nor the express lane to climate disaster proclaimed by others. to illustrate this, let me briefly comment on some of the reasons why the state department rejected this pipeline. first, the pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy. so if congress is serious about wanting to create jobs, this was not the way to do it. if they want to do it, what we should be doing is passing a bipartisan infrastructure plan that in the short term could create more than 30 times as many jobs per year as the pipeline would and in the long run would benefit our economy and our workers for decades to come. our business has created 268,000 new jobs last month. they have created 13.5 million new jobs over the past 68 straight months. the longest streak on record.

the unemployment rate fell to 5%. this congress should pass a serious infrastructure plan and keep those jobs coming. that would make a difference. the pipeline would not have made a serious impact on those numbers and on the american people's prospects for the future. secondly, the pipeline would not lower gas prices for american consumers. in fact, gas prices have already been falling steadily. the national average, gas price is down about 77 cents over a year ago. it's down $1 over two years ago. it's down $1.27 over three years ago. today in 41 states, drivers can find at least one gas station selling gas for less than $2 a gallon. so while our politics have been consumed by debate over whether or not this pipeline would

create jobs and lower gas prices, we have gone ahead and created jobs and lowered gas prices. third, shipping dirtier crude oil into our country would not increase america's energy security. what has increased america's energy security is our strategy over the past several years to reduce our reliance on dirty fossil fuels from unstable parts of the world. three years ago, i set a goal to cut our oil imports in half by 2020. between producing more oil here at home and using less oil throughout our economy, we met that goal last year. five years early. in fact, for the first time in two decades, the united states of america now produces more oil than we buy from other countries. now, the truth is the united states will continue to rely on oil and gas as we transition, as we must transition, to a clean

energy economy. that transition will take some time. but it's also going more quickly than many anticipated. think about it. since i took office, we have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas by 2025. tripled the power we generate from the wind. multiplied the power we generate from the sun 20 times over. our biggest and most successful businesses are going all in on clean energy and thanks in part to the investments we've made, there are already parts of america where clean power from the wind or the sun is finally cheaper than dirtier conventional power. the point is, the old rule said we couldn't promote economic growth and protect our environment at the same time. the old rule said we couldn't transition to clean energy without squeezing businesses and consumers. but this is america, and we have come up with new ways and new

technologies to break down the old rules. so that today, home-grown american energy is booming, energy prices are falling and over the past decade, even as our economy has continued to grow, america has cut our total carbon pollution more than any other country on earth. today, the united states of america is leading on climate change with our investments in clean energy and energy efficiency. america is leading on climate change with new rules on power plants that will protect our air so that our kids can breathe. america's leading on climate change by working with other big emitters like china to encourage and announce new commitments to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. in part, because of that american leadership, more than 150 nations representing nearly 90% of global emissions have put forward plans to cut pollution.

america is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change. and frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. and that's the biggest risk we face. not acting. today, we are continuing to lead by example because ultimately if we are going to prevent large parts of this earth from becoming not only inhospitable but inhabitable in our lifetimes, we have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them and release more dangerous pollution into the sky. as long as i'm president of the united states, america is going to hold ourselves to the same high standards to which we hold the rest of the world. in three weeks from now, i look forward to joining my fellow world leaders in paris where we have got to come together around an ambitious framework to protect the one planet that we've got while we still can. if we want to prevent the worst effects of climate change before it's too late, the time to act

is now. not later. not some day. right here, right now. and i'm optimistic about what we can accomplish together. i'm optimistic because our own country proves every day one step at a time that not only do we have the power to combat this threat, we can do it while creating new jobs, while growing our economy, while saving money, while helping consumers and most of all, leaving our kids a cleaner, safer planet at the same time. that's what our own ingenuity and action can do. that's what we can accomplish. america is prepared to show the rest of the world the way forward. thank you very much. >> the white house had previously indicated there would be no questions. you see the president, that's the oval office across the

hallway, flanked by the vice president and secretary of state. let's bring in chuck todd, our political director and the moderator of "meet the press." chuck, this has been a long time coming. why did it take so long? what has changed in the interim since the ball's been in the air? >> i think a couple things changed. number one, you had the environmental community made this a symbolic sort of, if you really want to fight climate change, you symbolically have to stand up against this. so there was a billionaire by the name of tom stieer, he threw a lot of energy into this. that was number one. number two is something we just found out again this morning, brian. we added 270,000 jobs. we have an unemployment rate now down to 5%. when we first started this debate on keystone, the unemployment rate i believe was closer to 7%, between 7% and 8%, and the jobs aspect of this fight and of this debate was something that voters were compelled to look at.

as the economy has improved, and as the environmental groups ramped up, all of a sudden you saw democrats like president obama, who was sort of neutral on this three or four years ago, hillary clinton basically neutral on this, easy come, easy go on it. in fact, national security members inside the obama administration were pushing him to just do it, canada wanted it, throw canada a bone, they are an important ally. but you throw in those two factors, sort of an ease with which the economy wasn't as much of a political hit when it came to see tokeystone and the rampe up motivation and that's why you see him solidly against it. >> i'm looking at social media, looking at the republicans running for president and it's really to be compared to obamacare. a lot of them have the position just in the last few minutes, we will end this decision when one of us gets into office.

we will reverse the president, what he just announced today, and the keystone pipeline will happen. what are people to make of that who are watching at home? >> well, look, it's up to trans-canada. let's remember, it was interesting, the company behind this pipeline said they wanted to suspend their review because they knew what was coming, and essentially, they're playing a long game here. they are gambling to see will there be a republican administration come 2017. i think honestly, if there is, my guess is trans-canada files again, tries to get it and a republican administration probably approves it. but i think that's what you're looking at. if hillary clinton is the next president of the united states or bernie sanders, it's not going to happen. if it's marco rubio, ted cruz, whoever the republican is, it probably is going to happen but it is in the hands of the canadian-based business, company, trans-canada. >> so by percentage, how much of the conversation at tonight's democratic forum do you think this will take up and a question

closer to home for you, how much do you think, how much air time on "meet the press" this sunday will this get? >> honestly, this was one of those predictable announcements. you saw the writing on the wall. trans-canada saw the writing on the wall. i imagine it's a very small thing other than i suspect bernie sanders is going to say i was there before anybody else was on keystone, and he clearly wants to try to drive a wedge a little bit with hillary clinton saying she's been a hillary come lately when it comes to the progressive movement. sanders was with you when it mattered and when it was not popular and it was less cool. so that's how i expect it to come up tonight. as for sunday, honestly, you know, it is not a man bites dog story. this really is a dog bites man. >> all right. chuck todd, i have asked the control room to replace the breaking news graphic with predictable announcement. let's see if we have one of those. >> i know. developing yesterday, right? >> chuck, thank you. we will be watching nonetheless

sunday morning. we will probably talk to you along the way first. let's talk to luke russert for a moment. he's in our washington bureau. what's the congressional reaction? is it along the same lines of our conversation here? >> reporter: very similar, brian. we are still waiting word from speaker ryan. however, the leader mccarthy said that president obama is putting his political ideology above the common good. the common good, a lot of republicans believe, is that this would be a job creator. the majority whip saying that obama is single-handedly stopping the growth of 40,000 jobs, national energy security, et cetera. but what's interesting, i will say, when this came forward in congress back in the beginning of the year, it did have some democratic support. there were nine u.s. senators who supported this including senators from important states like colorado, pennsylvania and virginia, when it comes to 2016, as well as 28 house democrats including the number three in the house, democratic caucus, jim clyburn of south carolina. so there was a little bit of democratic momentum.

however, i think what you and chuck said is completely accurate. this became a litmus test for environmentalists, therefore a litmus test for the democratic party. the reaction will be as expected and i couldn't agree with you more, if there is a republican president, this will come up again. i wouldn't expect congress to try to move this again in some capacity as a showboat against president obama's decision. >> luke russert in the newsroom. one more of our contributors, steve kornacki, is down for tonight's democratic forum, rock hill, south carolina. steve, how much of the conversation do you believe this will take up there tonight? >> yeah, well, i think it's a question of how much bernie sanders decides he wants to push it. what chuck was saying is absolutely right. bernie sanders is already out with a statement on this. i can read part of it to you. he says as someone who has led the opposition to the keystone pipeline from day one, i strongly applaud the president's decision to kill this project once and for all. underline the from day one part

there. you could say that's the theme of the sanders campaign against hillary clinton on this issue and on a number of issues. it also illustrates the challenge that bernie sanders faces in this campaign and in a forum like tonight's. the challenge is simple. to the extent there was room to hillary clinton's left, to the extent she was vulnerable on her left heading into this campaign, she has done a lot of things in this campaign to shore up her standing on the left. one of them was to come out about a month ago in advance of that first democratic debate against the keystone project. she removed that issue as one that sanders could attack her over. also, the tpp, trans-pacific partnership, the massive trade deal with asia, she came out against that just before the debate. something else bernie sanders was getting ready to hit her on. he also wanted to hit her on wall street. she came without a wall street reform package just before the democratic debate. it changed the nature much the debate about a month ago in this democratic race from one where bernie sanders had a couple issues where he could draw potentially stark and strong contrasts with hillary clinton to one where he's left saying yeah, we say the same thing now,

we believe the same thing now, we are promising the same thing as president, but i was promising it first, therefore, you can trust my word more than you can trust her word. it's a more nuanced argument, a tougher argument to make, but we have been seeing from sanders a more aggressive posture in the last few days. i do imagine he will try to emphasize that tonight. >> steve kornacki, rock hill, south carolina, we will see you there tonight for the democratic forum. before we bring in peter alexander, who is pinch-hitting for andrea mitchell today during this hour time period, to kristen welker one last time on the white house lawn. i had to interrupt you as the president walked into the room. so as we were joking with chuck todd, we have this visual disagreement between the graphic on our screen that says breaking news and chuck's assertion that this was a predictable announcement. we are less apt to put on graphics that say that. what do you think from your perspective there? >> reporter: well, look, it was predictable. at the same time, what's so

fascinating about this, this is a huge legacy issue for this president and you heard that bear out in his remarks. he not only announced that the administration was rejecting the keystone xl pipeline, he essentially defended his climate change policies. you will recall that back in august, he announced that in order to lower carbon emissions in power plants all across the country, recently the administration struck a deal with china on climate change. he's using this to send a signal to other countries internationally as he prepares to head to that summit in paris that he referenced that he's serious about climate change. i anticipate when he goes to that climate in paris, he's going to use this as a point of argument that he is very serious about getting something done on the international stage. this has been an increasing focus for this president, particularly in his second term. >> kristen welker on a beautiful unseasonably warm day, nice time to be on the white house lawn. >> reporter: it is indeed. >> as promised, to peter alexander, who is in today for

andrea mitchell. there you have it. >> thank you very much. there is some other breaking news that we are reporting on today. that's russia announcing today that it is now suspending all flights to egypt, though a spokesperson from the kremlin has now warned that the move does not mean the crash there in egypt was a terrorist attack. the investigation into that crash of the russian passenger plane over the sinai this past weekend killed all 242 people on board. it continues, the investigation itself. but american officials say it is likely that a bomb was responsible. still, here in the u.s., the tsa is likely to announce enhanced security for international flights headed to the u.s. and we have a lot more on that right now. we are joined by our nbc global correspondent, bill neely in sharm el-sheikh. ayman mohyeldin is in cairo and tom costello covers aviation for us in washington. bill, give us a sense of the

latest you are seeing on the ground in sharm el-sheikh based on this new news that russia is now halting all flights to egypt. >> reporter: yes, peter. that's the news that people here are talking about, not least the 50,000 russians who are here in sharm el-sheikh on vacation at the moment. that has shocked them, to be frank. i think there's an aspect of this that has shocked everyone. for the last few days, russia has been saying we simply don't believe the bomb theory, it's too early to say. but actions even from moscow now speak louder than words. it has the intelligence chief, the fsb chief, who recommended that all flights to egypt be stopped and president putin has agreed. i think the interesting thing is that they stopped all flights to egypt, not just to sharm el-sheikh but also to the capital, cairo. now, russia is saying this

doesn't mean that we believe that the bomb theory is accurate but it's certainly the strongest indication yet that russia is leaning the way that britain and the u.s. are leaning. in a way, it's not only a big decision but it's bad news for vladimir putin, because if this was true, if isis did bomb this plane, we know it's in direct response to russia's bombing of syria. president putin took that decision in order to make russians safe, his rationale was strike first before the terrorists strike us. well, now the terrorists have struck and killed perhaps if this is true, killed 220 russians and four ukrainians. bad news for russia and of course, very bad news for egypt as well. three million russians vacation in egypt every year. as i say, there are 50,000 here at the moment.

it is a disaster for the russian tourist industry. you have got 20,000 british tourists here, they are being evacuated today and over the next few days on planes. so a disaster for egypt, certainly, but i think bad news for putin because even if this turns out not to be a bomb, i think in the minds of russians, this suspicion will linger that the bombing campaign in syria will have consequences. of course, look, let's be absolutely clear about this. we don't know, russia doesn't know, nobody knows at the minute whether this was a bomb or indeed a technical fault. we have heard all this background briefing stuff about possibly it was intercepts, communication intercepts, chatter from known isis sympathizers but at the moment, just to emphasize, we don't know at nbc and nobody knows whether this was a bomb or not. certainly as all these countries begin to join this theory and

there are indications, peter, that egypt may be next to suggest or at least have strong suspicions that a bomb may be the cause, as more and more countries join in, if you like, this theory, bad news for egypt and it looks more like a bomb rather than technical difficulties, because the investigation on the ground isn't yielding much. the black box flight recorders, one of them is clearly broken. one of them appears to be yielding no data. this will be proved either way by the forensics, by the examination on the ground, but right now, it's the bomb theory that is gaining traction. >> bill, thank you for that. i want to get to tom costello quickly if i can. what do we expect to hear from the tsa today? is there any impact on passengers internationally and domestically, passengers flying within this country as a result of this? >> i don't think you will see anything domestically to speak of. maybe minor cosmetic changes.

i think we are talking about an announcement not from tsa but from homeland security, of course, tsa is part of homeland security. it's the homeland security's job to coordinate with overseas airports and governments and as you know, the white house announced after this metrojet crash they are reviewing security at overseas airports for those flights inbound. what does this mean? a short time ago i talked to the former chief of the tsa. >> homeland security and tsa specifically have the responsibility for assessing 275 airports around the world. there's dozens of tsa locations around the world, hundreds of people who do just that, work with host country and the airport authorities there for any airlines that fly directly to the u.s. to do audits, inspections. they will look at the actual check point, they will look at the vetting of the employees, they will look at perimeter security, the catering. they will look at really soup to nuts in terms of what goes on at that airport.

and that's a good thing. the down side is, it may only be good for that day or several days that those inspectors are present. we don't have that confidence 365/24/7. >> that last sentence is critical. they don't have confidence necessarily that what they see on a particular day of an audit is what they see, you know, 365 days a year, 24/7. so what we are likely to see here in the coming hours or 24 hours is homeland security announcing it is going to require foreign airports, specifically in that region, to up their game a little bit. it could be enhanced security of passengers, enhanced security of cargo, of luggage and the like. could be perimeter security. there's a whole host of issues that homeland security is likely to say they are working with foreign airports and governments on. >> tom, thank you. quickly to cairo and ayman mohyeldin. this punctuates a point, safety throughout that region, specifically at egyptian airports where there's a long-held practice of paying to

skirt security lines. imagine that sort of adds one more layer to this whole conversation. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. if this does in fact turn out to be a terrorist attack, this is certainly going to be a game changer. it will be a game changer on a few levels. certainly for the egyptian aviation industry, which is going to realize that it now has some serious vulnerabilities it has to address. more importantly for the egyptian government. no doubt the egyptian government has been dealing with a very stubborn militant insurgency in the sinai peninsula but it would also send a message from isis that it not only has the will to carry out these type of attacks on a large scale aviation capacity but it also has now the capability of penetrating some of egypt's most secured facilities where thousands if not hundreds of thousands of tourists are coming through almost on a regular basis. so by any measure, if this does turn out to be a terrorist attack it is going to have much wider implications all across the region on tourism, on aviation, certainly on security. for now, the egyptian government is striking a very different

tone than what we are hearing coming out of countries like russia, the united kingdom and the united states. they have been toning down some of this criticism that perhaps it was a result of a terrorist attack. they insist that the forensic evidence that has been gathered so far remains inconclusive. they understand the implications if they say this is a terrorist attack. right now the egyptian government continues that investigation. they are also continuing their search at the airport, trying to determine who may have had access to the plane throughout the time that that plane was here on the ground in egypt. >> as we approach a full week since that awful disaster took place, i thank you all. for more on this, we are joined by nick burns. of course, he's the former u.s. ambassador to nato, now professor at the harvard kennedy school of government. ambassador, the russians clearly wouldn't be doing this, making this change unless they had some serious concerns right now. what is your take-away from today's news? >> i think this is a very confusing situation because you have had a situation where the

american president and british prime minister have been out front saying it might have been a bomb placed on board an aircraft at sharm el-sheikh. a lot of resistance from the egyptian and russian governments, two authoritarian governments not accustomed to being transparent publicly about what they are doing and what they think but when the russians say now that they are going to shut down flights at least temporarily from the russian federation into sharm el-sheikh, it's an implicit admission that they're worried. they're worried about security at that airport. they're worried about security in the sinai peninsula. we know all of us that these terrorist groups operating in the sinai have been inflicting a lot of punishment on the egyptian government. they have got the israelis on the other side of the sinai worried. i think it's an unusual turning point but one that speaks to the disquiet the russians have. >> briefly, another topic that we haven't really been talking about just yet until now. you of course as a career diplomat, he want to get your sense of the comments made by benjamin netanyahu's new chief

of public diplomacy, this is in israel, of course, calling president obama a modern day antisemite. netanyahu arrives in the u.s. for meetings with the president next week. what potential impact does this have on the relationship between those two men? >> well, those are disreputable comments by the israeli who made them. nothing could be further from the truth. for an official of one friendly government to make such an abhorrent accusation against our president frankly, you don't see this happen in international politics very often. that kind of open name calling. so i would hope the prime minister netanyahu would get control of his government and make sure that all of the arguments of the past six months and over the iran nuclear deal, that that's put to an end. the united states has been the greatest friend israel has ever had and president obama has been a steadfast friend of israel. i find this shocking. i find it really unusual for a friendly government to talk like

this and you know, every government needs to have discipline. the prime minister should not want his visit to the united states to be dominated by name calling by the israelis against president obama. >> just a punctuation mark at the end of a tense relationship between those men. coming up, we will turn to 2016 politics. that big bombshell we are just learning more about right now from the carson campaign. according to a new statement from the campaign of dr. ben carson, the retired neurosurgeon never applied to west point. that contradicts a major detail of his biography. we will have more on that just breaking now on "andrea mitchell reports." beyond natural grain free pet food is committed to truth on the label. when we say real meat is the first ingredient,

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you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." new developments right now for the ben carson campaign. this is just happening. a story first reported now confirmed by nbc news, the fabrication by dr. ben carson about his application and acceptance into west point academy. nbc news obtained a statement from the carson campaign that reads in part, that dr. carson quote, was introduced to folks from west point by his rotc supervisors. they told him they could help him get an appointment based on his grades and performance in rotc. he considered it but in the end, did not seek admission. joining us now, chris cillizza and ann guerin, chris jansing, who covers the carson campaign. you have been traveling with carson the last several days, now here of course in new york with us. this is significant, because carson himself has been pushing back at all the questions in recent days about his past stories, the stories that really built the narrative that has built him as a public figure.

>> in fact, he has been pushing back, his campaign has been pushing back. i asked him about some of the things that were in his book just yesterday. he suggested that we essentially were going too far. but let me read to you exactly what it says in the book, "gifted hands" because this is important. this forms the central narrative of his life. it is the basis upon which much of his popularity was based and it's those people who really love this book and who are inspired by it who also form the base for much of what has been beginning and now rise of his presidential campaign. so here's what he wrote about a time when he says he had gone very quickly through the ranks of rotc. he said a sergeant introduced me to general westmoreland, an iconic figure from the vietnam war, and i had dinner with him and the congressional medal winners. later, i was offered a full scholarship to west point. immediately, questions raised

because frankly, anybody who has ever been through the process of getting into west point knows what an involved process it can be. from his campaign again, they told him they could help him get an appointment based on his grades and performance in rotc. he considered it but in the end, did not seek admission. now, the campaign's pushback is that there are service-connected nominations for stellar high school rotc students and they are trying to make the argument that suggesting he could get an appointment is tantamount to a full scholarship, but west point has no record according to politico of any application ever having been made and of course, he was never admitted to west point as his campaign now acknowledges. >> as they say, were there an application, we keep those records. we would have access to them right now. chris cillizza, i want to get to you on this, because dr. ben carson has really been an enigmatic figure. throughout all the mystery that surrounded the rapid ascent of

donald trump, i think it's equally great behind the support that ben carson has found now in some ways the real front-runner in parts of this country. certainly head-to-head with donald trump. what does this do in the days and weeks ahead as we head into iowa, a critical state where he believes he has great support from evangelical christians as it now raises new questions about all the things that he's been trying to dismiss as a bunch of lies? >> that's right. chris jansing hits it exactly right. the foundation of ben carson's appeal, put aside the social conservatism and everything else, is the story. the story of being born and raised poor in detroit and rising to become a world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon. that is the story that "gifted hands" tells, the story of the ben carson movie. it's sort of an american dream realized. if a part of that dream is in fact a fabrication as we now know, the question here is not necessarily this, which is bad no matter what they say, this is bad for a candidate who is so

reliant on his resume, it's bad for any candidate but especially bad for that, but as you pull that string, do other strings come out. are there other things, usually people who inflate their resume and this certainly feels like what this is, usually people who inflate their resume don't just do it the one time. we don't know if there's more there but i can tell you there's going to be a lot more scrutiny of whether there's more there. and if that personal story comes unraveled to some extent, it's hugely problematic for him. at a moment when as chris jansing points out, he is sort of the candidate of the moment, the guy who has now surpassed trump in national polling as a front-runner. >> ann, i think as we all witnessed during that last debate on cnbc, one of the best strategies, most effective strategies for republicans, is to attack the media and the mainstream media here which is certain the carson campaign and others will continue as we see them again in the days ahead, so what does ben carson do right

now as he really gets the front-runner's scrutiny? >> well, this was a richly reported story in politico that raises not only the central claim that he fabricated this very important detail in his background, but also sort of there's some other elements to it, too. much of the carson explanation for how this could have been -- how it was wrong basically also doesn't hold up as the politico story showed. so i think it's going to be difficult for the carson campaign to pivot and blame this on the media. that said, certainly many of his most ardent supporters will probably see it as a targeted effort to bring him down. i don't know whether this hurts him with his most loyal supporters.

it certainly would seem to hurt his ability to expand beyond that base. >> yeah, i think that's what is most important here. donald trump has also been tweeting about this. he writes in part wow, one of many lies by ben carson. big story. i think this will be a big story when we see these candidates on stage again, even without christie and huckabee on the big stage next tuesday. >> we should also just say that he has been very accessible and has been answering a lot of these questions. but we are not going to see him until tonight. so in spite of the fact that his campaign has put out this statement, and this is not the kind of appearance where he would normally give a veil so one of the key things is whether he makes himself available to the media because there are a ton of questions out there. >> underscoring all of this is the fact he's really not campaigning about selling books. >> the book tour has just ended. otherwise we might have that

access to him. >> thanks to all of you. after the break, dynasty. tom brokaw on the family dynamic that's now playing out on the political stage. ideas are scary. they come into this world ugly and messy. ideas are frightening because they threaten what is known. they are the natural born enemy of the way things are. yes, ideas are scary, and messy and fragile. but under the proper care,

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one of the republican party's most prominent families is making headlines across the country against the release of a new biography. andrea mitchell gives us a recap of the latest. >> reporter: father and son, both presidents and now for the first time, the father breaking his silence about some of the son's most trusted war advisors, slamming dick cheney as an iron-ass, donald rumsfeld as an arrogant fellow to jon meacham in destiny and power. >> i took it as a mark of pride. i was aggressive in defending

what i thought were the right policies. >> reporter: a complicated family, now extending to the presidential hopes of another son, jeb, who talked about it today with nbc's kasie hunt. >> my brother's a big boy. his administration was shaped by his thinking, his reaction to the attack on 9/11. i think my dad like a lot of people that love george want to try to create a different narrative. george would say this was under my watch, i was commander in chief. >> reporter: nbc's tom brokaw has talked to family friends. >> there was always an idea that it was a strained relationship but 41 would not publicly differ with his son. they are very close personally if not politically. >> that's pretty stark stuff. we never heard this from him before. he never said this kind of thing in a public setting before. >> reporter: the elder bushels criticized what he calls his son's hot rhetoric, notably this fateful phrase about iraq, iran

and north korea. >> states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil. >> reporter: rumsfeld told nbc news today bush 41 is getting up in years and misjudges bush 43, who i found made his own decisions. >> well, that's very regrettable to say something like that. one thing about bush 41 is time passes, we appreciate him more and more. >> that was nbc's andrea mitchell reporting. nbc news special correspondent tom brokaw joins us now. always good to be with you. you know the family well. you covered the family for years. what do you make of the new sort of story lines we are now seeing? >> well, it's so unlike the president, 41, to go as public as he did and to be as candid as he is. people close to him have known for a long time these were his feelings. by the way, that was so typical of donald rumsfeld. oh, he's aging, doesn't count anymore. that interview with president bush 41 was done when he was 84

years old. donald rumsfeld is now 83 years old. so you can't dismiss it because of age. i think the president, bush 41, was an old-fashioned diplomat, had a very successful war in iraq and he was very concerned from the very beginning about whether this would go off the rails. no one consulted with him. they didn't talk to him, including his son. they didn't seek his advice. >> the criticisms in this book are not just about his son's advisors but about his son him zel. the big mistake with letting dick cheney bring in his own state department, i think they overdid that but it's not cheney's fault. it's the president's fault. >> there was a lot of discussion about that when it was going on, quite honestly, about whether the president 43, george bush, had control of his own vice president. cheney was going over to the cia for example and demanding answers because he wouldn't get the ones he liked, for example. he was running his own national

security office out of the white house. he had always been close to donald rumsfeld. they had like-minded views about what ought to be done. they didn't concentrate on afghanistan, they went right to iraq. there have been big consequences to pay for that. >> how has this affected jeb bush's campaign? this campaign struggled with the legacy of not just his father but his brother. again, the headlines, we are talking about all those bush names. >> it's a huge distraction, obviously, just when he's trying to carve out his own new identity. i don't think it helps. i think it will conjure up a lot of what a lot of people have been concerned about. we can't have dynasty after dynasty after dynasty. if the president 43 and president 41 didn't get along, what can we expect from jeb bush if he gets to be president. so he has other concerns besides this, but it is an enormous distraction at a critical time in his campaign. >> some of the most revealing elements of this new book are about the relationship between the former first ladies. barbara bush and nancy reagan. this is one of the items that

comes from this book, where president bush, 41, writes nancy does not like barbara. she feels that barbara has the very things that she, nancy, doesn't have and that she will never be in barbara's class. i knew there was some tension but getting it confirmed albeit second-hand was a little troubling. bar, as he affectionately refers to hem, sensed it for a long time. she is so generous, kind and unselfish, i think frankly nancy reagan is jealous of her. i think that's stunning to a lot of people who didn't realize this dynamic existed. >> it was well nonbehiknown beh scenes but that is as stunning as anything he had to say about dick cheney and donald rumsfeld because he's always so discreet. but he's nearing the end of his life, obviously, and is a very big fan, devoted to barbara bush as he has been all his life. she has been a great counselor. i don't want to comment on whether he was meritorious about what he had to say. she knew her own place.

there was always a certain amount of tension between the two families that are occupying the two highest offices in the land. but that was quite surprising to me. >> then concluding on the topic of the clintons, on hillary clinton specifically, he says i don't feel close to hillary at all but i do with bill and i can't even read their relationship even today. i think a lot of people would agree with that. >> he has a lot of company on that count. i do think, look, he's a man who has been director of the cia, been the united nations ambassador, a congressman from texas, a president of the united states who did have a very successful war. and he's at a stage and age when he's entitled to his opinions. frankly, it's good for history to be able to have that kind of honesty play out. >> less than 90 days until the first contest in iowa. have you ever seen one like this presidential race? >> not of these proportions. we have had others in the past, you must remember john dean had a hot hand going into iowa, didn't work out. also remember pat robertson was doing very well for a time and looked like he was going to knock it out of the park.

what's changed now, it's 24/7 and social media, you cannot overstate the importance of that. it drives the 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it's out there, systemic and we just have to learn to adapt to it. >> always good to be with you. thank you so much. coming up next, friday night lights. we will preview tonight's democratic presidential forum. right here on msnbc with one of senator bernie sanders' top advisors. can't we just get in te running car? are you crazy? let's hide behind the chainsaws. smart. yeah. ok. if you're in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. it's what you do. this was a good idea. shhhh. be quiet. i'm being quiet. you're breathing on me! if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. head for the cemetery! can a a subconscious. mind? a knack for predicting the future.

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he's very popular still. if you were running against your husband right now, who would win that race? >> i think you got to have that kind of confidence if you are in this arena trying to be president. so if i was going to run against him, would i win? yeah. >> tonight all three democratic presidential candidates will

participate in a forum moderated by rachel maddow. thad divine is a senior advisor with the sanders campaign and joins us now. i appreciate your time. i want to get a sense right now especially given the president's remarks today about the keystone pipeline. the administration now rejecting that pipeline. we have witnessed in recent days as evidenced by quote in the boston globe from senator sanders himself, he said i disagree with hillary clinton on virtually everything so will this -- what does the senator plan to do with the fact that he sort of had this shared opinion on keystone well before hillary clinton? >> well, i think it's important to point out to people whose commitment to an issue like keystone, bernie believes that climate change as he said in the first debate is the greatest national security threat today that america faces. if you believe the climate change is real, caused by human activities, you know what to do on keystone. >> everybody all agrees on it at this point. so is the fact that perhaps you were there before senator sanders was there before secretary clinton, is that a

significant item that you plan to try to punctuate? >> i think it's a very legitimate item to talk about. there are big differences on big issues. issues like wall street and what you are going to do to rein in wall street. bernie believes we need to break up the big banks. hillary clinton does not. he believes we need to reimpose glass steagall so the banks can't engage in all kinds of business practiceses. hillary clinton does not. there's a laundry list of big issues that speak to values like the death penalty, for example. we found out earlier this week she supports it. bernie opposes it. these big differences on big issues are important to voters and he will talk about them. >> adding to that, senator sanders was critical in a "wall street journal" article saying the questions about hillary clinton's server are valid and he's not calling for end to the fbi investigation. the clinton campaign kwquickly responded, saying this has and will remain a campaign about issues for hillary clinton and that's what she'll continue to talk about on the trail. it's disappointing senator sanders and his campaign strategists have chosen to

change direction and engage in the type of personal attacks that they have previously said he wouldn't. what's your response to that? has the strategy changed? >> no. let's talk about this specific issue. bernie has said beforehand, as a matter of fact, he was on this show, andrea mitchell's show in august, august 31st, saying listen, there's a process that's going on about the e-mails, follow the process. he said it on the debate stage when interviewed by chris cuomo immediately after the debate, he said there's a process going on. he's been saying there's a process going on, that's the way it should be resolved for many months and continues to say it before and after the debate. what bernie wants is not a debate about hillary clinton's e-mails. wasn't bernie sanders believes we have a rigged economy in america that is held in place by a corrupt system of campaign finance. that's the issue he wants to debate. he's prepared to do it tonight and every night. >> we look forward to seeing him onstage on msnbc tonight. thanks so much. we want to move quickly to more breaking news. this is about that russian plane

crash in egypt. homeland security secretary jeh johnson has just announced that there will be enhanced security measures at airports overseas. this will affect passengers coming to the u.s. as well. nbc's tom costello has the details. what are we hearing? >> pretty much as we had expected. we have been hearing this was likely over the last couple of days. what we are talking about is supplementing airport security at key airports overseas. not all airports overseas, but key airports that are in that region. they are likely to include, he says, expanded screening applied to items on an aircraft so luggage, for example, food carts, for example, that type of thing. cargo, expanded screening there. airport assessments in conjunction with international partners. what that means is the tsa regularly screens the status of airport security at foreign airports. 275 of them worldwide. to determine how up to speed

they are, whether their protocols and safety procedures are in coordination with and up to the standards of the united states, if flights are coming from those airports to the united states. what they're saying is enhanced airport assessments with international partners and number three here, offering other assistance to certain foreign airports related to aviation and airport security as well as measures seen and unseen. that's as specific as they are getting but they are making the point this is in the region so what does that mean? it means if are yyou're flying stockholm you are unlikely to see any change, same thing with mexico or tokyo but if you are flying out of that region, cairo down to the persian gulf and all of those airports in that region likely to see enhanced security over the course of the next couple weeks. but as one insider told me today, listen, this is not like flicking a switch. this doesn't happen like that.

it's going to take a week to two to get these airports up to speed and it's a lot of coordination between the united states, foreign governments, foreign airports and their security apparatus, police departments, military, whathave you. it's a big, big job. it's like turning a cruise ship. it takes a long time to get it moving in the right direction. >> even as the mystery intensifies over exactly what happened on board that flight. tom costello in washington, thanks for that breaking news update. that's going to do it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." we hope you will tune in to msnbc tonight. that of course is special coverage of the first in the south democratic candidates forum. our colleague rachel maddow will go one-on-one with hillary clinton, bernie sanders and martin o'malley. it begins at 8:00 eastern time. "msnbc live" with thomas roberts is next.

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