men and women who risk their lives every day to protect our lives, i also know that the use of excessive force and misuse of authority is not new in chicago or isolated only to chicago. there is a history of it. we have worked hard to address these concerns over the past four and a half years through intensive training, new policies governing the use of force. but for whatever progress we have made, the killing of laquan mcdonald is a vivid reminder that we have much more work to do as a city. there are two key questions before us. first, was this specific investigation handled properly and i want to be clear that that question is being investigated by the united states department of justice and the u.s. attorney's office. as you know, the city has handed every piece of evidence over to the u.s. attorney's office here in chicago and the fbi within weeks of the incident.

this includes evidence related to the shooting itself but also evidence related to the police department's response. they will address these questions when their investigation is complete. i hope you would await the conclusion of their inquiry which i also am anxious for. the second question is how we prevent this type of incident from happening again. how do we ensure that we are effectively policing the police? that is why today, i'm announcing that i have asked five respected chicagoans who are leaders in the criminal justice system to do a top to bottom review of the system of oversight and accountability, training and transparency that is currently in place for chicago's police officers. these five leaders have extensive experience investigating police misconduct or representing victims of police misconduct. they include sergio acosta, inspector general joe ferguson,

lori lightfoot, hai grow and randall stone. they will actively engage community leaders, victims' rights, law enforcement, youth, religious and elected leaders to ensure the recommendations are based on the input from all parts of the city and all perspectives as it relates to criminal justice. and the police department and public safety. in addition, chicago native and former massachusetts governor duval patrick, who led the united states department of civil rights division, united states department of justice civil rights division under president clinton has agreed to serve as a senior advisor to the task force. these six chicagoans know like i know that the vast majority of our officers are committed to the communities they serve, though they also know as i do that any case of excessive force or abuse of authority undermines the entire force and the trust we must build with every community in the city.

police officers are only as effective as if they are trusted by all chicagoans, whoever they are and wherever they live in the city. by reinvigorating our oversight we will continue to take the necessary steps to build trust between the police and the residents and communities they serve. in order to bring the level of safety to our streets that every chicagoan deserves, people must have confidence in our entire system. they must have trust in the system that is in place. that's why the task force will look at how the city handles excessive force cases. how we can develop an early warning system to help us intervene with problem officers and how to improve transparency in these cases without compromising ongoing investigations. every day we work to earn their trust, to earn the public's trust, we will redouble our work

in pursuit of that goal. every day we must ensure that the checks and balances are in place to keep the confidence of chicagoans in their public safety and in the people that are entrusted with that responsibility. that trust must be earned by everyone from the police officer on the beat to the highest ranking officials in our government. superintendent gary mccarthy has been an excellent leader of our police department over the past four and a half years. his community policing strategy has led to the lowest overall crime rate on record and his efforts to remove guns from the street have yielded significant progress. but superintendent mccarthy knows that a police officer is only as effective as when he has the trust of those he serves. after this weekend, after effectively handling both the protests that followed the release of the mcdonald video last week, and the arrest of tyshawn's killers, superintendent mccarthy and i began a discussion on sunday

about the direction of the department and the undeniable fact that the public trust in the leadership of the department has been shaken and eroded. this morning, i formally asked for his resignation. the superintendent, gary's record at the chicago police department, is a strong one and one that he can be proud of. i'm grateful for his service to the city. he is both modernized the police department and brought real results for the people of the city of chicago. but now's a time for fresh eyes and new leadership to confront the challenges the department and our community and our city are facing as we go forward. i have asked first deputy john escalante to serve as acting commissioner until the police force has conducted a thorough search. from body cameras to today's task force, to the new superintendent, this is not the

end of the problem but it is the beginning of the solution to the problem. there are systematic challenges that will require sustained reforms. it is a work in progress as we continue to build the confidence and the trust by the public in our police force. everyone has a role to play. and i'm just as responsible and accountable as everyone else in working towards that solution. i do not take that responsibility lightly and will work to ensure that every day, we ensure we realize a strong chicago we all want and the public deserves. lori? >> you talk about transparency and accountability. if you knew about laquan mcdonald case before, why didn't you come out in front of it? >> two points i would say. one is as you know, the family

contacted the counsel steve patton's office on february 27th and that information has been made public, and we reached a resolution with them in short order. then it was taken to city council. if you go back to steve's testimony at city council in april, you will not only hear the settlement but you will also hear a full thorough discussion of the videotape. second, not only in that material but also i would say in what was in that video, so it was public in that way. as you can tell, and it's self-evident, we have two principles. one is the desire for public information and two, also the principle about the integrity of an investigation. it is clear and other cities handling this or trying to work their way through it, that these two principles are in conflict. if you look at what i just asked

the commission to do is to not only take past practices and protocols and programs that exist in place today and have existed, but to ask core questions about a video which is how do you make it public without either compromising, tainting or in any way hindering an ongoing investigation. now, there's a common practice across the country and there's a practice that's been in place here in the city of chicago. you don't hinder, you don't compromise an ongoing investigation. yet it's clear you all want and the public deserves that information. they are two conflicting principles. that is why just having met recently just this morning with the commissioners, the five individuals, do we need to make any changes to that practice to ensure that what we have seen, you don't question why it's being held and i have given that answer, steve gave that answer when he was testifying back in april and he's described the

video, is to also ask how do you reconcile those so the public gets what they want but you don't ever get a situation that somehow you have compromised an investigation and it can't come to a conclusion to bring a level of justice. craig? >> reporter: given the urgency of the problem, the violence and the lack of confidence in the police, why is this task force and this report not due until after the primary? there seems to be a political decision. >> no. i beg to differ. first of all, i think if you know the work and i just said to to them, if they can get it done earlier, great. that's the deadline i give you. if you need an extension, you are going to have to say that. i try to make it as i said to them focused and go deep. these problems are real and systemic. and i don't want you to lose sight of anything. there's a real deadline, thoeshthough, to get us the material to get working. >> reporter: you have been in office four and a half years. the chicago police department

had a long history of police misconduct, excessive force. why is it you have not acted on this issue until now and the judge forced the release of this video? >> i just, as i could, beg to differ with that. let me just go two ways as an example, if i could. first of all -- or three. we reinvigorated community policing. second, as you know just a couple months ago we did an unprecedented agreement with the aclu. it was actually more than a couple months ago which it was not under court order or a lawsuit. we brought an agreement between the aclu and the police department to look into how they handle cases. that's just two examples. in fact, a lot of the material is out there because of the level of transparency we brought to the data around the police department. and you can even go back to 2013, where i asked former prosecutor safer to do a report on a series of issues as it relates to transparency or information. so i don't accept that. that doesn't mean, as i said, you are right. there's a long history.

we have made progress but our work is not done. >> reporter: should have acted sooner -- >> go ahead. >> reporter: what did gary mccarthy do wrong? >> i think that first of all, let me say this. i have a lot of support as you know and confidence in the work and the results that he's done. but our goal as i would say to you is to build the trust and confidence with the public. and at this point in this juncture for the city, given what we're working on, he has become an issue rather than dealing with the issue. and a distraction. now, i support and i have said it and noted the results of his work. 34% reduction over the last four and a half years in crime. but we must get to that

confidence and trust to build what i think is necessary which as i said, towards a solution. >> reporter: mayor? >> let me just finish. sorry. i have a lot of loyalty to what he's done and him but i have a bigger loyalty to the city of chicago, its future and the strength of that future. and no one person trumps my commitment and my responsibility to the city of chicago and its future. i thank him for his service but we now need to make a move in both leadership, the commission, the body cameras are all of a piece of starting to build that trust and that confidence and that's essential if we are going to bring the type of safety we want to see in the city of chicago. carol? >> reporter: [ inaudible ] when you as mayor haven't seen that video for months and your own police department just hours after the shooting happened put out false information about it? >> first of all, my level as it

relates -- i think my answer to that goes to the first part. one is we have a practice, not unique to chicago, that you don't do anything as it relates to material evidence that would hamper, hinder, compromise an investigation. i have asked the commission to look into this because there's need for that information. i don't look at material in a criminal investigation, any of them, and if i had looked at that video, your question before over the next seven months is why do you get to see it and nobody else does. so i would see it when everybody else would see it even though i don't look at other evidence. i do want an update of a practice that clearly has got two principles in total conflict with each other. mike? >> reporter: two things. the other night when reverend jackson first talked about this, he complained that 75% of murders in this city are not being solved or cleared in the police department. second thing that he and members

of the black caucus and city council have said they want is they want to redo extensively the provisions in the collective bargaining agreement with the police union as relate to these kind of investigations. can you address those? >> on the second part, let me say -- the second part is that is for the bargaining table. it's clear that there's some challenges here. as in this particular case when the information was made available, what was allowed and permissible, superintendent mccarthy took action which was the officer van dyke was stripped of his police authority. once the charges came by the state's attorney's office, he was stripped of his pay. as it relates to how do you deal with that, there are two parts i would note in the commission that aren't in the collective bargaining but are noteworthy. one of the things i think is important, i hope it doesn't get lost. before you even get to this, how do you get an early warning system so when an officer starts

to have repeated problems and complaints, that you can both interdict either by professional training or otherwise and then if it gets to a situation, we are going to have to as it relates to the contractual part as you talked about, it's something that's clear we are going to have to talk to and talk about at the bargaining table. on the clearance thing, there is a challenge here and we have to -- one of the things is in solving, i want to speak to this, this is really more for the police department to do, but you have to have a level of trust where people come forward, as did happen in the tyshawn lee case. there are other cases where that doesn't happen. that's not the only reason but building that confidence and trust can also help the police department do their job. >> reporter: what you are really talking about is changing the culture of the police department. it was noted you had that report that officer van dyke had 18 complaints. there was a federal settlement

for $300,000. what's going to change this idea that you are going to crack down on corrupt cops within the me police department when it was already known this guy van dyke had problems? >> i would say if i could, culture, yes, but that's not limited. if i wasn't clear, let me try again, okay? these -- what i have asked the task force to do, see if the oversight and the accountability and the discipline systems are as vigorous as they need to be and are there any changes. two, what do we have in place or not have in place or is not effective as it relates to an early warning to officers that have repeated problems. and third, how do we deal with the transparency both to those cases but also making information public. those are all i would tell you the goal is not just the culture of the police department, yes, and doing changes are not enough, but they are part of changing that culture. having a leadership that dead

indicat dedicates itself to these goals is part of it. also building the trust and confidence is the goal of each of these steps. >> reporter: hang on a second. >> reporter: what about calls for your own resignation? >> reporter: wasn't it clear with this guy van dyke? wasn't it clear to you he was a problem? >> that's why what you have here is a situation where we have to have the pieces in place because i think one of the problems we have is if you have an officer with repeated challenges, how do you interdict and maybe we are not and these are changes that need to happen. that's what the commission will look into. >> reporter: a couple of questions if you could bear with me. first, what are you looking for? does it need to be an african-american to restore the confidence of that community? >> as you know, the way the process works, the police board makes a series of recommendations and so i'm going to -- the police board will start their work in looking for

a permanent leader to the police department but john escalante will step in. i want to have somebody that will meet the needs of both the public safety, help obviously in this issue of both changing the culture, putting in place the building blocks to restore the confidence and trust that we're seeing -- we want to see in the city of chicago and have a record of -- in the police department of invigorating the type of not only commitment to professionalism but the type of commitment i want to see to make the changes necessary not only to lead the department but to lead the changes in the department to get the results we want. >> reporter: do you have any -- do you not have any responsibility in not driving reforms in the police department until today? >> bill, bill, i -- bill, i -- >> reporter: i know you have taken steps. you are here today announcing this. [ speaking simultaneously ] >> let me try to do all four of these. one, as i said, i said in my

remarks, i'm responsible. i don't shirk that responsibility. i have taken certain steps prior to this date, i'm taking steps today. as i told you, this is a work in progress in finding a solution. it's not the end of the problem. it's the beginning of the solution toward the problem. i got you out of the corner of my eye. i got you. let me just try to do this. so i don't know, i can do it on page ten and repeat the line to you. i said up front before you even asked a question, i take responsibility and none of us are above it. fran, to your question, i'm not looking for a type, i'm looking for a professional that can lead the department and make sure that they have a robust record of bringing results of public safety and this is one of the areas. >> reporter: what about duval patrick? he has not lived here for many, many years. you called him a chicagoan. most would not agree with you. he's actually from massachusetts now. why not a chicagoan leading this task force? >> two things.

one is, he is from chicago. he is a chicagoan with the background as head of the civil rights division of the justice department. he is ai former governor and has a unique perspective. he's not leading it. as i said, he's an advisor to the commission. he is from chicago as are the other five who will be doing the day in, day out work. >> reporter: are you still going to paris, who is going with you, is it a taxpayer funded trip and will you have security also paid -- >> i have not made a decision whether or not i'm going to go. [ speaking simultaneously ] >> reporter: you planned to go, all week your staff has said you're going. have you changed your mind? >> obviously by the answer, it's a question i haven't answered yet. i have serious work here. i think the mission of climate change is serious work. i will weigh that. >> reporter: what about calls for your resignation?

>> reporter: -- political considerations played a role in delaying the decision, the settlement or having the settlement while you were engaged in a pretty tight race and the video wasn't released while you were trying to run for re-election. can you address those concerns and does it speak to do you have things you have to do to gain trust? >> again, let me say, i said it in my remarks but i will repeat it. i work at that every day. i have a lot of work to do at that. i try every day. some days are better than others in building the trust that we have as a city and as the mayor, and the fidelity i have to the public that we are building a strong chicago. i'm going to answer your first five questions. hold on. second is as i think -- i know steve and the office has worked through the timeline but this is relevant. the family came forward on february 27th contacting the city. within a short time we reached a conclusion and within a short time it was taken to city

council. even while the criminal investigation by the state's attorney is still ongoing and even while the u.s. attorney's office is investigating the civil rights and other parts of this investigation. we as a city reached that conclusion. as it relates to the video, i both asked the commission and i want to repeat, i said that on the completion of the investigation, the video would be made public which is exactly what happened four hours after the completion of the investigation. two, it is a common practice not just here in chicago although we have had this practice in place for a long time but across the country that you don't release material that's essential to an investigation because it would compromise, taint or otherwise hinder that investigation. it is clear based on this event that between the public's desire to know which is essential and the integrity of the investigation, you have two principles in conflict. i have asked the commission to

update and ask some core questions, should we continue that practice of a default, should it actually be the responsibility not of the city but of the investigate entities. they will ask a series of questions to update a protocol that nobody has updated and cities across the country are now challenging and asking core questions. we have to do it. >> reporter: how can you build trust and transparency when it appears the tapes have been tampered with? are we ever going to get the truth about what's happened, what happened? >> i think it goes again, why i addressed the first part but let me repeat it or make this point. there are three elements. there was a civil settlement, there was a criminal investigation that's now, charges have been brought, and there's an ongoing u.s. attorney/fbi investigation. questions like exist to the

burger king, the conduct at this point by the police department, other things the police department took afterwards, all that is being looked at by the justice department. so when you say that, i would just say there are three separate distinct parts. one was civil, one was criminal, one is civil rights and otherwise and when they conclude, a lot of what you are asking, totally legitimate, they will have the questions -- they will have the answers to those questions. [ speaking simultaneously ] >> reporter: have you and your office become a distraction? >> i'm responsible to the public to do the job of being a mayor and you earn that trust every day. >> reporter: have you seen the video? >> yes. >> reporter: if you have seen it -- >> reporter: excuse me. mr. mccarthy had become a distraction? >> um-hum. >> reporter: there are a lot of questions in this room about you and your office. have you become a distraction as well? >> you will make that judgment. i think i'm doing my job. i try to do it every day and do it in a professional way.

>> reporter: what's the racial makeup of the task force? >> what's the racial makeup? okay. i think you have all the pictures but i will go through. lori is african-american woman. you know her background as a former prosecutor. randolph stone is african-american. there's also a hispanic individual. there's joe ferguson, who is obviously caucasian and then there's hyram who is also hispanic. >> reporter: there's been academics from the university of chicago, yale, there's been a federal judge, the thin blue line code of silence is a problem. what are they studying? all of it's out there. rule 14, when you talk about

cops who lie, they don't get punished. when you talk misconduct that's not violent. you are a guy who always just gets stuff done. why not make that stuff public the way you would say pass a budget or handle cps? not talking about fatal shootings? >> let me say, i respectfully disagree with the analogy in this sense, mark. passing a budget or dealing with other things at chicago public schools is not the same as dealing with a set of protocols and culture and earning the confidence and trust of the public and the oversight and accountability that exists at the police department. you're right, it's a lot of work. i said before, i want to repeat we are not unique in dealing with the issue of confidence and trust between communities of color in the city of chicago with their police department.

we do, like other cities, new york or other cities, baltimore or ferguson, missouri, or minneapolis or cleveland, have something also unique to our city which is why the five people i put together who have worked for years on this subject and on this question will hit the ground running because they have years of work and in addressing and giving us a blueprint that in my view could sustain the effort of bringing a sustained level of change to a systemic set of challenges that exist. and so that's -- >> rahm emanuel, under fire at a news conference. this after he basically fired the police superintendent and appointed a task force to look into the entire structure of the police department in chicago. i'm joined by nbc's john yang in chicago, msnbc's chief legal correspondent ari melber in new york and jonathan capehart,

"washington post" opinion writer and msnbc contributor, also in washington. first to you, john yang. this is rahm emanuel much under fire. the take charge mayor and former obama chief of staff in a way we have not seen him because he's also having to answer why he waited a year to look at that video, why he didn't take action before and why in fact there was that 86-minute gap in a related burger king video and police officers shown by our own wmaq were in that burger king for many hours, possibly tampering with the video. that is the charge and the suspicion. >> that's absolutely right. he is definitely on the back foot, definitely defensive. his critics will say he has a lot to be defensive about. the question was asked about whether there was any political calculation in holding on to this video. remember, this is -- chicago has very off-year elections.

he was just re-elected this spring to a second term. he was forced into a run-off. that settlement that he spoke of, the $5 million the chicago city council approved to go to the family of laquan mcdonald was approved just four days after he was re-elected and clearly, as he said, the city attorney was approached by the family on february 27. that's just after the run-off or the first round. he was forced into this run-off. so this was a politically difficult time for him. he knew this was bad. he knew that the city's legal office was saying that this videotape was bad and recommending that the city settle with the family even though the family had not yet filed a lawsuit. so i think that there's a lot that -- a lot of questions that are surrounding this

investigation not only with what the police did but what the mayor did and what political thinking might have gone into what he was doing. his challenger in that run-off, i will note, is a cook county commissioner, jesus garcia known as chewy. very strong hispanic political figure in cook county. his support among hispanics has been very weak. i think it's worth noting that the person he named as interim superintendent to replace gary mccarthy is john escalante, former district commander of the 14th district here in chicago. a very heavily hispanic neighborhood on the west side of chicago. more recently he had been elevated by mccarthy to be his first deputy. whether or not he will get the job permanently remains to be seen. i would also note that the last time emanuel made a change at the top of the police department

was to get in gary mccarthy. he came in with a strong reputation, former deputy commissioner in new york under bernie carrick, former chief in newark under cory booker. he replaced jody weiss, former fbi official who at that time was facing a revolt from the rank and file of the chicago police department. he was not popular. mccarthy, on the other hand, is very popular among the rank and file, but this time, the revolt that emanuel is facing, that he's trying to quell with this change, is not from the police department but from the people of chicago. >> john yang. ari melber, legally, is there any reason according to these protocols that they usually take charge, rahm emanuel would have had to wait a year to even look at the video himself or find out whether or not the police were being responsive to the family and to finding the facts? >> no. there's no legal reason that he

couldn't review internal materials. civilian oversight of the police would sometimes involve that. that would mean talking to your police chief and officers as well as looking at evidence. the mayor has to actively run the city, of course, regardless of open criminal inquiries. indeed, there are always be some open inquiries. what you got there, i think you put your finger on an important part of his argument. he was just telling everyone look, he only saw the video last week because he felt as a manager, he didn't want to delve into open inquiries. that was his argument. that's not legally supported. it's not an argument i think that's going to be met very sympathetically in chicago. other highlights from this press conference, look, late last week going into thanksgiving holiday we also heard from rahm emanuel and mccarthy who he just fired, and the argument they made was this was about one officer, one officer, not the chicago police department. that's what the mayor said late last week. today, a very different message. this is about the chicago police department. indeed, he says he is firing, terminating this leader,

mccarthy, because of this incident along with the way the mayor put it, a lack of confidence or faith from the public. now, people will analyze how he made that argument, essentially saying this was more pushed on him or he's being responsive and the mayor can argue that's part of his job, of course, respond to the people. but it's a sudden and drastic shift. indeed, we can also note that mccarthy was doing an interview early this morning on our nbc affiliate there in chicago which would suggest basic reading of the events that he didn't think he was being fired as of early this morning. this press conference was scheduled to announce a task force, not this news. they are separate issues. the last thing i will say about all this is the political timing question is an explosive question, because if it is true or if people in chicago believe and want to look into that idea that john yang was just mentioning that any of this was timed for an election, the idea of moving around an investigation or aspect of it into a potential murder, what is now a first degree murder charge for politics, that is an explosive allegation here that's

being discussed and explored about the mayor of chicago. >> legally and politically. and to jonathan capehart. in firing mccarthy he praised him for his leadership but said he had lost the confidence of the community and that was tantamount -- that was paramount. but isn't chicago the place where we have seen continuing juvenile homicides? a horrible, years and years of unsolved gang murders and the death of so many young black kids. >> right. you know, given the reporting that john just gave us and what ari just gave us, and from watching the press conference, the only conclusion i have here is that rahm emanuel has a problem. for all the reasons that john yang outlined in terms of the timetable of the settlement, the release of the video, having the corporation council tell the mayor that the video is bad and

therefore, should settle before a suit is even filed, but ari was just talking in terms of whether the release of the video or suppression of the video, could there have been a political element there. that's a problem for the mayor. so for the mayor to meet with the police chief on sunday, fire him today over laquan mcdonald's murder when we have seen over the last several years the murders of african-american young men and boys over several years, all of this puts pressure on rahm emanuel to explain himself. i sent out a tweet during the press conference because this is the first time i have ever heard a chicago press conference with the chicago press corps. i'm a veteran of the new york city press corps and i thought we were pretty tough. the chicago press corps was really tough on rahm emanuel and you know what? they should be, given everything

that we know up to this point. >> thanks so much to you, jonathan capehart, ari melber and john yang in chicago. meanwhile, president obama is on his way back to the white house now from paris after telling a news conference there he does not expect vladimir putin to back off putin's support for syria's bashar al assad any time soon. >> mr. putin, i don't expect that you are going to see a 180 turn on their strategy over the next several weeks. they have invested for years now in keeping assad in power. their presence there is predicated on propping him up, and so that's going to take some time for them to change how they think about the issue. >> arizona senator john mccain chairs the armed services committee of course and is just back from a trip to iraq and joins me now. senator, thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea.

>> first of all, your assessment of what the president said today and then i want to ask you about what the defense secretary, ash carter, said today on the house side about ground forces. what about the president's analysis of what to do now against isis and that it is going to take awhile to move putin to back off assad? >> well, first of all, it was obvious all along that vladimir putin wants to keep bashar al assad in power and that has been his whole m.o., including bombing operations not against isis, but against those moderates that are trying to unseat bashar al assad so that we would only have a choice between isis and bashar al assad. so that's quite a different tone from what the secretary of state has been espousing, i might add delusionally, and the president. we've got to understand that vladimir putin wants to keep bashar al assad in power and he will do what's necessary to do so.

as far as my trip with the secretary of defense's remarks this morning, i'm encouraged somewhat by an increase in our capabilities and presence there, but it's a reaction rather than an action. it's a reaction to paris. there is no strategy. i find from our visit, lindsey graham and my visit, general mcfarland is a great leader, we have an excellent ambassador, we have a good team on the ground, but there is no strategy. there is no strategy to defeat isis. i think ramadi will fall sometime relatively soon but then you've got raqqah, of course, and mosul and others, and it's going to take a long time. the dominant influence in iraq right now is iran. i'm sorry to say and the shiite militias and the sunnis obviously cannot stand the shiite militias so if they are going into the sunni areas, it

can cause much more trouble than could be gained. it's complicated but right now, we have no strategy. >> your strategy would be, if i understand it correctly, to have a regional force go into iraq and syria. >> not to iraq. into syria. >> not to iraq. into syria. where would we draw those forces? our arab allies, so-called allies, are not even performing air strikes right now. they haven't done that for months with the saudis, the uae and jordan. where would we draw this regional force? >> first of all, could i say in iraq, we now have 3500 for all intents and purposes a lot more than that. so it would require about 5,000 more in support areas, even apache helicopters and others, other capabilities, and we are doing a good job with our special forces. these people are really outstanding but again, they have no strategy. as far as syria is concerned,

you have now seen the saudis involved in yemen. you have seen a real change in their behavior. if we told them that we would eliminate both bashar al assad and isis, i think you could put together a coalition. you are not going to defeat them from the air. you are going to have to have people on the ground and i believe you could assemble that coalition with the united states playing a supporting role because they realize that isis and bashar al assad are a direct threat to them. >> let me just be clear about american troops. american special operation forces in syria, in particular, what ash carter was talking about today. do you support that? is enough being proposed? >> well, it's incrementalism. it's reminiscent frankly of the vietnam conflict when we would react to north vietnamese

successes. it also indicates we don't have a strategy. we are reacting to paris. we have to articulate, lay down a strategy and if that requires more american involvement, i'm not talking about 100,000 or a surge but more american involvement, then we ought to tell the american people that. they would support it if we said look, here's how we win. right now, there is no firm date when we could get isis out of raqqah or even mosul. as long as they're there and they have a base, they are metastasizing. look what's happening in libya. they are now taking over sert, gadhafi's old hometown, and they will be able to orchestrate attacks from there. time is not on our side. >> john mccain, thank you very much. thanks for your patience today. >> thank you. we'll be right back. staying in rhythm... it's how i try to live... how i stay active. so i need nutrition... that won't weigh me down.

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i won't do the debate unless they pay me $5 million, all of which money goes to the wounded warriors. >> it's always changing and we cannot say that our activity doesn't contribute to change in the climate. what i'm saying is it's not a crisis. >> jimminy cricket, this is a made-up nonsense example. last i checked we don't have a rubber shortage in america. >> two months to go to the iowa caucuses and it's a wild ride. well, ladies, how do we even go where -- >> climate change. >> ted cruz was saying there's no republican war on women because he's in favor of contraception. he said they were 50 cents a pop when he was in college, there were machines dispensing them and there's no rubber shortage.

>> he said you put in your money and walked out with your rubber which i haven't heard anyone call that in a long time. apparently ted cruz has first-hand experience. that humanizes him, don't you think? >> i do think there are some images that candidates should not be planting in our brains. >> i do also, yeah. >> what about chris christie in new hampshire today on the "morning joe" on climate change, saying president obama should not be at this global summit where the whole world is, he can't do two things at once, climate change and talking to vladimir putin about isis and bashar al assad. >> i think he's trying to make a point about leadership styles and priorities rather than the actual issue itself because he has said he believes climate change is happening. but i do think it's sort of, you know, not a very productive -- it's a strange criticism that the president should sort of be a prisoner in the situation room

because of isis. if that's the case, isis has won. >> we better hope he can do more than one thing at a time. that's what you sort of expect from presidents. i think christie is trying to establish himself as a national candidate, at least acknowledging that climate change is a real thing. >> but not a crisis. >> well, i think -- well, what republicans generally would say is we need to balance the need to deal with climate change without bankrupting our economy. that's the tender balance that everybody is trying to find. i think you know, he may be delving into an area he's not quite comfortable with and maybe he'll have to fine-tune his message a little bit. >> finally, hillary clinton is in birmingham, alabama commemorating the anniversary of rosa parks' historic standing in defiance against the segregated bussing in montgomery, alabama and elsewhere throughout the south, and as she does that, on the heels of the endorsement of

13 of 14 women senators last night. quite a big fund-raiser and rally here. >> minus elizabeth warren. >> and the release of 7800 more pages of e-mails. several noteworthy e-mails in the midst. >> i think that certainly the event that she is at today, hillary clinton has a bond with african-americans that i think is going to be something that really sustains her in this primary race against bernie sanders, in particular. >> how big is a deal are the e-mail releases? >> every time there are more e-mails released there's some little nugget we haven't seen before that's kind of building on the previous. i think it's just going to continue to nag her all the way to the very end. i haven't read all the e-mails so i don't know what specifically we found in these that were alarming or otherwise -- >> you certainly find a lot of sycophants in the state department. >> that's what we were talking about. >> they are such a character

study of washington, just in the sheer amount of sucking up that's going on during the e-mails. >> secretary of awesomeness. >> thank you very much to both of you. coming up, giving back on this giving tuesday. it was epic. i can't believe i got it. that's my boy. woah! look! that's my boy. you're proud to give each other your best every day. and at banquet, we want to give you our best. that's why we're adding 20% more chicken to our chicken pot pies with golden, flaky crusts. that's my mom. now serving... a better banquet. at ally bank no branches equalsit's a fact.. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda.

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something much happier today. msnbc is celebrating giving tuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back. here in washington, martha's table has been giving back all year round for 35 years, building a healthier and stronger community by providing one million needs to those in need, nutrition to some of d.c.'s youngest. patty stonesifer is the director of martha's table. great to have you here. first of all, the fact that you are in the schools, 44 schools, helping with nutrition, this is such an important contribution

to what martha's table is doing. >> it is. it's taking individuals and corporations and the city to get behind the idea that every child should have access to the healthy foods and the foods they need to grow, but the opportunity to use the elementary school to have great popup markets to do this is something that really builds on martha's table's history. >> the history is food service to people in need but now it goes so far beyond. you've got day care, you've got infant care for people in the community who do have jobs. tell me about all those services to the kids. >> we have always believed that it was education, food and opportunity. opportunity starts at birth. the opportunity for early learning is something we all know so much more about than we did even a decade ago so we have 150 children that start at 7:00 a.m., there until 6:00 p.m., starting with 12 week old, beginning their crawling, learning, but going on to early

literacy, going on to early math and continuing on through elementary school to come to martha's table. so the parents can work and be satisfied that their children are in a safe and educational setting and so the children can compete with their middle income peers. >> tell me about the food trucks. going to the neighborhoods. >> in 1982, in the middle of a recession in washington, d.c., one of my predecessors realized that she needed to bring food where the need was. so was able to use an old good humor truck and volunteers, chop the vegetables like you have, and prepare the meals and come in the evening and deliver food to those on the streets of washington, d.c., and that has been 33 years and we still do it every single night of the year with volunteers, with donations and with this idea that everyone deserves a hot meal. >> of course, with the weather turning colder, this becomes even more critical. what is the homeless population,

do we know, in washington still? >> i don't know the number off the top of my head but i do know that the work that needs to be done to not only have shelters but address the other issues that families in need that are falling into homelessness because of housing, because of other costs and health issues, is something we all have to work on together, address that need for nutrition but also look at the underlying causes. we see work going on across the district to do that in a cooperative way through work being done by all the organizations working on homelessness. >> i first met you years and years ago at the gates foundation. you came here with all of your resources, you do this for $1 a year. you are giving back. what can other people do to give back on giving back tuesday? >> i think the first thing is find something that addresses your values because you are going to not only give freely, it's going to give back to you in satisfaction and you are

going to learn, and just keep learning what you can do to address that issue. so if you believe in healthy eating or you think education is the ladder for opportunity or you are concerned about homelessness, find the organization and the issue, begin to learn, begin to give and continue that process. that's what makes american philanthropy so great and why it is as important to have the princess cupcake club bringing in canned goods or the mother who once came to martha's table giving $28 that she knows can buy groceries for three families. because you find the thing you care about and begin to build from there. >> such a great message. thank you. what a pleasure. we want to hear from all of you, how will you give today? tell us on social media using #givingtuesday. visit givingtuesday.msnbc.com. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online. "msnbc live" is next.

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in panama, which is a city of roughly 2 million people, we are having 5,000 new cars being sold every month. this is a very big problem for us with respect to fast and efficient transportation. it's kind of a losing proposition to keep going this way. we are trying to tackle the problem with several different modes. one of them is the brand new metro. we had a modest forecast: 110,000 passengers per day in the first line. we are already over 200,000. our collaboration with citi has been very important from the very beginning. citi was our biggest supporter and our only private bank. we are not only being efficient in the way we are moving people now,

we are also more amicable to the environment. people have more time for the family and it's been one of the most rewarding experiences to hear people saying: "the metro has really changed my life."

hi, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. we begin with breaking news from chicago, a major fall from grace for chicago's top cop after a deadly police shooting scandal that has rocked that city. the mayor rahm emanuel revealing just last hour he asked police superintendent gary mccarthy to resign. >> he has become an issue rather than dealing with the issue. and a distraction. i have a lot of loyalty to what he's done and him, but i have a bigger loyalty to the city of chicago, its future and the strength of that future, and no one person trumps my commitment and my responsibility to the city of chicago and its future. >> the city up in arms and in protest after the disturbing police dash-cam video of the shooting death of laquan mcdonald surfaced. here's more from mayor emanuel.