ben carson on the defensive today amid calls for him to drop out of the race for this comment about muslims sunday on "meet the press." >> do you believe that islam is consistent with the constitution? >> no i don't. i do not. i would not advocate that we put a muslim in charge of this nation. i absolutely would not agree with that. >> the issue coming front and center after donald trump's refusal to correct a new hampshire man's comments about muslims in america and about president obama last week at a campaign event. over the weekend trump said some muslims are, quote, a very severe problem. this morning hrks expanded saying ssay ing he didn't think he needed to defend president obama. >> i've never had a problem with muslims. you have an individual problem where you have some radical that is are causing problems and i can be politically correct. somebody said how can you say that? i said, give me a break.

it's all over the world. it's a very big problem. i understand that muslims are great people and i have many friends and i have -- and they're great friends and by the way, they're concerned with radical islam, too. i don't think it's my obligation to defend him. i have no obligation to defend him. i decided why should i come to the defense of the president? he's not going to come to my defense and most people agreed with what i did. >> donald trump speaking on the "today" show and republican candidates delivering a range of different answers on the democratic side, hillary clinton today sent out a tweet on the subject writing, quote, can a muslim be president of the united states of america? a word, yes. now let's move on. the debate comes as a new shows trump support dropping slightly and ben carson slipping to third place behind a surging carly fiorina. this poll taken before carson's comments on "meet the press." joins me now, andre congress, one of two muslim members currently serving in the u.s.

congress. congressman, thank you for being with us today. >> thank you for having us. what an honor. >> thank you. so the council on american islamic relations called on carson to drop out of the race. take a listen to what they had to say. >> we ask mr. ben carson to withdraw from the presidential race because he's unfit to lead. because his views are contradiction of the united states constitution. >> congressman, do you agree? should he drop of the race in. >> it's clear he's been and has been an accomplished neurosurgeon and the comments were greatly misguided and he should certainly recalibrate his efforts. you know, the founding fathers as imper foekt as they were and we all were visionary in establishing article vi of the constitution stating there shall not be a religious teft to hold public office. people should be elected not

based on skin coalready or religion. >> yet, ben carson is not backing down today. maybe the opposite. the campaign said there's a huge gulf quote/unquote of the muslim faith and american values and carson spoke to "the hill" on sunday after "meet the press" and says whoever takes the white house should be sworn in on a stack of bibles, not on a koran. what do you make of the fact he's not backing off? does he find this is helping him in his standing with his own conservatives? >> you know, islam is all about peace, all about fairness, all about justice, all about protecting the less fortunate and the poor, the least of these. and they're not incompatible. it's unfortunate we're living in a time where politicians are poll obsessed, focus group obsessed and so whatever they see a cross tab or a poll encouraging them to be more and more provocative that kind of

inclination is hardened an you don't get to see the real person. i don't think that any person seeking the presidency of the united states should think that they will only be ceo of one group of people. kudos to hillary clinton for her tweet because i know that she gets it and president obama gets it. and my hope is that the american people will really show next year that we need someone when's willing to represent all people. you know, last summer a gallup poll was taken and over 60 puerto ri% of those surveyed said they would pronote promote a well qualified person even if they were a muslim. >> and so i wonder if you think ben carson is playing to the base, saying some of the things knowing that that's the crowd he needs support from in the republican primary? >> i don't know what's in dr. carson's head and seems to be

the case. i think that right now as we've seen with a great example of president obama, the american people want the next president to be concerned about job creation. be concerned about fixing the broken immigration system. be concerned about the scores of americans who are coming out of our high schools who happen to be functionally illiterate. if a ceo, commander in chief cannot represent the people, they are not qualified to assume the president sigh. >> thank you your time. i'm joined by steve kornacki, ayman mohyeldin and robert costa. let's start, steve, with you. you've got some new information from the carson campaign. as i said they don't seem to be backing off of this. >> not at all. in the last hour, i talked to armstrong williams, one of the top promoters of the ben carson

campaign, he's his business manager. i asked him specifically about that question of making the argument here thereat constitution to preclude a muslim from being president? he said, no, he said that the position of ben carson is he will not today, tomorrow or any time in the foreseeable future vote for a muslim for president. if the country elected a muslim president, he believes that's acceptable and would accept that and also said that you would be surprised and you would be surprised the number of people out there who are afraid to say publicly what ben carson is saying publicly an see links between violence, anti-semitism and the muslim faith and the interesting thing is welcoming at the polling numbers here, just to go through this. pew asked the question, rate the religious groups on a scale of 1 to 100 an highest scores for judaism, catholicism,

christianity. you have to go down past atheist to muslim. 40%. conservatives, the heart of the republican party, down to 30%. >> robert, which raises the question, are the other campa n campaigns happy we are having this conversation or saying we don't know how to handle this one? i mean, this is tricky, tricky stuff for a campaign. >> we saw the republican party after the 2012 election, the republican national committee put out an autopsy report saying that the party needs to do more to reach out to those in center, different faiths, ethnic backgrounds. this is not conversation that the party officials wanted to be having in september of 2015 but there's a real deep divide in the apparatus of those who think they're politically incorrect and those correct coming to the issues. trump, carson, they see themselves as outsiders, this ire okay with having this talk about the ms. limb faith and the community. >> right. but eventually we have to have a

general election here, ayman. you have been out talking to voters, talking to real people, muslim americans. how's this all playing in. >> we went out to the streets of new york today for a cross-section of people and this is not a scientific poll and ask people what they thought in terms of the ben carson comments and you can sum it up into two categories. those that rejected the basis of what he was saying that religion is a criteria for being elected into this office, whether or not it constitutional one or not. but also whether or not a muslim at this stage somebody cowould be elected into the highest office. here's what they had to say. >> does somebody's faith matter in being the president of the united states? >> not at all. this is what america's about. >> you don't agree with ben carson's comments? >> not at all. completely racist. >> do you agree that a muslim should not be the president of the united states? >> well, to be honest with you, i'm not saying that it's -- that they shouldn't or don't have an opportunity or shouldn't have an

opportunity. i think more than anything, the way it is right now and the climate we are in, it's uncomfortable for the country to accept that type of scenario. >> based on the situation today, i feel that a muslim would not be a -- someone i would vote for to be in the white house. >> regardless of what their qualifications? r? >> regardless. >> yesterday one of the presidential candidates ben carson said he would not advocate for a muslim to be president of the united states an i'm curious for reactions. what do you feel an about this? >> i don't know how you lead a a country and expect it to be united if you're divisive about religions or races or sexualities. >> whole foundation of this country is separation of church and state. it shouldn't have anything to do with candidacy and also why not? like, there are good people and bad people in all religions. being a muslim should have

nothing to do with someone's capability to run a country. >> as a muslim, is your faith compatible with american values? >> muslim is peace and love and doesn't mean hate. >> the people are americans, they had the strong viewpoints and definitely division and the underlying principle and one that's upheld in the constitution is that religion should not be a criteria for whether or not you hold the highest country. >> that's new york city we should say. not a ran ddom sample. in the muslim american community, if you were to take that conversation out to detroit or somewhere where there's a largest population of folk that is are muslim american, are they angry this is an issue? >> they're disappointed. i'm speaking to people in the country and one of the points you hear over and this was a point touched upon by representative carson is you have muslim americans serving in the u.s. military, many who give their lives to defend the

constitution and the values. the part that stung the most for the lead earls i'm speaking to is belief that a presidential candidate will say that islam is not compatible with american values. these are people fighting for america's values every day and they feel offended by this. >> steve, you see the gop field kind of -- seems like struggling to figure out how to respond. bush, graham, they've all kind of had different responses. cruz krcriticizing the comments. the constitution specifies there shall be no religious test for public office an i'm a constitutionalist. again, where do they go from here? are they ready to -- are most of the other republicans wanting the move on now? >> sure. the problem is they really are being pulled in two different directions with the politics of this. look at the politics of a republican elected president in 2016, beating the democrats, this is not the kind of discussion they want to be having. however, how do you get to be the republican candidate in the

first place? what's the first state that comes up? iowa. a poll in iowa just a few months ago asked republican voters do you consider islam a peaceful or a violent religion? 39% of republican voters in iowa said they consider it violent. those are the people who ben carson is talking to here. he's surged more in the state of iowa the last three months than anywhere else. this is how the path to the republican nomination begins. >> it is interesting to see the polls now in light of this. steve, ayman, robert, thank you all for being with us. the anticipation growing for the pope's arrival in america tomorrow. how do police and the secret service plan to keep him safe and keep the crowds safe? philadelphia police commissioner charles ramsey is my guest live. carly fiorina surges in the polls after the second republican debate while on the democratic side new comments from vice president joe biden on a possible 2016 run. also, shutdown showdown.

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the world is watching as pope francis continues his trip in cuba today ahead of the historic visit in the u.s. tomorrow afternoon. in 30 minutes, the pontiff will bless the cuban city of holguin. earlier today the pope celebrated mass in the revolution square. moments ago, i talked to nbc's anne thompson in havana and now covered six trips with pope francis and i asked her what struck her the most so far about this one. >> reporter: kate, i think

when's really impacted me is that every cuban i have talked to has spoken about francis not just as a spiritual leader, but they see him as somebody who's really trying to make their lives better. and they all point to the pope's role in easing the tensions between the u.s. and cuba. for the cuban people here that's a sign of hope and francis as a result has become the living embodiment of that hope. >> we mentioned the plane, we saw you on the plane with the pope talking to the pontiff. there's video of it. you asked him his expectations for the trip here. tell us about that. >> reporter: well, i've been curious. you know, in the run-up to the trip i've asked everybody close to the pope what's he asked you about the united states? they all refuse to tell me. so when i got the chance to ask pran sis himself, he said, the people. he wants to meet the people. that is very much in keeping

with what we have seen in ecuador and philippines, the holy land, in south korea and in rio. and now here in cuba. he likes to get out among people and of course in the united states as you can imagine that's going to be a real security challenge. i spoke to the head of papal security on the plane and he said he has no concerns about francis getting out to meet the people in the united states. he said he is very confident in the plane that the secret service has come up with and he said if francis wants to get out of the hope mobile and meet the american people he will be able to do this. >> has he spent much time in the united states? you know? is he wanting to go get pizza in new york city? what do you expect? >> reporter: or a cheesesteak in philadelphia? i mean, who knows? but no. this is his first trip to the united states and to cuba. and so, he is -- lord only knows

what he really wants to do. i mean, he is going to do all the official things. he has to do. go to the white house for a reception on wednesday morning. on thursday, he gives a speech to a joint session of congress and first time a pope has done that. i think that what you will see the moments that we'll really remember about the u.s. trip are those moments where those unexpected moments, those comments where he interacts with somebody along the pope mobile route or he is moved at some occasion. when's interesting and if i were to pick one i would say it's ground zero because they when they plan the trip in new york city, they originally didn't put ground zero on the itinerary. benedict was there and francis said i want to go to grand zero. put it back on the schedule and it's there and i think that is going to be a very, very moving moment of this u.s. trip. >> anne thompson, safe travels

with the pope. we'll see you here in the u.s. tomorrow. the pope's visit to washington, new york and philadelphia creating extreme security challenges for security offic l officials. the pope drawing massive crowds in cuba already and known for wanting to mingle with people along the route. the three u.s. host cities taking unprecedented security measures. new york city's deputy police commissioner explaining the challenges this morning on "today." >> this is the single largest and most complicated security undertaking in the history of the nypd. not because the pope hasn't been here before. popes traveled to new york many times. it is because you have the u.n. general assembly with 170 world leaders. you have the president of the united states coming at some point in this. >> joining me now is stephanie gosk here in new york covering the security situation for the papal visit. for those of us that live in new

york, already this morning, took me much longer to get to work. i mean, there is -- it is going to be a traffic nightmare. right? >> absolutely. >> what about security for the pope himself and for the crowds? >> just back to the traffic, the police commissioner says don't get in your car on friday. just don't get in the car. this is an enormous challenge and on a couple of different levels. the first level is just this pope himself. as you mentioned, this is a pope who likes to get out in the public and he can be in a word a bit unpredictable. and for security an for the secret service, that poses an extra challenge. on top of that, you have the threats. he is the head of the catholic church. he is by nature going to be a target. in this country, the concern is these isis-inspired lone wolf attacks that you hear a lot about. they're very difficult for law enforcement to detect. although often small scale. a lot of time to react to it. what you will see in cities is streets locked down.

air space shut down. rivers shut down. this kind of thing. >> owe went up in an airplane and all over new york, philadelphia, the area for a peek, right? looking at security. what do they tell you is the biggest challenge? >> this is an ambitious trip. five days. something like 16 different events, and one day in new york, five different events, four different events and in between a procession in central park. and the police commissioner said that kind of open public venue -- >> anybody could be there, right? >> hardest one. not exactly anybody. this is where the crowd control really comes into play because everybody that gets anywhere near the pope on this trip is going to have to go through security. >> magnetometers? >> they're going to be checked. it's not this situation to kind of roll up and reach out and grab the pope. you may remember in 2013 he was in brazil in rio and there was a moment when his procession was surrounded by a crowd.

and the pope in that moment was with his protective services getting nervous still reads outside the car and grabbed a baby and gave ate kiss. >> right. >> that's the thing they went to try to avoid here. >> that's what the pope will probably want to do. >> yes. >> thank you for joining us here. >> you're welcome. >> let's bring in philadelphia police commissioner charles ramsey. commissioner, good to see you again. >> good to see you. >> we have just been talking about the challenges that you face and i want to ask you about something specific. nbc news obtained a document today, a memo distributed be i the pennsylvania state police's criminal intelligence center to law enforcement agencies around your state warning that terrorists might impersonate police officers. there was no direct mention of the papal visit. how worried are you about that as a possibility? >> there are no credible threats toward the pope, his visit here in philadelphia or new york or washington, d.c. for that

matter. since 9/11, that's been something that we pay attention to whenever we have a high-profile security event. that's not new at all. they decided to put that out i guess as a reminder. we have no credible threats at all that we are concerned about and we have taken as we would always do take steps to make sure that all personnel are properly credentialed. >> you are expecting something like 2 million people on sunday for mass. you have closed off a whole section, right of downtown philadelphia to traffic. explain how that's going to work. how do you control millions of people? >> well, first of all, we don't know how many people will come until after they're here but we have about a 3-mile area of the city that has been cordoned off to accommodate the pope, both for his speech at independence hall as well as the mass that will be held on ben franklin

parkw parkway. we have been working on this for months. we have been communicating with the public, the mayor's had no fewer than nine press conferences. talking about the visit. providing information to the public. so those that don't plan to participate will probably stay away from the area. those that do plan to participate we have talked to them about how they can access the site. >> secret service is lead agency s. that right? working with you, obviously. >> yeah. >> the vatican's involved, as well. how difficult has it been to coordinate all this? >> well, it really hasn't been that difficult because we have been working on it for a period of time but it is a national special service event which does put the secret service in charge of the overall planning but we have actually worked very well together and looking forward to the visit. we don't foresee any particular problems and we just want to, you know, just get past this. >> charles ramsey, commissioner of the philadelphia police,

thanks so much for joining us and best of luck. >> thank you. will joe one r none vice president's wife on board. is he ready? we have a new interview with the vice president on a possible run. secretary of state kerry increasing the number of refugees the u.s. will accept to 100,000 a year by the year 2017. but is the u.s. doing enough to deal with the migrant crisis? we are live in croatia just ahead. i am totally blind. and sometimes i struggle to sleep at night,

and stay awake during the day. this is called non-24. learn more by calling 844-824-2424. or visit your24info.com.

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nbc news's capitol hill correspondent luke russert. the clock is ticking. we have nine days to a possible government shutdown yet again. what are you hearing today? >> reporter: that's very true, kate. what you are seeing is legislators are running up against the calendar and why is that? well, this week the pope is going tampa bay here on capitol hill and they won't really have much time to figure out a way to avert a government shutdown an pushed to next week and they really only have until wednesday. they're far apart on one key issue is how to fund the government and what to do about the funds going to planned parenthood. democrats say they'll not support any bill that does not fund planned parenthood. there's a group of about 35 house conservatives that will not support a government funding bill that includes funds for planned parenthood so they're at a stand still. john boehner has to appease those conservatives and still fund the government. right now, the only way to do that is with democratic support and he is weary of doing that, kate. it is interesting to see how it

rolls today. the vote tomorrow on the ban after 20 weeks abortion, mitch mcconnell is doing that the democrats feel to show off to the pope and something we're about the pro-life cause and very much the catholic church's cause. however, it is also being said by republican aides the reason he's doing this is to show the conservatives in the house and also in the senate specifically ted cruz he's serious about the issue and wants it to be done far away from the government funding fight. so it's still very unclear how they're going to be able to fund the government, show they're strong and abortion and get it done by september 30th. not an easy task by any means. >> thank you for bringing us up to speed. ben carson doesn't think the u.s. should react a muslim president. with donald trump, carly fiorina and ben carson leading polls, could an outsider win the gop nomination?

we'll talk to former minnesota governor next. dramatic new details grip a massachusetts courthouse in the baby doe murder case. we'll have a live report coming up here. i am totally blind. and sometimes i struggle to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. this is called non-24. learn more by calling 844-824-2424. or visit your24info.com.

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♪ everyone can shop, but members get more with reviews, live customer support, and better pricing. come see what the new angie's list can do for you. religion is at the forefront on the president's campaign trail today with the candidates asked about who believes what and just who's qualified to be president of the united states. ben carson threw gasoline on the fire sparked initially by donald trump last week when someone at a town hall meeting made negative comments of muslims in america. yesterday, we heard chuck todd ask ben carson for his opinion on whether a muslim could hold the highest country in this country. carson said she would not advocate a muslim for the president and islam is not consistent with the u.s. constitution. with political outsiders taking the top three spots in the new polls, the question is, is all this talk about faith an

religion helping or hurting candidates? joining me is former governor tim pawlenty who ran for the nomination. governor, this kind of a race, you have been through it before. good the see you. >> good to see you. >> maybe not through this. i wonder what you make of all of this. we wouldn't probably be talking about the issues if it's not for the questioner at donald trump event last week. are you concerned at all that all the talk about the muslim faith and religion is going to damage the party in any way? >> well, i think within the republican party, particularly within the conservative wing of the republican party, they have a lot of concerns about isis and terrorism and different than trying to say it's all about the islam or muslims more broadly. the qualifications for who's president of the united states are in the constitution. they have to deal with age and citizenship or natural born citizen status. beyond that it's up to the judgment and values of the voters and there's a lot of

intangible calculations. as a technical matter, the niece litmus test or religion or nonreligion somebody can be running for president of the united states. look at mitt romney. he was a mormon. he got support of people of another other religions. >> is it a negative or positive to have the conversations do you think? >> well, depends on what angle you look at it for. within the republican party, i suppose there's some constituency for people concerned abt islamic extremism and perhaps not separating that properly from islam more broadly or the muslim faith more broadly. i think it's a discussion that's going to play out just because of the nature of the times we live in and debate as long as it's respectful and informed is healthy. >> let's go back to the new polls. cnn has dmp on top. carly fiorina, ben carson at top. jeb bush at 9% and then five candidates who are polling at less than 5%.

i believe. less than 1%, rather. we have still got 16 folks in the race here. at what point do you think that starts to change? >> kate, this's a really important question because as the field consolidates with donald trump or ben carson in a ten-person field or 15-person field, 30% is a winner but not a 2 or 3-person field. when that field contracts and the votes go becoming very important. unlike the old days when you ran out of money you had to drop out like i did. now with a superpac you can stay in as being a zombie candidate and given how fluid and volatile this is, there's no incentive to drop out until you have to. i don't think they do that very quickly tie rules were changed and so it sort of created a situation with debate stages filled with people. >> yeah. look, last time people's fortunes changed precipitously

and don't drop out until you absolutely, absolutely have. especially when the front-runners are in some people's minds questionable, a lot can happen. >> governor pawlenty, thank you for your time. appreciate it. >> you're welcome. for more on what's happening, i'm joined by ka tu tur, halle jackson and kristen welker in arkansas ahead of hillary clinton's events tonight. thank you all for being with us today. kristen, let's start with you. some new numbers out today for the democratic field and the chatter really building around joe biden. i know you have been reporting on this. what are you hearing? is he in, out, and when will we know? >> kate, thank you having me on. several democratic sources saying that vice president biden is increasingly eyeing a run and more and more he sees a path to victory. what is also significant is that his team is officially knocking down reports that his wife dr.

jill biden might not be on board and they say of course she is going to support him if he decides to run that's a big if. in an interview just out today, the vice president said he's undecided and sources saying he's very much grappling with the loss of his son beau and been vocal about n. terms of a time line, no word yet but certainly time is getting tight and that first big democratic debate slated for october 13th and by all indications we might know more by then and in terms of the poll, the clinton camp liking what they see today watching vice president biden and monitor the situation closely. take a look at the poll numbers showing secretary clinton increasing the lead among democrats nationally 42% of the vote compared to sand erps getting 24% of the vote. that's what vice president biden in the race is 22%. look at what happens if vice president biden isn't in the race, her lead jumps to 57% compared to sander who is gets

28%. she is going to be campaigning here in arkansas, of course, former home state later on today and a very warm welcome and the clinton campaign continuing to watch the developments with vice president biden very closely. kate? >> thank you. let's go to halle. they don't seem to be backing off of the statements yesterday about muslims in the white house. >> and that's how i think he'd characterize it, kate. i've been in touch with a top campaign aide to dr. carson who says that dr. carson would be happy to meet with any number of muslim american organizations for what they're calling a civil dialogue and reaching out in the next couple of days to try to schedule something to see who can be set up and when. the council on american islamic relations saying they'll ask him to have the dialogue and the campaign says it should not be characterized as a parkwn apolo

saying that he does not believe there's a separation of church and state in islam. muslim american leaders say that's just wrong. listen. >> katy tur, you've been moll following them. we wouldn't be having this conversation except for last week. >> that's what we're seeing. all of the candidates defining themselves off of what donald trump has or has not done and something he did not say and seeing first time trump is not the headline maker today. it is carson the headline maker and came out with the even more extreme comment and not necessarily a bad thing when you're talking to the trump campaign. they're seeing this as a bit of an easing off of what he said taking the heat off him an putting it on carson and then again, though, they're not backing off the comments on "meet the press" or his lack of defending the president the other day speaking to this.

>> are they concerned about carly fiorina in the latest polls? i mean -- >> they're not going to say they're concerned about carly fiorina. they're not going to admit that either publicly or privately but you can tell by the way that trump is reacting to her, hitting her harder, focusing on her much more and still jeb bush and still believes he is a threat despite the poll numbers and see him talk about carly's record more, address her more and not seeing him talk about carson and it's interesting because i think partially they don't think carson makes it down the line and hard to hit back on because he's so nice, polite. only one that hasn't really given the trump candidacy and easy line of attack. >> kristen, just lastly, you are in arkansas because hillary clinton is there for an event today. her hometown essentially. her adopted hometown of little rock. what do you expect this there? >> of course, she was the first lady of arkansas for a period of time. she is going to be talking about ae

health care and drawing sharp contrast of republicans and starting to lay out her plans to build upon it. this strategy of attacking republicans more aggressively has really helped her i think to move ahead in the polls, she is also might take a swipe at carson. this was the tweet earlier today and tweeted out, quoetd, can a muslim be president of the united states of america? in a word, yes. now let's move on. so expect to hear a lot more of this heated rhetoric throughout the day. >> okay. thank you all for being with us. little bit of breaking news now. you are looking at video of pope francis moments ago blessing the cuban city of holguin from the hill top. now traveling to the second largest city and we'll have much more on that with lester holt at the top of the hour. the european migrant crisis intensifies as tens of thousands of people including young children cross into croatia heading to western europe. seetary of state john kerry

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the flood of humanity out of war torn syria continues to have ripple effects across europe. today thousands of migrants crossed through the central european country of croatia. authorities say many from serbia. scuffles sunday when hundreds fought to get on a train. look at that video, they were hoping to go to austria on the train. the white house today announced $419 million in additional aid for syrians fleeing. >> the united states is committing to provide nearly $419 million in additional humanitarian aid for emergency health care, safe drinking water, shelter and relief emergency supplies for syrians.

the united states as you have heard me say many times in the last couple of weeks remains the single largest humanitarian donor to the syrian crisis. >> that comes one day secretary of state john kerry said the u.s. will accept 85,000 refugees from around the world next year and another 100,000 in 2017. that's a significant increase over the current cap of 70,000 per year but activists say that they need help right now. not a couple of years. bill neely joins me on the border of croatia and serbia. thank you for being with us. the thing that struck me last night was the children. as a parent, i see little kids and i wonder if they're going to be okay. is health care, is aid getting through? >> reporter: yes, kate, good afternoon. your heart really does go out to the children. there are several hundred in the camp behind me and can hold 4,000 people. it's a temporary camp and i can

tell you tonight at least those children are in tents, in beds with warm blan ketds. it was quite different than yesterday. really poor scenes around here yesterday. it was raining, it was cold. ra a lot of those children were lying out on the ground, sleeping outside. it was a bad situation. and as you saw, children trying to get on those trains to go to austria as well. so this temporary camp has been set up to try and ease that situation. i saw one child yesterday who had been born just three weeks ago, a refugee born on the road, no home, no country. another woman from damascus with five children. so, children especially are in a pretty vulnerable situation here. >> nbc's bill neely on the ground there. we will continue to follow your reporting. bill, thank you so much. switching gears now, coming up, a night of firsts and fun at the emmys last night. "access hollywood's" billy bush joins us live.

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rheumatologist-prescribed biologic. it was a night of firsts at last night's primetime emmys. viola davis became the first african-american woman to win an emmy for best lead actress in a drama series. >> the only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. [ applause ] you cannot win an emmy for roles that are simply not there. >> another big moment after seven losses for his role in "mad men," jon hamm literally crawled to the stage, taking home best actor in a drama. joining me from l.a., host of "access hollywood," billy bush is with us. thanks for staying up all night for us. >> yes, all night. are you kidding me, i was home at 5:30 pacific time watching

the show. i just do the red carpet. i'm very lazy. >> talk about viola first, had to be the key moment of the night, no? >> yeah, i mean, it was. it was the big speech, it was the big moment. and i knew -- i really felt like the home was coming if it wasn't viola, it was going to be taraji p. henson who had the breakout year but really, the first african-american to win lead actress at the emmys, and here we are celebrating this in 2015. i mean, halle berry won her oscar in 2002. the speech, she talks about that line, opportunity in the business that line, quoting harriet tubman of the underground railroad. i mean, a beautiful, beautiful moment. and certainly, the -- we all sort of felt it was coming and viola delivered. she wanted this to be part of the narrative. she wanted to put this to bed as an issue and she did a great job in her speech. and it certainly was the big moment. >> how about tracy morgan last night, really making a come back and making the crowd laugh. >> making the crowd laugh.

it's a serious side of trace circumstance wonderful to see him walk out there under his own power and then, you know, we are all listening. we are not used to this tracy, right? we are used to outrageous, outlandish tracy and i think he sensed that and then he gave us, the oh, watch out at the after-party joke, which i won't repeat, but it was very funny and very tracy. but the serious side of tracy, very emotional, his wife was backstage. he arrived 30 minutes before that moment, so they sort of kept it really under wraps, as secret as you can possibly keep anything these days. laughs will get rolling though. he is back to "snl" october 17th. so old tracy will be back in the saddle soon. >> andy samberg last night, i got to tell you shall the thing that resonated the most with me, billy, talked about how we all have no time to watch all these shows, right? >> don't you hate that? dinner conversation, put himself -- we have all been part of that, no, no miss $that one. oh, yes, that one i have seen, "ray donovan," i have seen that one it is impossible to keep up with all this television. it's -- makes your head explode. >> we are glad you're keeping up

on all of it for us. "access hollywood's" billy bush. go get some sleep now, okay? >> thank you. straight ahead, awaiting history, pope francis will arrive in the united states for the first time tomorrow. "nbc nightly news" anchor, lester holt, joins us live, next. when is your flu shot more than a flu shot? when it helps give a lifesaving vaccine to a child in need in a developing country. thanks to customers like you, walgreens "get a shot. give a shot." program has helped provide seven million vaccines. make your flu shot make a world of difference. walgreens. at the corner of happy and healthy. awe believe active management can protect capital long term. active management can tap global insights. active management can take calculated risks.

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good day, i'm kate snow. right now on msnbc live, making history. we will go live to cuba for the latest on pope francis' visit there as the united states prepares for his historic visit here tomorrow. "nbc nightly news" anchor, lester holt, joins me here in the studio. church and state, republican presidential candidate ben carson under fire for his comes to nbc's chuck todd about having a muslim in the white house. >> do you believe that islam is consistent with the constitution? >> no, i don't. i do not. i would not advocate that we put a muslim in charge of this nation. i absolutely would notgr