completely fully appreciated the speed with which they should move and how well resourced and how lightning fast they could be in the summertime. it wasn't that we weren't watching it or tracking it. the entire agency was watching these guys. we did underestimate how quickly they could grow and develop and how fast they could recruit. >> despite the u.s.-led air strike campaign in syria and iraq, isis forces are pushing closer to baghdad and wreaking havoc on a key border town. assad's administration delivered this message. >> translator: hasn't the time come for all of us to stand as one in the face of the serious menace of terrorist ideology worldwide? and has not the moment of truth arrived for us all? >> outside the world economic forum in istanbul, one leader of the iraqi kurds is pleading for more action across the iraqi boreder. >> it has to be in syria as well. but for that we have to have

troops on the ground. >> of course, congress is still awol in all this. out on break until midterm but a call is growing for further military authorization. house speaker john boehner fears ground forces might be inevitable. >> i think it's going to take more than air strikes to drive them out of there. at some point somebody's boots have to be on the ground. these are barbarians. they intend to kill us. >> an overwhelming majority of americans agree with the speaker. more than 7 in 10 say despite obama's promises to avoid a ground assault, u.s. troops will be used at some point. but u.s. troops themselves, 70% of active duty troops, say the u.s. should not send combat troops to back up iraqis in this fight. while our nation's top intelligence officer says he overestimated the iraqi forces, our commander in chief refuses to discuss what will happen if those american-trained iraqi troops are not up to the fight. >> we're just getting started. let's see how they do. i think that right now we've got

a campaign plan that has a strong chance for success in iraq. i think syria is a more challenging situation. >> is there a moderate syrian opposition? >> there is, but right now it doesn't control much territory. it has been squeezed between isil on the one hand and isil on the other. >> foreign policy reports and rebel commanders are blaming that lack of communication for civilian deaths that have happened. as richard engel points out, the syrian kurds are eager to take up arms against isis. >> reporter: the battle is taking place in a valley here. and on many hilltops people have gathered to watch the battles unfold. these observers decided they couldn't -- they couldn't sit it out any longer, with no weapons they just rushed right in. and i think that shows the

passion that a lot of these fighters have to defend their home from isis. >> we start with david rothkop, editor at "foreign policy" magazine. a lot of people are talking about the president saying, hey, it was the intelligence community that underestimated isis. he's actually not going to iraq and syria and getting information on the ground. he can only make decisions based on what comes to him in the briefings. so, what do you think about the president saying that? >> pretty mickey mouse. look, you know, he's the president of the united states. three years ago he had his secretary of state, he had his cia director, general david petraeus saying to him, you've got go do something in syria. there's a problem growing there. he didn't do anything. earlier this year n january and february, you had isis take over fallujah and ramadi. the progress of this group over the course of this year has been clear. and it is only in the course of the past month that he has decided to respond.

the military knew it. the intelligence community knew it. they may have underestimated how fast it was going to happen, but to say that it's their fault, he was getting information. the intelligence community had leaders testifying on capitol hill about the threat of isis early in 2014. so, he was getting the information. what the problem was is that he and his team were not ready to take action back when it would have been easier to do so. >> i kind of want to debate that but i also to want play sound from the president last night. the quick version of the debate would be, i think the policy community and the intelligence community are always at some sense of loggerheads, whether he artfully put it or not, the folks will be expansive in intelligence because their job is to wave around what the threats are. the policymakers have a little tension there. but enough of me. let me play an interesting part of last night explaining what kind of war we're heading into.

>> we are assisting iraq in a very real battle that's taking place on their soil, with their troops, but we are providing air support. and it is in our interest to do that because isil represents sort of a hybrid of not just a terrorist network but one with territorial ambitions and some of the strategy and tactics of an army. this is not america against isil. this is america leading the international community to assist a quucountry with whom w have a security partnership with. >> do you think that's a valid assessment of the effort right now and how much does it matter that it does differ from what he first said in the wednesday address to the nation before the operations? >> i think it's a valid assessment. however, if we do have security interests there, then it's in our interest to do this right. there's almost nobody who looks at this situation and doesn't think it's going to take some more american boots on the ground. whether it's special forces,

operatives, advising the iraqis or others in order to make -- you know, help make this work out. so, you know, i think we're in the early days. the president's absolutely right about that. we're going to have to see what works and what doesn't. we do know something about the capability of the iraqis. we did spend $30 billion training them. we shouldn't be surprised by what their strengths and weaknesses are. ultimately, i think the american public from the poll you mentioned earlier has it roughly right. we are likely to have to make a bigger investment on the sgrountd in order to take advantage of the gains we make via the air power. >> david, unfortunately, isis is far from the only extremist group that poses a threat to america. in the middle east and beyond. are we focusing in a sense too much on just isis to the exclusion of other groups that also pose a threat? >> i think that's absolutely right. i think that that's the thing to

keep an eye on. early on we said we would decapitate core idea. we did. what happened in the course of the ensuing year, more terrorists, more terrorist tax, more terrorist groups, more terrorist groups. we have to look at violent extremism as the problem and we have to work with our allies to contain its spread from west africa all the way to china. this is a global problem and solving the problem with isis is only going to end up squeezing the balloon, letting terrorists go someplace else and the threat is not going to go away if we focus only on this one group and this one place. >> absolutely. when we talk about simply defeating isis, almost every expert has said it is going to take boots on the ground to complete that mission. and it's sounding more and more like it could potentially be our boots on the ground. a poll i saw over the weekend saw over 70% of americans believe that that will be the case. do you think this is inevitable

and a drip drip creep situation or another event, let's say another beheading that causes the american public and the president to say, that's it, we have to go in and defeat these guys? >> i hope it's not a beheading or something inflammatory. i hope we don't let isis set our agenda for us. the reality is i think the mission does have to expand. we have to put boots on the ground. when you listen to people like the pentagon spokesperson say, as he does last week, that we are looking at three, four, five, six years in this particular mission, you can see the drip, drip, drip is the current plan. i don't think that's going to prove to be effective. so, i think we will have to watch it evolve and our leaders are going to have to adapt and adjust from their early day rhetoric on this. >> david, as much as i respect the american people, i think polling on what they think the commander in chief and the military should do should be considered little to none at all. we look at a poll from the military times, 70% of soldiers, the folks who know what it's

like to go over there, the folks who know what it means tore soldiers to be there, saying we should not send a sfashl number of combat troops into iraq. they say that the iraqis and the syrians and the others must clean up their own house. that if we do it for them, then they won't actually act to do it. don't you think the soldiers have the right idea here? >> i think the soldiers are speaking from some experience. but there's a reason that armies aren't run as democracies. in early 1940, about 17% of the american people said we should intervene in europe. and ultimately the president had to take another decision. in this particular case, while the people in the region have a huge responsibility here, they're not going to move and they're not going to be able to move without our support, without real leadership from the u.s. and not just military leadership. if we don't create a political solution to fill the void created when we have military success, then this is just going to, you know, repeat the cycle that we saw after the surge.

when we gained ground but the iraqi government didn't step in and create the opportunity for sunnis to represent themselves and the government and that gave a new opportunity for new extremists to do what we're seeing happen there now. so, we have to win this in conjunction with allies in the region, with us leading, but focusing on the military, the political, the economic, the whole range of steps. >> indeed. david, we have not had enough of you, but the segment's got to end. we have had enough of ari. thank you, david. >> get a sound check on that? is that true? >> on the trail and on the stage, next chris christie versus michelle obama. later, sanford, weiner, in an epic off-broadway production. who needs fiction when you have d.c. dysfunction. "the cycle" rolls on.

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excuse me. i didn't realize we were back. that election music gets me every time. we are prepared for a lot more where that came from because the midterms are just five short week as way. the senate is up for grabs so that means time to trot out all the heavy hitters for republicans in new jersey. we have governor chris christie. he is going to wisconsin today. campaigning for governor scott walker. jeb bush is not in florida

today. he is in kansas stumping for senator pat roberts. and later this week, rand paul is in north carolina while mitt romney heads to michigan. meantime, the dems are also out in force. first lady michelle obama is campaigning for scott walker's opponent in wisconsin. no down time for new grandma, hillary clinton, who headlines two democratic fund-raisers. president obama himself heads home to illinois later this week to throw his support behind governor pat quinn. it is those congressional races that have politicos in a tizzy today. the cook political report is estimating that after the midterms, the house could be more red than it has been in 85 years. what was it like back then, toure? >> really? really? wow, friend! wow! thanks, friend. >> democratic strategist and senior director at purple strategies, air kashgs thanks for being with us. >> i'm glad to be here. and i can tell you for a fact i

definitely don't know what it was like 85 years ago. >> so, let me throw a quote at you from "the new york times" about some of the likely members of the next house of representatives. one nominee proposed reclassifying single parenthood as child abuse. another suggested that four blood moons would herald world-changing shaking type events and said islam was not a religion but a complete geopolitical structure unworthy of tax exemption. still another labeled hillary clinton the anti-christ. so, if we thought this current congress was bad, looks like the next house is even worse and even further to the right. if john boehner had trouble controlling his caucus up to this point, what are the implication of a gop republican caucus that is going to move even further to the right after these elections?

>> even in a year that's not a wave election, it can still be bad for one party or the other. in this case we'll say democrats are having the worst year. the senate map isn't good for us. but also you have a frustrated p populous of voters. the president with his approval ratings being lowest and particularly after this isis kind of stuff, even lower than he's used to. and then, you know, the third thing is just that right now, there doesn't seem to be a national, you know, thing to kind of coalesce around. there's not a national conversation around these midterms. you will hear some more crazy comments pop up, because without a talking point that everyone sticks to or points to or a theme that everyone keeps going back to to stay on message, you have kind of more people freelancing, so to speak. >> i'm getting the sense that that mood might even translate even further than the midterms and into the 2016 elections. over the weekend there was the values voter summit where conservatives gather.

they do this every year. they put out a straw poll. you can see here the two winners, ted cruz and ben carson. two big names that are missing from this list. jeb bush and chris christie, two you would probably describe as moderate republicans. not only were they not on this list, they were not invited to this event. and it makes me really wonder about 2016 and what that means for a moderate voice like chris christie or jeb bush when they're trying to feel the water, see how much money they can raise, what the reception is like when they're out visiting these states. to be honest, from what i've seen so far, doesn't seem like they have the support they need to get through the primary states. >> no. primaries are always tricky. obviously, the primary plays to the furthest extreme of either party, which is why gerrymandering has been so bad for democracy. we have a lot of districts where they are so conservative or so liberal that there's nothing but primaries making those decisions. i think the big mistake here is that too many people are looking

at 2016 without looking at 2014. you have some of the best surrogates, people like jeb bush, people like chris christie for republicans, who in the next month you'll see them on the stump, you'll see them out in the states because they are going to be the best ones to bring home the votes for these midterms. but if the base of the republican party ignores that more moderate, that actual delivering of general vote, not a primary vote voice, they're going to end up being a little bit, i don't think surprised but they'll end up fighting the wrong fight, so to speak. >> let's talk about the senate and deal with the question that nobody is asking. after election day, will the senate be red or blue? >> well, okay. i'd like to be an optimist and think the democrats have a good chance but it it looks like leaning republican. voters engage, undecideds become decideds and people start to hit 50% with respect whereas before we were touting candidates with

42% calling them winners or really strong. 42% doesn't get to you 50 plus 1. we're kind of in a different place here now where we're going to start to see certain people break away from the pack. you're going to look at a shifting of resources. you'll see campaign committees moving money from one race to another. you'll see some people cut loose. and then i think right now we have -- there's kind of the slate of toss-ups which have been toss-ups for a really long time. we haven't seen much movement in polls in some of these kind of battleground states in the last six months. and you're going to start to see movement there but we're into the october surprise races like kansas, colorado, some people would say iowa as well where they weren't necessarily on our toss-up radar but are kind of moving back in. there's two ways of looking at it. one, that's really hard. republicans are going to be spread very thin. the other way of looking at that is that they have more opportunities to actually hit the six number mark they need to take back the senate.

>> it's like in corporations, they always say that don't call it a challenge. call it an opportunity. that always makes you sound like a phoney. it's like something really bad. there's an opportunity for us. >> wow. that was random. >> what i want to ask you about is the short-termism here. you mentioned october surprise. october we all know is when it matters, right? this is the countdown. in is the home stretch. and i just think back to all the politics we've lived through over the last year. all the stuff on the aca, the aca website problems. that was going to dog obama. then the shutdown which is supposed to help democrats. here re with going to october and what are people talking about? what's the president being asked about, right? it's all isis. it's all these foreign policy conflicts, which some people worry could create danger here at home. does that mean in your view as a political strategist that all that time on all that other earlier political drama isn't going to be front and center in october for voters? >> i don't think it is going to be. and it's something that nobody could predict. i mean, a beheading of an american journalist is a big gut

punch. the fact the terrorists used social media to reach american voters or americans in general in a way they haven't used before, you couldn't have predicted that a year ago. on the other side, i think those are the big bread and butter issues. going back to what candidates and incumbents need to do is they need to appeal to voters and say, i want to represent you. i want to be your voice in washington. the appropriate thing for them to do is talk about the things they've done in washington. like the affordable care act. when you have something that is gut punch as these void yoes were to all of america, i think everybody felt it. you're going to see a reaction there that we may not get back to kind of the more bread and butter, day to day congressional agenda items in this election. we may kind of be stuck here. this is an important thing to discuss as well. we've been embroiled in wars for the last, you know, decade and a half. >> right. i think when you combine, you know, that sense of the threat with still the feeling like for most americans, the economy has

not recovered at all, it adds up to a lot of trouble for the party that's in power. thank you so much. up next, how those hong kong clashes are hitting home right here in the u.s. plus, new fears about that respiratory virus targeting kids. we will get you up to speed on all the other stories making news this hour in your news cycle. ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you have enough money to live life on your terms? i sure hope so. with healthcare costs, who knows. umm... everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor.... can get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. ♪

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from hong kong today. pro-democracy protesters have blocked off key roads in that city. police are largely laying back so long as the demonstrations remain peaceful. that's a far cry from over the weekend with cops using tear gas, batons to keep protesters at bay. worldwide stocks have been reacting to that unrest. all three indices right here at home are down. though, mostly because of investor anxiety about a number of positive economic indicators. what's so bad about that, you might ask? well, investors are actually worried an improving economy could lead the fed to raise interest rates by early next year. toure? >> thanks for that. supreme court justices are huddling behind closed doors as they consider which cases to tackle when they hit the ground running next monday. who says the preseason doesn't matter? one of the marquee match-ups this season, ari, could be marriage equality, including same-sex marriage bans in five states, indiana, oklahoma, utah, virginia and wisconsin.

which are all one down away from losing the game. all five bans have already been ruled unconstitutional of district and appellate level. this is the big leagues and the supreme court agreeing to hear these cases is like heading to the super bowl of justice. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has an early preview for us. pete? >> well, the problem here is you do have to play a game out to the fourth down, but the supreme court doesn't have to take any of these cases. ruth bader ginsburg had suggested earlier this month that the justices, or at least she thought the court might not take the cases if all the appeals courts are deciding them the same way. so far, they are. they're all striking down these bans that end the laws against same-sex marriage. so, one thing the court could do is just wait until there's a split among the federal courts. until one appeals court rules the other way. that hasn't happened so far. could happen within the next several weeks. that's one option. another option is for them to take it right away. one of these cases. another option is for them to hold it over until next year.

the longer the court waits, the longer the stays remain in place. in the lower courts. so, that would seem to cut against the supreme court waiting a long time. the big question is, will the court hear the case this term? no way to know. we could find out as early as later this week about whether the court will take any of these cases. that's the earliest we can find out. my guess is we'll have to wait several weeks more before we find out. you think back a short time ago when the supreme court decided to hear the same-sex cases from california and the ban on doma from the federal system. the court brought it up and then postponed it several times in their weekly conferences before they finally took action. so, i don't think we're going to know for a while yet. >> pete williams in washington. thank you very much. back to the table now, ari, there's no way to know if the court will take it up. what do you think? >> i agree completely. we never know exactly what they want to do. what we can say from the precedent here is the court recently took half a step

forward on these marriage equality issues. if they rush to take anything here, i think supporters of marriage equality would take that as a sign they would take the next half step, potentially even a national rule for marriage equality. >> i mean, you know, i understand the legal process has to play out but i'm generally sort of spiritually exhausted why we're still arguing about this. we've had years and years if not decades of gay relationships, gay marriages. there's no negative impact on america from this happening. so, why are people still trying to legislate what other people's families can look like? look, we all understand at the table, and most of our viewers are saying, marriage is an incredibly important step. saying to gay americans, you are all cannot get married. it says your relationships are not that important. your relationships are not the same level of importance as heterosexual relationships. that, to me, is a sort of marriage segregation and a segregation as immoral as any sort of segregation. >> utah is one of the states the supreme court is looking at taking up. and i find that state to be very

interesting when it comes to same-sex marriage. obviously, i'm from utah, but when my dad was governor in 2009 he was one of the first to come out for civil unions, which back then if you look, only 20% of the states supported same-sex marriage. >> courageous. >> risky/courageous thing to do. i saw a poll that came out, i think, just today. it shows that utah's divided half and half in sopt of same-sex marriage. that's moved in support of more same-sex marriage over the years. most people don't see this affecting their marriage or their family at all. and most people read it like you do, toure, and they say, how can this be that they don't see this affecting them? why don't they just let people do what they want to do? but, look, i've grown up mormon. i would say over 60% of the population there is lds. it is very difficult for people to separate church and state. to be told one thing on sunday, we don't support same-sex marriage and then vote for something different in the voting booth. but what i think we're seeing,

specifically in a state like utah, attitudes are shifting. you can separate the two. even if you go to church on sunday and you say, i don't support this for myself, i can still go to the voting booth and say, it's okay. i don't want to tell people what they can or can't do. >> we've seen that shift in our politics. even though republicans have not come along as quickly as we would like them to, they are no longer running on opposition of same-sex marriage because it's a political loser in most places in the country now. which is progress. we want it to be politically convenient to support same-sex marriage because that's when we win. i went back and looked at ted cruz's comments at the values of voters summy up. were mentioning -- >> did he bring it up. >> he won the straw poll there. he made one brief mention of marriage. that's it. i mean, that's pretty remarkable for a party that even back in 2008, when president obama was first running, he didn't support same-sex marriage. and the republican party has led with opposition to same-sex

marriage. so, it's pretty remarkable that shift. you can see it in the ads that candidates are running right now in the midterms. >> absolutely. you picked such a good example in ted cruz because he's willing to be so far outside the republican mainstream, this is even for him hard. the other theological piece is we have a lot of religious beliefs we don't expect the government to prosecute on everyone, right? you can observe the sa bath or religious jews won't even turn on and off lights on the sabbath. that's how they observe it. they don't go the next step and say, there should be a law no one should use electricity on saturdays because we're not a theocracy. people can still hold their r z religious views. no one is asking churches to change what they do in their church. we have a first amendment. we're talking about benefits and rules equal for all in the government. >> there was a facebook page that said, if you don't like gay marriage, don't get one. >> don't get married. which seems so simple. >> that sounds like a perfect way to end that. up next, the new iphone shatters another record but are

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those apple iphone sales are continuing to smash records. the latest, more than 10 million iphone 6 and 6 plus sales. that breaks all previous records. it's a sign of how much smartphone technology is becoming an essential part of our lives. that's good news for apple and their shareholders and all the other companies selling tech. is it good for all of us? a new book quaucalled "the glas cage" by best seller nicholas carr argues technology like smartphones is making us anything but smart and it's disrupting our emotions and even our self-reliance. joining us now, nick carr. how are you? >> good, thanks. >> one of the things you argue in here and trace is there's a personal cost to automation. we aren't even very good at figuring out what we enjoy and we're not adept at evaluating

how automation is affecting us. >> psychologists term this miswanting. we tend to think we want to be freed from all hard work, all labor, and given the life of leisu leisure. that's why we -- any time our smartphone, our cell phone will say, i'll do this for you, i'll get you from here to there, we let it take over. but it turns out that what -- when we feel really fulfilled, really satisfied is when we're working hard at something. when we're tackling some challenge, learning new things, learning talent. we have this kind of inner struggle where we want to give everything to the computer and yet that ends up making us feel anxious and unfulfilled. and that's going to become a bigger tension to resolve as the smartphone kind of involves itself in everything we do. >> i think so many of us can relate to that. you become so dependent on your phone and computer that you lose confidence in yourself. i think about being stranded somewhere and not having my phone working or losing it for

some reason and having to call someone. i don't have anyone's phone memorized. growing up i had all my friend's numbers memorized. i also rely on google maps to figure out where i'm going. doesn't that ultimately become a problem if you need to use your own knowledge for something? >> i think it does. google maps or gps in general is a great example because a lot of people when they started having this at their beck and call only used it when they didn't know where they were going, were afraid of getting lost. very quickly we've become completely dependent on it and we can't get any -- you know, from down the block without glancing at google maps. it turns out, and quite a few studies about this now, that you very quickly lose your navigational sense. so, when the technology fails and sooner or later it always fails, we always have this experience of going off course, thanks to the gps, suddenly you don't know where you are, you don't know -- >> you trust that before you trust yourself. you say, i think it's going the wrong way but i'm still going to trust this more than myself.

it's sad. >> another book for you looking at the impact of technology on america, on the world. your previous book "the shallows" is fantastic talking about how the internet makes it hard to think deeply and to have an engaged relationship with a fought. so, once again, you're looking at how society has been changed negatively by technology. why do you hate technology so? >> i actually -- in some ways this book ends up being kind of a love letter to technology. but what it says is, we need to design technology that makes our lives richer. what we're doing with a lot of software, with, you know, both at work and our leisure time is actually making technology that makes our lives poorer. that takes something away from us. takes things we enjoy away from us. this is in our control in how we, you know, decide which app to use, which gadget to use and also how software programmers design this stuff. we can do this wisely since it's clear that automation is going

to keep expanding. we can do it wisely or we can do it unwisely. and i fear that through kind of laziness and just bad instincts we're going in the wrong direction. >> devil's advocate. gps knows how to get way more places than gps had. while on the one hand my navigation skills are eroding, my ability to find the information i need to have are improving. so, you know, are we replacing some of the skills that we're losing with other navigational skills around technology? >> i think that's a good point. and there's always -- you know, it's never entirely bad or entirely good. there's always a tradeoff. but in this case, in more -- to more -- to a greater extent than we've seen with technology in the past, it becomes very, very easy to simply say, i'm going to let the computer do it. and what you begin to see is there's a real erosion in talent, a real erosion in skill.

that not only makes us less capable when it comes to doing simple things or doing our jobs, but it begins to erode our satisfaction with life. because it's really talent, skill, engaging with the world that makes us feel most fulfilled and most satisfied. >> yeah. and you have that idea in the book as well that you allude to. all of the secret values imbedded. you have a app that says, give me the shortest distance. you let someone else decide four, i want to get from point a to point b the fastest. those aren't always the most interesting walks we take in back. >> great color. >> really cool cover. >> it's beautiful. >> technology. up next, the sexiest, most scandalest new play to hit new york. you already know some of the plot lines. >> going rude over here, starting twitter. what if nobody hears me? did it happen? i have a follower. mposites horis to map their manufacturing process with sticky notes and string, yeah, they were a little bit skeptical.

what they do actually is rocket science. high tech components for aircraft and fighter jets. we're just their bankers, right? but financing from ge capital also comes with expertise from across ge. in this case, our top lean process engineers. so they showed us who does what, when, and where. then we hit them with the important question: why? why put the tools over there? do you really need those five steps? what if you can do it in two? whoo, that's an interesting question. ideas for improvement started pouring out. with a little help from us, they actually doubled their output speed. a hundred percent bump in efficiency. if you just need a loan, just call a bank. but at ge capital, we're builders. and what we know... can help you grow.

♪ ♪

i have a cold. i took nyquil but i'm still stuffed up. nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. really? alka-seltzer plus night rushes relief to eight symptoms of a full blown cold including your stuffy nose. (breath of relief) oh, what a relief it is. thanks. anytime. politic these days is so crazy, you really can't make most of this stuff up. i mean, so the folks behind a new smash play here in new york, they didn't have to do that. they just went with the truth. >> do you view it as something that would be awful to have to admit thaw were gay? >> i don't agree with the lifestyle and i've said so withmy votes over the year. the appropriate definition of a marriage is a union between one man and one woman.

and by my expressions. >> yes, who can forget former u.s. senator larry craig and his infamous bathroom bust or representative mark sanford who took a hike to argentina while still governor or weinergate. the words of those elected and the media they tried to spin are the basis of this hilarious new off-broadway production "tailspin." joining us is the creator of "tailspin," mario. thank you for being here. i think of the mark sanford incident, leaving the appalachian trail while still governor and reminding myself, this actually happened. you picked four cases. how were you able to narrow it down? that's the real question here. >> listen, there was no dearth of material. my original thought was i'm going to write a play about how these political lives have double lives. i wanted it to be fictionalized. i looked at the transcripts and i looked at the mark foley

scandal, a guy i knew when i was a staffer on capitol hill myself. and i thought, after reading those transcripts, i thought, there's no way i can make this up. all you can really do is show what these guys actually said. so, then i found the scandals that i thought were the most outrageous and found the actual texts, tweets, police reports, all that kind of stuff and pulled together. and for me, really those were the sanford, mark foley, larry craig and weinerscandal. >> the weiner stuff is just gold for somebody trying to make a play. i want to you talk about that. i also want you to talk about the title because "tailspin" because i would say tailspin which takes it to a whole other level. >> you get the tail and then you spin it. absolutely. all of these guys -- >> you need the exclamation point. >> yeah, yeah, for sure. for sure, yeah, t-a-i-l. the weiner scandal was a fascinating one because it was different from the other guys in a way, too. you know, a lot of these guys were really very hypocritical in sort of publicing together this public morality they pushed out

there toward the rest of us, but in their private lives doing something completely different. >> hypocritical. >> yeah. the weiner case was so different. it was a case of narcissism gone awry to such a level. i think that's what really ties these stories together. they're not just about sex but it's really about power, right? this idea that you or i might take some risks in our life, but we wouldn't think we could get away with it because, like, rules apply to us, right? but these guys think that because they make the rules, rules don't apply to them. so, they take risks and do things that no normal person would do. and i think that's a weiner specialty. >> right up. say sex, power and that no normal person would do. one of the arguments you explore from mark sanford is that he was doing something people have done throughout time, which is grapple with the challenges of love or love in more than one direction. let's take a listen to him at that famous press conference. >> i committed to trying to get my heart right because one thing

others have told me is that the oddcy we' oddcy we're all on in life is to guard the heart. if i put this person first, her life as i have. >> talking about jeopardizing the life of the woman that he said he also had a strong feeling for. >> his soul mate. >> and it was something that he was weirdly publicly struggling with. how do you address that in the play if at all as distinct from folks who are just misbehaving in what we might call less emotional ways? >> it's a great question because the sanford story gives us the one real heroin in our play. rachel was amazing. plays every single mistress, every wife, barbara walters. in most of these lives, the women were very expendable.

but in the case of generjen if d she was like, no, i'm not going to stand by you and it gives us a chance to show that not every political wife does this. i think we see in the sanford case that she really came out of it the hero. she said you don't have to basically be a doormat. and i did think that sanford was a love story in a way until you see sort of what happened last couple weeks. >> well, you were a capitol hill staffer. so tell us if you can relatively quickly, are these guys outliers or are they sort of emblematic of the type of politician you would find in washington? >> they are outliers in the sense that not all of these guys are doing this. and it's always guys it seems. but rachel as barbara walters

does ask why do men do it. on capitol hill, it's different because they do feel that the rules don't apply to them because in so many way, politicians are sort of making the rules and not abiding by them. >> yet time after time, they're still doing it when they realize that you do get caught eventually. >> it never works. >> thank you so much. hilarious play. and you may want to pick up a latte as you go to see the play because today is national coffee day. no surprise people like their caffeine so much that the hash tag has been trending throughout the day. and in one of abby adventures, i tried my hand at being a barista. take a look. >> we're going to make the pumpkin spice latte.

who wants one? >> keep your eye on the cycle. we'll be posting that video very soon. and up next, exactly what was accomplished at the huge global citizen pefestival saturday nig? the answer is next. [ male announcer ] we all think about life insurance. but when we start worrying about tomorrow, we miss out on the things that matter today. ♪ at axa, we offer advice and help you break down your insurance goals into small, manageable steps. because when you plan for tomorrow, it helps you live for today. can we help you take a small step? for advice, retirement, and life insurance, connect with axa. for advice, retirement, come from all walks of life. if you have high blood sugar, ask your doctor about farxiga.

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♪ saturday night's epic global

citizen concert, you think why is the place for politics airing jay-z and beyonce? but global citizen was about combatting global policy. extreme poverty is a driver for the substandard health practices and lag of access to medicine that has fueled the ebola crisis. it also makes people more open to extreme echl. it makes people turn to the drug trade. makes people leave their home country en masse. when people lack access to clean water and enough saving food and medicine, when people feel like they have no chance in life, they will try drastic measures to change the situation or make themselves feel valued. extreme global poverty afflicted over 1 billion people. and these are global problems, not someone else's problems.

globalization has tied us all together such that when it rocks poor, we get a cancer called isis and it's the not unsolvabl. the percentage living in extreme poverty has decreased to 21% but we still have work to do. there is a whole host of answers. one is to address extreme inequality. the rich are growing richer thanks in part to a system that is rigged. oxfam speaks of a global new deal that closes tax havens. economic leveling mechanisms like truly progressive taxation and global minimum corporate tax rate and global minimum wage would massively help things. corporations and wealthy use the globe to increase their leverage, but globalization tends to work against the interests of the poor. a global new deal must change all that. we must also address corrupt third world leaders. david cameron recently said the more corrupt the society, the poorer its people.

41% of the poorest of the poor live in fragile or conflict-of a flir flikted states. there are also simpler solutions. hundreds of millions of cell phones have helped slash world poverty in africa. any global new deal must also include improving education and ensuring surplus food is not wasted. we are wasting the human potential of millions of people with a system that is tilted toward the wealthy acquiring more. eventually the poor will have their say. we must see our far away neighbors' problems as our open because they are our problems. and we must remember as dr. kenk said that in skrjustice anywher a threat to just sice everywher. that does it for the cycle. "now" starts right now. the president says u.s.

intelligence agencies underestimated isis but some u.s. intelligence officers beg to differ. it's monday, september 29. and this is "now". >> underestimated isis. >> president obama acknowledging that the extremist group is tougher than we originally thought. >> we did it underestimate how quickly they can grow and develop. >> the fact that the intelligence community missed this one is a major failure. >> mosul went down. fallujah went down. >> did the president intend to blame the intelligence community for not warning him about isil? >> the president is the one who takes responsibility. >> shocking that the intelligence agencies didn't see this coming. >> in syria, isis continues its march towards the turkish border. >> john boehner saying u.s. ground troops may be needed. >> i don't think there will be enough people within syria to really go after isis. >> the question that is open is whether those gr