from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning on what is a solemn day of remembrance on this 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. this morning a huge american flag was unfurled at the pentagon to note the attack there in lower manhattan. a moment of silence observed at 8:46 a.m. eastern time. that of course marked the moment when the very first plane flight 11 flew into the north tower of the world trade center. almost immediately afterwards families began reading the

names. >> lee adler. >> edward l. -- >> all told there are six moments of silence this morning including one for the crash of flight 93 in shanksville, pennsylvania. president obama made remarks at the pentagon earlier today. and he is already observed another moment of silence at the white house. we've got a lot to get to this morning including the latest on the presidential campaign. a slew of new polls both nationally and in the battleground states. interviews with homeland security chief jeh johnson and one of the bush administration's most important supporters of the war in iraq, paul wolf wits. but first, there was some breaking news with hillary clinton and her health, and for that we're going to go to my colleague kristen welker in new york city. so, kristen, what we do know is that she left the 9/11 ceremony in new york city early, apparently had some sort of episode. tell me more details.

>> reporter: left about 9:30, the campaign saying she wasn't feeling well. secretary clinton attended the september 11th commemoration this morning to pay respects and greet some of the families of the fallen. during the ceremony she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter's apartment and is feeling much better. that is where we caught up with her moments ago. she left chelsea clinton's apartment, which is where i am right now, walked outside unassisted. we asked her how she's feeling. she said she's feeling much better. i think we have some of that video that we're playing right now. i also asked her what happened. we asked her that question multiple times. she didn't respond. she said instead it's a beautiful day in new york. she did pause to talk to a child who was walking by. and then she got into her van and drove off. we don't know where she's heading right now. but, chuck, a little bit of broader political context here, as we have been reporting there have been some republican conspiracy theories about her health saying that she's not in good health. the clinton campaign has pushed

back strongly against that. and so has secretary clinton's physician saying she is in fine health in order to serve as president of the united states. we see no indication that she's not in good health. she has had a few coughing fits from time to time. she says that's seasonal allergies. we asked her about that just a few days ago, in fact. but there's no doubt that the timing of this unwelcome from the perspective of the campaign, the polls are getting tighter as we have been reporting on all week long. so this is not something they want to be dealing with right now as they head into this final fall fight. but again, secretary clinton just leaving daughter chelsea's apartment after having left the 9/11 memorial early. and she says she's feeling much better, chuck. >> kristen welker, thank you very much. before we go to remembering some of the other parts of 9/11, tom brokaw, you were there, you were for many people the person that was explaining what happened that morning. i know it's seared in the memories of anybody, particularly in washington and new york that morning. and here we are in the midst of a presidential election that feels nothing like the mood of

the country post-9/11. >> no, that was the longest day of my life, certainly. and i think one of the worst days in america. it really launches into a war in the wrong country at a terrible cost in terms of lives lost and the amount of money that we've spent, 15 years later that war is still going on. the consequences of 9/11 are felt every day. and families that by the way represent less than 1% of the american population that are fighting that war. i still find that an outrage frankly that the people at the lower end of the scale are the ones raising their hands and going into harm's way. we didn't know immediately what had happened, but of course terrorism rose right to the occasion because what had been going on with the taliban and osama bin laden in afghanistan. they had one earlier attempt on the world trade center, unsuccessful. this one was beyond belief, quite frankly. i kept saying to my colleagues, just tell them what we know. we can't speculate here. it was a tough day. >> it certainly was. tom brokaw, a lot more on this

in the show. tom, thanks very much. earlier today i spoke with homeland security secretary jeh johnson who of course runs a cabinet agency that didn't exist on 9/11. he was standing a few blocks north of the new world trade center. let me start with a grim poll number that came out this week, a majority of americans say we're less safe today than we were before 9/11. why do you think americans feel this way? >> that's a good question, chuck. americans have seen the attack in orlando. they have seen the attack in san bernardino. they see what's happening overseas. they see what's happening in western europe, in france and belgium and elsewhere. and they're rightly concerned about our current security environment. we're safer now when it comes to another 9/11 style attack, but we're challenged when it comes to the prospect of the lone wolf actor, the home grown violent extremist. and that requires a new whole of government response, and public

participation and vigilance as well, by the way. >> you said in a recent interview you said we have to be concerned about all ranges of attacks, i never categorize anything as low priority. but we have to look at what's high risk and what's less high risk and spend our time accordingly. so what does that mean? is there just some holes always going to be there in our security system? >> i wouldn't put it that way at all. we've got people devoted to all manner of threats out there. invariably the high probability -- higher probability type of threat, another san bernardino, another orlando, is uppermost on our minds. it is the thing that keeps me up at night the most. but we've got threats from -- you know, in cyber security. we've got a mission devoted to the potential for a bio threat. a dirty bomb. we've got to keep our eye on all

of it, but obviously there are things that are higher probability. there are things that are lower probability but higher impact. and we've got to keep our eye on all of it. >> you know, would you say today -- are you concerned that syria today is as unstable and as much of a safe haven for terrorists as afghanistan was in the late '90s? and should that concern us considering what afghanistan brought or what happened inside of afghanistan that led to 9/11, should we be concerned that what's happening in syria could lead to a new 9/11? >> chuck, i said in february 2014 that syria had become a matter of homeland security. our u.s. military along with our international partners have done a good job of taking back territo territory, taking out the leaders of isil, taking out those focused on external attacks. but, yes, we have to be concerned that syria could become another afghanistan. any time a terrorist organization can establish

territory, take territory, have a place to headquarter, to train, recruit, that's obviously a big concern. and it's a big homeland security concern, yes, sir. >> you know, one of the other things you've been having to talk about and deal with lately is this threat or perceived threat to our election system, russia apparently is trying to infiltrate in some ways. but are they trying to create actual havoc? or are they trying to create the illusion of havoc? >> well, the investigation into the various intrusions we've seen including the dnc hack is still under investigation, i will say this. it would be very hard to alter a ballot count in a national election to change the vote tally just because our election system is so decentralized. there are some 9,000 jurisdictions that are involved. i've been sending the message to state and local officials that we ought to do our utmost to protect their online presence, their internet presence and the department of homeland

security's in a position to help if they ask. but they have to ask first. >> today is your birthday. and i've got a cousin who has 9/11 as a birthday. and i know it's awkward for her. how do you handle your birthday? >> well, i always take occasion to remember what happened 15 years ago. i'm here in new york this year. i was in shanksville last year. i've spent 9/11 at the pentagon. i don't celebrate my birthday on my birthday anymore. either the day before or the day after, i'm not sure i'll ever be in a position to celebrate my birthday again on 9/11 given the huge impression this day made on me. >> absolutely. jeh johnson, i know it's very personal for you. i know you were in new york city on the day of the attacks. and it's a very emotional day as well. thanks for spending a few minutes with me. >> thanks for having me on, chuck. >> you got it. turning now to the 2016 campaign. we have a new "the washington post"/abc poll out this morning

has hillary clinton with a five-point lead over donald trump among likely voters 46-41. we have some new nbc news/"the wall street journal"/marist battleground polls, but we begin with what perhaps is turn sboog a rough weekend for hillary clinton. it's not unusual for the trump campaign trying to find themselves explaining a controversial issue from the candidate. but this weekend it's the clinton campaign scrambling to explain what she meant when she took a hit at trump supporters. criticism that drew immediate attention. >> you can put half of trump's supporters into what i call the basket of the deplorables, the racist, sexist, islamophobia -- >> clinton made the remark that republicans hope voters will never forget. >> hillary, they are not a basket of anything. they are americans, and they

deserve your respect. >> the trump campaign quickly demanded an apology and tried to capitalize. trump tweeted, wow. hillary clinton was so insulting to my supporters, millions of amazing hard working people. i think it will cost her at the polls. there's a history of presidential candidates becoming too comfortable in friendly crowds. in 2012, mitt romney was caught on tape at a closed door fundraiser dismissing voters with this line that some republicans believe lost him the election. there are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. all right. there are 47% who are with him, who believe that they are victims. >> in 2008, it was barack obama also at a fundraiser talking about how job losses had made working class americans feel. >> it's not surprising then that they get bitter and they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them. >> how will clinton's opponents

attack her? just ask her. this is what she said about obama's voters in 2008. >> i was taken aback by the amazing remark senator obama made about people in small town america. senator obama's remarks are elitist and out of touch. >> told "the washington post" on saturday that clinton shouldn't have to apologize, still clinton rushed to explain releasing this statement. last night i was grossly jenlistjenl i generalistic and that's never a good idea. i regret saying half, that was wrong. but let's be clear it's deplorable that trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices. clinton said something similar this week to israeli tv, but didn't use the word half. >> i would say you can take trump supporters and put them in two big baskets, there are what i call the deplorables. they're racist and, the haters. it takes democrats and republicans -- >> the comments come just as clinton is trying to show voters

her warmer side. after a veterans forum where she appeared on the defensive and lawyerly at times. >> i communicated about classified material on a wholly separate system. >> and it changes the subject from trump, who floundered at the empvent on substance. praise of vladimir putin -- >> this that system he's been a leader far more than our president has been a leader. >> reporter: even sitting down for an interview with larry king on state-sponsored russian television where he trashed american institutions. it left republicans scrambling. >> vladimir putin is not a president. he's a dictator. >> i think this is the biggest miscalculation since people thought hitler was a good guy. >> are you still convinced that he is the best choice for national security issues? thank you. >> thanks. >> let me bring in the panel this morning, tom brokaw of course is back with us. joining us for the first time, adi cornish, host of all things considered on npr.

stephanie cutter, "new york times" columnist david brooks. here's the headline this morning, clinton's deplorables remark sums up a deplorable election season. david brooks, what was your reaction when you first heard? >> first it was terrible week for politics. we've had a race to the bottom before, but this is at like speed usain bolt speed to the bottom. i was struck by another sentence in that quote about the deplorables that they are ir redeemable. there's a reason no religions believe that. you're saying they somehow lack redeemable souls, lesser category of human beings and that's just a dark, dark world view. and that's always been the risk with clinton. as president she could be very hard working very efficient, but there's a dark world view seminixonian lurking in there. >> stephanie, do you think it's tough to defend the remark of deplorables?

>> absolutely not. i think her only mistake is that she said half of his supporters were deplorable. does anybody around this table have they not seen trump's rallies? have they not seen trump's own remarks? he is attracting a certain type of voter. she gave a whole speech on describing them. they're called the alt-right. and they tweet racist things, he retweets them. he says it from the stump. from research in this election we know that his own words calling mexicans rapists, criticizing a gold star family, these are the most potent things against him with independent voters. so what she said was not wrong. her only mistake was that she described half of his supporters that way. >> i want to put up a tweet here, the atlantic just put up a tweet, hillary clinton was right, tom brokaw, in describing. he admits, he wrote a piece saying politically incorrect perhaps. >> well, here's what's so striking to me is that what half of his voters are in that category of being ir redeemably

racist and homo phobic, if i'm a hardware dealer at a small town in ohio and i'm trying to make up my mind, you got to wake up the next morning and think is she talking about me? i'm kind of inclined toward trump but is that what her thought toward me is? she also did this at a manhattan high stakes fundraiser. that separates her, i think, from the rest of the country in a way. and you could watch her demeanor there. it was all quite jolly, everybody was laughing and applauding at it. i don't think that that's what she needs at this point in her life because out there there are still a lot of people saying i don't quite trust hillary. give me a reason to -- >> why is it though donald trump gets credit for being politically incorrect? telling it like it is. and hillary clinton some i think some of her supporters saying she is just doing what trump does, telling it like it is. >> right, i think we can put aside for a second that there is a segment of trump supporters which surveys have shown do have people with beliefs of being islamophobiaic and he's

retweeted white nationalists and we've had the discussion about the alt-right. but putting that aside for a second, what it does is confirms what his supporters already believe, right? which is that essentially he is this bull work against so-called pc culture. he's the one leading the charge against that. and they are upset that their concerns are routinely dismissed out of hand as being racist or retrograde. and he's the person who's been out there saying no, no, no you're perfectly normal. something's quote/unquote wrong here. and she basically confirmed something they believe, democrats don't just think that they're wrong, but like look down on them. >> candidates should not be soshologists. they should not be pundits, they should not sit there at sipr arks eiani in new york where the fundraiser was held not making just gross generations about people. even people say repugnant things at trump rallies are complicated and driven by complicated fears and anxietieanxieties, so the tu hate the sin but don't hate the

sinner applies to politics as well. >> let me do a pause here. we're literally going to come right back and have this conversation. i also have new battleground state polls in four states, two from the traditional battleground and two from perhaps an expanded battleground. and later, the 9/11 attacks led to the war in iraq. i'll talk to a prominent member of president george w. bush's administration, paul wolfowitz. >> mandy chang. >> rosa maria. >> grigorio -- like centurylink's broadband network that gives 35,000 fans a cutting edge game experience. or the network that keeps a leading hol chain's guests connected at work, and at play. or the it platform that powers millions of ecards every day for one of the largest greeting card companies. businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink.

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welcome back. more now on the presidential campaign, we have now nbc "the wall street journal" polls from four states and the results pretty much confirm what we've been seeing over the last ten days. this race is getting closer. we'll start with the traditional battle ground state of new hampshire in a four-way race, clinton leads donald trump by a point. 37-36 among likely voters in new hampshire, not much difference, clinton is up by two. 39-37. by the way, look at the gary johnson number, the highest we've measured in any battle ground state. 15 in new hampshire. they do have a libertarian bend to them a little bit. next is nevada, clinton by two points, 41-39 but look what happens when you have a likely voter sample, turns into a trump lead. though narrow 42-41. keep in mind democrats won new hampshire in five of the last six elections and taken nevada in four of the last six so these should be states that favor clinton. let's look at two red states in arizona, clinton and trump are

tied at 37 among registered voters. among likely voters trump gets the slight advantage here. trump is up 40-48. look at the double digits for gary johnson that governed a neighboring state of arizona in new mexico and in georgia, clinton has a one-point lead among registered voters but among likely voters, it's trump who gains. he's at 44-42. it's worth remembering that democrats haven't won either arizona or georgia since bill clinton won each once. it is significant hillary clinton has managed to put them in play. david brooks, i want to start with a column you wrote about this idea of a realignment is coming. politics is catching up to social reality. the crucial social divide is between those who feel the core trends of the global information age economy at tailwinds at their back and those who feel them as head winds at the phase and i can point you to this break down in the poll among college educated voters, she's up 20.

among non-college educated voters, he's up 20. >> for the last 20 years, if you look how people behaved, you can do huge predictions whether they completed college. how often do they vote? how many friends do they have? what's their marriage like. there are just big chasms open up socially. it opens up socially and this is the first election we have seen them reflected in the political polling and so my question and this is really a serious worry, suppose one party is less and headwinds and that would be the republican party and another party is the party of the tailwinds, and that would be the democratic party. suppose the partisan realignment over laps with the close alignment and that to me is extremely problematic for what it is. >> isn't that what we see now? >> this is a profound shift because republicans are representing those who don't have a college education. we've all grown up with republicans who were at the high end of the income scale and are the elitist in american life. this has been turned upside down. i think the big, big issue in

this country and this election, cutting away everything else is what david talked about, how do we pull the country back together again? it's separating and going in different directions and there is not been either candidate whose been able to give a city shining on a hill speech like ronald reagan or i have a dream like dr. ken because they are so determined to separate the country and that is, i think, a terrible prescription for the future. >> it's going to be like that as long as there is identity based partisanship. i mean, i think we've always talked about the different groups that aligned with the parties, but if you think about social media networks, like the idea you see only the news about the stuff you care about delivered to your phone every day, i think the silos of where we live and the silos of the information we're taking in is actually exacerbating the problem. >> there are so many different reasons that we've ended up at this place. some that we can control, some we can't control but i think in addition to the political realignment that's happening, i think that the most pressing issue is whoever wins the white house in november, there is

going to be a huge chunk of americans who are going to feel unrepresented and not heard. >> and angry about it. >> and angry about it. >> look at the reaction -- >> very high unfavorables. so the mandate to govern will be very, very difficult and that's something that hopefully, democrats and republicans will look at each other and say this is it, we got to do something. >> we could have a winner at 42%. everybody is at 42, 43, 48. that's like minority leader government. i think we got to do something about it. mayor rahm emanuel of chicago has an idea. every kid that graduates spends some sort of three months in a national service so kids are with kids and just three months would make a difference. >> i thought national service would be a given. we've been talking about national service my whole adult life and i can't believe we're not there. >> i'm involved with an academy of public service. we had 100 enroll lees last

year, 250 this year. and by the way, when hillary clinton borrows the line from bernie sanders, we'll give free college education to families with $125,000 a year, she ought to say and if you get that, you've got to get with your public service when you graduate or two years. it ought to come with a price tag for them otherwise it looks like a government giveaway. chuck, i think we cannot overstate the importance and the effect of social media in this campaign. it's going on even as we speak here and the kind of vitreal on both sides that's out there and people have a hard time deciding what's real and what's not. >> i want to bring it back to deplorables. against any other candidate against any other year, this is a really fatal mistake for her but have we been conditioned to this harsh rhetoric? >> i don't think people have been conditioned to rhetoric. if they were, then you wouldn't have a whole segment of the

republican party that aren't for trump. i mean, what she really was speaking to were those people, republican voters who haven't made up their mind because they are very uncomfortable with trump because of the racist xenophobic words coming out of his mouth and some of his supporters. >> this is a risk if you make it a referendum on trump, you have to walk the line between saying a vote for trump is a bad decision and a vote for trump means you're a bad person. and i think this crossed that line and it's hard to unring that bell. >> i think we've seen that a tie goes to trump, if they both have bad weeks, he benefits. he's gotten closer not because he's suddenly great. >> i have to say there was part of this when she did it and i thought marco rubio did this and ted cruz tried this, when you try to hit him, when you go name calling for name calling and go down to his level he wins. >> yeah. >> because the supporters know what they will get and i think a lot of people made up their minds. i saw a bumper sticker that said i don't know, not trump 2016.

what people need to do is what clinton needs to do is make it so that sticker says clinton kaine 2016. >> all right. we'll take a pause here and do a little more on 9/11. when we come back on this september 11th commemoration, the deputy defense secretary under bush 43, wall wolfowitz, one of the prominent activists which grew out of the 9/11 attacks. mastery is a journey of continuous improvement. come triumph, or trial, tennis legend serena williams moves forward, and with the chase mobile® app we're on the same path, offering innovative, and convenient ways to bank. easy-to- use chase technology, for whatever you are trying to master.

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welcome back. 18 months after the september 11th attacks, the united states invaded iraq. u.s. invasion easily toppled saddam hussein. but it also unleashed a torrent of violence and chaos that still confronts us today. paul wolfowitz was secretary and

democrat that turned republican and may feel forced to vote for hillary clinton in november. paul wolfowitz joins me. welcome, sir. >> nice to be here, thank you. >> i read in an interview you didn't -- you took issue with the architect of the iraq war. why do you not accept that title? >> because i was not in charge. i was not the commander in chief or secretary of state or secretary of defense and national security advisor and more importantly, i thought at the time there was a lot of things that should have been done differently. if you think about it, if we had a counter insurgency strategy, like we did during the surge, if we had that from the beginning, i think iraq would look like a very different place today and history would look very different instead of waiting until 2007, 2008 to defeat al qaeda and iraq, they could have been defeated two or three years earlier. >> you were an advisor to jeb bush. he struggled with the knowing what we know question now, what is your answer? >> it assumes everything we know then we know now.

we know about saddam ordering, it was not a part of al qaeda at the time, in fact the leader is now the leader of al qaeda. we know that now. most importantly, we don't know, we never know what the world will be like if saddam hussein was still in power in iraq. imagine if you had an uprising in iraq like took place in syria, you would have syria on steroids. saddam would be more brutal than assad has been. >> that's a big assumption. how do we know that? saddam -- a lot -- >> it turned out -- >> for instance, there were no weapons of mass destruction. >> he was a liar. he was deceiving the world on that point. >> that's a big point to deceive the world on. >> not killing terrorists. he was killing his own people on a large scale. he did it in 1991. we saw what he did. i don't think it takes a lot of imagination to see how he would

respond. we've already seen what he did. there is a tendency to say it all around the world. if the americans can put a man on the moon, why can't they do x and x is some complicated social problem that's been here for centuries. americans play into that assuming they can solve everything and we're responsible for everything. hillary clinton was actually right when she said a few months ago the united states didn't create isis. bashar assad and the support of russia created isis. >> there is another theory that says whatever you want to think of the strong man the fact of the matter as soon as saddam hussein was serving as a rock covering up a lot of bad guys, we lifted that rock and all of a sudden chaos ensued. >> he wasn't covering up a lot of bad guys. he was sheltering a lot of bad guys. he had the one perpetrator who

the first world trade center bombing at large and zarkowi in iraq. the -- you know, when i said assad helped to create isis, he did it by driving the sunnis into desperation where isis is the only choice for them. these dictators brutalized their societies. they divide their societies after they collapse and eventually they collapse. there is nothing left to stabilize or take its place. >> go ahead. >> not every dictator is like that. i was ambassador in indonesia when the president was the so-called autocrat, or dictator. when he disappeared, indonesians were able to run their country in a reasonable way. there was nothing reasonable left in iraq, nothing reasonable left in syria or libya. >> let me go back to this issue. here we are on 9/11.

it was mostly saudis that flew those planes into the towers, nobody from iraq. a lot of people look at that today and why was that our first action? we went into afghanistan and why didn't we hold saudi arabia accountable? you can make a case a lot more saudis were funding and fueling these terrorists attacks with saudi money and things like that than anybody in iraq. >> there is a big problem with what the saudis have been doing and i hope people are right when they say the new crown prince. >> they are harboring terrorists? >> cultivating terrorists but the point is you don't deal with that by going to war. what concerned us about iraq and people want to forget but everybody believed and saddam was doing his best to convince us he had weapons of mass destruction. we knew he had previously had anthrax. he previously had sarin, and he was working on nuclear weapons and made it clear after he was

captured he intended to start the programs again once the sanctions were lifted. he was a real danger and that's why there was a focus on weapons of mass destruction and people say after the fact that bush lied and got us into a war, he wasn't lying. he was saying what everyone believed and, you know, i heard some discussions on your previous panel and i -- but i heard remarkable comment this morning by one of the orphans from 9/11 whose father died and the son said 9/11 brought us together. we need to come together as a country. >> some said -- >> lying when he was telling the truth. >> some could say iraq split us apart. the fallout from the iraq war. look at the republican party today. >> i'm not disagreeing. >> more isolation today. >> i'm not disagreeing with that but if you accuse bush of lying when he was telling what everyone believed -- then you are dividing the country even more. >> let me ask you this then, who lied? is it bad intelligence? somebody got us into this and somebody convinced the united states congress that weapons of mass destruction were imminent in iraq, which is why so many democrats and republicans voted

for this war. so who lied? >> i think the original liar is saddam hussein who discovered he had more. later, it seems he was lying that he had more than he really did have because he wanted to supposedly deceive the iranians. the fact is every intelligence service in the world, not just the americans, the british, the germans, the french, all believe he had weapons of mass destruction. >> are you -- do you -- are you now concerned that that essentially we were wrong and if you think about the public's lack of trust for government right now, that's one of the reasons. that's one of the things over the last 15 years when you talk about wall street's inability to be truthful and that undermined trusting government. do you believe that? >> look, i think it's done a lot of harm but i think in fact, stating falsehoods like saying bush lied does a lot of harm. i believe if we had a better strategy in iraq from the beginning and if the surge-type strategy was implemented, iraq

would look different. people would see the whole issue in a very different light. >> how many troops would be there? do you think because you've said in the past you thought this is more like a germany and korea situation, that we probably would need troops for 40 or 50 years. >> the issue isn't how many troops you have but how many americans are getting killed. by the end of the surge very few americans were getting killed. there is a great risk if north korea starts a war. the u.s. can be a stabilizing factor. it's important to understand and i agree the turn in public opinion on the united states is very unfortunate. i think it will bring us more trouble. we're in danger of learning all the wrong lessons from the past. the lesson that intervention is the only thing that's bad. i think we're seeing in syria the consequence of non-intervention. i think we see in libya the consequence of partial invention. >> is this why you're learning clinton over trump?

>> i'm leaning against both of them. i find it incredibly disappointing when the country needs to come together and we have two major party candidates that enjoy so little confidence from the american people. >> paul wolfowitz from the bush administration, thank you, sir. appreciate you sharing your views. >> when we come back, a reminder how 9/11 changed us, at least for awhile and how it will still drive much of our politics today. >> first you saw the large flag that was unfurled from the top of the pentagon there, and that was just awe-inspiring. pentagon inspiring. hmmmmmm..... hmmmmm... [ "dreams" by beck ] hmmmmm... the turbocharged dream machine.

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interests and common bonds and in fact, made it so democrats and republicans simply debated, didn't just try to destroy each other. we brought together firefighters, teachers and journalists to tell us how they saw america change and in some cases change right back. >> september 11th, 2001, resulted in us waking up on september 12th, 2001 with a phenomenal sense of what it means to be the united states of america. i had the sense that most of us were reaching into an easily accessible well of resolve, will, strength, character. >> you saw the large flag from the top of the pentagon there and that was just awe inspiring. >> literally, when i got there at 8:00 in the morning, we had people in line waiting to buy flags. >> we crawled before we walked and we walked before we ran.

>> no divisions among people. no colors, no religions, no politics. >> the leaders in congress stood together, the governors of our states were together. partisanship just seemed to disappear. >> 15 years later marks the moment of the country together all but evaporated. >> strong emotions and very strong activities like occurred after 9/11 are hard to maintain. >> the country seems so significantly divided. i still think there's a lot of optimism and a lot of hopefulness that we can continue on the great american traditions that we have had for so many years. >> america went from a great sense of being part of the same important fabric of clinging together in times of disaster to political fights and a political system that has encouraged division. >> and we did stand together even though some of us had differences, we put those differences aside and said we stand together.

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comcast is on track to connect 3 million people in need to low cost, high speed internet at home, helping to make sure that every hand in the classroom goes up. male teacher: okay, veronica. amphibian. male teacher: excellent. welcome to a brighter future. welcome to it all. comcast. hi. i'm richard lui with breaking news regarding hillary clinton. new information that the candidate has been suffering from pneumonia. that helped lead to her becoming dehydrated today. clinton had left a ground zero ceremony today when according to her campaign she became overheated and went to her daughter chelsea's apartment. video captured clinton looking unsteady as she was helped into

an suv as she left that event. that caused some concern, but just a short time ago she emerged from the apartment and waved to onlookers before heading to her home in chappaqua. now the campaign has released a statement saying, quote, secretary clinton has been experiencing a could have related to allergies. on friday, during follow-up evaluation of her prolonged could have, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. she was put on antibiotics and advised to rest and modify her schedule. while at this morning's event she became overheated and dehydrated. i have just examined her and she is now rehydrated and recovering nicely, end quote. this is the first we have heard secretary clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia. we'll have much more on this story and development coming up live at 6:00 p.m. eastern. right now, we return you to "meet the press." i could be talking to shia young people, we would get to the point and say i want to join

jihad and fight the united states. i said i'm the united states. he said, no, no, bush, you don't come to our country and tell us what to do. we do this on our own. i mean, these are the toughest guys in baghdad, same thing. we don't want you coming in here and bringing -- who has not been here the last 40 years to tell us how to run our country. so there was not a great uprising that was going to occur when we came in. because they'd been living with him all this time. and they wanted to take control of their own country on their terms. >> you know, david brooks, it took the democratic party arguably 24 years, 25 years to recover from vietnam. to be trusted again with national security in the election of bill clinton in '92. you could argue that really even though carter got in there he barely got in there and only reinforced the perception democrats can't handle national security. how long -- the republican party is still hasn't recovered from the iraq war. >> i'm with you, democrats did pretty well in '74 in the congressional elections.

>> they did. but they were watergate elections. >> i think parties recover pretty quickly. what doesn't recover maybe is the position. the position that america should be intervening abroad. there's a sweet spot between too much intervention and too little, we've swung all the way from here to here. what's striking about the trump party of non-intervention. there is now no intervention party and the gap in the world that putins exploit, we have a bipartisan consensus not to get involved and that's a problem i think wolfowitz is right about. >> that is something, hillary clinton is uncomfortable with the noninterventionist wing of her party. >> she is, because i think that she understands the realities of what it means to be president and the threats that you're facing. but i think you're right, how iraq was handled still has hangover on our policies and our politics today. there was a huge coming together after 9/11. there was support and gathering and bipartisan support for the afghanistan war and then they started to beat the war drum to

going to iraq. there was bipartisan support for iraq. that quickly turned. i remember being with senator kennedy, who was one of the only votes against the iraq war and he said mark my words, this is going to change and within a couple of years it did. look at how much the iraq war influenced the 2004 election. we'll deal with this for a very long time. one of the major questions this week at the commander in chief forum was where was donald trump on the iraq war? so it is a -- it's become a symbol of where you stand in this country and how you're going to -- >> it is interesting that is the public. democrats and republicans don't want to accept anybody that says they are for it and stick to it. let me ask this. >> can we challenge the premise? i grew up in the '90s and i don't remember it being a kumbaya time politically. i feel like it was a pause in civic hostilities. we had a ruthless election where

you had half of the electorate despondent. so i'm having a hard time -- >> they didn't challenge -- they didn't challenge -- the difference is i think we're all concerned. >> yeah. >> that if we have another 2000 election, that you won't see whoever the supreme courts would say is the losing side say okay, we've got to respect the constitution. >> that in fact, because of that election, right? >> because of that or because of everything that has happened since then? one other whiplash moment on foreign policy this week goes not just on the iraq war and are you -- republican party but putin in russia. we haven't brought that up. until deplorables. basically what was driving the -- >> it was an astonishing statement on the part of donald trump, especially the republican candidate for president of the united states he embraces a dictator in russia and says he has 82% approval rating, he's not saying the other 18% are on their way to a gulag somewhere.

because the fact is he can have any kind of approval rating he wants. he just orders it up. there is real issues in russia. one of my longest friends, long-term friends is a russian scholar that spent a lot of time in the last year and said things have never been worse between the two countries, that's a very ominous -- >> garry kasparov was on my show on friday. he lives in new york city because his life is in danger if he lives still in russia. that's why his life has been threatened. do you think the voters care as much about this putin issue as we in washington do? >> unconsciously. politics is a bad odor around the world. politics stinks. you have to compromise to listen people you dislike but you hedge and fudge and it's ugly and sort of the only way to govern a diverse society but in this world and around donald trump's mind, that form of politics is suspect is on the rise. >> all right. back in a moment. we'll have the end game segment. on this first full day of the nfl season in the intersection of sports and politics in a big way. we'll be right back.

good evening from msnbc headquarters in new york city. i'm richard lui. new details about hillary clinton's health. her doctor just releasing a statement after conducting an exam of the presidential nominee. it reveals that clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia on friday. and her health issues today, likely stemming from that. this morning hillary clinton left the 9/11 ceremony early after her campaign says she started to feel overheated. after which clinton appeared unstable, as she was helped into a van, as you see in this video here. after she was put into this van, she was taken to her daughter chelsea's apartment nearby. and then just before noon eastern time, there she is, she walked out, and she spoke to reporters.

>> how are you feeling, secretary clinton? are you feeling better? >> yes, thank you. very much. thank you. >> and then after that, she did have an opportunity to when she did walk outside of chelsea's apartment, chelsea clinton's apartment to take a picture with a girl that happened to run over to her and just now we have a new statement from clinton's doctor with more details on that very statement, let's go to nbc's morgan radford in chappaqua. you have been there throughout the day here. what have you seen and tell us about this statement. >> well, richard, we were here when she arrived with her motorcade in the typical van she travels in, called the scooby van. and she had two unmarked cars following her. that's when she arrived at her home at 1:13. we're learning interest that dr. lisa r. bardak was there and her husband, and she was evaluated there and this is what

the statement reads. secretary clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies. on friday during a follow-up of evaluation of her prolonged cough she was diagnosed with pneumonia. she was put on antibiotics and advised to rest and modify her schedule. this morning she became overheated and dehydrated. i just examined her and she is now rehydrated and recovering nicely. she is in fact scheduled to go to san francisco tomorrow where she has a fund-raising event tomorrow evening. and then expected to move over to los angeles on tuesday for not one, but two campaign fund-raising events. she is expected to maintain that schedule. so far no departures from that schedule happening now. she's at her home in chappaqua. this is the home she's been in with her husband, former president clinton, since 2000, when they left the white house. when they traded 1600 pennsylvania avenue, this is where they came. this is where she's resting. >> morgan, one of the points is we're just learning this today. a sunday. and give us more detail that may

or may not be available around this visit with the doctor. this happened friday, right? that is the timing that we're hearing at this moment? >> that's right. so we're understanding she's had this cough for a while, she said on friday, it was her allergies, but now this statement is saying that on friday she was actually evaluated and diagnosed with pneumonia. something we're only hearing about now, and, richard, that's part of the questions that the press have for the clinton campaign, they're saying, when you left this 9/11 memorial event this morning, why were we in the dark for 90 minutes. no one knew for 90 minutes where you had been. she emerged from her daughter chelsea clinton's manhattan home and saw the little girl who walked up and hugging her, waving to fans. and then her statement, her campaign released a statement saying, look, it was a typical sunday afternoon, she was feeling dehydrated and overheated so she went to her daughter's house and was playing with her grandkids inside. again, those are the questions that reporters have. where were you in those 90 minutes and why weren't we allowed to come and why weren't we allowed to know and that's

what we're hearing right here in chappaqua. >> morgan, do we know where the examination took place? was this on the road, was this in new york city? was it in the northeast? do we have any sense of when that evaluation happened? on friday? >> we have been told -- on friday, we're unclear. we're told the evaluation today happened in her chappaqua home and that was after she arrived here. former president bill clinton was waiting at this home for her. you saw in that video that emerged earlier this afternoon where she was appearing very unsteady, she was leaning on a pole, leaning on her secret service aides and they had to physically help her get into that unmarked van. those were the questions that surround the evaluation today. >> as you've been following this story today and watching the video, not only this piece, but also the piece earlier, she was moving into the van, there is also the video that we had earlier of her at ground zero. give us a sense of the

temperature, i know it is here in manhattan, it was in the 80s, very humid right now, clearly a lot of people wearing dark colors. give us a sense of that situation and perhaps how warm it was at the location. >> perhaps even give you a better sense of how warm it was in that location. representative joe crowley was there, he said he was sitting adjacent to secretary clinton and that she was there, you know, honoring the families and speaking with a lot of the victims and that she seemed okay, but he was clear to mention that not only for him personally, but also for senator chuck schumer, he was wearing a dark colored, light colored blue shirt and it appeared dark by the end of the day, simply because of how hot it was and how strong the humidity was. so he described it himself as a pretty uncomfortable heat and that's why the doctor is now coming out saying, look, she was overheated, feeling uncomfortable and now we're finding out just moments ago that she was on antibiotics. so perhaps that dehydration is something they're also attributing to her feeling perhaps a little bit unsteady

today. >> depending on the time of the day, or the weather around that part of manhattan could be quite blustery or can actually be dead still depending on the time of the day and the weather systems around. you're saying then there will be no adjustment of her schedule. some doctors have said maybe there should be an adjustment. any discussion had that you heard of coming from the campaign? >> so far the campaign is saying she will go on as scheduled. i want to read you something here, her spokeswoman said this is coming from jennifer palmieri, hillary clinton released a detailed medical record showing her to be in excellent health. she's saying this in rebuttal to things they were hearing from trump's campaign and people supporting trump saying that, you know, they haven't heard a lot of things about hillary's health. she was rebutting that saying, look, she's been in good health, she's been clear and forth coming about her medical records, again, today's medical record and today's