exposed to it earlier in their lives? >> yeah. it's a psychological response to water. water is necessary for life. we don't go very far -- we don't live for very many days without water. goes without saying when we have that signal of water, that sends our brain, sends our body a message that things are going to be okay. you're going to survive. it's both relaxing but it also reminds us that we're going to be okay. so anybody who moves up to the

edge of the water, whether it's a lake, a river or the ocean, is going to get that sense. >> wallace nichols, thank you so much for coming on. i love having an excuse to show these beautiful pictures on television. the latest air strikes in syria. we have some answers next. [ male announcer ] some come here

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a clear and present danger is what the tsa administrator called the threat from the khorasan group in his speech yesterday in washington. earlier today, state department deputy spokesperson marie harf spoke about the issue with steve kornacki. >> we've disrupted their capabilities by taking direct military action against them. that doesn't mean they don't continue to plot and plan. i think you'll see more military action against them going forward. that's why we've all said this is going to be a long fight here. no one day of air strikes completely takes away a

terrorist group's capabilities or their intent. >> joining me now, evan coleman. evan, do you agree with the tsa director's assessment there, the khorasan group is a clear and present danger? >> there are a number of different groups that have aspired to do this. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula also tried to do this. we've seen the amount of focus that's been pegged to aqap. what's interesting is just within the last hour, the group that this unit was part of, al qaeda's official franchise in irr is, just issued an official statement responding and cond n condemning the crusader raids on their bases. it's clear that nusra doesn't distinguish between the foreign fighters that it has taken on versus the local syrian fighters. apparently it's pretty angry about this. >> in response to what marie

harf talked about on our air, what has been the direct impact of these air strikes? >> we don't really know. there may be folks in the u.s. military that have a clearer idea. we've seen reports that two senior leaders of jebita nusra may have been killed. this kuwaiti individual that's been cited as being one of the leaders of the unit and another individual in turkey. but it's not clear these individuals are actually dead. we have not seen definitive evidence to that effect. i don't think the pentagon is making that claim. as of right now, aside from knowing that a number of fighters were killed and a number of facilities were disabled, we don't know what the lasting impact was. one of the fighters that was affiliated with the khorasan group commented that the raids had killed or wounded a number of brothers. but there that's enough to bankrupt what they were doing or stop them from plotting to carry out an attack on a u.s. aircraft, that, i think, is

overly optimistic. >> is the concern more about the al qaeda m.o. or they will take radicalized westerners and have them take terror back to their home countries? >> think about aqap. their biggest innovation was their access to western nationals who could sneak past borders or into airports and carry these devices. the underwear bomb plot was using a nigerian national who had residency in london. large number of westerners are going there. we just saw the same group affiliated with the khorasan group release a video of a young kid from florida blowing himself up in a suicide bombing and talking about how he hated the united states, how he wanted to kill americans, how he wanted to kill president obama, ripping his passport apart and it's that mentality and the supply of western nationals combined with

this unit that's focusing and developing explosives apparently that can be nsnuck on board airplanes. a combination you don't want to see. >> definitely not. next hour, more from central park for you as we gear up for the global citizen festival. ad and put your bag right here." "have a nice flight." ♪ music plays ♪ music plays traveling can feel like one big mystery. you're never quite sure what is coming your way. but when you've got an entire company who knows that the fewest cancellations

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good day to all of you. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." here's what's happening out there. developing news from oklahoma. the highway patrol there says four members of a college women's softball team have died and at least 15 others injured after their bus collided with a semi truck. the collision happened last night on interstate 35 south of turner falls, an hour south of oklahoma city. nbc's kerry sanders has just arrived at the scene. kerry joins me on the phone. what are you hearing from officials about what happened here? >> reporter: well, the officials are going to be calling a news conference later this afternoon to share what details they can. i'm standing right now in the median on interstate 35 right where the accident happened. they've cleared the debris from this location. but from the northbound side to the southbound side, the truck was heading northbound. and it's a median of about 100 feet wide. i can see the tracks on the

grass here where it took a gentle turn off of the interstate into this median and then traveled quite a distance before it went straight up on towards the southbound side of the interstate. so it suggests to me that the driver who had lost control of the vehicle did not try to correct any sort of movement because it is a straight path in the grass. you can see the way the tracks are. and they went straight into what is a portion of interstate 35 heading southbound that has a little bit of a hill. so likely the driver of the bus which is the coach of the team didn't even know what was coming at him to try to avoid it. of course, you can't determine the speed of the vehicle. but that truck, if it's like most of the trucks traveling in here, was doing at least 60 miles an hour if not faster when it went into this grassy median. because i look at the gentle

sort of travel of this across the median, had there been some sort of barricade in the center this median, it likely would have buffeted the truck's stop over and prevented it from going into the southbound traffic. as you noted, four people died, all members of the college softball team. all four girls, three died at the scene. another was rushed to the hospital. she passed away at the hospital. and as you also said, 15 people were treated. we stopped by the local hospital and the six girls that were taken to the one local hospital have all been released. so we believe that everybody who was involved in this accident that survived is now back in texas with their family members. >> kerry, this is just a horrible story. i'm curious, can you see why reports would say that it took officials when they got to the scene nearly an hour to locate that semi? did it go that far off the road? >> reporter: well, from what i

understand -- again, i'm pacing this out as i'm talking to you. it appears to me that the truck after it headed into the oncoming traffic continued on and went into some sort of ravine. of course, we've seen the pictures of them hauling that out of there. so it appears that the truck's rate of speed didn't slow down all that much i would guess from running into this grassy median because after it hit the bus, it must have continued on down. >> what a story. our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those four students and all those recovering from injury. kerry, thank you so much. two british fighter jets flew over iraq today in the first british mission against isis. just one day after parliament approved air strikes targeting isis in iraq. a syria town was attacked as well. richard engel filed this report just moments ago from turkey. >> reporter: we are now in turkey right on the syrian border. this is a hill that overlooks the battles. people have been coming here to

watch the battles unfold. and this is what they are watching. it's almost like a live movie theater because people have been applauding. they've brought binoculars out to see what's unfolding behind them. down here is a village, one of three in these plains, that is inside syria. those villages are controlled by isis fighters. if you go across this open plains, you'll see -- it's difficult to see. but you can hear the gunfire. these are kurdish militants who are fighting against isis. the reason they are fighting in this open valley here is the isis militants are trying to advance from the villages they hold, push this way and attack a kurdish city that has about 400,000 people in it. so these kurdish fighters have come out to try and set up a front line. what we're seeing here is another unique dynamic in all of this. those are turkish armored vehicles. and the turks are mostly just

sitting back. they don't want the fight to spill over into turkey. so so far, they have just been here, not firing, trying to seal off their border while this very confusing battle goes. and all of the while, while all of this is happening, there have been american patrols, not immediately here but in this area. and what the people here certainly want is the american aircraft to start bombing isis. but it's very difficult. they don't have a lot of coordination. they don't exactly know who is who. the people here don't know that. they want to see the americans bombing now. but as you can see, just right where we are, isis, kurdish fighters, turkish fighters, americans in the air, that is the dynamic of the war in syria right now. richard engel, nbc news, along the turkish-syrian border. >> excellent perspective there thank you, richard. the head of the transportation security administration says the al qaeda-affiliated group khorasan represents a clear and present danger to commercial flights in and around the u.s. and europe. nbc's kristen welker is at the white house for us to talk about

this. what is the tsa chief saying about this threat specifically, kristen? >> reporter: alex, the tsa director saying that that group, khorasan, is working on developing and researching improvised explosive devices that would evade airport security. so incredibly worrisome. and the tsa was so concerned that they actually directed some airports overseas to beef up their security and their screening of passengers, particularly those that had direct flights that come back to the u.s. here's a little bit more of what he had to say. take a listen. >> so the fact that this has come out this week, it gives us grave concern. and, again, stresses the importance of the partnerships that we have here in the u.s. and particularly overseas as we have looked at measures that we could take, both domestically but also internationally, given our regulatory authorities to improve and increase aviation security without shutting down

commerce, trade, tourism business. >> reporter: so as the tsa tries to mitigate threats at overseas airports, the obama administration continues to build up its coalition. on friday we saw the british parliament voting to approve air strikes in iraq. want to be very clear about this. those air strikes only pertain to iraq. they will not pertain to syria. we also know that on friday, belgium and denmark said they would provide military aid. of course the key thing that the obama administration wants is for arab countries to put forth ground troops. what's also significant or notable about what happened in the uk is the fact that prime minister cameron called back parliament from their recess to vote on approving those air strikes. as you know, there hasn't been a vote in the u.s. congress to approve president obama's military actions in iraq and in syria. a lot of members of congress are saying that they want to vote.

they want house speaker john boehner to call them back so they can vote on this. it is possible that we could see a vote once lawmakers return from their recess later in november, of course, after the midterm elections. >> key point there. thank you so much, kristen. it's a huge concert aimed at changing the lives of millions and it's happening today in new york city's central park. we have jay-z, carrie underwood and alicia keys, just some of the performers who will take to the stage for the third annual global citizen festival put on by the global poverty project which has set the goal of ending extreme poverty by the year 2030. joining me now, my colleague and friend ronan farrell. you are so lucky to be there. figures. >> reporter: it is good to see you. this is one of the good assignments we get in this kind of job. you can see behind me some of the empty areas in front of the stage. there are going to be 60,000 people pouring into that area.

as you mentioned, almost all of those people actually performed an act of activism to push forward those important goals that this concert is focused on, various elements of the fight against global poverty. sanitation, education, the fight for more vaccinations around the world. so it's much more substantive than most of the models we see around this kind of a celebrity concert. >> it's not like people can just walk this -- although i know it is free for those who have done the hard work and gotten to that concert and being able to get there. but can we talk about the areas of the world? i know you visited some yourself. where this extreme poverty is most at risk. >> reporter: that's exactly right. the human consequences of this are huge. more than 1 billion people are living on less than $1.25 a day. that's crippling,ing agonizing poverty. we've seen a lot of empty celebrity activism. i've seen a lot of that. what's different about this is

it's focusing on narrow pillars. take the vaccination debate. that's a huge debate internationally where polio keeps resurging and claiming lives. even domestically, we're seeing in some fancy schools and wealthy areas like los angeles, lower vaccination rates right here at home in the states than in south sudan. so some real need for more of a focus on this and more of a conversation about this. in past years, we've gotten a conversation out of this event and also real funding commitments from governments. we'll have to see if that happens this year. >> what's interesting are the performers that are participating. i know that you interviewed gwen stefani ahead of the performance today. when you spoke to her, how did she describe the difference participating in an event like this as opposed to just putting on a concert? >> reporter: she talked about feeding off of the energy in a crowd that's not just here for love of the music, although that's certainly the case. it's an incredible rundown of people. sting is performing, a lot of

big names for a lot of different flavors of music. but it's also an audience that wants to be here to make a difference. and that's not a cure-all. it's not the final answer but it's the beginning of a conversation about how to mobilize the public around these very targeted goals. >> ronan owning the cool quotient out there today. that's for sure. >> reporter: literally hot but figuratively cool. glad we're covering it. starts at 3:00 p.m. >> thank you so much for your time. for all of you, you can all watch all the stars at the third annual global citizen festival. our coverage begins in about an hour and 45 minutes right here on msnbc. catch ronan farrow every day right here on msnbc. in a matter of a few hours, the field of potential republican presidential candidates could become more clear. it's taking shape at the values

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in just a matter of hours, we'll learn the results of a straw poll that may identify gop front-runners for a 2016 white house run. the poll comes from a group of conservatives at what's called the values voters summit. the annual affair is in its second day now with the speakers early and often sharply criticizing the president. let's take a listen. >> this is a president that doesn't believe in american exceptionalism. this is a president who simply waited while isis gathered strength, calling them a junior varsity team less than a year ago. >> instead of coming to congress, the president illegally acts on his own.

>> we are going to sign legislation repealing every word of obamacare. >> joining me now, msnbc political analyst karen finney and republican strategist alyce stewart. ladies, thank you for joining me. one comment that immediately jumped out at me, ted cruz hanging on to repealing every word of obamacare. that feels like an old story. is that the prevailing sentiment among the gop or does it make you pause? >> everyone, whether republicans or everyday americans, are frustrated with the overall impact of obamacare. that comes from the false promise if you like your doctor, you can keep it. if you like your insurance, you can keep it. that wasn't true. what resonated with the values voters crowd last night and also this morning is the infringement on the religious liberties, the promise that taxpayer dollars wouldn't be used to fund abortions and that's proven not to be the case. so this crowd, i believe, is reflective of what americans are seeing.

obamacare is a violation of our religious liberties, infringement on our -- it's big government. people don't want it. >> doesn't it seem old -- we had the commonwealth poll. 70% of folks polled say they approve of what's happening. they're satisfied, they're happy with their health care now with obamacare -- karen, doesn't that fly in the face of people saying, yeah, too much? >> absolutely. a majority of americans have said that they would perhaps make changes -- i think the president has always said from the beginning, if you've got ideas, i'm open to those ideas. but people don't want to see it repealed. just last week, "u.s. news & world report" said in 2014 republicans are lamenting that all their predictions about crashing the economy and rising costs of health care are not borne out. in addition to that, the president and the affordable

care act does protect religious liberty. part of what's happening is the more people get into the health care system, the more people actually use obamacare, the harder it becomes to talk about repealing it. you've seen that. a number of stories this summer show that republican candidates were having to back off that language a little bit. because it is actually becoming more popular among their constituents. it's still a great punch line when you're talking to a far-right group here in washington. but out in the country, it is much more complicated than that. >> i want to play a little bit more here from the values voters summit for you, alyce. let's listen to sarah palin mocking what's being called the latte salute. >> when we talk about these national security issues, our honored military, on behalf of all americans who do support you and we honor you, we respect you, on behalf of all americans who feel like i do, to your

commander in chief, well, we then will salute him. >> might it benefit republicans to consider a little bit more of a sophisticated attack on the president than by extension of the democratic party ahead of the midterms or do you think this type of approach really works with gop voters? >> well, sarah palin is certainly dynamic and visual in her comments there. she's not representative of the entire republican party or republican people across the country. she's speaking as herself. a lot of folks recognize god bless our military and we salute them and thank them every day. we're just not seeing that in this administration. i think, to be honest, my view on that is that it probably wasn't the best photo. probably wasn't a good optic. but at the end of the day, there are far more important things than that that the american people are concerned with that barack obama has done, ruining our economy and leading from behind on foreign policy.

and the latte salute is just an optic that represents his failure as a president. >> i just want to be clear. it's okay for the president, president obama -- for president bush to be holding his dog and trying to salute, and to lie our way into a war but it's not okay for president obama to have a cup of coffee in his hand while he salutes? here's the thing, i think americans are really sick of having this president's patriotism questioned. i don't think any of us would question the patriotism of any president. do you go or disagree with their policies and can you find a way to work with that question? alex, to your question this idea that, how about a more sophisticated criticism, but then also how about come with some ideas about how to then fix those issues because instead, we hear a lot of rhetoric and a lot of attacks and this president actually has done a lot for our military as has the first lady. i've seen it up kroes aclose an person myself.

let's talk about how to keep our country moving forward. >> i'm done with the latte salute. let's switch gears and talk about the president's speech at the u.n. this weekend. how it contrasted starkly will last year's speech. take a listen. >> the terrorist group known as isil must be degraded and ultimately destroyed. 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. today all of our troops have left iraq. next year, an international coalition will end its war in afghanistan, having achieved its mission of dismantling the core of al qaeda that attacked us on 9/11. for the united states, these new circumstances have also meant shifting away from a perpetual war footing. >> karen, how comfortable are you democrats with the president now reversing toward an apparent war footing for the u.s., when he explicitly said he would

avoid this? >> i think there's a lot of discomfort frankly mostly because -- i think you're seeing it from both sides. there are those in the congress who would have liked to have had a debate about what's going on and the president's actions. but i want to be clear about something. there are a lot of people who did not want to have a vote. and that's part of the reason that we didn't have a vote. i think when i look at the contrast between what the president said last year and what he said this year, i think in this country we have to get used to the idea that fighting terrorism is something we will always have to worry about, something we will always be dealing with. but it won't be a war in the sense of world war ii where there's a clear beginning and an end and there's a signing ceremony but that we will always be looking at things like the president talked about in terms of use of special operations forces, counterinsurgency, counterterrorism missions. >> alyce, would republicans have really wanted even a vote on military action against isis or

is congressional members -- are they too afraid to raise their voices ahead of the midterms? should john boehner have demanded a vote? >> we should include members of congress when having such an important vote. there are a lot of members of congress and senators that didn't want to have to put their name on the line in support of a war because they are in heated reelections and they're up for election in november and they didn't want to have to put their name on the dotted line. they're being weighted down by these policies. but i think the major point with this is is that i'm glad he's taken a little bit from the bush playbook that we need to show strength when it comes to our foreign policy and it's taken a while for him to get to this point. i feel like we wouldn't be in this situation if we had been a little stronger with the status of forces agreement three years ago and left some residual forces on the ground, hence not doing so left a vacuum. now we have this isis. but at the end of the day, i think that a vote by members of congress when we're doing any type of major foreign policy

action like this would be important and would have been important with the hostage negotiations as well. but democrats up for reelection don't want to be on the dotted line with this. >> republicans as well. let's be fair. both republicans and democrats have said they didn't want to have to take a vote on this one. >> thank you, ladies. that air traffic trouble in chicago continues for a second straight day. what's keeping planes from taking off? how much money do you have in your pocket right now?

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developing now, hundreds of flight cancellations at this hour again today at chicago's o'hare and midway airports, lingering aftereffects from a fire that shut down a critical air traffic control center. nbc's kristen dahlgren joins me with more on this. how bad is it out there? >> pretty bad. the ripple effect being felt at airports around the country. chicago's home to one of the world's busiest airport hubs. airlines serving o'hare's airport have proactively canceled more than 600 flights so far today. at midway, airlines have canceled two dozen flights and both airports are advising passengers to expect delays throughout the rest of the day. the new cancellations are in addition to the nearly 2,000 flights that were canceled or delayed friday at o'hare and midway. the airlines are scrambling to accommodate many stranded travelers at o'hare, they spent the night on cots provided by the airport. authorities say a contract employee started a fire at the

air traffic control center in aurora, about 40 miles west of downtown chicago. the facility handles planes cruising at high altitudes through the airspace and planes beginning to approach or completing a departure from airports in the chicago area. within minutes, the airspace above and around chicago emptied and neighboring centers were forced to reroute traffic. the widespread disruption has aviation analysts, travelers and politicians calling for a smoother back-up plan. >> one man, one person that works there can disrupt the whole country, cause millions of dollars loss in business and economy, disrupt the whole system, then your plan is not good. so no one died. you can fix it. but now you need to fix it. you need a second center, maybe lightly staffed. so this can never happen again. >> authorities say the 36-year-old contract employee who started the fire was also trying to cut his throat when paramedics found him. the fbi says he's being treated

in a hospital and has been charged with a felony for destruction of aircraft or aircraft facilities. a court date has not yet been scheduled. >> thank you for the update on that, kristen dahlgren. breaking news on ebola, just in to us. details after the break. [ male announcer ] some come here to build something smarter. ♪ some come here to build something stronger. others come to build something faster... something safer... something greener. something the whole world can share. people come to boeing to do many different things.

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breaking news, the national institutes of health says it will admit a patient who's been exposed to the ebola virus for observation. this patient is an american physician who was volunteering in an ebola treatment center in sierra leone. the n.i.h. is saying the patient is being admitted for observation and to enroll in a clinical study. it is very important to remember that ebola patients can be safely cared for at any hospital that follows the cdc's infection control recommendations and can isolate a patient in a private room. the n.i.h. is saying the situation is of minimal risk to the staff and the public. more details as they become available to us. a new round of air strikes reportedly pounding isis and

other militants positions in the eastern part of the country. a syrian monitoring group reports that more than 30 explosions were heard around raqqa, the headquarters of isis. joining me now, retired four-star general mccaffrey and national security correspondent michael gordon, co-author of "the endgame." general, you have the united kingdom, belgium, denmark all having agreed to join this fight. who role do you expect these three countries to play? >> well, i think the notion of using airpower in both iraq and syria contributes in some measure to destroying some of the massive amounts of u.s. armor captured by isis. but it's not a key aspect. the real key is will the turks and the egyptians and the saudis and the jordanians intervene

actively on the ground and will the iraqi army fight? the jury's out. so far we're playing a very weak hand. >> michael, the uk is conducting air strikes in iraq but they're staying out of syria. so what kind of effect will that have in terms of taking out isis? >> i think the role that the brits and the other europeans are plays is primarily symbolic. the united states really doesn't need their assets to carry out the air strikes. the air strikes are being done primarily by american assets in syria and with arab support. what's interesting about the strikes today is they appear to include targets near kobani in northern syria where kurds are being menaced by the isis militants. so i think this is the first time that they've extended the air campaign to defend syrian kurds in northern syria. >> general, as you well know, sir, it is a classic strategy to try to drag large powers into some guerrilla war and then bleed them over the years. is there any indication that

this broad coalition is exactly what isis wants? >> it's probably overstated. but at the end of the day, the u.s. has to take action to protect our own national security. there's one caveat i've got. i think the rhetoric has been grossly overstated on the magnitude of the threat isis represents to u.s. national security. clearly foreign fighters will head back to europe and possibly the united states and elsewhere. but we're posing this as apparently a threat greater than that of iranian nuclear weapons, the north koreans. this is not the national security threat of our time. >> michael, i'm going to ask if you agree with that assessment. you're the national security correspondent for "the new york times." from your reporting and research, can you categorize the threat posed from isis? >> i think isis is a threat to american interest in the region. i don't think it's yet a threat to the american homeland. but that said, we lost an ambassador in libya to a group

of militants who didn't threaten the homeland. so there are many ways that isis can be a danger to the kind of order the united states is trying to construct in the world. and that order includes coherent iraqi government and a stable iraq. so i think there's a case that can be made for acting against isis, even if it doesn't endanger the homeland. >> but, michael, you live in new york city. i live right here as well. >> i agree. >> i want to ask about locally, then. if what you two are saying is true, why the increased security presence? huge increased security here in new york right now, michael. why is that so stepped up? >> well, because there is a very legitimate danger that volunteers for these jihadi movements, not just isis, but al nus nusra, any number of these groups in iraq or syria, some of these people -- thousands of these people have western passports, united states

passports, european passports, french passports. and the fear is they could return to these nations or travel to the united states and carry out attacks here and the iraqi prime minister, i was in the interview with him, raises prospect this week. i think his specific intelligence may not be credible. but the scenario he talked about is one that american officials worry about. >> general, i'm just going to ask you anecdotally, are you seeing increased presence on the streets in paris there where you are? >> yeah, i think spain have been acting in north africa, this is a global threat. isis is a threat. but i don't want us to forget the magnitude of what's going on as a sunni/shia civil war both in iraq and syria is going to go on until they've rearrange their national boundaries. so i don't want us to forget iranian nuclear power is a major threat to u.s. national

concerns, along with other concerns that we have to take into account. >> not likely to forget that anytime soon, sir. thank you both for your time. talk about a turn. it's a movie about cheating death. but how do two "saturday night live" veterans make "the skeleton quinz" funny? woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment.

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i want to hear about maggie and her relationship with bill's character, milo. >> maggie and milo are twins, bill and i play maggie and milo. we haven't seen or talked to each other in about ten years. we got into a fight. and now we're sort of forced to come back into each other's lives due to some sad circumstances. but there's definitely some comedic moments. >> how did you do that, bill? you guys have these near tragedies, but i watched the trailer and it was so funny, i was laughing out loud and thinking, wait, this is twisted. but that works, right? >> it's not too twisted. it's more just how -- it's not a dark comedy in that sense that it's twisted in any way. it's more of just i guess the way life is, that's the only way i can describe it. but craig johnson and mark hayman wrote this wonderful script that effortlessly goes between comedy and drama which

is why i was attracted to it in the first place. >> i'm curious, live performances versus film for you guys, is one easier than the other? some are going to assume doing a show live is harder. but i do my shows live. this is a taped interview. i'm more likely to screw this up than i would do a live interview. how about you? you have the edge when it's live, yeah? >> yeah, psychologically, you know you can't mess up and that people -- everyone's watching you. also with "snl" it's a different sort of beast because it's comedy and you can tell if it's going well. you're involved with the audience and you feel like you're kind of in it together and you're all sort of on the show together. >> yeah. >> in film, you feel much more of a distance with your audience. >> yeah. >> and speaking of distance -- >> i like having a second take, though. >> that works. but this movie seems like it's a pretty big departure from stephon, target lady. some of your most loved "snl"

characters. you guys have both gone on to successful film careers. but do you miss returning to characters you frequently visited or are you happy to put them behind you, bill? >> i appreciate when people come up and say they like a character or something. i'm going back to host the show in a couple of weeks. i'm sure i'll do some of those old characters. that's a lot of fun. >> who's your target audience for "the skeleton twins"? who's going to most enjoy this film? >> it's hard to tell going into it. but we've had people from all ages, all -- everything. really relate to the film. i think there's some really general -- i don't know, i feel like the ideas in this movie people can relate to. whether you're a brother and sister, longing for a life that you don't have. there's getting the life you thought you had and not being happy with it. there's a lot of themes that a lot of different people have been reacting to.

which is really exciting. >> yeah. we had a screening in l.a. and we walked -- i walked through the lobby after the screening let out and just what she's seeing, an old couple came up to me and two young kind of hipster kids came up to me. a dad with his 13-year-old daughter came over and they all had the same reaction. >> toddlers -- >> toddlers came over to me and we had a nice conversation. >> you guys, thank you for playing it straight. i actually don't have to edit this down at all. i can run it as is on the show. i appreciate that. "skeleton twins" -- don't wreck it now. we're going to say bye-bye, just wave. >> we're out. i'm done. see you guys. good luck with it. thanks. thank you. he made history becoming

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attorney general eric holder's announcement this week that he'll be stepping down soon puts an end to one of the longest tenures at the top of the department of justice and one of the most controversial. thursday he spoke about the inspiration of those who came before him. >> i have loved the department of justice ever since as a young boy i watched robert kennedy prove during the civil rights movement how the department can and must always be a force for that which is right. >> joining me now harvard law professor charles ogletree, a longtime friend of holder. professor, i'm very glad to have you here. i'm curious about your opinion on eric holder's tenure and has that met that challenge that was set by robert kennedy? >> thanks, alex.

i think eric holder is really exceptional. it's great to have his friendship. when i think of leaders who have led a century and a decade, you think of mr. thurgood marshall, mr. civil rights. i think of eric holder mr. justice. not only when i was in d.c., he was a part in a law firm when i was there, he was a judge in superior court when i was there. i see that this is a guy that understands the role. he's like bobby kennedy but even more so. the other thing that makes him great, alex, is this. eric hold ser like a lot of people that i know, he's been confronted by police, he's learned from that experience. he was charged with speeding in new york when he was in college and again in law school, never arrested with anything. but i think that's a very important issue that we need to understand and his legacy will long exist long after he's gone. >> that was very candid, he spoke about that when dealing with the situation in ferguson. as the first african-american attorney general he made a place in the history books.

civil rights, same-sex marriage, immigration, terrorism. what does the way he's dealt with those issues tell you about his views on the role of government and the justice department? >> he's a guy who is very practical, who understands that he's used all of his experience to make things work. he's the government's lawyer. he's tough on crime, there's no question about that. but he's also learned as somebody who has been involved in criminal justice system how important it is to do that. and so i think that when you think about the fact that he's inherited a whole lot of assistant attorney generals, people working in washington, working around the country, they've done a good job in terms of crime enforcement, but he's also been very sensitive about the issue of civil rights, civil justice, about the right for people to be treated equally but without regard to their sexual orientation. those are the things. immigrants, how important that's been to him. i think we'll have a long way to go to figure out who she will be -- i hope it will be a woman who will replace him, because i think he's had a big impact on

america and the world with his leadership as the attorney general. >> i want to get to his replacement in just a moment. i mentioned ferguson. since the announcement many have said that eric holder's most profound moment as attorney general was when he went to ferguson this summer. what did his role there speak to you? >> well, you know, it was very profound because ways very troubled by what happened with the killing of michael brown and the lack of action then against officer wilson. it reminded us of tray von martin in 2012, it reminded us of the shooting and beating of noers the civil rights movement. it reminds us of what happened in california when you talk about rodney king, all that. all those issues came back, and he's been a great person. here's what he did. he went to ferguson and he met with the family. he met with the community. he met with the clergy. he met with the police. who could do that?

h eric holder did. he'll be remembered as somebody who understood the j in justice, men, women, black, white, sexual orientation. >> i like to read back to you a quote that you said in a recent protile of eric holder in which you say he's a race man he's gone farther and deeper into issues of race than the administration would like. it's clear president obama and holder believe in the same things. how has he pushed the president on race? >> the first thing, remember the first week that he was in the department of justice, he said that people who are in government are cowards when it comes to discussing race. and president obama saying, hold, eric, slow down. you're moving too fast. he's been very candid on race issues, very important. i think the president has learned from him. the president is younger. president obama's younger. i love him. i love michelle obama and the great work that they're doing.

but i think that they've learned as young people what eric has lived as a little bit older person in washington and i think that's going to make a big difference in terms of their understanding and his understanding, but he is, as i said, the person, the big j behind justice. he's done a great job. >> i am out of time but i must ask you quickly, whom do you choose to replace him? top picks. >> i'm not going to say because i got in trouble last time i said that. >> but you said a woman. >> i said she will be a great attorney general. and i'm not going to put her name out. we'll just see what happens. but i don't want her to not be able to be confirmed by the senate. and i think that he's going to be sitting there for a long time waiting for the republican senators to confirm a democratic candidate, but i think she will be a great attorney general and she will be in the steps of janet reno and other people, and i think that will be great tore the white house and for the department of justice. >> okay. for which you get my applause because i thoroughly agree with you. charles ogletree, thank you very

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