and of course, stay tuned for much more on jane sanders here tonight for the interview. the wife of bernie sanders is going to be joining us live in just a couple minutes. i'm very excited about that. especially because this is such democratic race for the presidential nomination. jane sanders here in just a moment. there's also important international news with vice president biden heading back to iraq today for the first time and in just a moment we've got news which i don't think has been reported anywhere else about a surprising consequence of the presidential race thus far. it's new information, it's hard data that i think will probably make democrats very, very happy and i think it will probably make republicans very worried.

you have not heard this elsewhere. it is new data out today and i found it almost impossible to believe until i triple-checked it. that is coming up. that said, today i have to tell you, for the second straight day we had a very telling turn of events on the republican side of the presidential race. now, in presidential politics or any politics it is never a good sign for any politician when the best way they can think of to get everybody's attention, the best gambit they have for getting lots of cameras and people to show up as they speak as a candidate, it's never a good sign when the best way to do that is to hint or at least raise the prospect that people ought to turn up to hear you today because you might quit. that has happened on the republican side of the presidential race twice in two days with the two remaining republican candidates who are not named donald trump. yesterday it was ted cruz. when the cruz campaign put out word that senator cruz would be

making a major announcement at 4:00 yesterday afternoon, prognosticators were basically equally divided whether ted cruz's major announcement was going to be him bowing out of the race, or alternately, maybe it was going to be him overselling some minor indiana political endorsement. as if it were a major deal. the suspense, the mystery. definitely helped drive interest to ted cruz yesterday afternoon. in the end, he neither quit nor announced an endorsement. he instead acted out a sort of sad fantasy in which he had become the republican nominee for president and was therefore expected to name a running mate. yeah. if there is a contested convention on the republican side, one of the best tools ted cruz might have -- one of the best tools he might have at a convention to try to cobble together a nomination would be to be able to horse trade and

negotiate over who will be his running mate. but now with this announcement yesterday that he's already chosen his would-be running mate now, in april -- among other things, among other reasons why maybe that wasn't an awesome idea, it's also true that he would no longer have that tool. he'd no longer have that chit to trade if he does make it to the convention and is trying to convince people to make him the nominee. anyway, that was yesterday. that was ted cruz yesterday. today the follow-up was the other non-donald trump candidate in the republican race, john kasich. john kasich today driving tons of interest and attention to his own political appearance in portland, oregon. his campaign put out word this afternoon that right up at the top of his remarks in oregon, john kasich would be "making comments on the state of the race." when you are in a contest in which 38 states have already voted and you have lost in 37 of those 38 states?

you ar guy who has only won his home state, and yet you are still in the race at this late date -- when your campaign puts out an announcement that you are going to make a statement on the state of the race and you're 1 for 30, everybody only thinks the state of the race can mean one thing. everybody all thinks you are quitting. and so with the anticipation that john kasich might be quitting there were lots of cameras there today in portland, oregon, when he made his big announcement. and indeed, at the top of his remarks, john kasich really did sound like he was going to drop out. but then -- psych. >> thank you, let's get started here. well, look, i appreciate those remarks. and i want to tell you that i got up yesterday, okay, and -- well, i started thinking about my campaign. started thinking about my effort.

you know, we have -- we've done really well when you consider so many of the factors that are involved in politics. we've been outspent about 50-1. no literally. i'm not whining, we just have. now, we had an election -- a bunch of elections. i finished second in four of the five states -- i think we'd had pretty decent returns. then i looked at -- have not really looked at the numbers, was very close in pennsylvania for second. but we didn't win. tiger woods says that, you know, second place is first loser. i always thought that was a very interesting comment he made. you know. in some respects he's right. so i thought about, should i keep going? should i carry on? what is this all about? i was down home yesterday for a short time.

we had people at our home. things were a little bit crazy. and i saw my wife carrying some clothes from the upstairs bedroom down into the closet in the basement. and i said, here, let me grab some of that. we walked down together. and i'm putting this stuff on the hooks down there in our closet. and i said, what do you think, sweetie? i'm inclined to keep going. she looked at me, simple words because she's not a politician. she said, the people need a choice and if you don't give them a choice, who will? so i've decided -- [ cheers and applause ] so i've decided to keep going. >> that was the big announcement today from john kasich's campaign. not quitting. you see everybody else in the room thinking, are we here nor

the moment when he quits? the story about putting the things on the hooks in the closet. oh, not quitting, got it. that's the big announcement. not quitting. but doing so, not quitting in such a loquacious way, stringing everybody along, creating all this big suspense and worry so we'd all gather round to hear john kasich say that things aren't changing at all and they're exactly the same as they were before he gathered us all to listen to him -- i mean, it is a tried and true campaign tactic for candidates who are losing so badly they can't get attention any other way. it's also a high-maintenance move though, right? that may not just be a campaign tactic on the part of john kasich. at least if you ask one of his oldest friends, somebody he has known and work the with for decades. that person made news today by both praising john kasich as a friend, but then also saying that he's really a very needy person. >> then you have john kasich and

i have been friends for 30 years, served in congress together for 10 years. he's been their governor, done a great job as governor of ohio. and, you know, he's running for president. now, while he and i are friends, you know you can have friends that are easy to get along with, easy to be around, fun to be with. then you have some other friends that take some effort on your behalf. he requires more effort on my behalf than all of my friends but together. but he's still my friend and i love him. >> kasich for president! even his oldest friends find him insufferably needy and high maintenance. but he's great! those remarks made by john kerry -- john boehner, formerer speak of the house. we wanted to verify not just that thing he said about john kasich but also these almost unbelievably inflammatory reports from that talk about what john boehner said about another republican presidential candidate, ted cruz.

and it turns out what he said about ted cruz, it's true. he really said it. and it's actually worse than what you heard. and i will warn you there's one little part of this where you're probably going to want to cover your ears if you have tender sensibilities. we're not going to bleep it because it doesn't rise to that level but it is a little off-color so gird your loins, here it comes. >> you'll know if you got the real thing. my entire political record is known for being frank, not that i have to be don't worry -- >> more frank than tactical. how about your opinions on some of the other people running for the highest office in the land? how about ted cruz? >> lucifer in the flesh. i have a great opinion -- i get

along with almost everybody. in washington i have many democrat friends, i have republican friends. i get along with almost everybody. but i have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life. no. over my dead body will he be president. >> over my dead body will he be president. former house speaker john boehner pledging he will do anything to stop ted cruz from being president. he would give his life, over my dead body will he be president. speaker baber calling ted cruz a miserable son of a gun. but he did not say gun. and just in case it all wasn't clear enough, he did also call him lucifer in the flesh. now, that was a matter of some dispute later in the day, when another long-standing prominent republican, congressman peter king of new york, took issue with that. he took issue with john boehner

calling ted cruz the devil incarnate. in congressman peter king's opinion it's not fair to compare ted cruz to the devil because that wrongly casts aspersions on the devil that the devil does not deserve. >> former house speaker john boehner raising some serious eyebrows today with comments about senator ted cruz, calling him lucifer in the flesh. your take on this latest dispute, you know both of these men. >> i fully agree with john boehner. and maybe he gives lucifer a bad name by comparing him to ted cruz. >> when your fellow republicans compare you to satan, and the only rebuke they get for it is from other republicans who say they actually prefer satan to you, that's a good reminder of what ted cruz brings to this presidential race in terms of goodwill built up from his previous career among republican politicians.

>> a good republican would defend ted cruz after tonight. that ain't happening. if you kill ted cruz on the floor of the senate and the trial was in the senate, nobody could convict you. >> we need somebody with experience. and there are a lot of good candidates. i like nearly all of them. >> could you support ted cruz if he ends up with the nomination? >> well, i would -- i might oversleep that day. >> shutting down the government to get your way over an unrelated piece of legislation is the political equivalent of throwing a temper tantrum, it's just not helpful. >> hopefully it will be a major step in letting people know that ted cruz is a fraud and he'll no longer have any influence in the

republican party. >> you said after this vote you could start igoring him. you think it's true? >> i hope so, i hope people get the message this guy's bad for the party. >> peter king speaking there three years ago how much he hated ted cruz then. and how terrible ted cruz was then for the republican party. congressman peter king hasn't forgotten those feelings. he hasn't gotten over them. today he still -- today asked to choose between ted cruz and satan, he said he might pick satan. even before ted cruz started running for president, his fellow republicans hated him with a fire that burns hotter than a thousand suns. then he set about making a whole new list of lifelong enemies among his fellow republicans with the way he has run for president. starting in iowa you might remember when the ted cruz campaign told iowa vote others caucus night that dr. ben carson had dropped out of the race. when dr. ben carson had not at all dropped out of the race. then ted cruz did the same thing to the marco rubio campaign on

the night of the caucuses in hawaii. the ted cruz campaign told everybody in hawaii that marco rubio was about to drop out of the race, when marco rubio was not at all about to drop out of the race. ted cruz is actually now doing another version of that to john kasich in indiana. on sunday night this weekend, the kasich and cruz campaigns jointly announced that they had made a deal wherein john case week stand down in indiana, ted cruz would stand down in oregon and new mexico, in the hopes the two campaigns sort of working in concert, divvying up the spoils, might be able to deny donald trump wins in those three states. now, it's an open question as to whether that kind of a deal was a good idea. it's not an open question as to whether the deal will work. the deal is very plainly off and the candidates are both still meeting with people and campaigning effectively in both states. but there was this deal worked out between the two parties. they did jointly announce it. now ted cruz has gone on the road in indiana and he's telling people in indiana that there is no deal, there's no arrangement

whatsoever, but what the people of indiana need to know is that john kasich has withdrawn from the race. >> i recognize that the media is all eager to talk about an alliance. there is no alliance. john kasich made the decision in his own political self-interest to withdraw from indiana. let me say to folks at home who may have been considering supporting john kasich. john kasich is a good and honorable man. but he has no path to winning and john kasich has pulled out, he's withdrawn from the state of indiana. >> this is why people hate ted cruz. this is why people hate him. they made a keel to divvy up the spoil where they were woo focus -- oh, have you heard john kasich dropped out? this is why people hate ted cruz. but it turns out this is part of a broader thing going on that isn't specific to him. i mentioned there's something going on in politics that democrats will be very happy to hear and that will likely be very concerning to republicans.

and it's a very specific thing. it's new numbers that are just out today from the pew research center. and you can tell that the basic story from the headline, the bottom-line result which should give republicans a little spielkus. the bottom-line result is the republican party is more unpopular in the country right now than it has been in more than two decades. and it's not like americans are in love with the democratic party. but americans definitely like the democratic party a lot more than they like the republican party right now. and it's true across an amazing array of people. white people as a group are the only people who are evenly split in terms of having the same favorability numbers for the two parties. they're even for white people in general. if you break it down by every other measure in the country, americans prefer the democratic party over the republican party and mostly they prefer the democrats by a lot. women, for example, prefer democrats over republicans by 17 points. men prefer democrats as well. black people prefer democrats. hispanic people prefer

democrats. people in every age group prefer democrats over republicans. 18 to 29, 30 to 39, 50 to 64, 65 and over predemocrats to republicans. from high school or less through some college to college grads to post-grads, every demographic group prefers the democratic party to the republican party, mostly by a large margin. i mean, other than the generic amalgamation of white people it's even. but other than that everybody else in the country, every other way you can divide the population, people are more in favor of the democrats than the republicans. mostly by double digits. but here's the thing that's going to keep republicans up tonight. and that is the way these numbers are changing over time. given what's going on right now in republican politics. check this out. the last time pew did this survey was the fall of last year.

so when the presidential race was really heating up. in that time, since last fall, americans' view of the republican party has dropped to just between last fall and now, the view of the republican party has dropped. but the thing that has made it drop the most is the views of republicans themselves. over the course of this presidential campaign, just since last october, the thing that has driven down the view the republican party in this country is republican voters' view of their own party. republicans' favorability for the republican party has dropped 11 points. just since october. the country didn't much like the republican party to begin with. but now it appears that something about this presidential race is causing republicans themselves to turn sharply against their own party. in contrast, look at the democratic party. this is again just from roughly when the presidential race got hot, since last october. the democratic party right now

has its same overall favorability rating as it did last fall. and if you ask democrats what they think about the democratic party, over the course of this presidential campaign, their view of their own party has ticked up a point over the course of the presidential race. democrats have ticked up a point, republicans have dropped 11. and brought the republican party to its least popular point since the early '90s. so there is something about this contest between bernie sanders and hillary clinton that makes democrats like what they see. makes them proud of their party. on the other side there is something about this contest on the republican side with donald trump and ted cruz and all the rest of them that's causing the republican party to curdle, like pouring vinegar into a glass of milk. no wonder people get excited when it seems like one of these guys might quit. i take pictures of sunrises. it's my job and it's also my passion. but with my back pain

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i find it interesting that everybody keeps on asking us to unite the party behind hillary. ten states haven't even voted

yet. and secretary clinton did line up behind president obama, but that was in june. and it was after a little bit of negotiations. >> the interview tonight is jane sanders. she is senior adviser to the bernie sanders campaign and spouse to bernie sanders. and she's here live next.

the democratic party up to now has not been clear about which side they are on on the major issues facing this country. and here is the truth. you can't be for wall street and for the working people of this country. you cannot be for the drug companies and for the needs of

senior citizens and veterans. you cannot be on the side of those workers who have lost their jobs because of disastrous trade agreements and support those corporations who have thrown millions of our workers out on the street. and the democratic party has to reach a fundamental conclusion. are we on the side of working people or big money interests? >> senator bernie sanders speaking today. and speaking of big money, but of a very different kind, of all the candidates who have run for president this year, the candidate who has spent the most money on the campaign is bernie sanders. the sanders campaign has spent more than the clinton campaign, more than all three remaining republican candidates combined.

it's spent more than all three remaining republican candidates combined plus the famously well-funded jeb bush campaign. the sanders campaign has been able to do that because his campaign has turned out to be a fund raising behemoth. millions of mostly small donations from millions of people. but for all that small dollar fund-raising and all that spending, senator sanders has thus far not been able to close the delegate gap with hillary clinton and her campaign seems increasingly confident she's got the democratic nomination all but sewn up. we learn today the clinton campaign is spending zero dollars thus far on tv ads in the remaining primary states on the democratic side, zero dollars in indiana, oregon, kentucky, west virginia, california, anywhere else we can tell that's still outstanding on the democratic calendar. that appears to be the first time since the very first clinton ads went up in iowa and

new hampshire last august. it appears to be the first time since then that the clinton campaign has been off the air in terms of ads. with new numbers out today showing that the republican race has basically turned republican voters against their own party, while the democratic race has made democrats happier than ever with their party, what happens next here? what happens next in the ongoing race between hillary clinton and bernie sanders? joining us for the interview is jane sanders. she's senior advisor to the sanders campaign and of course the wife of senator sanders. mrs. sanders, it's really nice to see you again, thank you so much for being here tonight. >> good to see you, rachel, call me jane. >> i will try. but i get nervous. all right. so there was this politico headline this morning, "jane sanders predicts epic bernie comeback." tell me about the epic bernie comeback, what do you expect? >> well, first, let me just comment on some of the things that you just mentioned. when you mention that he spent more than the candidate, the other candidates, that might be

true, but i think hillary's super pac, one super pac i think spent $76 million i read in a recent story. and the other super pacs are spending a lot of money on her behalf. plus he started -- he hasn't been able to close the gap in delegates. but he started at 3%. and he's now at 49%, 51% in the polls. so we've gone -- the democratic party has gone up a point since october. bernie has gone up 57 points -- no, 47 points since april last year in one year. so, you know, it does cost money to introduce yourself to the rest of the country. and that's unfortunate. and we're very, very grateful to the people that have been able to fund this campaign. through small donations. >> senator sanders -- i'm sorry, i didn't mean to interrupt, go ahead.

>> no, go ahead. >> senator sanders said today in oregon -- i watched that whole speech and i was struck when he talked about wanting to lead a revitalization of american democracy. talked about needing to get people off the sidelines who don't feel like they have an interest in politics, who don't vote. and he also said he wants to lead a revitalization of the democratic party. and clearly he may yet do that as democratic nominee for president. but do you think that at the end of all this he may have a chance to do that in a substantive way if he ends up being the guy who fought hard, did unexpectedly great, and ended up coming in second? does he still have a role to play from $in the kind of revitalization that he's talking about? >> i think he does. and i think that he already has. i was at my grandson's track meet today. and somebody came over and said, i just want to thank you, my 17-year-old son is so involved in politics, we had turned off politics for a long time, now

we're back in the fold, we're just so excited about this race. you're changing how people think. and i thought that was such an interesting way to put it. and i said, what do you mean? you're changing how we think about issues, what we think is possible. so stay in the race. so that was interesting. i think there are a lot of things that we need to do. i saw you last night and you were talking about, what does bernie want? does he just want to change the platform, this piece of paper nobody reads, which we know. i think what we want to do is really change the agenda of the democratic party. what we want to do is say, let's have an open party, have open primaries, have same-day registration. vermont just became the fourth state to pass a law today that allows people to be registered as soon as they apply for any kind of state i.d. and you can opt out and say, i don't want to register. but if you do nothing, you're a

registered voter. we need to address those kinds of things. we need to have real electoral reform. bernie's brought millions of people into this process. and the democratic party through the closed primaries are shutting the door on them. now, if the democratic party wants to grow, i don't know why you would do that. so we want to deal with that. there are a lot of other issues that i think and that he thinks he'll have an impact on. he'd have more of an impact if he's president and leading the country, as well as being the head of the democratic party. if that didn't happen, we'll be talking about a lot of the other things as well. >> i wonder if -- some other data that came out today which is very striking and i'm sure you saw this, for the second straight year your husband, senator sanders, is the single-most popular u.s. senator in the country. when you poll senators' conadvertise wentz, poll people in their own state.

for the second year in a row he is more popular among vermonters than any other senator is among their own constituents. he's already got a lot of sway at home. and the people who know him best like him the most which has always got to be a good sign. now that he's got this massive national and international profile, obviously he wants to be the nominee and i know you expect that he will be the nominee. i wonder how you -- do you see like an organizing for america type vehicle ent companying the way that happened for president obama? do you see an organization being formed out of the sanders-centered movement that has sprung up around his campaign? >> yes. that's always been the intent. i mean, as he said right from the beginning, it's been a two-prong approach. run for president, and the most important thing is not electing bernie president, the most important thing is starting a political revolution. bernie's said that since the day he announced.

and today i'm sure he's said it in oregon. so that will have to continue. if he's the nominee, he wants people outside working with him to effect real change. if he's not the nominee and he's not the president, then it becomes even more important because we need to make sure that the agenda that about 9 million people have been very excited about and a lot more couldn't vote for yet, that that agenda moves forward. we want to close the revolving door between the executive branch and lobbyists and wall street and pharmaceutical firms and have -- we have a very big agenda. you've heard a lot of it already. on the stump with bernie. but there's just some things that could be changed pretty easily if people came together and they focused on them. kind of one at a time. >> and a lot of those, frankly

in short order, could be changed within the democratic party which has the power to change the way that it runs its own elections, just for starters. jane sanders, wife and senior adviser to bernie sanders. i know you have a million demands on your time. thank you very much for being with us tonight. it's really nice to have you here. >> thank you. thanks for having me, rachel.

ve just arrived in atlanta and i can't wait to start telling people how switching to geico could save them hundreds of dollars on car insurance. but first, my luggage. ahh, there it is. uh, excuse me, sir? i think you've got the wrong bag. sorry, they all look alike, you know? no worries. well, car's here, i can't save people moy chatting at the baggage claim all day. geico®. fifteen minus could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. fight heartburn fast. with tums chewy delights. the mouthwatering soft chew that goes to work in seconds to conquer heartburn fast. tum tum tum tum. chewy delights. only from tums. man 1: i came as fast as i man 2: this isn't public yet. man 1: what isn't? man 2: we've been attacked. man 1: the network? man 2: shhhh.

man 1: when did this happen? man 2: over the last six months. man 1: how did we miss it? man 2: we caught it, just not in time. man 1: who? how? man 2: not sure, probably off-shore, foreign, pros. man 1: what did they get? man 2: what didn't they get. man 1: i need to call mike... man 2: don't use your phone. it's not just security, it's defense. bae systems. it's really nice to have jane sanders here for the interview. let me say this in public. president clinton, former

president bill clinton, i've interviewed jane sanders twice now, it doesn't seem fair that i haven't been able to talk to you. so please, sir, you'd be welcome any time. all right, with that said, this has been such a long campaign, there's a lot of enmity, a lot of feelings, particularly on the democratic side. just a good moment, a palace cleanser, i want to show you this one thing. behold, kind world. the bernie sanders doughnut. in the epic revolving doughnut case at voodoo doughnuts in eugene, oregon. today bernie sanders has won 17 points, thousands more people came out to hear him speak today on the west coast. but you ask, how do you know you've made it in life? here's the answer. revolving doughnut face. if you've really made it in life, you can stand and just wait for yourself to reappear in fried dough and frosting all day. all day. to warn of danger

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>> unlikely that u.s. troops will ever return here. that was five years ago. that was what vice president joe biden said in iraq the week after thanksgiving in 2011. that 2011 trip, it was his 16th trip to iraq. that was about one month before nearly all u.s. troops were set to leave iraq. the end of that very long war. it was supposed to be the end of the war, right? that was five years ago. 2011. well, today five years later, vice president biden went back to iraq for his 17th trip to that country. it's his first trip since u.s. troops left in 2011 with the u.s. government saying at the time it would be unlikely they would ever return. by the thousands, though, of course, u.s. troops have since returned. vice president biden in baghdad today spoke at the u.s. embassy. he talked about his late son beau biden and beau's time serving in iraq. he thanked u.s. soldiers, he thanked embassy employees for

the sacrifices they are making in iraq. five years after the u.s. military left in what was one of the largest movements of military equipment anywhere in the world since world war ii, five years after vice president biden said it was unlikely u.s. troops would ever return to iraq, today there are nearly 5,000 u.s. troops back in iraq. look at this just to give you a sense of sort of how far we've come. this was vice president biden arriving in baghdad on november 29th, 2011. some five years ago. getting off a c-17 military transport plane. you see the guys at the bottom of the stairs there? he's flanked by two guys not in uniform but standing at attention, private security guards wearing khakis. that was five years ago. here was vice president biden today. five years later, getting off another c-17. again flanked at the bottom of the stairs by guys not in uniform. guys wearing polo shirts and

khakis. and big arm muscles. five years later, it's the same old security contractors, right? private security contractors. the same private security contractors you remember from all the controversy about them in the older iteration of the iraq war. it turns out that is still how we bodyguard american vips when they travel to baghdad. meanwhile, back at home, we are in the middle of a presidential election in full swing. and that is happening while the u.s. military starts a whole huge new u.s. mission in iraq. u.s. troops doctoring to be working alongside iraqi forces to try to retake the giant, sprawling city of mosul from isis, which controls mosul right now. what are the positions of the candidates who want to be president? how do they feel about u.s. troop levels in iraq rising back up to a level approaching 5,000? what is their policy on this war going forward and when does the u.s. presidential election start turning to those questions?

how is this going to look going forward? will we ever expect the optics in iraq to change? joining us now is courtney kuby, nbc news national security adviser, traveled with vice president biden in iraq in 2009, thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> can you tell me about first of all the -- basically the scale of the escalation right now in iraq? it seems to me like we've gone basically from zero to almost 5,000 in just the space of like a couple of years or less. >> well, it's very incremental. we're seeing this increase of a couple hundred at a time, just like secretary carter announced last week in iraq, about 200 more u.s. troops will head there. this is in advance of this enormous mosul offensive that you just mentioned. so it's incremental but as you said there are now allocated there can be more than 4,000 u.s. troops there, the real number is over 5,000 u.s. troops there. the reality is as this mosul

offensive comes closer and closer that number is likely to continue to increase as they realize additional capabilities, additional needs going in towards mosul in the coming months. >> in terms of u.s. decision-making around this, u.s. politics or the lack thereof around this issue, we have just had surprise visits to iraq from the defense secretary ash carter and then from the secretary of state john kerry and now we've got vice president biden today. why are all these high-level surprise visits happening in such a short time? >> well, so secretary kerry and vice president biden were sort of more on the political side. they were going there to send this message to prime minister abadi that the iraqis need to unify. the problem is this enormous battle for mosul is going to be multi-sectarian. that means the shia, sunnis, and the kurdish, the peshmerga, are going to have to be involved if they expect to take back this enormous, sprawling city. it will take 10 to 12 iraqi brigades to even encircle the city.

the iraqis need to unite, unify. that's what secretary kerry and vice president biden were saying, that was the message they were sending. secretary carter was more a tactical message. he was there to talk about some specifics. you heard him announce last week the additional troops, they're also sending in more assets, more helicopters. these are things that are very specific, very tactical for the oncoming strategy to encircle or re take mosul in the coming months, realistically in the coming year. >> and in terms of ugs decision making and the u.s. politics or the lack there of around this issue, we have had surprise visits from defense secretarier ash carter and we have vice president biden today.

are there factions going on or is it a policy that is done and dusted and it's a matter of enacting it? >> the policy hasn't changed for the policy. since the first in iraq or in syria. the administration officials have been consistent about that, the degradation of things in syria. they said it was going to be a very small footprint, advising and assisting and helping the iraqi security forces, training security on the ground, opposition forces. that has really shifted and we saw that implementation of that at a lower level. battalions headed in battle in mosul. the u.s. military will be closer

to the fight. moving closer and closer to mosul as the iraqi security forces move in to clear that city. that is a small tactical change that in the end could have a big impact back here on the political argument, the political conversation if one actually emerges about this. because we are likely to see americans in harm's way. >> when you talk about them being close to the line. and we are talking about americans getting hurt and killed. >> exactly. courtney kuby, thank you for helping us understand it all. >> thank you. >> after that, what you need, we have a best new thing in the world. stay with us.

yesterday, donald trump gave a foreign policy speech and mispronounced the name of tanzania. newt gingrich raced to the twitter and said, he said the most important world correctly. america. he gets it. now, that is an embarrassing tweet. but like many embarrassing tweets, it will soon be forgotten. it will get a national holiday. really embarrassing tweets get that.

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aleve pm for a better am. a few years ago i was stuck on a train. sitting there and not moving fn an hour. no announcements. i decided to take matters in my own hands and see if i would dpig your what was going on. i tried to search amtrak to see if there is news about our delay. i'm what you would call technologically inept on twitter. instead of searching the word, i tweeted the word amtrak. i do not know how to use the internet. amtrak. also, my train was still not moving. sitting there, and stuck. i was reading funny responses to my weird mistake, so i deleted that tweet. this isn't the original amtrak tweet.

we had to recreate it. the original is gone. i killed it. i deleted it and that is what happens to a lot of online misfires. you realize your mistake, you delete and it move on. but every once in a while, you are the head of finance in the uk and it turns out your name is ed balls. and instead of just going away, ed balls tweeting ed balls, gets retweeted more than 70,000 times. and ultimately, it gets its own holiday. today is the anniversary of him tweeting his name. and people tweeting his name or paying homage. today we learned he is apparently willing to sign pictures of his tweet.

and his wife, today, tweeted ed balls twice three minutes apart. she demanded her husband bake a cake to celebrate ed balls day. i said how i was mid led to delete it. isn't me. this is ed balls we are talking about. and he has no fear. he baked his wife a cake. that is a cake that is maybe the greatest tweet ever tweeted. el balls, you are a hero and you have inspired me to bake a cake. i am going to send a tweet that says amtrak. i'm going to do it. i'm going to undelete that mistake. happy ed balls day, everybody. the best holiday of all time. celebration of what goes wrong but isn't awful with an excellent cake. that does it for us tonight.

e we will see you tomorrow. now time if the the last word can lawrence o'donnell". >> is your donald trump locater working tonight? is your donald trump locater working tonight? >> he is in california tonight. and as you may know, since you grew up there, they're not in the same time zone we are. it's actually three hours earlier. which means, i might get live donald trump. >> the west coast donald trump. >> he is in orange county, california. and the control room's going to be watching. i guess if they like it, they will do live donald trump and i will sit back and watch the show. >> good luck with that. i will get new batteries in my detector. >> thanks. >> today, john boehner proved once again there is no