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tv   Ronan Farrow Daily  MSNBC  January 21, 2015 10:00am-11:01am PST

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uncomfortably exposed state of the union love birds rebecca and ben? more on that later. first, the stories you need to know about right now. president obama on his way to idaho for his first visit there as president. this afternoon he's going to be speaking at boise state university. he'll likely echo the major themes of his defiant 6,000-word state of the union last night, taking credit for a recovering economy and focusing on helping the middle class. >> we've seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade. our deficits cut by two-thirds. a stock market that has doubled and health care inflation at its lowest rate in 50 years. this is good news people. [ applause ] so the verdict is clear. middle class economics works. >> middle class economics. the president also broke some
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barriers during last night's speech. he's actually the first president to use the words lesbian, bisexual and transgender in the major address. now all eyes are on that ambitious agenda running up to 2016. chris jansing is nbc news senior white house correspondent. she's following the president's movements. chris, we know the president is traveling today. he's going to be in idaho, then kansas. how did these visits fit with the message coming out of the state of the union? >> i think there's no doubt that the message is both a combination of what the president wants to try to push in the coming months and in his last two years in office but there's a larger stage here on both sides because they're looking at this whole idea of economic opportunity for the middle class as sort of the defining issue of the 2016 campaign. so it's interesting, isn't it, that he's going to two states starting with idaho and then kansas, that he lost really badly in 2012. these are deeply red states. idaho, 33% of the vote. kansas, 37% of the vote.
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the white house is sending out the message, look these are issues that transcend parties. these are things that matter to everyone. but if you had any question about whether or not they were also part of the 2016 agenda some of the toughest criticism came from two republicans who are thinking about running for president, ted cruz and rand paul. rand paul actually sent out a tweet today, essentially fundraising off the state of the union, saying if you didn't like what you heard last night, send me money. and of course we got a tweet from hillary clinton as well. obviously supporting the president's economic proposals. so this is about a larger issue that we're going to be hearing a lot about in the coming not just days weeks, and months but years. >> we've got tim polenti, a major republican voice, to weigh in on some of the alternatives the republican side is offering. chris jansing that, coat does not look heavy enough. stay warm in the snow.
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>> thanks. >> house minority leader nancy pelosi is going to update us on the reaction from the democratic side. she's holding a news conference on capitol hill. you're looking at a live shot of the podium. we'll bring you any news as soon as it comes. we already have some reactions pouring in notably in the wake of president obama vowing to veto several republican proposals. >> we can't put the security of families at risk by taking away their health insurance or unraveling the new rules on wall street or refighting past battles on immigration when we've got to fix a broken system. and if a bill comes to my desk that tries to do any of these things, i will veto it. it will have earned my veto. [ applause ] >> of course this morning republicans wasted little time firing back. >> the state of the union can be
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about more than veto threats or a strident partnership. this kind of partisanship is what we've become accustomed to from the president. >> our kelly o'donnell is following the reaction on the hill. kelly, so notable that president obama actually vowed to veto bills. that's unusual for a state of the union, we understand. one big point of contention his promise to veto keystone. what's the reaction to that so far? >> there's an expectation that a showdown is certainly coming. no surprise that he's issued a veto threat issuing it in that place and time is unusual. and republicans sort of feel it was unnecessary at the time of trying to set a tone of working together. the senate is working through amendments on keystone, maybe by the end of the week they can get that wrapped up. they have some democratic support. the president's position has been clear. he has had a long process of the state department reviewing it, doesn't believe this is the right answer. so this will be a challenge where you will have a bipartisan
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measure to get it across the finish line is the expectation right now. and then of course it raises the question of will the president, when the moment comes, stick with that veto as expected? will he feel any pressure about jobs? the expectation is he'll use that pen and then we start again. really not enough numbers in terms of the republican side to override that veto. so they will move on. but it will be a real wedge point about differing views. is it not the proper thing for the environment, or is it an opportunity for jobs? how does it affect canada t our neighbor to the north? it has put a chill on some of the relations with the u.s. and canada. so there are many many issues behind it but it's going to be a big showdown moment and that is coming to a head probably over the next several days. >> it is going to be a fight. there's another big bone of contention i want to get your update on. listen to john mccain just this morning. >> in a speech riddled with unrealistic wishful thinking president obama told a nation
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last night that the shadow of crisis has passed. that news came as quite a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to what has been happening around the world. >> so a lot of conversation about how accurate the president's rendering of the fight against isis was last night. and in particular, a lot of reaction to his calling for a congressional authorization of that operation against isis. how is that going over and what does that imply about the current legality of that operation? >> i've been having conversations in the halls here with senior members. i've heard a few things. one pointing out the whole situation in yemen that's unraveling there, okay not typically the sort of thing you'd see in a state of the union address but seemed to be in conflict with some of the president's rhetoric. also a senior senator said to me he didn't even mention the word al qaeda during his remarks. so there's a real difference in the vision on foreign policy when it comes to that. on the congressional authorization to use force, this is interesting because speaker boehner, for quite a long time has been saying the tradition is
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the white house sends language sort of the outline of what that use of force should be for then congress to consider it, not the other way around. we're seeing real progress on this. i'm told by sources that we expect that the white house is working cooperatively with congress on this. it'll be a real moment when members will all have to put their voices on to this issue, and we know the war-weary nature of the country. having to authorize specific action against isis isil will be a political test for them but also an important function of congress. so we've really seen a change over recent months between the white house and congress on that one issue. >> kelly o'donnell, really appreciate that update. kelly mentioned yemen. let's move overseas to look at the dramatic political coup unfolding there right now as we speak. sources are telling nbc news that the presidential palace you can see some footage of it there, is surrounded. shiite rebel forces going inside at this point, and aides to the president tell the associated press he is being held captive at that home. now there are questions swirling
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over who is in control of this the arab world's most impoverished nation. nbc's foreign correspondent katy tur is covering this from london. what's the latest out of yemen? in particular can you tell us about what's happening at the u.s. embassy? >> so far the u.s. embassy is not going to be evacuated. they said they don't feel a direct threat to that. but there's certainly a big question right now as to who exactly is in control. it doesn't seem like president hadi is, in fact in control. the rebels have taken over guarding his home. they've surrounded the presidential palace and are basically in control of yemen's capital. so what do they want and who exactly are they? well, they're from the north. they're shiite. about a third of mostly sunni country. they're demanding more of their own people be put into positions of power, arguing president hadi had not kept up his promise of shared control. so far, they've not overthrown him or demanded that he step down. analysts believe this is because
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the rebels don't think they can maintain control if they take over the government outright drawing the ire of not just the yemeni people but places like saudi arabia and the united states. president hadi has been a big ally for the united states in the fight against terror cooperating with torgted drone attacks in yemen. it was the al qaeda branch in yemen that took responsibility for the "charlie hebdo" attacks. not much mention of yem bin u.s. officials. they're not going to evacuate the embassy. they say hadi remains the legitimate president of yemen and that the u.s. does remain in contact with him. >> katy i want to take a look at the latest isis hostage crisis. really a heartbreaking story a lot of us are following. japanese hostages two of them about 48 hours left until isis says it's going to execute them. they're asking for $200 million in ransom. what are you hearing about that? >> so far japan has not said it will pay the ransom. then again, it hasn't said it
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won't pay them either. the japanese prime minister shinzo abel said this is a very difficult battle against time and they're pursuing all channels to release the men but also that they won't bow to terrorism. we can now name the hostages. one a troubled man that seemed to be obsessed with guns. also a journalist who had been in and out of the region returning most recently to syria last october. but again, a race against time. the deadline is friday. and unclear exactly what's going to happen here. ronan? >> a story that's taken so many tolls. thanks for that update. up next take a look at one of the big fights coming out of the state of the union. last night president obama said america's military power is succeeding, stopping isis in its tracks. is that really the case? we're going to talk to someone who knows in detail the ranking member of the house intelligence committee.
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i have no more campaigns to run. my only agenda -- [ laughter ] i know because i won both of them. >> oh mr. president. you slay me. president obama tweaking republicans in a moment that had everybody talking, got a big cheer. it was ad libbed actually. although he has no more political campaigns to run, there is a military campaign he's running. that's a big source of contention coming out of this state of the union. the president said he'd continue to hunt down terrorists and dismantle their networks. then he said this about isis.
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>> in iraq and syria, american leadership including our military power, is stopping isil's advance. instead of getting dragged into another ground war in the middle east, we are leading a broad coalition, including arab nations, to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group. >> the president claiming the united states has stopped the advance of isil. is that the case or is there a disconnect as some are claiming between what president obama said and what's happening on the ground? someone who knows, california democratic congressman adam shiff, the newly named ranking member of the intelligence committee. thank you for being here. always a pleasure. first up what's your take on the accuracy of the president's rendering of progress on the ground last night? how can he say that we've stopped the advance of isis when they've appeared to have have doubled the amount of territory they control in syria right now? >> i think it's fair to say? iraq we've stopped the advance of isis. we have, in fact worked with the kurds to roll back some of
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isis' earlier gains. we have a much more favorable government inback dad that can work to amend some of the sectarian divides. so we have a partner in iraq. we have made progress in halting momentum of isis in iraq. but you're right. the same cannot be said of syria. isis, i think, has gained ground in parts of syria. yes, they've been held off in koh baany. that's a battle of largely symbolic importance. but it's certainly true that that was on the precipice of falling. that has been arrested. in other parts of syria, isis has expanded its territory. perhaps equally disturbing al qaeda's franchise al nusra has expanded its holdings in syria. it's true we've put together a broad coalition, and that wasn't easy and that's positive but i don't think we can say we've halted the growth of the extremists' territory in syria. >> i want to get your legal take
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on this one. the president seemed to reverse course calling for actual congressional authorization for the current military activities against isis. what does that reveal about the legality of what's happening now? >> i think it reveals that the president has been very uncomfortable with the legal argument that the two existing authorizations to use force that pass right after 9/11 and allowed us to use force against iraq when saddam hussein was there, i think he recognizes that's a very weak legal and constitutional footing to base this new military campaign on. so i think in terms of his legacy and in terms of today, he would like a new authorization. he hasn't been prepared yet to actually submit one to congress because he knows basically anything he submits gets shot down. i think he'd rather work with congress to try to agree upon mutually acceptable language. i think that can be done but there are three issues we're going to have to get over and it's going to be tough. that is what language will there
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be prohibiting the use of ground forces what language will there be sunsetting this authorization and the prior authorizations, and will there be a geographic call limitation to syria in iraq or as secretary kerry testified in the foreign affairs committee, will they seek something broader to give them authority to go into nigeria, libya, or elsewhere. >> one area we're looking at now deteriorateing very rapidly is yemen. how concerned are you looking at the intelligence that this will spill over beyond yemen, that this will adversely affect our counterterrorism operations around the region since yemen is such a critical launch pad for a lot of those operations? >> i'm very concerned about it. and yemen for a while had been on a positive trajectory. we had a new and better president. it looked like we were making progress against aqap. we'd taken out a lot of their leadership. unfortunately, that's really unraveled as the rebels have
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taken over large parts of yemen. this has the potential of igniting a real fight between the sunni tribes and the huthis which are shia. that will only give a lot of comfort and free reign for al qaeda to have a resurgence in yemen potentially. so it has really thrown i think, into some disarray our counterterrorism efforts there and put at risk the partnership that we have with the yemen government. >> troubling assessment all around. congressman, thank you so much for your time. >> thanks ronan. up next details on obama's new besties. the minnesota couple plunged into the spotlight after last night's speech. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. great taste. [ m'm... ] [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell's healthy
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♪ stouffer's mac and cheese with real aged cheddar now in a convenient cup. new stouffer's mac cups. made for you to love. so,as my personal financial psychic, i'm sure you know what this meeting is about. yes, a raise. i'm letting you go. i knew that. you see, this is my amerivest managed... balances. no. portfolio. and if doesn't perform well for two consecutive gold. quarters. quarters...yup. then amerivest gives me back their advisory... stocks. fees. fees. fees for those quarters. yeah. so, i'm confident i'm in good hands. for all the confidence you need. td ameritrade. you got this. welcome back everybody. so about last night. whoever said the state of the union was irrelevant, well being proved wrong by the
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twitter verse. look at this. as it's known online sotu generated a staggering 2.6 million tweets. seems relevant to somebody. also got a heat map. take a look at this. this shows the major places around the country where people had their noses buried in their smartphones. new york l.a. dallas san francisco. we also wanted to bring you this very cool 3d map, for fun. for today's daily, let's look at the viral hits. this one is actually the top searched term of the night. community college topping searches across google bing and yahoo!. the number one policy area searched for. see, sometimes we are serious. that's because the president, of course announced he would seek to make all community college tuition free. we'll see how that one makes it through congress or, you know fails to. and if anyone had any doubts about speaker john boehner's feelings towards same-sex marriage, he cleared up some of that confusion last night. while the good speaker appeared to show a distinct lack of
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enthusiasm during much of the speech, he looked particularly, shall we say, unenthused when president obama lauded the supreme court for taking up that issue of gay marriage nationally this year. it's been made into a snazzy gif that is trending trending trending. look at that face there. last but not least, who could forget our good friends ben and rebecca? especially after the countless almost intrusive number of times the president referred to them in last night's speech. in case you don't know ben and rebecca as well as we all do now, this should help. >> seven years ago rebecca and ben were newlyweds. america, rebecca and ben's story is our story. because families like rebecca's still need our help. i want them to grow up in a country where a young mom can
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sit down and write a letter to her president with a story that sums up these past six years. >> ben and rebecca mentioned nine, count them nine times in the prepared remarks. fun fact the president may have felt the excess since he ad libbed out the last explicit reference to rebecca's name. we learned a lot about ben and rebecca. their eating habits their family life and here they just thought that nice man was asking them personal questions for marriage counsel manager just ahead, president obama invited republicans last night to work with him to get things done. is this a sign of bipartisanship on the horizon? is there any hope for a lot of the proposals on the table? former governor of minnesota is with me next to weigh in. don't misit. we'll be back in a few.
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good evening. i'm joni ernst. as a mother a soldier, and a
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newly elected eded senator from the great state of iowa americans have been hurting, but when we demanded solutions, too often washington responded with the same stale mind set that led to failed policies like obamacare. >> pretty much the same rhetoric we've heard for the past six years. i'm not here to pick apart his ideas one by one, but rather to offer a very different vision for our nation. further burdening the american economy with even higher taxes is wrong. just as more debt and more unfunded programs are wrong. >> i wish i had better news for you, but all is not well in america. america is adrift. something is clearly wrong. >> tonight not a word was said about radical islamic terrorism. those words did not come out of the president's mouth. we cannot win a war on radical
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islamic terrorism with a president unwilling even to say the words, radical islamic terrorism. >> just a sampling of the five count them five we showed you four because the fifth was in spanish. they struck a more pessimistic tone than what we saw from president obama. congressman paul ryan had a more hopeful take. >> i agree with every word he said in the speech with respect to trade. we'll see if we can get a tax reform package done. i'm glad that he sort of held back on the partisanship and the demagoguery. >> bipartisan, it lives. maybe. i'm here with tim pawlenty former governor of minnesota. thank you so much for being here, sir. so first of all, let's talk about those reactions. we were just saying before we went live it's always a thankless task for anyone in any party to compete with the pomp and circumstance of the main state of the union. how did they fare last night? >> i think in terms of the responses, it's always impossible. you put people in these very dry
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backgrounds trying to compete with the president. i have an idea for the republicans. put the next response in a sports bar. have the person sitting on a stool with a mug of beer -- >> but senator cruz's iphone approach didn't work so well either. >> that looked like a selfie. go to the sports bar. say, you want to talk about middle america? right here. a little more noise in the background, a little more life that would be better. >> i think that's a terrific answer. joni ernst got some positive some negative reaction. there was a trending search of who is joni ernst. did she succeed? >> i think so. the genre of these responses is dry and underwhelming. she was not dry. she did a good job given the limits of the format. >> one thing i liked is she led with an explicit address to the new republican leadership on the hill, which was very conspicuous conspicuously absent from president's remarks. he didn't mention the change in leadership at all. was that a mistake on his part? >> i don't think so. these things are going to come and go. congress is going to move on to its agenda in the coming weeks.
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the president last night was relaxed, confident. probably had a lot to do with his rising poll numbers and an improving economy. here's my ideas, take them or leave them. i don't think he was overly confrontational, but he wasn't overly reaching across the aisle. i think he put down what he stood for. obviously a lot of the proposals are in the going to go well with the republican congress. >> let's talk about that. is there anything in the bundle of particularly economic proposals the president brought to the table that could get through this congress? we've heard paul ryan expressing some hope for bipartisanship. >> sure i think within the strike zone you could have some reform around corporate tax reform, business tax reform. i think they could work together on, you know, the resolution dealing with isis and some of the anti-terrorism initiatives. certainly could work on cybersecurity initiatives and a few more. when you talk just net-net s the republican congress going to swallow a bunch of tax increases? no. >> what about the national security front? he talked about isis, struck a positive stance on that. that's getting blowback.
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>> i think in my view the president could have been a lot more aggressive both last night and previously and a whole slew of anti-terror issues, starting with his rhetoric but also his actions. i think the republicans are saying, look, we're with you, we'll support you, but we want you to be more forward leaning, more aggressive with respect to anti-terror, anti-insurgent activities. >> i want to look at some of the content of this speech that's less sexy but very important to america. the president said 21st century businesses need 21st century infrastructure. you were governor when the i-35 west bridge collapsed. it was rated structurally deficient. you've seen first hand the perils of poor infrastructure. how does this congress work together to get infrastructure in place that's not called keystone? >> sure the i-35w bridge collapse, the reason was an original design flaw dating back to the early 1960s. it becomes an icon for this debate. i want to make sure the facts are clear on that point. it was a terrible tragedy and people lost their lives and were
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injured. we need better infrastructure in the country. so i think there's room for compromise in that space. i think the republicans would like to see more public/private partnerships, would like to see some use of other funds, use of bonding. the president wants a tax increase. there's some precedent for that. even ronald reagan at one point said he would never raise the gas tax. eventually he did. i think over time if the president's willing to try some other things on infrastructure, there could be room for compromise in the infrastructure area. >> immigration was also talked about last night around the halls of power. in the crowd, in fact because of some of the guests in attendance last night. the first lady had a 20-year-old student from dallas as one of her guests, a so-called dreamer. congressman steve king from iowa tweeted this. he said obama perverts prosecutorial discretion by inviting a deportable to sit in the place of honor at the state of the union with the first lady. how does that sentiment bode for republican prospects going into the next general election particularly as they try to woo
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a latino vote? >> the republicans need to wake up on this issue because, look you can't be a national governing majority party if you don't win with young people, don't win with women, don't win with latinos and his tannic voters, don't win with modest income and lower income voters. so we have work to do as a party and a big part of that is finding a real solution on immigration. but also, ronan, it's important to not just lump together the latino vote as being a monolith around the immigration issues. they care also a lot about the economy and jobs and health care and security and schools. so having immigration be the only proxy is not a fair summary. but we do need -- i think the republican party needs to make progress on immigrant issues, starting with border security, but also addressing these other issues that the president wants to address. >> absolutely an important reminder about the diversity of issues, all of these voting blocks care about. tim pawlenty, always a pleasure to have you on. >> thank you. stay here, everybody. up next we have a sneak peek at a powerful new documentary. it's about making a difference
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in the world, and it's got an on the ground look at how needed that difference is. author nick christoph and i are on the ground in one of the world's largest slums. stay with us. >> bingo! >> darn it! i was one square away from winning that game. >> it's a shame sadie isn't here today she always wins. coulda won the big prize. >> you know, that could have helped her with some of jim's funeral expenses. >> there wasn't any life insurance? >> no, there wasn't. i'd been trying to convince her to call
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as president obama sounded warnings about economic inequality right here in the united states last night, a new study is revealing just how deep that problem runs globally. numbers out this week projecting that by next year get this 1% of the world's population is going to own more wealth than the other 99%. that vast gulf leaving the world's worst off cut out of global prosperity. the worst off in places like nairobi's slums. it's one of the largest urban slums in the world where more than a million people live in extreme poverty. maybe this fact will give a sense of what that's like in
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practice. the law center estimates that there are 600 toilets across the area. that adds up to 1300 people per toilet. that kind of poverty can create a void of justice as well. i got a first-land look when i went there on a reporting trip with "the new york times" nick christoph for his documentary "a path appears." we joined police on a hunt for an accused rapist of a 4-year-old girl. the identity of that rapist took us all aback. take a look at this. >> the administrator of shining hope has heard that the alleged attacker has been spotted. >> okay. let's go. >> the police were going to move in, but there are guns and gangs everywhere. so they take armed escorts.
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>> here inside here. here. [ speaking foreign language ] >> he's just a kid. >> okay. let's go. okay. ♪ ♪
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♪ >> when we got the tip-off, we rushed to the police station. it was chaotic.
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the alleged perpetrator's father was there. he was very withdrawn. he actually said i'm in a state of shock. >> he feels very bad about it. >> do you believe that the charges are accurate? >> [ speaking is foreign language ]. >> it is told he must have done it because he was found in the house, and he was in there. >> joining me now is "the new york times" nick christoph. nick victims on all sides of that story. >> absolutely. we felt, you know it was heartbreaking to see a 4-year-old girl suffer that kind of abuse. then it was heartbreaking to see that the perpetrator was another kid. it's kids abusing kids. >> and no answers in a community like that. so often a blind eye turned to any kind of sexual violence, a blind eye turned particularly to the claims of women, and a corrupt legal system when they try to call attention to it.
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>> one of the things we found most incredibly frustrating was the police had no interest in enforcing rape charge there is. we tend to measure inequality in terms of metrics of income or wealth. the most brutal inequality is when a majority of people there, their first sexual experience is by rape. it's the indignity. it's the hopelessness. it just pervades every day. and the police, you know, the way to end that is to end the impunity. the police have no interest in doing that. >> we were following families who were bringing cases of rape to the police and getting bribed to take their stories away. they were being asked to pay off the police. all sorts of brokenness in the legal system. >> and that was happening with our cameras there. i mean f the police are asking for bribes on camera and demanding money for our pencil to fill out a form then imagine what happens when there are no cameras around. >> and nick you went around the world and you documented this both in developing and developed countries. what's the most striking thing you learned producing this documentary? >> you know i guess one thing that i caution people is i think
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it's very easy for americans to say, boy it's awful over there in kenya. we also have real problems with sexual violence here at home. we can simultaneously tend to address these issues abroad by reducing impunity there. we have to do the same thing in new york city and boston and chicago. and again, the burden the obstacle is that these are hard ugly issues that we tend to avert our eyes from. >> so issues that need real policy change, both abroad and right here at home. and you really do an incredible powerful job calling attention to them. your work in general but in particular in this documentary. >> we're really proud of the documentary. >> you should be. i was proud to be a small part of it. i want to commend everyone to watch that documentary. it's on pbs on january 26th. one episode on february 2nd and another on february 9th. again, on pbs. everybody should watch it. thank you so much, nick. >> thank you. everybody at home stay with us. we look at a new study that finds a disturbing rise in
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anti-muslim sentiments. france and around the world, following those paris terror attacks. what does it mean for america's muslims? we're going to ask one of the country's top voices on this issue. hey! guess what day it is?? >>hump day! hummmp daaay! it's hump day! >>yeah!
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new numbers out of france today reveal one alarming trend. rising hostilities towards muslims. 116, count them anti-muslim attacks of various types have been reported to authorities in just the two weeks since the paris terror attacks in that country. that's double the number at the same time last year. this isn't just the trend overseas. right here in the u.s. just 27% of americans have a favorable view of muslim-americans. 42% support the use of profiling against arab and muslim-americans. sentiments president obama lightly touched on in last night's state of the union. >> as americans, we respect
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human dignity even when we're threatened. it's why we continue to reject offensive stereotypes of muslims, a vast majority of whom share our commitment commitment to peace. >> ebu battel is part of the obama faith program and one of the major groups of inter-faith. it is good to have you on. how do you push back against islam-aphobia, when you see threats that stem from fundamentalism. >> i think muslims have to do a better job of lifting up the core values of our tradition, those values being peace and reflect for purity and people that aren't muslim ought to learn something about islam other than what they see on the evening news. the evening news by definition reports the bad things in the
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world. and islam is a religion of a billion and a half people around for 1400 years that has made major contributions to human civilization and including american civilization and learning about a large community of people or a tradition is incumbent upon every american and citizen of the world. >> last night president obama praised islam integration. >> our biggest advantage is that our muslim populations, they -- they feel themselves to be americans. and there is this incredible process of immigration and assimilation that is part of our tradition that -- that is probably our greatest strength. >> ebu, do you agree with that sentiment. is america a success story in terms of religious integration?
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>> i think broadly speaking the answer is yes. but for muslims, i'll tell you two reasons that i think the muslim population is more integrated and much more of a contributing factor in the american fabric than say, in europe. number one, it is the significant presence of an indigenous muslim population. naming african-american. 4 piv 6 million muslims are african-american and including our most high-profile home runeroes, like representative keith ellison, and others if you are paying attention to those who are muslim are largely african-american and that is a major strength of the muslim community in the united states. i think the second reason is the other side of the coin so to speak which is the american story of being an immigrant nation. so when a fifth generation irish american looks at me or my kids
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they say i understand your story because my great, great grandfather came here in and we as irish catholics had to struggle to find our way in the american fabric and make our contributions and i see you in the next chapter of that. and europe doesn't have either of those things when it comes to the muslim population. i think both are major strengths of america in general and specifically when it comes to the muslim illustration. >> and one thing that europe and the united states do have in common is the problem of home-grown terrorisms. 11 americans have tried to fight iraq and syria and three have died fighting with isis. i reported on a somali-american community where young men were recruited all of the time. should the onus fall back on the muslims in america to fight that recruiting. >> where there is muslim
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communities or frankly in my community around the world, it ought to be owned up to and rooted out. it does nobody any favors to think that we should turn a blind eye to the extremism or violence in our own communities. but i think there ought to be some facts and proportionality around this. let me offer you an interesting data point. of the 152 terrorist attacks in europe in 2013 less than ten were committed by muslims. now if all you are doing is watching the evening news you think there are dozens and dozens or hundreds and hundreds of attacks in europe committed by muslims when the data doesn't bear that out. so the basic line is don't ask your muslim doctor abdul what is wrong with isis. >> incredibly important. important voice in this country on muslim. thank you, ebu. we want to give you an
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update on a important story unfolding today in israel. 11 people stabbed aboard a bus in what police are calling a terrorist attack. we have new video of the attack. the 23-year-old suspect was seen riding the bus and began stabbing passengers and the driver. in the video, you can see the attacker highlights here in that circle stabbing a woman in the back. you can see her fall down. the suspect is now in custody. noega attorneya pollski is a journalist there. she said hamas took responsibility for the attack. >> reporter: that is right. they didn't take responsibility but they did come out and praise it warmly. while the attacker was not known to have a criminal past his mother is very very active with the organization. this has been a really -- i would say a hot and heavy news day here in israel because the first half of the day was taken over basically by this reminder
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of the ongoing struggle against terror. and the second part of the afternoon has been taken over by a kind of odd story in which it turns out that speaker boehner and prime minister netanyahu of israel have gone aand had negotiations behind president obama's back. and as a result boehner is issuing an invitation to netanyahu to speak to joint houses of congress on february 11th. this is about terror and the iranian situation. and this is only one month before the israeli elections. so the whole thing has come together to create quite a stir here. >> a real powder keg, a tragic story and still unanswered questions. noega turnapolsxi. thank you. we appreciate your time being here. that wraps up rn f daily sand
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hello, i'm joy reid and welcome to "the reid report." president obama is hitting the road to sell his plan to help the middle class to the american public. over the next two days the president will visit cities in two red states. boise, idaho today and lawrence kansas tomorrow. he'll continue to talk about how a stronger middle class will lead to a stronger country. >> helping hard-working families make ends meet. giving them the tools they need for good-paying jobs in this new economy. maintaining the conditions of growth and competitiveness. this is where america needs to go. i believe it is where the american people want to go. >> nbc's kristen welker joins me live