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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  February 11, 2015 9:00am-10:01am PST

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to make a shift, one that i welcome, which is to recognize that having hit a critical mass of states that have recognized same-sex marriage that it doesn't make sense for us to now have this patchwork system. >> more on the buzzfeed interview coming up. and also david axelrod, the president's closest adviser with his new book. and coming home "the american sniper" stripe gets under way as the family of another soldier is hoping new legislation in his name will heal other wounds. >> our government is taking a very important step in honoring its promise to our veterans. it is too late for clay but we can help. we can save the other vets who need care.
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good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the obama administration has been fighting against isis in iraq and syria for more than five months. today the president officially is asking congress for the authority to do just that to wage this battle. it is controversial. hawks are arguing that the military's hands should not be tied. doves want a tightly limited engagement. the white house has asked for a three-year time frame and, quote, no enduring offensive ground combat operations. what does that all mean? our guest, former secretary of state madeline albright joining me now exclusively. it's our pleasure. thank you very much. >> great to be with you. >> well where do we go with this authorization for the use of force? does the president need it an how important is it that he get it? >> well the president asked for it in the state of the union message, and i think that it's important that he asked. it'll be an interesting discussion and one i think that
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is very important to have because the public needs to understand the stakes and we know that there's going to be a very interesting an important talk about it. >> at the same time, we're hearing that the withdrawal from afghanistan that he had promised and repeatedly pledged is going to be slowed down. we're finding on almost every front military threats, counterterror threats, threats where we didn't even anticipate they would be. paris, elsewhere around the world, ukraine heating up. you've just come from munich and meeting with all the world leaders. how does he first of all handle this threat from isis? >> i think the president is very conscious of what our national interest is and the threats that come to our allies, to the region, and ultimately to us. i think what i can understand is that the president is taking a very careful view of everything reviewing things and then trying to figure out the longer term issues. i think we have a tendency to
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deal with the immediate issue without thinking about the unintended consequences, and the president is looking at all that. >> is it realistic to ask for a time frame of three years? >> i think one of the issues that you already pointed out is that there is a difference between those who want kind of unlimited, mainly i think because they see themselves as being the users of it at some point. and so i do think that the president's doing the right thing and asking for it in this particular way. you mentioned something, if i might, about afghanistan. one of the great things in munich was president ash raf gani who thanked the united states and was very clear about everything that the americans had done in afghanistan. very important and a contrast to president karzai. >> we've just seen the horrific loss. first the jordanian pilot burned alive by isis. then a lot closer to home prescott, arizona, in mourning for kayla mueller. the president was asked about the policy of not agreeing to
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any ransom and there was ransom requested for kayla mueller by isis. and he was asked about this by buzzfeed. i wanted to play part of his answer. >> it's as tough as anything that i do having a conversation with parents who understandably want by any means necessary for their children to be safe, and we will do everything we can short of providing an incentive for future americans to be -- >> he's reviewing the policy. is it time to revisit the no-ransom policy when we see italian and french and other european hostages being released to their families and loved ones and ours have all been killed now? >> well i think this is the way that isis makes its money and supports itself. i think it would be better if we could persuade the others not
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to. because i think there's no question that they are acquiring large sums of money. they are not a state. they don't collect taxes. what they do is collect people and kill them. >> you have come out in favor of arming ukraine. that's one of the issues the president addressed with angela merkel. today merkel is meeting with putin. if putin does not give in and demands more territorial concessions from ukraine, should the president agree to arm ukraine despite the problems that we have with this government and with their military? >> i have believed that when you do diplomacy, you have to use every tool in the tool box. and there are not a lot of them. there is diplomacy, both bilateral and multilateral, and economic tools, the sanctions, both bilateral and multilateral and the potential way of using force, either by helping those who want to defend themselves. and what we're seeing is kind of
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a sink a sin copated use of all the tools. i hope the president does see the value of letting the ukrainians defend themselves but i also understand the difficulty of making the decision. the russians are clearly arming the separatists in a way. i think we need to show more pictures of that to make that very clear. and we also want to act with our allies. so we are in the middle of a process, and there are people meeting in minsk today. i think it's very important as chancellor merkel and the president spoke together about our unity on this. that's what we have to be careful not to let putin split the alliance. >> bibi netanyahu insists that it is his duty to come and speak to a joint meeting of congress to voice his opposition to any iran deal. what's your take on that? >> well he is interfering in our internal affairs, and i don't want to interfere in
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israeli internal affairs. but it strikes me there's an awful lot going on in his neighborhood in the middle east and that's where he should be. >> and you've played a lot of roles in your life. your most recent was last night on "parks and recreation." let's look. >> sometimes you're so focused and driven that you forget about people's feelings. >> name one time i've done that. >> well you were so wrapped up in your story you actually ate my waffle. sometimes all you can do is give people a little bit of advice and a push but you have to realize april has to be able to make up her own mind. >> you're right, once again, madeline albright. >> can i have my pin back now? >> oh yeah sorry. thank you for letting me wear it. just makes me feel very powerful. >> me too. >> was it fun? >> it was a lot of fun. it really was. she's terrific. and it's a cute show. i'm going to go back to my
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office now and have a waffle party. >> what fun indeed. thank you so much madeline albright. >> thank you. >> great to have you here today. and it's never easy when we become part of the news. the widely reported suspension of brian williams our friend and colleague, is obviously a very difficult story for me to cover. brian has been the anchor and managing editor of "nbc nightly news" for ten years and has now been suspended for six months without pay. the suspension follows ten days of scrutiny about brian's description of an incident during the iraq invasion in a follow-up report that aired on "nightly news" a week ago friday. he later apologized for misstating his role. lester holt will continue to anchor "nightly news" during brian's absence. here's nbc news national correspondent peter alexander. >> reporter: brian williams has been suspended without pay for six months as both anchor and managing editor of nbc's "nightly news," a role he's held since 2004. nbc news president announced the
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suspension late tuesday, saying williams misrepresented events regarding an incident that occurred during his coverage of the iraq war in 2003. she called that wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in brian's position. in this report in 2003 williams did not say the helicopter he was in took fire. >> on the ground we learned the chinook ahead of us was almost blown out of the sky. >> reporter: but in 2013 williams told david letterman he was on a chopper that was hit. >> two of our four helicopters were hit by ground fire including the one i was in. >> no kidding. >> rpg and ak-47. >> reporter: a week and a half ago on "nightly news," williams paid tribute to a retired veteran who helped him. >> the helicopter we were traveling in was forced down by an rpg. >> reporter: soldiers who were on the helicopter back in 2003 questioned that account, leading to this apology. >> i want to apologize. i said i was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by rpg
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fire. i was instead in a following aircraft. >> reporter: in addition to the suspension nbc news says its internal review is ongoing. the president stating, in addition, we have concerns about comments that occurred outside nbc news while brian was talking about his experiences in the field. it's been widely reported that questions have been raised about comments williams has made describing his coverage of hurricane katrina, including claims he saw a body floating outside his hotel in new orleans' french quarter >> he's an outstanding journalist. he's been a great anchorman. and all those things, i have great respect for him, but i think this was an instance where you can't really find an excuse for it. and i think that's why nbc had to act. >> reporter: steve berg, ceo of nbc universal, the parent company of nbc news said by his actions, brian has jeopardized the trust millions of americans put in nbc news. the suspension is severe and appropriate. brian's life's work is delivering the news.
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i know brian loves his country nbc news and his colleagues. he deserves a second chance and we are rooting for him. brian has shared his deep remorse with me and he is committed to winning back everyone's trust. superpower. surprised? in fact, america is now the world's number one natural gas producer... and we could soon become number one in oil. because hydraulic fracturing technology is safely recovering lots more oil and natural gas. supporting millions of new jobs. billions in tax revenue... and a new century of american energy security. the new energy superpower? it's red, white and blue. log on to learn more. what makes it an suv is what you can get into it. what makes it an nx is what you can get out of it. introducing the first-ever lexus nx turbo and hybrid. once you go beyond utility there's no going back. americans drink 48 billion bottles of water every year. that's enough plastic bottles to stretch around the earth 230 times.
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when we talked back in november of '04 after your election, i said there's been enormous speculation about your political future. will you serve your full sex six-year term as united states senator of illinois? obama, absolutely. >> i will serve out my full six-year term. if you get asked enough sooner or later you get weary and start looking for new ways of saying things. but my thinking has not changed. >> so you will not run for president or vice president in 2008? >> i will not. >> well that was then this is
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now. back in 2006 freshman senator barack obama told tim russert he would not be running for president. almost ten years later, a new book by one of obama's closest advisers reveals that barack obama actually had a detailed memo in hand during that interview outlining a possible presidential campaign. how does he know? well msnbc's senior political analyst david axelrod, a former senior adviser to both candidate and president obama was author of that memo. there was a game plan. you're also the author now of "believer: my 40 years in politics." congratulations on your new book. >> thank you so much. i should say about that memo what the memo at the beginning of 2006 said was, if you have any thought that you might do this we need to do some things to expand your schedule have you meet people, and so on. so he signed off on that. he was a long way from making the decision but it may be that that's why his exchange with tim was a little more equivocal than
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some of his earlier sherman-like statements. >> and then he's going back on "meet the press" years later, a couple years later, and you and robert gibbs, our other colleague and friend former adviser, former press secretary say, hey, he's going to come back at you at this. do you have an answer? so as you write in "believer," you know the senator says -- >> yeah he said, i think i'm going to have to just tell him the truth. tell him i changed my mind. >> gibbs writes -- >> yeah have you spoken to mrs. obama about this? he goes oh yeah i better do that. but this was actually only ten months after the interview you just saw. we were coming down from philadelphia where he was doing a book signing of his own, and there was -- there had been tremendous interest build over that ten months. so the question was pregnant.
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he had to answer it. he did, and tim called me the next day and said, no one's ever done that before. he says, you know, i just said i changed my mind. it was kind of disarming. but it was also honest because at that point, he clearly was thinking about it. >> what did michelle obama say? >> that i don't know. you know this was a process to get her to be comfortable with a candidacy. she wanted to know what his chances were but more importantly what impact it would have on their family. so, you know, we had long discussions about what it would demand of both of them and their children if he decided to run. >> now, life takes interesting turns. one of the memos that you had written on how to campaign against hillary clinton said for advantages she's not a healing figure. the more she tries to moderate her image, the more she
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jeopardizes herself and compounds her exposure as an opportunist. as two decades of the bush-clinton saga, making herself a candidate of the future will be a challenge. what's changed? >> first of all, we're in a different period of time. 2008, the iraq war was really defining a lot of what the democratic race was about. obama had opposed it. then-senator clinton had supported it. that was a tremendous dividing line between them and she was also seen as very much the fabric of politics in washington. i think her image has changed in part because she did four years as secretary of state. she's not been in the mix. but i also think people are looking for something different now. in 2008, they were looking for someone who would really challenge the system. i think in 2016 they're going to look for someone who may be better at managing the system than they think that obama has. that's the way presidential politics are. people never look for the replica of what they have. they always look for the remedy. i think she's better positioned
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in 2016 than she was in 2008. one thing is true though andrea. just as in 2008 if she doesn't come out with a very forward-looking message about where she wants to take the country, that would be a potentially fatal mistake. i don't think she's going to make it. >> i want to ask you about gay marriage because you write a very interesting behind-the-scenes on the reaction to joe biden, when joe biden went on "meet the press" and sort of blurted out his personal position on gay marriage. and the president's evolution. you had counseled him, you and other political advisers on not coming out in favor of gay marriage because you thought with all the religious objections and in the african-american community it was going to be politically difficult. so this was his original view this personal view perhaps, but you advised against it. so despite what happened --
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>> well there was a tug over a period of years. he said it in a recent interview with buzzfeed. his private position was he thought gays and lesbians should have all the rights that anyone else had, but he understood the resistance. so he charted a civil unions path, and he became more and more uncomfortable with it. in the fall of 2011 he told us look, if i get asked the question, i'm going to say if i were in the legislature, i would vote for gay marriage. nobody ever asked him the question in the intervening months. but he was prepared to proactively announce his position at the same time that biden went out. we were doing a trip to new york the next week in which he was going to do it. so there was a little consternation. >> you write, it was galling. >> yeah yeah. but what was interesting was the person who wasn't galled was the president. he said, i can't be mad at joe for his large heartedness. he wasn't speaking out of any malice.
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and that speaks to their relationship, which is quite close. >> well, the book is "believer." it really charts an extraordinary course, 40 years, and the years to come. and your real passion for politics and your passion and your beliefs. thank you so much. >> thanks andrea. great to be here. >> and you were of course in the studio with jon stewart last night talking about "believer." we want to note that last night "daily show" host jon stewart shocked his millions of fans by announcing he does plan to leave the show sometime this year after reshaping the world of comedy and fake news, if you will, for more than 16 years. it was clearly emotional as jon stewart talked about the future to his live studio audience. >> i don't have any specific plans. got a lot of ideas, got a lot of things in my head. i'm going to have dinner on a school night with my family who i have heard from multiple
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sources are lovely people. it's been an absolute privilege. it's been the honor of my professional life. and i thank you for watching for hate watching it. whatever reason you were tuning in for, it -- you get in this business with the idea that maybe you have a point of view and something to express and to receive feedback from that is the greatest feeling i can ask for. and i thank you. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ (dad) we lived... thanks to our subaru. ♪ (announcer) love.
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is being held without bond. nbc's mark potter joins me by phone. what do we know? >> what we know, anndreaandrea, is police are still working on the question everyone is asking, whether this triple murder was a hate crime. aware there's a lot of concern about that possibility. questions being raised not only in this country but internationally about whether this was sparked by feelings of racism or hatred because of the victims' islamic faith. what the police have said preliminarily in a release so far is that it appears this was the result of a long-standing parking dispute and that the shooter, who's now jailed on first-degree murder charges, is cooperating with the authorities. but again, in the release, the police said that the chief is very, very well aware of the concerns and the questions and that they are looking at that question of whether it was something more than just a parking dispute very carefully. they've said nothing beyond what
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came out in that release a while ago. as you said the accused identified as 46-year-old craig steven hicks. he's from chapel hill. on his facebook page he's described himself as an atheist. police say he shot and killed three university students who are members. of a muslim family. they are well regarded in the community. known not only for their academic work but their social work. this is something that has really shocked this community as people wait to see what police say next about the results of their investigation, andrea. >> thank you so much mark. and the chancellor at unc has issued a statement mourning the loss of this family a dental student, his wife and her sister. all students or applicants at unc or nc state. with the republican field widening hillary clinton's unannounced campaign is staffing up more and more recruits every
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day. during an interview with buzzfeed, ben smith asked president obama about 2016 and two likely candidates from previous generations. the president responded, quote, they're both obviously highly qualified candidates. hillary clinton i know much better than i know jeb bush and i think she'd be an outstanding president. joining me now for the daily fix, buzzfeed's editor in chief, ben smith, chris cillizza and susan page washington bureau chief of "usa today." ben, so the president, did he signal at all in his interview with you his thoughts going forward towards 2016? clearly he has some decisions to make but hillary clinton is pre-emptively dominating the field. >> i think there's been a lot of talk of, you know, where there will be distance between them. you almost inevitably see distance between the candidate and the incumbent. at the moment, they're kind of hugging each other and staying close. i think they see a mutual advantage in that.
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one thing i asked was whether she would inherit his coalition, this coalition of young people people of color. he pretty emphatically said no. that a democrat is going to have to work for their own coalition. >> what he is inheriting is the obama staff, susan page. we see the communications chief. john podesta is about to go over. more and more of the obama team is becoming the clinton team despite past rivalries. >> she has the obama team the clinton team the john edwards team. if you're the only team in town you're going to get everybody. that's the source of some conflict. you can see it now with the jockeying, both to be on her staff and also to be with the super pacs in support of her run. we see, i think, a little bit of tension there. and it's a little reminiscent of some of the problems she had in 2008 with having a kind of coherence. president obama in 2008 had a very disciplined organization. hillary clinton less so. i think this is going to be one of the challenges for her this
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time around. >> although chris, one of the issues there was his team too disciplined when it got to the white house, it made it more difficult for them to reach out and bring others in. that said we also have jeb bush as the other sort of generational leader not a leader in the polls so far, but leader. and interestingly, he is bringing on board a foreign policy adviser, according to "the wall street journal" today, from his brother's iraq policy team. megan o'sullivan. >> let me first say that i thought ben -- the generations question was the first question ben asked. ben is my friend but i would say this anyway. it was a really great question because elections do tend to be about the future. barack obama won on a generational change message. unfortunately, barack obama didn't answer the question right. he went on and said, well, they're both good people and campaigns. i thought that was an interesting question and will be
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critically important if hillary clinton is the democratic nominee. and anyone other than jeb bush is the republican nominee. because virtually, everyone other than jeb bush is either in their early 50s or 40s who's running for the republican nomination with a real chance of winning. that will be the argument they'll make. this is about a force of the past and hillary clinton versus the force of the future in marco rubio, chris christie virtually any of those other figures. i think it's an interesting line to watch as it plays out because almost always we see the new, the fresh faced, the future generation leader. bill clinton in 1992 is another example. when he picked al gore he doubles down on that generational message. it's an important question that barack obama probably has some interesting thoughts on that he didn't necessarily tell ben, unfortunately. >> he did also talk about the gay marriage issue, the evolution of his policy. i wanted to play a little of
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your interview. >> there's a core principle here that's at stake, which is e we have a supremacy clause in our constitution. when federal law is in conflict with state law, federal law wins out. >> this of course as alabama struggles with this. we'll hear from the supreme court soon. interesting to read david axelrod's insights as to what happened when vice president biden right in this building blurted out his own preferences and that forced the president's hand on gay marriage. >> yeah i think david's view was that obama was basically always there. obama, you know, said to me that what he had learned through this process was there are moment when is you can't split the difference, that he'd been trying to split the difference and it didn't work. the thing that i thought was most interesting in the interview was he said -- i asked him why he thought there had been these lgbt rights victories where in other areas progress has been harder. he basically said because it's easier. gay right was easier than inner
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city proveroverty, which is a provocative answer. lots of people have gay family members. that's a way cultural change has come fast. not everyone has a black family member. at least that was the implication. i don't know. it felt to me that's something i would have loved to hear him say a lot more about. >> great interview. thank you very much for sharing. susan page and chris cillizza. also at the white house, modern family. michelle obama has given jenna bush hager an inside look at newly renovated dining room. it's been reforms from when jenna's family lived there. it used to be yellow and rather antique laiden. now it's modern art, modern design including a painting from al ma thomas the first african-american woman to be included in the white house permanent collection. it's a modern updating of the classic room just off the state dining room and will now be
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tackle it! ask your doctor now if new jublia is right for you. the "american sniper" murder trial in stephensville, texas, is under way. the defendant, eddie ray routh, has already confessed to the killing of two navy s.e.a.l.s, including chris kyle the subject of "american sniper." but routh, a war veteran himself, pleaded not guilty to the murders this morning by reason of insanity allegedly due to post-traumatic stress disorder. what's the latest? we're expecting to hear from chris kyle's widow coming up today. >> yes taya is on the stand right now giving emotional testimony about her husband,
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what he was doing, and talking about the rough creek lodge and shooting range where they died. testimony began this morning after opening arguments. in the opening statements prosecutors say kyle and littlefield were killed by eddie ray routh at that shooting range. they were trying to help him through his emotional stress of being in the military. the range is about an hour and 45 miles southwest of dallas. no one knows what the three men talked about on that long drive out there, but it was revealed today that about an hour and 30 minutes into that drive, chris kyle who was driving his ford pickup truck to the range, texted his friends chad littlefield in the front seat and said quote, this dude is straight up nuts. littlefield replied, he's right behind you, watch your six. now, defense attorneys say that routh, a former marine is suffering from psychosis. he was under a psychosis at the time and did not know right from
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wrong. that's going to be a very key element in his defense to try to get an insanity plea across to this jury. andrea? >> thanks so much charles. and according to the veterans administration, 22 veterans die by suicide each day. to combat that tragedy, congress has finally passed the clay hunt suicide prevention act, which president obama is going to sign into law tomorrow. the bill's namesake, clay hunt was a marine. he served in both iraq and afghanistan. he killed himself in 2011 after treatment by the va for post-traumatic stress failed him. i'm joined now by susan and richard selky, mother and stepfather of clay hunt. thank you so much. you fought so hard for this legislation and finally it has passed. we really thank you for your activism. >> well you're welcome. thank you for having us and for reporting on it. >> what is the difference? what do you think this act can accomplish by increasing the resources available to families
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such as yours? >> one of the main components is to be able to attract more mental health care professionals to the va, more psychiatrists with student loan forgiveness assistance. >> that's a big piece. >> it's a big piece. i think for clay the waiting that he had to -- the time he had to wait before being seen by a psychiatrist at the end made a difference. >> how long did he have to wait? >> he actually -- he saw other health care professionals before the psychiatrist, but it was ten weeks. and when you're in -- >> that's an eternity when you're in crisis. >> when you're in crisis with mental health care or just needing to have your prescriptions refilled and that sort of thing. to have to start over as a new patient. >> what has it been like for you, for the two of you, seeing congress wrestle with this and then by one senator's
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opposition, who happened to be a medical doctor who's no longer in the senate it didn't pass? we talk about how it was brought up as one of the first bills and senator mansion has beeninterviewed him on this. but every day you wait could lead to 22 more veterans killing themselves. >> that's right. that's the number that we understand is a daily loss. it also impacts each one of those people who have loved ones. they have mothers, fathers, children. so there's a ripple effect through our society. we've been i guess, pleased is a word as far as the way congress has responded to this. i think it's a message. it's an awareness. anybody can accept that suicide is not a good thing for our society. and so we're pleased it's made it through congress and is now about to be signed by the president. >> and 24 hours from now, you'll be at the white house with the president. is there a message to him?
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as with all decision makers and he's the commander in chief, you can intellectually understand these numbers, but what do you as a mother tell the president? >> when these young men and women raise their hands and volunteer to go into the service and they're told and understand that whatever my medical needs are will be taken care of both in service and after. and then for them to get out and have to -- clay used the word grovel. he said there are times when i feel like i have to grovel for my benefits. >> grovel for your benefit when is you fought for the united states. >> and that was more with the benefit side of the veteran administration. at that time i remember saying we are a better people than this, as an american people. we are a better society than to
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have our military come back and not treat them with the utmost regard and just really -- just that disconnect has been such a hard thing to grasp. so i would ask him to do what he could to be sure that the american public and congress that veterans do not have to fight for their benefits and care when they come home. they have already fought for us overseas. and that should be enough. >> congress has spoken. it's done its part. now we ask and we expect that president obama through the executive branch will make sure that these -- that this law is implemented. and others like it. >> well and clay's memory is very, very real. he lives on through this work. >> and i just know that what he
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would be -- he would be so grateful that his fellow veterans are going to be assured better care, and that's our message. we just want any veterans that are watching or hearing the message and know that the bill is signed tomorrow that there is hope not to lose hope that the american people do care. >> and as he and his fellow marines would say, semper fi. thank you so much. >> thank you andrea. the u.s. military ebola team is coming home but are we ready for the next crisis? we'll talk about that. to the white house point man on ebola, ron clain coming up next. [coughing] dave, i'm sorry to interrupt... i gotta take a sick day tomorrow. dads don't take sick days, dads take nyquil. the nighttime, sniffling sneezing, coughing aching, fever, best sleep with a cold medicine. there's nothing more romantic than a spontaneous moment. so why pause to take a pill?
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but there's a better choice. drink more brita water. clean, refreshing, brita. and in the next hour president obama is expected to announce that almost all of the u.s. troops the military troops sent to africa to fight against ebola, to assist there, will soon be coming home.
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where do we really stand in the fight against ebola? ron clain is the man named by the president as the ebola response coordinator in october of last year. of course, at the time ron, the ebola fears were at fever pitch. now things have really calmed down. have we licked this crisis? >> well andrea we've made tremendous progress. that's what the president will talk about today. in october, we were seeing hundreds of new cases every week in liberia. last week we had three new cases. but the point the president's also going to make is we have not licked ebola yet. ebola is like a forest fire. if even one ember is burning, the whole thing can reignite again. so one point he's going to have today is that the mission of our troops is finished. they're going to come home. but we have 10,000 civilian responders on the ground in west africa. we have to fight this disease all the way to zero to where there's no ebola left in west africa. we won't have success until we get there, and we're not there yet. >> now, you're wrapping up your
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crisis coordination. what's next for you, ron? >> well i'll be going back to my private law practice after i finish this. but i'm going to, you know stay involved and active in this. we've had an amazing government response that president obama launched last fall. thousands of american civilians in addition to our military the private sector. the president right now is meeting with philanthropists who have donated more than $200 million of private funding to fight ebola in west africa. so this is not just a whole of government, it's a whole of society response and i'm going to continue to stay involved with that, even after i leave the white house. >> and what did the survivors who met with the president today tell him about what they've learned through their experience? they're mostly aid workers. >> they're a mix of domestic and international health care workers. they'll be meeting with the president in about a half hour or so. you know the stories they tell
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are stories of great american stories of americans who stepped up and did heroic things who in the face of danger ran to danger. one of the survivors was here today, just back from another tour of duty in africa. he got back yesterday. he went over there, treated people, he got ebola, he came home, got well. he went back to fight this disease again. and i think meeting people like that is just enormously inspiring and i think is a great testament of the american spirit that we've brought to bear. the one thing the president heard today also from some of our philanthropists was their talks with african leaders who are incredibly grateful to the american people for our jen generosity generosity, for our willingness to fight and step up. we have saved hundreds of thousands of lives in africa. we've also created tremendous credit for the american people our government, for turning this thing around over there. >> one of the things we learned from all this is how americans
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responded, the public response was so much fear and lack of knowledge initially about ebola. now we have this measles crisis where measles is much more infectious casually transmittable. yet, people are still confused about vaccinations. there's a lot of misinformation out there. is there something more that the white house can or should be doing to try to better inform the public or is that up to us and others in communication? >> well i think one thing we've learned in ebola is we need everyone working together. so, you know, it was important for us to communicate here at the white house about our ebola response. for our great public health leaders at the cdc to communicate about the best health and science information. we have some great medical experts. we need to get them out there communicating. we have a surgeon general. we didn't have one when the ebola outbreak first happened. so i think it's a combination, andrea of leadership at the
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top, great public health communications engaging doctors and other local leaders to get that message across. and of course, you know finally the american public tuning in, listening, absorbing the best information. one thing we learned on ebola was it wasn't wrong for people to be scared. this was a new thing. of course people were fearful. the president directed that our response be shaped by science, by medicine, by the best evidence. and when you follow that approach, using medicine using science, not fear you're going to get the best result. >> ron klain, thank you for your service. i don't know if we'll be seeing you back at the white house in another category. i guess that's to be determined. >> thank you, andrea. appreciate it. and more coming up here on ann droo ya mitchell reports. stay with us. we'll be right back.
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edition of "andrea mitchell reports." today. stay tuned for msnbc for more on the military authorization to fight isis with live coverage of
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president obama's statement today at 3:30 eastern. tomorrow on the show outgoing u.s. administration. remember, follow the show online on facebook and twitter. "ronan farrow daily" is up next. providing technology to get more detail... ♪ ♪ detect hidden threats... ♪ ♪ see the whole picture... ♪ ♪ process critical information and put it in the hands of our defenders. reaching constantly evolving threats before they reach us. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. when it comes to good nutrition...i'm no expert. that would be my daughter -- hi dad. she's a dietitian. and back when i wasn't eating right, she got me drinking boost. it's got a great taste and it helps give me the nutrition i was missing. helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins
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1:00 p.m. on the east coast, 10:00 a.m. on the west. all of america is reacting today to upsetting news. three members of one family murdered, found dead in their apartment in chapel hill north carolina. a man, his wife, and her sister all college students and all muslim. that's sending alarm spreading through america's muslim community. we've just now moments ago received the 911 calls. take a listen to this. >> forest apartment complex in chapel hill. i just heard gunshots. i don't know what building it came from but i heard kids screaming. >> okay. how long ago did you hear it? >> how long? >> uh-huh. >> probably 30 seconds ago.
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>> okay. how many shots did you hear? >> multiple. at least -- between five and ten, i would say. >> this shooting has ignited a fire storm on social media today. some of the biggest trends three muslim and muslim lives matter. this morning, the council on american islamic relations called for an investigation of a possible bias motive. those are their exact words. and a facebook page in suspect craig steven hicks' name appears to show anti-religious sentiment. chapel hill police offer another explanation saying, quote, our preliminary investigation indicates that the crime was motivated by an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking. hicks appeared in court briefly this morning. he spoke only to confirm he can't afford his own lawyer. following all of this in north carolina is nbc's mark potter. mark, there's so much hurt, so much anger about this case and so much suspicion about what's behind this and whether it could be a hate crime. are police ruling that out at