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good morning. i'm al sharpton. welcome to a special edition of politics nation. these are live pictures from the world raid center site here in new york where later this hour a so let me ceremony will mark the tragedy. similar ones will be held at the pentagon and pennsylvania. 15 years later the attacks are still shaping the public and political debate. who is fit to be commander and chief? how do we keep america safe? what do we do about antimuslim rhetoric and how is the terror threat different now than it was

15 years ago. >> over the past week national security has been the focus of the race. >> hillary clinton is trigger happy. >> he was for the war in iraq. he says he wasn't. >> i was opposed to the war in the beginning. >> the generals have been reduced to rubble. >> i view force as a last resort and not a first choice. >> if we would have taken the oil you wouldn't have isis. >> we're going to defeat isis without committing american ground troops. >> a path to nuclear weapons. >> we have made the world safer. >> all of these issues are front and center as we remember the thousands we lost on 9/11 and in

the years since. >> joining me now is joe crowley. his cousin a firefighter died on 9/11. congressman, thank you for being here. >> thank you. great to be with you again. >> you know, even 15 years later, it must be still very hard on your family. >> it's hard to believe first of all that 15 years has gone by. it's the blink of an eye. i can remember 9/11 like it was yesterday and in many respects one of the bright spots my cousin john was 42 when he was killed. i'm 54 now. he was my older cousin. i'm 12 years older than he is now and all the great things about him and what family focuses on as well as what a great man he was and all the men and women lost that day. >> i know a few and the difficulty with the family.

but let me ask you something as a legislator. 15 years later what have we done right and what have we done wrong? are we better now? or are we worse now or pretty much in the same place in terms of fighting terrorism in the country? >> it's evolving. it's obviously 15 years is a very long time. what we have done right we haven't had a major terrorist attack outside of the boston incident. we had smaller incidents taking place. >> why are we hearing more antimuslim rhetoric now? it's very strange to me that the

islamaphobia is more vocal now? >> it's part of the politic and unfortunately we have someone running for office today that has no control over what he says. he has a problem. he does not have the ability to control what he says and that has certainly lent itself, especially during the silly season of elections where things are said and for if you weres i think of being inciting and that's what mr. trump has done. >> what does she get that donald trump doesn't? >> the one thing she gets that donald trump is incapable of understanding is human beings. she is remarkable person and wol

a woman and someone i have known personally. that is not matched by her opponent and even in the days of 9/11, her approach to it as a senator and human being, seeing those that are incredible as well as addressing the issue of the safety of new yorkers and our state and our country and that separates the two. what were they doing during that time? and clearly in my opinion mr. trump was off the stage. not on the stage whatsoever. >> what are you doing the rest of the day? >> going from here to ground zero and meeting with secretary clinton and being introspective and thinking about my family.

>> all of us are remembering these days in our own ways because all of us lost some people 15 years ago today. thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you. >> the legacy of 9/11 has been a key part of the presidential race since the beginning. donald trump started making false claims about muslim which is hillary clinton was still refuting on the campaign trail just last month. >> people were cheering. people in new jersey were watching it. those that were cheering as the buildings came down. not good. >> he has continued pushing discredited conspiracy theories with racist undertones. you remember. he said that thousands of american muslims in new jersey cheered the 9/11 attacks.

they didn't. >> why are they arguing about muslims and what was done or not done in terms of muslims. the muslim tag that they're trying make as a broad statement about a faith we didn't hear. >> in the days following 9/11 i had gone to ground zero with the then senator hillary clinton where she had done a great job in comforting people. in the days following that,

president bush as well as senator clinton and others went and met muslims. many went to mosques. this is a small group of terrorists we're trying to get and bush was very careful on this issue and this is what is so alarming about what donald trump is doing. if we want to have any hope of staying safe we need intelligence from the muslim community. if we want hope of repairing this world we have to stop bashing muslims and if we have a president that is on record as mb that me lines muslims we're in a world of hurt. >> why didn't we see this emerge in the 2008 election, 2012?

even 2004 which was the election right after 2001, the attack. it was never like this. in terms of trying to identify all muslims as terrorists and so forth. >> part of it has to do, if we're all being honest, with the fact that you have donald trump saying he at one point wanted to ban all muslims now. muslims that are born in foreign territory and the idea is now thinking about banning countries that maybe are like of muslim descent even though countries aren't of muslim descent but this idea that you have a presidential candidate talking like this and it's resinating with his supporters. when i'm on the trail talking to people they're echoing back what donald trump is saying in the ralliesful these are our enemies and part of that they're saying these other people, they're

identifying this race and this one religion and saying these people are the problem and that's in some ways very tough to do because i was just talking to someone that was muslim this morning and talking about 9/11 and he remembers feeling so depressed on so sad that one that muslims would carry this out but muslims died on 9/11 and served in the army. i kwuzused to cover arlington cemetery. they were put in the ground along with every other religion. >> there was no religious test before they hit the world raid center to say muslims get out or buddhists get out or whoever. everyone was victimized together. i want to ask a question about the public views of national security based on what you said. when we look at the poll, r550% say they trust clinton more on national security.

37% trust trump. how important will national security issues be to the outcome of this election? >> part depends on whether there's another incident between now and the election. that would change things. and you have to have a certain temperament and disposition. imagine if trump had been president on 9/11. i don't think he would have reacted in the calm fashion that president bush reacted in at that time. it comes down to when this person has all of our lives in his or her hands what kind of person are are they like in a crisis? and you can make that judgment based on whether they say reckless things. one other thing on muslims

attacking all muslims, this is what the terrorists want because if there's an american president that attacks all muslims it's easier for them to recruit other terrorists. >> when i'm out on the trail there's people that are really terrorized in their homes by the idea of isis. the idea that 15 years later that al qaeda, we would have been talking about a whole new group of people. people feel that. >> if that is what trump is using to sway voters? >> what amazes me in in respects is that as we did the set up to the opening of the show about 9/11 and bin laden, they don't give credit to president obama for getting bin laden who everybody was focused on 15 years ago but it seems like trump has been able to sway some according to public debate. >> some of the supporters feel that president obama hasn't been

strong enough. >> he got bin laden. >> part of what i'm hearing on the trail is people say they feel like he is not really saying that muslims and -- at least some muslims, radical muslims that he isn't naming that or saying that's a real issue and a lot of people feel as though that's just not. >> that's a real talking point. >> it's something to the lives lost today. really it's not in the fitting way to remember them and to bring the country together on this day. thank you for your time today. >> we'll be back with the terror threat from then and now. from isis to lone wolf gunman. how to fight the new face of terror. this say peshl editispecial edi "politics nation". 15 years after 9/11.

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live pictures from the world trade center site here in new york where donald trump and hillary clinton are attending a ceremony. it will begin to mark the 15 years since 9/11 terror attacks very shortly. in that period of time the terror threat evolved. u.s. air strikes are now targeting a group that didn't even exist 15 years ago. 14 people were killed in a work place shooting inspired by radical islam. 49 people were killed by a lone wolf attacker in an orlando night club. these attacks put the country on

edge and lead to false alarms at airports that have sent hundreds scrambling for cover. joining me now is msnbc terror analyst malcolm nance. his latest book is called defeating isis. he was an eyewitness to the 9/11 attack at the pentagon and first responder at that site. >> are officials now worried more about a lone wolf shooter than 9/ 11? >> al qaeda is a very different version. al qaeda was more like professional intelligence organization. it took five levels of authorization to get in there and then they would train you as a super spy and infiltrate you to another country which is what

we saw on 9/11. high ambitious plans. isis is more like a flash mob and they put the ideology out and an individual anywhere in the world that wants to claim they're with isis can do so. >> a recent poll shows the public perception about our security. 26% say we're safer but 40% say we're less safe. 30% says there's no change. in your analysis, is the nation, has it become safer or less safe since 9/11, 2001? >> i think the nation itself is much safer. from a strategic perspective, that is much, much more difficult. but we're seeing terrorism in the united states now. individuals were actually americans that have come here or

buy into the ideology or through some mental defect decide to carry out the act of terrorism and we're responding to them in the same way as the 9/11 attacks. we have to tone this down. the order of magnitude of 9/11 versus an individual shooter is much different but we are much safer. >> in your new book called defeating isis you say it's critical to enlist the muslim world as allies in the fight. tell me about that. >> well, we have been doing this for the last 15 years and i'm dumbfounded at the rhetoric from politicians coming out and saying islam is the problem. muslims are the problem. all of our allies in the middle east. all of our national spreinteres are muslims that we have to work with and cooperate with. they're risking their lives as deeply as we are. >> some lost their lives. >> absolutely. >> 15 years ago you were a

witness at the pentagon attack and you were a first responder on a personal level. what does this moment mean to you? >> you know, i spent a long time trying not to manage 9/11. for 15 years i made sure that have been busy. certainly helping out in the counter terror i feel fight. i wear 9/11 every morning. i have a rescuers ring that has my name and the pentagon engraved on it. so i live it every day. what i think is most important for people to understand is this is an exercise of national unity. we were all attacked on 9/11 and not just us but the rest of the world was attacked as well and the people that did it are trying to hijack a religion and trying to validate their

ideology to take the place of 1.6 billion innocent people. we all have to work together as a global team. one team, one fight. >> malcolm nance. thank you for your time this morning. >> my pleasure. >> we'll be right back with my parting thoughts on this somber day. [monster noises] ♪ take on any road with intuitive all-wheel drive. the nissan rogue, murano and pathfinder now get 0% apr for 72 months, plus $500 bonus cash. justice is spelled b-o-x. say hello to a powerful tool that gives you options to fit your budget. ♪ oh, i'm tied to this chair! ♪

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