this sunday on ""meet the press"" america is on edge. ebola has been diagnosed on u.s. soil for the first time. >> the country is absolutely not ready for a large-scale epidemic. >> the head of the secret service had to resign after blunders that compromised the security of a president. >> the secret service needs someone to come in with a fresh set of eyes. >> has our government got a grip on all of these challenges facing the country? can preobama keep his promise about combat troops. >> i won't commit our troops to fighting another ground war. >> an iraq war veteran who thinks he has broken. >> they are actively engaged in combat. >> with less than a month until

the mid terms i'm going to reveal some poles that may be what one party has been waiting to see. i'm chuck todd. joining me are joe scarborrow, andrea mitchell, gwen ifill and david axlerod. welcome to sunday, it's ""meet the press."" . good sunday morning here. before i get down to business, i should show you this new set that we have here. as you can see, we've got some new decor. a nod to the history of the show. some important decor over here that really gives scarborough a hard time. a university of miami helmet. a new coffee bar because it's sunday morning. we should only be drinking coffee. some of you may decide you need more than that. we hope you enjoy it.

it's a clean look. we like it. it's more my style. now let's get down to business. it's been a rough week. there's a litany of problems. ebola and isis beheading. >> highest alert. the cdc has increased the emergency response to the ebola epidemic. >> this outbreak is the largest in history, causing the president to send u.s. military personnel in an attempt to control the spread of the virus. >> we have to act fast. we can't doddle on this one. >> ebola, one of the frightening but true story that have been seen on tv, newspapers and the intern internet. a man able to penetrate one of the most protected places in the country. >> no one has gotten all the way through the front door just behind me. >> worse than we knew. >> turns out, he got deep inside the mansion before being stopped. on friday, another

beledding. then an e-mail confirming that another american is being held by isis. the white house realizing they need to reassure the public. >> the first confirmed case of ebo ebola. >> ebola walked into a dallas hospital. >> that person is being isolated and dealt with and contract tracing is being done. >> let's take a closer look at the severity of the ebola outbreak. the situation is dire in west africa with guinea, liberia and sierra leone severely affected. 7,492 have been infected and 3,439 have lost their lives. there are worries those numbers could skyrocket with the cdc laying out a worst case scenario. the president told me that only

the u.s. could lead the fight against the virus. more than 3,000 american troops are being deployed to west africa in order to help with the relief efforts and build makeshift hospitals. it's important to know, only one case has been diagnosed in the u.s. this far. thomas eric duncan tested positive after traveling to the u.s. from liberia. his condition was downgraded yesterday from serious to critical. of course, here at nbc, we have been impacted. on thursday, ashoka mukpo, a freelance cameraman in liberia was diagnosed with ebola. he is due to be flown back for treatment in nebraska. no one on the nbc crew with dr. nancy snyderman has shown any signs of infection. she will quarantine herself for up to three weeks. i'm joined by the head of centers for disease control. welcome to "meet the press." >> good morning. >> let me ask you this morning what you can tell us about mr.

duncan. we understand he's in critical -- i think now critical condition. what more do you know? >> well, just what you have said. as we know, this is a serious illness, that the virus is very hard to fight in individual patients. we know how to stop its spread in a community. but for treatment of individual patients, the best care is intensive supportive care. that's what's being done right now in dollaallas. we hope it is a severe illness that does take far too many lives. >> it's still being described as an exponential problem. every infected person ends up infecting two more people. it's an exponential issue. how do you change the math? when do you think you can change that math? >> well, with president obama's decision to send the department of defense in to provide critical support, they are on the ground and working with our team, with other teams in the

u.s. government internationally, we're seeing a terrific international response. other countries are coming in and helping. the virus moves very, very fast. we're beginning to see some signs that the response is getting more and more effective. for example, at making sure people aren't being exposed to patients who have died from ebola and getting safe removal of bodies. there's been progress on that in the past. this is going to be a long, hard fight. >> let me ask you about drugs. we know there's some experimental drugs. some of them have been used to deal with the early u.s. relief workers that got infected early on during the beginning of the process. is there signs of speeding this up to be used in west rave ca dd anything we need here? >> the drug pipeline is slow. the most promising drug, there's no more. it's hard to make. it takes months to make it. we're looking at vaccines.

there are a couple of promising vaccines that are already in initial trials. if those were available, we would be able to use them for healthcare workers and potent l potentially other places if they work. we have to figure out as quickly as possible whether they work. even without drugs or vaccines, meticulous clinical care, just restoring a patient's fluid balance can save lives. we're seeing some of the makeshift hospitals providing that good fluid care that's doubling survival rates there. >> how do you calm american fears here? right now the public -- we saw an airplane quarantined in newark. you are seeing hundreds of cases where people are reporting potential symptoms that might be ebola related. frankly, we're getting close to causing a panic about this. how do you stop that part of this virus? >> it's really understandable that people are scared. it's a deadly virus. you have to go back to basics. the bottom line is, we know how

to stop t. itit. we can do infection control in hospitals. we can do public health interventions that stop it in its tracks. we do that by identifying every possible contact, monitoring them for 21 days. if they get any symptoms, isolating and monitoring them as well. that's how you stop ebola. that's how we stopped every outbreak -- just this past week, we reported on our experience helping nigeria stop their importation of ebola. >> let me ask you very quickly, we have flu season coming up. can the u.s. healthcare system handle the incoming that if you mix fear about ebola with your typical flu season and people feeling sort of similar issues, fever, stuff like that, are you worried about a crush of the american healthcare system because of the ebola fear mixed in during flu season? >> i don't think we're going to see a huge number of ebola patients or even concerns for ebola patients. it's great that we have an index

of suspicion such that we evaluate every person who has traveled and who might have it. that's what we expect to see. it's actually a good thing to see more concern so that we don't miss a patient and allow it to spread in a cluster in this country. what flu season will hold, i don't know. it's a good time to get a flu shot. the only thing you can predict is that it will be here and we can't predict what it will be like. very important to get a flu shot. that will reduce the burden both on you and the healthcare system. but i think our healthcare system certainly has challenges. but it can respond. it has resilience. we have hard working doctors and nurses, people running the system. we're going to learn from each experience and respond better next time. >> thanks for coming on "meet the press." >> thank you. >> you got it. >> for more on the ebola response i'm joined by a senior adviser to the president. >> thanks for having me. >> let's go to what the white

house responsibility is, calming the public's nerves. is the administration considering stepped up tactics, month aggressive screenings at airports, something to reassure the public that ebola is going to have a hard time making it to the united states? >> the first thing is make sure the american people understand how hard it is to contract ebola and to understand that there is no country in the world better prepared than the united states to deal with this. the best public health infrastructure and doctors in the world. we have been preparing for this since the outbreak in west africa started seven months ago. >> why though -- go back to the question, is there -- i understand about the outbreak. are you going to try do more measures? i think this is a public that is very fearful right now. you say one thing here and then all of a sudden, ebola walked into a dallas hospital. >> we are going to constantly evaluate measures we have in place. it's important to understand that this has been happening for seven months in west africa. this is the first time someone has come to the united states. we're prepared for this. we will evaluate. the president is focused on

this. >> you may do more? >> we will make sure everything is working. if we see there are flaws in the system, where things don't work, we will address those. we are confident. the president is focused on this every day. he is briefed on it every day. he he is in contact with the cdc. >> i think one of your challenges is a trust deficit that has been created over the last 18 months. i want to put up a graphic. whether you believe it's fair or not, it is a fact about all the different government gaps over the last 18 months. edward snowden, the v.a., irs losing e-mails. health.gov, the president saying u.s. intelligence under estimated isis, and the secret service. why should we trust what you are saying about the cdc is able to handle this? you understand why there's more skepticism than normal. >> i understand that people have been skeptical.

growing skepticism of government. people should know that the situations where a problem arises, we deal with it quickly, forcefully to make sure it doesn't happen. let's take one example that got a lot of attention which is the surge at the border -- southwestern border. that was a problem that came. we brought to bear every response. this month crossing is less than they were. >> i understand that. i will give you -- there is a good reaction. ebola needs to be pro action. >> that's exactly what we're doing, which is why -- the only way to deal with this is to stop it at its source. which is why we have -- we are deploying 3,000 troops there to bring to -- >> is that enough? >> that is what the pentagon believes we need right now. we will evaluate that. what we can do there is bring -- no one is better at command and control, logistics. they will make a huge different over there. it will take time. it will take a lot of work.

>> i want to play you a sound bite from republican senator rand paul about this military troop issue helping with ebola. he has a concern, frankly, that that's a way for ebola to affect the american military. take a listen. >> fair concern ? >> we're prepared to deal with it. people will be screened. we will make sure that doesn't happen. >> you think that's -- a lot of public officials that are skeptical and nervous about this. do you think they have been acting responsible? >> a lot of people have been very responsible about not raising irrational fears and communicating information people need to know. we appreciate that. >> i'm going to shift to the

secret service. when you -- when the white house -- when the president decided to hire director pierson, did you rush, not whether she had a good background and good work -- good hr file, but did you vet to see, was she up to the job, or did you rush? >> we did not rush. she was someone with a 30-year record at the secret service. obviously, what happened over the last several weeks make it clear we needed to take another direction. we decided to do that. we are -- >> she was the wrong hire? >> we needed a new direction. joe clancy is someone who this president knows very well, i know very well. is the right person to come in on an interim basis. we will be here to begin dealing with whatever situations may arise. >> is it time to hire an outsid outsider? >> we will let joe clancy get there, look at it, begin to steer the agency in the right direction. we will see who the right fit is. >> ask you about the president's speech in chicago this week. there's one way to read it is he was declaring victory on his agenda, that he believes he has

a suck -- is that a way to look at it, that basically it worked? my policies were right, look at this, everything is great? >> i don't think that's a fair reading of the speech. the president was very clear that while we have made significant progress to improve the economy, to build a durable foundation for the economy going forward, job creation, auto industry back, housing industry coming back, but we have more work to do because too much of the benefits of that growth is not being shared on the middle class. >> he said we are better than we were before but the direction of the country, the public, nearly 70% thinks we are on the wrong track. >> it's very clear, anyone who looks at the economy knows we were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month. we have created more than 10 million private sector jobs. every indicator is up significantly over the last six years. but there's more work to do. that's a lot of what this is about is a choice between democrats and republicans. republicans opposing the common sense policies we need to help the middle class.

>> thanks for coming be ining b "meet the press." let's get some reaction from our press. joe, let's go to ebola. you had some tough words on friday about government response in your own personal concerns, what you have heard. do you feel better than you did friday? >> i don't feel better. i don't think most americans feel better. you have everybody saying, let's stay calm. that's what the world health organization said when this broke out. they said, let's stay calm when the head of doctors without borders went to them and said, this is a crisis. they said, you are panicking. we are hearing the same thing now. let's look at it. the world health organization has dismal. they have ignored all of the warning signs. and then the african countries, the governments there have fail faileds mifail ed. a lot of americans are seeing what happened in dallas.

what happened with the secret service? what happened with the irs? what happened with the v.a.? what happened with isis being a jv team? when any member of the department says, relax, americans don't believe that. >> andrea? >> in fact, it's that laundry list, it's more. worse here because in dallas, look what happened. the man comes into the e.r. he tells a nurse he was in west africa, in liberia. they blame it on a computer system? now they acknowledge it was the doctor on the case had the same information. people are not communicating. this is after we were told by the government, by the cdc, by the white house that doctors and hospitals around the country were prepared. one thing now though, they now begin to realize -- i'm told that they are now going to consider having screening -- they don't have the personnel. cdc doesn't have the personnel. but they believe if they go to a

small number, four main airports, they can get 75% of the people. >> jfk, dulles, o'hare, newark, they can hit those. 75% of west african partners. >> you cannot trust people to be asked a questionnaire in africa. >> if you have a 6-year-old daughter and you are in west africa and you think she may have ebola, are you going to answer the question honestly? are you going to come to the united states? i'm come together united states to try to save my daughter. >> i have different questions here. one is whether systems broke down. it's clear you can look at isolated systems and say they broke down. it's one thing for the u.s. to say, we're going to send all of these -- the mobile military hospitals to set up. it turns out there's no infrastructure to get them there. the question is whether it's a term of index of suspicion, whether that expands to everything. i don't know that you turn -- americans turn and look to their government and say, fix this the way we think they do. if they are suspicious of

government, then they aren't expecting government to have -- we have -- >> they are suspicious. >> one case of ebola in the united states. right? one. 3,000 people dead in west africa. so all of a sudden we are pan panicked? >> every warning case -- obviously, we have a magician. >> one case is a tipping point? >> it's growing to such a level in west africa that now is when you would start -- kent brantly said, a guy who knows about this because he had it, said this is a fire from held. if you think the atlantic ocean is going to stop it from coming over, you are kidding yourself. >> i have some -- i have -- i understand. i understand. >> okay, okay. let david jump in. >> these are public health professionals of world class standing. they have no motivation to mislead the american people.

they have dealt with many epidemics before, many health issues before. i don't think there's a reason to believe that they are not doing what needs to be done. i will say this about the jaundice issue. i sat on this very set. it wasn't as nice. in the spring of 2010. we talked about the oil leak in the gulf. everyone said, this is obama's katrina. things are out of control. the government has broken down. you know, it wasn't even mentioned in the 2012 election, because ultimately it was dealt with. i suggest we look back six months from now -- >> i understand. >> and review this discussion. i suspect what we are going to say is, that wasn't what we thought it was. >> we have -- the problem for the white house right now is they have to -- make sure people don't panic. >> right. >> we can't have our public health facilities flooded. i brought up flu soon for a reason. the symptoms are almost identical. we could see a total crush on the system. >> what is our responsibility in creating and -- >> that's -- >> the government -- one second.

>> one responsibility -- i don't understand -- i will be honest. this is a serious issue. i'm quoting people that have ebola that have spent time in west africa. >> people like you and like us, go on television and say, this is far worse than they are saying. this is a reason -- >> i'm not saying that. >> okay, guys. >> people respond to it. >> i'm going to hit -- >> what i was saying is, we have to ask tough questions. >> i thought he did a pretty good job. >> let's do the pause button. you guys have -- we're going to come back. we can continue this discussion. >> we're trying to help. >> i hear you. i hear you. you're doing great here. i have a few other guests here i want to talk to. in fact, when we come back, i have the head of the republican national committee here who has been immouamused by the back an forth. been immouamused by the back an forth. [ julie ] the wrinkle cream graveyard. if it doesn't work fast... you're on to the next thing.

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and putting ducks in rows. the only problem with conference calls: eventually they have to end. unless you have the comcast business voiceedge mobile app. it lets you switch seamlessly from your desk phone to your mobile with no interruptions. i've never felt so alive. get the future of phone and the phones are free. comcast business. built for business. welcome back. republicans are hoping for a beach boys november. catch a wave. so far, that wave, not really in sight. on thursday my next guest laid out what he called the gop's principals for american renewal. those principals are nothing like the clear message the party off nerd 1

offerred in 1994. i want to talk about your principals here. they sound great. in fact, karl rove said it was very well poll tested language. preserve the constitution, balance budget amend money. improve veterans action to healthcare. value vallfamily, immigration, uphold the law. very agreeable language. i don't think anybody, including democrats, would disagree. there's no policy here. no policy connected to this. why? >> that's not true. we call for a balanced budget amendme amendment. we call for school choice. we call for the president adhere together constitution and not violating the law and not abi abiding the separation of powers act in the constitution. if you go back and look at the contract of america, it will say, welfare reform -- >> i've got it here. >> this is something -- >> we're not seeing the same thing this year. >> that's not true.

when you can put john boehner, ted cruise, mitch mcconnell and a tea party express on the same page, which you have as a unified paeunify ed party -- if you look at arkansas, you look at alaska, south dakota, west virginia, louisiana, you go to colorado, you are seeing republicans in the lead. look, with a month out, i would rather be where we are at than where the democrats are at. >> are you going to win the senate? >> we have to win the senate. >> for this to be a good election? it's a bad election if you don't win? >> i think that's fair. we have to win the senate. i think we will win the senate. the question is are we going to win with six, seven or eight seats. that's what's up for grabs right now. >> when it comes to -- one of the things in here that you didn't mention was a lot of social issues. why was that? >> we did talk about a strong family. we did talk about life. we talked about familiar -- >> seems like you are nervous. social issues working against you? >> not at all. we didn't hide away from social

issues at all. the fact of the matter is is that people are out of work. real unemployment rate is at 11.8%. whether you are in texas or illinois, the president's policies aren't working. the president on friday, as you noted earlier in the show, said that his policies are on the ballot. if obama is on the ballot and his policies are on the ballot, it's bad for democrats. >> unemployment is below 6%. democrats say, hey, things are getting better. >> you spelled it out pretty well when you had peipher on. the labor participation rate is at record low. people don't feel better off than five years ago. obviously, whether it's the gsa, the irs, syria, ebola, the secret service -- what's going well in regard to this administration and those senators that have followed this president lock step? >> there was a supreme court --

they upheld a new law in texas. one of the things about the republican party is you don't like regulation on businesses, except if the business is an abortion clinic. 80% of the abortion clinics in texas are going to be basically out of business because of this new law. too much regulation, is that fair? why regulate on the abortion issue now until maybe the law -- maybe wait until the supreme court -- you win a fight where you outlaw abortion all together? why restrict the business in texas in. >> you have to talk to someone in texas. the fact of the matter is we believe that any woman faced with an unplanned pregnancy deserves counseling. >> 80% of the clinics are gone. they have to drive for the compassion. >> the issue is whether you ought to use taxpayer money to fund abortion. that's the one issue that i think separates this conversation that we're having.

the fact of the matter is, what this election will come down to is whether people feel bert off today than they did four or five years ago, whether these democrat senators followed this president lock step in spite of the fact that things aren't going in the right direction, whether obamacare, jobs, the economy, keystone pipeline, all of the above. it's not working for him. you can try to steer -- talking about abortion, but the fact of the matter is, if you are in alaska, you are thinking about the fact of why my life isn't better off today than it was when this senator was elected six years ago. >> we will watch. thanks for many coulding icomi press." back to the panel. i want to put up this piece of sound we heard from the president from that speech. it was a pretty interesting comment that a lot of republican campaigns are excited about. here it is. >> i'm not on the ballot this

fall. make no mistake, these policies are on the ballot. every single one of them. >> well, by friday afternoon, they are in republican ads. >> now obama says -- >> i'm not on the ballot. but make no mistake, these policies are on the ballot. every single one of them. >> obama's candidate for senate in kansas, greg orman. a vote for greg orman is a vote for the obama agenda. >> david, you are not writing the president's speeches, would you have -- >> i would not have put that line in there. understand if you read the speech, the context of the line was the things he is pushing forward, minimum wage, pay equity, infrastructure, these are on the ballot. it was obvious when you saw the speech that that was not the way that -- >> you are an ad man. >> it was a mistake. fundamentally, the issue that he

should be driving and the democrat party should be driving is forward looking, because the problem is how are middle class people going to make a living? what policies can we implement that can help? we ought to have that debate. >> go ahead, andrea. >> i'm not echoing anything. but if you look at "the wall street journal," "the washington post," "the new york times," the financial times, all the reporting on the jobs data from friday reported that participation rate is at historic lows, decade lows, 59% are involved in the labor force. that's just not a sustainable recovery. we have two americas. >> i'm going to get into that. >> that's been going -- that say long-term trend. >> it's not improving. >> everybody doesn't have to be political. this is a problem for the country. it's been with us over a long period of time. >> every reporting also on friday about these jobs numbers show they were the lowest since 2008. they showed that even though the job participation is dropping,

that there is -- it's hard to argue that things aren't better. the problem and the dilemma for the president -- we saw it -- i don't know if he was winging that or not. the problem with the president, he wants to say, there is good news and i'm willing to run on that. except he's not running. >> i was going to say, i want to talk -- do they have a message? what did you think of the principals of -- >> obama is not on the ballot. his issues may be on the ballot. look at the polls. his numbers are low. and yet despite the fact they are low in kansas, you have an independent candidate up by ten points. despite the fact they are low across the deep south, they are in the low 20s. >> is that because the republicans don't have a message? >> there is no message. you know who is saying that? republicans. if you -- >> scott walker among them. >> if you don't like president obama's healthcare plan, what's your healthcare plan? >> what's the alternative? >> if you don't like what obama

is doing on jobs, how are you going to get people back to work? nobody has the messages. >> he was trying to respond to what is obvious, which is their standing is lower than his standing, because of what you say. but you listen to the principals and it reminds me of -- we have to rise to higher and higher platitudes. >> you are so partisan, it makes me sad. >> we will take another pause. you are having fun this morning here. president obama has vowed american troops will not be sent to take on isis. are they already engaged? we will hear from an iraq war veteran who says the troops on the ground are already there. my advice for healthy looking radiant skin. a good night's sleep... and aveeno®. [ female announcer ] only aveeno® positively radiant has an active naturals® total soy formula. it helps reduce the look of brown spots in just four weeks. aveeno®. naturally beautiful results™.

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we are back. on friday, isis released another horrific video showing the beheading of a british charity worker. then isis warned that an american aide worker could be

next. air strikes again the group are continuing in syria and iraq. isis is continuing to make advances and those threats. here at home, the president has been clear. american combat troops will not be used to take on isis. clay hanna is not so sure. he wrote a piece explaining why. he is an iraq war veteran who serves from 2003 to 2008. sheer clay hanna in his own words. >> i do not think that there is honesty. when the president, when leadership has been speaking about how troops are being deployed, what's being said is that there are no boots on the ground. and characterizing the efforts in service of the military members that are deployed into the fight as something less than being at war. the truth is that they are actively engaged in combat. at some point, isis is going to have a success.

and what military success looks like for them is a dead american soldier. we have a dangerous tendency to under estimate the enemy and overestimate our allies in their capabilities. i see us making that exact same mistake now. we need to clearly identify who our friends are. when we give weapons and training to people who we should not trust, people who we would not let on an airplane out of our own airplanes, it's inevitable, they will turn against us. i want to see leadership in washington take responsibility for communicating clearly with the american people. it is very personal. i feel like i have a responsibility as a veteran to speak up and ensure that there is a voice. >> that was iraq war veteran clay hanna in his own words. who better to react to clay

hanna's concerns than jim webb, former secretary of navy and a decorated vietnam veteran who

welcome now to our meet the kpd series, sort of. this week i'm joined by jim webb who points out he's a potential candidate for president in 2016. he has a unique resume. webb is a former marine and served in vietnam where he won a navy cross for extraordinary heroism as well as a silver star, pro bronze stars and two purple hearts. in the '80s he served in the reagan administration as an assistant secretary of defense and secretary of the navy. in 2006, he switched partied and was elected as a democratic senator from virginia and served one term before opting not to seek re-election. he is a successful author and screenwriter and has written eight books over the years.

my wife helped him in his senate bid. i want to begin with any reaction you have to clay hanna, because how politicians use phrases like boots on the ground and politicize the issues of combat troops, that does have an impact on soldiers, doesn't it? >> it does. having watched the beginning of your show, i think it's fair to say right now that we are at a crossroads as a nation in terms of how we view ourselves, how we say these things to ourselves and the way that these issues are going to be resolved in the next couple of years will affect us for a very long time. it's true in domestic policy as well. when you see the arguments about economic fairness. the truth is, it depends where you sit in this country. we have the stock market that has almost tripled since march of 2009. >> the rich are feeling good? if you have capital, you are feeling good. average salaries have gone down. loans to small businesses have actually decreased. and we have a criminal justice

system that's embarrassing. all of the country should be focusing on that, too. in foreign policy, what you are hearing from this former sold is something that we are seeing a lot of country wide, and that is that we have not had a clear articulation of what american foreign policy is basically since the end of the cold war. so when you are looking at places like iraq and syria, you are seeing policies that can't be clearly articulated. >> you are saying that the president doesn't -- you are saying president obama doesn't have a foreign policy. >> i'm saying in terms of a clear doctrine, we have been lacking that for a very long time. it particularly impact the middle east. if you look at what's going on, there are two data points that are critical. the first was the decision by the bush administration to invade and occupy iraq, which empowered iran and unleashed all the sectarian violence.

and then it was what i thought was a strategic -- the inadvisable strategy of the arab spring. what has happened in libya as well as syria is a result. >> the beginning of the arab spring was in some ways egypt. was that a mistake? was the president getting involved the beginning of the mistake that then turned to libya that turned to syria? >> i think what you were seeing in egypt and i was talking about it when it began was the first rule of wing walking is make sure you have a clear grasp on where you are going before you leave where you are. this was accentuated in libya. i spoke very strongly against the notion that a president could unilaterally conduct military operations in an area where we had no treaties at work, no americans under attack or at risk. and you take a look at the end result of libya, an enormous number of weapons unaccounted for which are probably in syria. and can you get to the tripoli airport today? now, if you take a look at

syria, which is -- syria and parts of iraq, which is what the former soldier was talking about, we now have a situation where we are asking these freedom fighters or whatever you want to call them who were going after assad to help us go after isis. >> it's not clear they are going to do that. >> the elements that are fighting there are very fluid in terms of the people who declare their alliances. i would be willing to bet that we have people at the top of isis who actually have been trained by americans at some point. >> let me move to your political poe -- potential political am decisi ambitions. >> i'm not looking at that. what i'm trying to do is the same thing that i did when i was thinking about running for the senate. that is to identify the issues that america needs to focus on in order to regain the trust of the american people.

if you look at these polls that you were showing, i think the people are way ahead of their leaders. they know we have these problems that we're at a crossroads. they are very disappointed in fact that the pop leaders in both parties have not been able to come together for the good of the country to work to solve them. >> you are going to be compared to hillary clinton here. what's the contrast that you think is fairest between you and hillary clinton? >> i really don't -- i will let -- leave that to other people. >> if people you describe you as running to her left, what do you say? >> i believe in certain principals that i put out. whether they are to the left or to the right doesn't matter to me. i don't change what i believe. this is what did i when i ran for the senate. and i'm very concerned about issues of economic fairness, social justice. we worked on criminal justice reform eight years ago. we put 2 1/2 years of hearings in it in the senate. i don't know whether that's to the left or right. it's a leadership issue.

>> is she qualified? do you think she's qualified to be president? >> we led on this pivot to asia which people talked about for the obama administration. we began that two years before obama was elected. i've been very strong on different ways to deal with foreign policy. >> you are smiling. you don't want to talk about hillary clinton? >> i don't think it's for me to talk about hillary clinton. i enjoyed working with her when i was in the senate. this is for me -- i don't know what she's going to do if she runs, what she would run on. i'm just very concerned about these issues for the country. >> quickly, a few key issues. gay marriage, you were for civil unions but not for legalized gay marriage. have you changed? >> i took tough stands in '06. there was a gay marriage amendment on the ballot in virginia. i have a lot of family ties in

the southwest. i oppose that. i'm really comfortable with where the evolution has -- >> you are not ready -- legal in some places but not in others? >> i think this has been a good tli thing for the country. >> i'm going to leave it there. we will watch. you are going to announce before the end of the year? >> taking it one day at a time. >> fair enough. up next, the roads to economic recovery. we have been talking about it a lot on the show. guess what? it depends where you live. if you live near an interstate, that may be the bft west way toe a good economic future. it's mostly about the economy. it starts on tuesday when the international monetary fund releases its outlook. they warned the global economy could be at a tipping point. wall street will look for clues

when interest rates may go up. minutes of the federal reserve september meeting are released. speculation that tesla could septe[ male announcer ]eleased. are you so stuffed up, you feel like you're underwater? try zyrtec-d® to powerfully clear your blocked nose and relieve your other allergy symptoms... so you can breathe easier all day. zyrtec-d®. find it at the pharmacy counter.

if it doesn't work fast... you're on to the next thing. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair has the fastest retinol formula to visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena®. it is indisputable that our economy is stronger today than when i took office. it's also indisputable that millions of americans don't yet feel enough of the benefits of a growing economy where it matters most. that's in their own lives. >> that was president obama this week touting his administrati administration's policies and those of his fellow democrats on the ballot in november. let's do a little reality check. while the unemployment rate has been dropping, as we saw with friday's jobs reports there are many americans that aren't feeling it. why? because the road to recovery is taking different routes. that could mean trouble for democrats in november. let me show you another graphic

and a map. along interstates running north to south, the communities close to the highways are in the economic fast lane. the mostly urban areas that do favor democrats where economies are thriving and people are heading back into the job market at a rapid pace, more rapidly than in rural america farther away from the interstates. look here in washington, d.c. along the i 95 corridor. the unemployment raise dropped nearly 2 points and 35,000 more people felt encouraged enough to go into the job market. 150 miles to the southeast in virginia, the unemployment rate drops less than a point and that was because nearly 1,200 fewer people are out there looking for work. let's go to iowa, not only was there a drop in the unemployment rate of two points, but 4,700 more people are in the job markets. but in more rural benton county,

their drop in the unemployment rate of nearly two points wasn't good news because nearly 1,000 people stopped looking for jobs in that county. let's go west. in utah, along i-15 the unemployment rate dropped three points in salt lake county and 38,000 people joined the job county. but two hours west, that drop in the unemployment rate of nearly three points was because fewer people stopped looking for work. this uneven economic recovery is the reason why democrats up for re-election this year think they can't run on the president's economic message because their voters aren't seeing the economy bounce back as quickly as those areas along the i-5 corridors. bottom line is that this could be another reason why republicans feel so confident in retaking the senate this fall. of course, should they be that confide confident? i have numbers in three big [ female announcer ] we lowered her fever.

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welcome back. we have new polls to chew over. north carolina, alaska -- new numbers in north carolina. hagan up. about where republicans are concerned where the race is slipping away. look at iowa. ernst a narrow margin of error type of lead. if she wins, first woman ever elected to congress from the state of iowa. but here is the speed bump. look at this. kansas, pat roberts the republican not even cracking 40%. greg orman the independent up ten points. this is the shocker. this is the speed bump to the republican road. >> we know you love your speed bumps. we hate it when it goes the way it is supposed to go. this is surprising. it's surprising he's an independent. you see pat roberts saying he's

not really an independent. >> who are you? who were you caucus with? listen to his answer. >> so you can envision switching which party you would work with once you were there? >> sure. and ultimately, again, this is about solving problems. this is about the voters of kansas saying, the status quo doesn't work anymore. >> there you go. >> it's classic. he is an outsider. he says he's independent. the fact that pat roberts ignored the warnings, what happened to dig luger, you ha. >> we know kansas has other issues. listen to this. orman -- 20% are brown back voters. roberts' problems aren't brown

back problems. >> the message that a smart politician should take up, it's about what works. forget about ideology. george w. bush was ideological going into iraq. obama was ideological coming out of iraq. there are people that will debate that. the question is, what works? that's a strong message. republicans should be concerned. your numbers in north carolina should cause concern. i will say even, if we are only up, we the republican party only up by two points in iowa with such a weak democratic candidate, this is far from over. all these people saying republicans are going to take the majority, i would -- >> david, here is the thing, success for the democrats is, we only lost five seats and the republicans blew one in kansas. that's not a great message. >> when you look at the structure of the year with the exposure democrats have in states that rom knney carried.

>> it's brown versus -- >> i hate to be negative about the republican party. but if the republican party doesn't win in 2014, 2016 is bleak. top party leaders have been -- >> reince priebus said not getting the senate say loss for the republican party. i had a little fun. i had a lot of fun. i want to share a moment of fun ahead. yesterday for nine innings -- here it is. if you went to bed at a normal time last night, you probably missed the 18 inning epic marry th -- the marathon. i got to watch the first half. i made it through ten innings. i got to cheer on the nationals with my family. take a listen. >> please welcome chuck todd of nbc news and his family. >> one, two, three. washington nationals, play ball.

[ applause ] >> i'm sorry. i had to share it because i'm so cool. my son and my daughter -- >> who was the person in the outfit? >> who cares. leave screech alone. one final note. i would like to thank all of those who worked so hard to bilgd t build the new set in two weeks. it really does look good. >> great. like home. >> we are moving in. >> look at these cool lights. we have all sorts of things. i have to do more cleaning. dusting, i have to get fatheath dusts. everybody grab a duster. that's it for today. we will be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

good morning. on this monday, right now on "first look," ebola fears grow as the u.s. deals with multiple cases. >> so it's really important not just to africa but to the u.s. and the world that we stop the outbreak. and from ebola to isis as the threat to another american held captive escalates. plus, a powerful typhoon washes three american airmen out to sea. a major run-in. and it was redemption on sunday night. good morning to you. thank you for being with us. i'm frances rivera. breaking news, another american infected with ebola is now on u.s. soil. right now nbc