fact, we have no choice, we have no choice if we are to continue on a path of a more perfect union, not a perfect union, but a more perfect union. >> we're still at war in iraq and afghanistan. we're really on the edge. >> killed osama bin laden. >> there's been another mass shooting in america. somehow this has become routine. somehow this has become routine. >> this is an msnbc special series. >> i come here with acute sense of the costs of armed conflict. >> there's been another mass shooting in america. somehow this has become routine. >> united states conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda,

so we'll do what's required to keep the american people safe. ♪ ♪ my fellow citizens, i stand here today, humbled, by the task before us. we will begin to responsibly lead iraq to its people and forge a hard-earned peace in afghanistan. >> president obama came to office with two wars raging, heavily engaged with iraq and afghanistan and he wants to get us out. >> president obama has clearly made afghanistan the focus of his policy. >> u.s. forces have been in the fight more than seven years. >> how do we find victory.

>> for those who seek to advance aims by slaughtering innocence we say our spirit is stronger, and we cannot be broken, you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you. >> he takes over at this remarkable moment in american history, we're really on the edge. we still have the threat of international terrorism looming over us. >> in those days, 9/11 was still very fresh. the president came to office with a relentless focus on al qaeda. >> he said one of your most important jobs is to go after bin laden, to defeat al qaeda and to protect the american people. >> we are going to concentrate on afghanistan.

>> soon as he took office there's initial request for additional troops. >> part of that was to make sure in afghanistan you didn't have a safe haven for terrorism. question for surge was difficult because a lot of people wanted to wash hands and move on. >> i could see he's absorbing all of this information coming at him in his first few months as president and wanting to tell the world what kind of president he would be. >> barack obama was charismatic president in a super power and hadn't had any expertise, behind high iq, in world politics, and it's not for geo amateurs. americans like to foreignly load our policy and barack obama resonated to that.

>> given the wars he were fighting there was a backlash against people of muslim faith. the president, i think, felt compelled it had to be dressed. and he -- addressed. and went he went to muslim country to make that argument. >> i came to cairo to make a new beginning. >> he was making a speech that he would bridge divides that no one in the world has been able to bridge. >> no single speech can eradicate mistrust but i'm convinced there must be sustained effort to listen to each other, learn from each other and respect one another. >> muslims saw obama making an overture they probably created higher expectations that would be much harder to fulfill. ♪

>> good morning. well, this is not how i expected to wake up this morning. >> one day president obama's woken up by his press secretary robert gibbs who said, sir, you just won the noble peace prize. [ speaking foreign language ]. e. >> conservatives are condemning the noble committee and the president. the most common reaction seems to have been, didn't he just get the job. >> i was horrified. i think he was horrified. all of us who worked with him were just like, oh, god. which i grant is a strange and, perhaps seemingly, ungrateful reaction, but we had a set of difficult policy issues that we needed to move forward and it just seemed a distraction. >> after i received the new

malia walked in and said, daddy, you won the noble peace prize. and is bo's birthday. it's good to have kids to keep things in perspective. i am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the noble committee. >> a few hours before the plane was going to take off for oslow he gives us must have been ten pages of this peace prize address, wrestling with these momentous questions of war and peace, he's winning the noble peace prize and is sending american troops into war in afghanistan so it's an awkward contrast. >> now mr. president, the floor is yours. [ applause ] >> i would be remiss if i did not acknowledge the considerable

controversy that your generous decision has generated. perhaps the most profound issue surrounding the receipt of this prize is the fact that i am commander-in-chief of a nation in the midst of two wars so i come here with the acute sense of the armed cost of armed conflict filled with difficult questions about war and peace and effort to replace one with the other. >> when you're commander-in-chief and in charge of keeping the american people safe and you read of what terrorist networks are planning to do to your embassy, airports or family members, that fundamentally doesn't allow the president of united states even one as king or barack obama doesn't allow him to be a passivist. >> i face the world the way it is and can't stand idle in the

face of threats to the american people. >> president obama comes in and he has to deal with all of these sort of conflicting things that are happening. >> we're fighting violence overseas in two wars but then there's gunfire at home. contrast was unmistakable. >> here in chicago gun violence is an epidemic. >> dramatic events in upstate new york. >> killed at least a dozen people. >> a shooting in texas. the president of the united states was briefed early on. >> it's difficult enough when we lose these brave americans in battles overseas, it is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on american soil. >> one of the reasons that he was so relatable as president is that he reacted to those shootings the same way we all

did, with absolute mo horror. >> this is your congresswoman hosting congress on the corner. >> we're being told arizona congresswoman gabrielle gifford has been shot by a gun about a foot from her head. six others have been killed. >> the dead include a little girl who came here excited to meet her congresswoman. >> president obama will head to arizona to speak at the memorial service to support and remember the victims of the shooting. >> saturday morning gabby and her staff and many constituents gathered outside to exercise their right to peaceful assembly and free speech. that was the scene that was scattered by a -- tered by a - shattered about i a gunman's bullets. >> a city congresswoman was shot in the head at an event for her

constituents it was an attack on democracy too. >> the president visited the hospital with the victims and family. >> few moments after we left gabby opened her eyes for the first time. [ cheers and applause ] gabby opened her eyes for the first time [ cheers and applause ] we should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of such violence in the future. >> one of the people that died was christina taylor green a nine-year-old girl. one of our speech writers found a book called faces of hope, 50 children born on 9/11 and christina was one of those children, given to us in an act of violence and taken from us in an act of violence. >> if there are rain puddles in

heaven christina is jumping in them today. >> have to ask ourselves what we're doing here to make our democrats -- systemcy -- - systs and minerals -- democracy as good as this nine-year-old girl imagined it. it should shame us into action. some hot cocoa? mom, look! are you okay? head home this holiday with the one you love. visit your local mercedes-benz dealer today for exceptional lease and financing offers at the mercedes-benz winter event. (burke)stomer) happy anniversary. (customer) for what? (burke) every year you're with us, you get fifty dollars toward your home deductible.

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i'm a new yorker, 9/11 happens to be my birthday, i remember every moment of that day. time seemed to move slow on 9/11. i remember being struck by the fact that on may 1st, 2011, the day we went after bin laden, time seemed to move slow as well. ♪ >> march 24, 2011, i was summoned to a meeting about the biggest secret in washington.

we had a powerful circumstantial case that either osama bin laden or some other really bad dude was hiding out pakistan. >> president obama told by the smartest people in the world, 50/50 they think this is osama bin laden. >> when we were going through the process of the bin laden raid there were cabinet members saying no, it's too early. but you knew there was a chance you're going to find out bin laden left the compound and he didn't want to the take those chances. >> he overruled some guys and said we're going to go after this guy, if it's not him i'll take the heat. >> that weekend for a lot of reasons including

moonlight, sunday was going to be the best day for this raid. now the white house correspondent's dinner was that saturday night. he wasn't looking forward to going. his mind is literally thousands of miles away. and then the next day he went out and played nine holes of goal. in part because he said i play golf every weekend and don't want people to notice i'm not playing golf. he had a secret, if the secret got out osama bin laden would have been out of that compound. >> it's one of the more important missions the cia and special forces had been involved in and there was always an underlying fear that it could all go to hell. >> we came into the situation room and i could tell he was a little anxious. the helicopters took off for the raid and he told me later that that's what was making him nervous, it wasn't the bin laden piece, it was these americans on

helicopters. >> one of the helicopters was above the compound. the heat from the ground came up and stalled engine of the helicopter. >> it was like let's go into plan b. >> we'll breach the walls and continue the mission. we heard the gunfire and then there was about 20 minutes of silence. we all kind of held our breath at that point. >> and, i remember obama saying we got him. ♪ >> there was no cheering. there was no high-fives. there were a lot of exhales, sighs of relief. >> but obama stands up and he just says, you want to know when the last helicopter is out of pakistani airspace and

walks out. >> i get a call from president obama early in the morning, like 2:00 in the morning, didn't give me a lot of detail, he just said osama bin laden is dead. i didn't say a word, just hung up the phone, went back to sleep and slept peacefully. it's good to get rid of that evil man. >> president obama made sure that people consulted with religious, cultural, social experts to identify how much of it was going to be made public to the american people, indeed to the world. he recognized that the islamic world was watching. >> he kept saying we're not going to spike the football, we're not going to release these pictures of bin laden. >> i think the president thought that pictures of a bloodied bin laden would send the wrong message about what the united states was all about. >> tonight i can report to the

american people and to the world that the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda. >> for a country that had lost a lot of confidence after the iraq war and financial crisis, he wanted to make a point that americans should feel good about this, it shows we could do big things. >> when i went out the west wing doors i could hear the chants of usa and cia, cia. lafayette park was just teeming with people. >> a lot of these college kids who were children when 9/11 happened, their entire lives were framed around this attack and for osama bin laden to be caught and killed was a catharsis moment for the country. >> we must remain vigilant at

home and abroad. >> he saw it as a completion. he shared the fears about well, what's going to come next? ♪ >> the middle east has simply never seen anything like this before. >> the u.s. trying to respond to the dizzying pace of change in the region. not an easy adjustment. >> the young arab men and women found a voice. arab street found a voice and it's a democratic voice. >> we've witnessed an extraordinary change taking place in the middle east and north africa. [ speaking foreign language ]. >> the people have risen up to demand their basic human rights. >> president obama's hearts was with the arabs and the question is how do you act on that. >> two leaders stepped aside, more may follow. >> he's dealing with all these contradictions of war-making and peace-making and remember he was awarded the democratic

nomination in large part because of his opposition to the war. >> as president you want to get us out of iraq. >> president obama's agenda was end the war in iraq. >> on the campaign road so many speeches about ending the war in iraq and now he's actually doing it. >> over the next two months our troops in iraq, tens and thousands of them will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home. ♪ >> so everybody's getting all excited about this, appropriately, it's an american democracy we fought a war for it, and now the administration is getting exciting but when you have more freedom you inherently have a little bit less stability. >> i don't think anybody really did the kind of in-depth planning that needed to be done in order to support these different countries. and in the wake of that

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you don't believe me do you. [ chanting four more years ]. >> hello ohio. >> the president knew he needed another four years to cement the wins he had in the first term and also to show that his election was not a fluke but he just couldn't escape these rolling international crisis, they were distractions for him at a time when he domestically needed to deal with a lot of stuff. >> america has a strong history of confident, principles global leadership -- >> the fact that he was able to prevail handily in 2012 was a remarkable political feat. think of the first debate with romney how bad it went.

>> that's what we've done, we're making adjustments, $4 trillion plan. >> you been president four years, you said you would cut the deficit in half if reelected we'd get to trillion dollar dealt. >> romney was able to breakthrough the persona the obama campaign created for him obama was on the roads. >> we had a little debate earlier this week and i enjoyed myself. >> and with maniacal determination, reminiscent of when he first ran, obama was ready. >> american value industry is back on top and back on top and al qaeda is on the run. osama bin laden is dead. we've made progress these last four years. >> in the end, president obama was able to recapture and reenergize the diverse coalition

that put him into office the first time and turn them out. ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> president obama. has won the state of ohio. >> president obama has been reelected for a second term. >> we have picked ourselves up. we have fought our way back. and we know in our hearts that for the united states of america the best is yet to come. [ cheers and applause ] >> it was just a such a -- such a relief to know that the american people were still behind us an that we had strong legs ready for that second run. ♪ >> this was the holidays of 2012, we had just won reelection, so we're feeling pretty good about that. we're beginning to talk about his inaugural address. obama was offering his thought s about what he wanted us to focus

on and john brenn an came in and interrupted us. >> said what's up. and i said, there were a number of children who were killed. it took the wind right out of him. >> we were in the middle of what is an unfolding and horrifying scene unfolding in connecticut at a elementary school, 26 dead, second deadly yesterday school shooting in american history. >> he continued to lean against the back of the sofa and sort of like, starring off. >> it's the only time he actually asked to see miss savannah during the middle of the day. she tells the story she tells the stor asked to see mrs. obama during the middle of the day. >> this was the only time in eight years requested my presence in the middle of a work day. when i walked into the oval

office barack and i embraced silently. there was nothing to say. no words. >> i know he always looked at these incidents from the eyes of a father, a husband, a family man. i quickly drafted a statement for the president to give. he quickly looked at it and crossed out one paragraph that mentioned his own daughters. he said that's too raw. not going to get through that and he couldn't get through the statement anyway. >> the majority of those who died today were children. beautiful little kids between the ages of five and ten years old. >> we don't have a lot of examples of presidents who weep. the hold building was sort of holding our breath and watching. >> this evening michelle and i will do what i know every parent in america will do, hug our

children a little tighter and we'll tell them that we love them but there's families in connecticut who could not do that tonight and they need all of us right now. >> i don't know how you recover from something as horrible as this. how do you -- how do you live with that? i'm so sorry. i mean -- these are 20 people a week before christmas that just lost their joy. >> there was no way to explain what had happened so the only thing that you could do was go and pay your respects to the parents. as we're getting off the plane i remember president obama saying i want the names of every single child and adult because they -- because their family deserves to hear that.

>> we can't accept events like this as routine. are we really prepared to say we're powerless in the face of such carnage? that the politics are too hard? >> the siblings of the victims, some were so young they had no idea what had happened but they knew who barack obama was and so there was a photo that i think hung in the west wing of president obama smiling through tears as he took a picture with all of the siblings. people think having a consoler in chief doesn't matter they are wrong. >> charlotte, daniel, olivia, josephine, anna, dylan, mad lynn, catherine, chase, jessie, james, grace, emily, jack, noah, caroline, jessica,

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richard lui with your hour's top story, coronavirus cases in the united states surpassed 19 million, coming a week after the u.s. hit 18 million mark, almost half the country, 24 states are experiencing an increase in deaths with the national death toll at 332,000. covid death tolls in california the first to surpass 2 mill cases and icu capacity fell to record-zero percent. now back to our program," obama". ♪ the fact that this problem is complex can no longer be an

excuse for doing nothing. i urge the new congress to hold votes on these measures in a timely manner. >> suddenly he decided he is going to stop what happened from happening again. >> overwhelming majority of americans have come together around common-sense reform like background checks. >> he certainly knew there was a danger that the republicans would not place nice. i think he was surprised how brutal it became. >> universal background checks had overwhelming support across the country in virtually every red state it had majority support. >> in my view, such background checks are not overly burdensome or unconstitutional. >> there were some in the republican party willing to deal with him and every time they would get, just, a little bit closer, others in the party would speak out.

>> i believe the underlying bill infringes on the second amendment. >> have a security officer in the school that confront the shooter before they get to the kids. >> the politics of changing gun laws is really, really hard because they're so dug in. you know, it's funny. people think it's all about money, it's not about money, it's about voters. voters don't want more second amendment reductions. >> the senate is set to vote on the hotly contested issue of background checks. >> it appears they're a few votes short of 60 needed. >> the question is on the amendment. >> they were all hands on deck trying to count votes and we came close. we came close. >> within the last half hour the u.s. senate has voted down the compromise deal on expanded background checks. >> if you thought anything would be done it would be after little

kindergartners and first graders were murdered in their school. even that couldn't get congress to act. >> all in all this is a shameful day for washington. >> never once did he define the republican obstructist how it made him feel, he determined it by what the consequences would be for the american people. >> there he is the beginning of the second term and very first thing he takes on ends up being a failure, it's a testament to the politics of guns, it's damaging for a president to come out of a reelection and not to succeed. >> the mantle of a commander-in-chief is a heavy, burdensome mantle. it's a lot easier when you're a candidate to say i will do the following, i can fix this or fix that as every president has found out. >> yeah, it's hard to be president. he's getting nowhere legislatively. he has challenges stacking up

overseas. >> the arab spring is quickly turning into arab summer. >> i think we didn't anticipate in the beginning the dark side of the arab spring. the biggest, most catastrophic world down side was in syria. >> today there were more demonstrations in syria, at least 30 people killed when security forces opened fire. >> the crack down became more violent. there was support from russia and iran for that crack down. so it quickly became a incredibly complicated civil war. >> for the first time today president obama explicitly called for president assad to step aside. >> president obama wasn't going to get us embroiled in endless foreign conflicts and there was a real fear for him at that time that this whole second term could becoming engulfed.

>> the decision whether or not to inter convenient for humanitarian services is a decision that has no easy cookie cutter approach. >> i appreciate the question and these incidents remain deeply concerning to us. >> hello, everybody. jay tells me that you guys have been missing me. [ laughter ] >> i think he sensibly wanted to come out and talk about the economy and some report he could loosely claim that he wanted to tout. i'll take a few questions. >> update us on where you think things are in syria and whether you envision using u.s. military if simply nothing else the safe-keeping of chemical weapons. >> he can clearly was waiting to talk about this a little bit. >> i have indicated repeatedly

that president al assad lost legitimacy and needs to step down. >> at that point in time syria was certainly a serious issue but hadn't percolated to the front pages yet. >> a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons being moved around or utilized that would change my position. >> [ inaudible ] >> in a situation this -- >> it's in that back-and-forth, i push him again, so then -- and he draws the red line. >> that's a red line for us. and there would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons. all right. thank you, everybody. >> president gave his most definitive statement about what it would take for him to order u.s. military action in syria. >> but i don't really know whether president obama understood just how determined

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i'm stuck. >> somebody help. >> the syrian regime may have used chemical weapons against it's own people. >> barack obama was not anize eliminati -- i don't thinke eliminatio he ha an appreciation for evil in the world. >> the president's red line in syria now definitively crossed. >> it is awful on its face and is something the president said would be treated as a red line. >> the day the chemical weapons attack takes place, obama had a meeting with his national security team and left us with every impression, prepare the

targets, deploy the military. >> when the images surfaced of 1400 people killed his response was immediate. we're going to strike. that was barack obama's immediate response. but, a set of circumstances changed his calculus. >> it is clear to me that the british parliament reflecting the views of the british people does not want to see military action. i get that and the government will act accordingly. >> the british parliament voted to prevent the uk from joining us on any strikes in syria and the german chancellor said i won't say politically i support this until there's a u.n. investigation, what happened is the ghost of the iraq war was in the room, he didn't see any option that he knew would work, he saw a slippery slope that we would have to take this on

ourselves and saw a country he was a leader of that was not going to support that after iraq, after afghanistan. >> the president of the united states if you draw a red line it has to be unquestionable you will enforce it. and he didn't. >> the entire region is bordering on chaos and we must change the battlefield equation. >> the obama administration waited too long. >> action by the united states and international community is required. >> it used to be congress declared war, that's the way it is in the united states constitution so you have this president who is a constituti constitutional lawyer have the sense that if there's a great public desire to meet out retribution against bash are al-assad what he did to his own people it needs to come not just from the president of the united states but from the country. >> good afternoon, everybody. >> he went to congress to seek congressional authorization. >> while i believe i have the

authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization, i know the country will be stronger if we take this course and our actions will be more effective. >> i wish i would have jumped up and down and said, congress, it's not going to happen. >> this wasn't the case where people of sound minds would come together. people were going to look at this in a very political way. >> i have never supported the use of u.s. military force in this conflict and you still don't. >> we worked very hard to get the support but didn't materialize in large part because some of the same republicans criticizing us for not going to war in syria announced they wouldn't vote to authorize it. >> have you made up in your mind a strike is needed to preserve your credibility when you set these sort of red lines. >> first of all i didn't set a red line, the world set a red line. >> the perception in part is

reality and perception he did draw the red line, here's al-assad killing tens and thousands of his own citizens using battle bombs, using attacks from the sky, when he then used chemical weapons to kill a relatively small number of people, the crime was tremendous. where were the people worried about the tens of thousands syrians who were dieing through conventional weapons. >> it was clear to me the president regretted ever using the phrase the red line. you draw a red line on a foreign policy issue you have to humiliate yourself to get out of it in some form or another. >> we went to russia for g20 early september and proposed we work together to remove these chemical weapons from syria and that leads to a diplomatic agreement. >> the russian government has willingness to join in the

international community in pushing assad to give up his chem weapons and ask congress to postpone a vote while we pursue this diplomatic path. >> one thing russians don't want sd is to do? they don't want to see us use force in syria. so, the russians helped pressure them to give up their chemical-weapons program. >> i think, obviously, he would like to argue that, hey, i found a way to avoid a military option. the problem is how naive that looks, and that he cut a deal with the russians who, at that point in time, were getting ready to do the largest infiltration into american democracy that they ever attempted. >> your critics say your reluctance to enter, makes the united states weaker. >> you had hundreds of thousands of deaths. you had a country, which will never be able to repair itself.

>> president was way too focused on exit strategies. we still had all the problems in afghanistan. you had all the problems throughout the middle east. this is open ended. >> he tried to thread the needle. and sometimes, you just can't thread the needle. >> on the other hand, it's the president's job to make the tough decisions in our interest. and i think, in this instance, he did. >> every few months, i go to walter reed. and i see a 25-year-old kid, who's paralyzed or has lost his limbs. and some of those are people i've ordered into battle. and so, i can't afford to play some of the political games that others may. we'll do what's required, to keep the american people safe. folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan. >> i think that may have been the most challenging moment for president obama's foreign

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our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. the knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. >> for any president of the united states, probably the most painful aspect is that you do, in a lot of ways, preside over death. you welcome home the bodies of our dead troops. you're hugging the widows and the children of people who die in terrorist attacks or mass shootings. >> breaking news, right now. authorities in lafayette,

louisiana, tell nbc news that there has been a shooting. >> there was a shooting at a theater in louisiana. and it happened to occur, when we were on an overseas trip. i had been asleep. and when we landed to refuel, i woke up. and there was interest in the white house response. so, i typed a response on my phon phone, to the runway, and we took off again. this is an illustration that the white house response to a mass-shooting incident, we could, literally, do in our sleep. >> he has come out to this podium, before. but, he has had no success in getting what he calls common-sense-gun legislation passed. >> there's been another, mass shooting in america. somehow, this has become

routine. >> it seemed to happen over and over and over, again. >> you know, i remember him saying, after background checks failed in 2013, what do i do the next time i have to go speak at one of these things? >> the reporting is routine. my response, here, at this podium, ends up being routine. we've become numb to this. >> he was saying, god, i feel like i'm routine and your coverage seems routine. it just got us all going, wait a minute, why are we all letting this feel routine? >> i hope and pray, that i don't have to come out again. but, based on my experience as president, i can't guarantee that. and that's terrible to say. and it can change. >> he recognized that, even as

president, as the most powerful person in the wofrrld, his abily to prevent these things from happening is limited. >> whenever there was a public memorial, the president and the first lady would spend time with each family. and sadly, it became a routine that our staff knew how to organize. it's, like, a horrible thing to know how to organize. >> for president obama, for mrs. obama, that might be, you know, the 300th hand they've shaked that day. but for that person, it's the moment with the president and the first lady. >> to sit with those families, to absorb their pain. it was the most remarkable thing that i've seen two people do. and it takes a toll. even years after, whenever he would speak about sandy hook, he never did it without choking up. >> those rights were stripped from 1st graders. 1st graders.

and from every family, who -- who never imagined that their loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun. >> well, the great presidents do understand that. you can't often bring change in the moment or several years that you're president, but you have to begin. you have to start. >> as the president entered the fourth quarter, he felt like he was as good a president as he was going to be. even though he'd made mistakes, we had all been there long enough, we felt like, really, nothing could stop us. >> for all that we have endured. for all the grit and hard work required to come back. for all the tasks that lie ahead, know this. the shadow of crisis has passed, and the state of the union is strong. >> we have leadership of this country.

they don't know what the hell they're doing. >> people kept trying to demoralize him. he never let any of that get to him. >> there is a right to marriage equality. >> the progress made under president obama is impossible to erase. >> but, that's what we did. that's what you did. did that's what you did. washington, d.c. holds more power and influence, than anywhere else in the world. >> d.c. emergency 911. how can i help you? >> i need the police to come quickly. i've just found my wife dead. >> and as a homicide prosecutor, i have learned some people will do anything to get a piece of that power for themselves. >> how does somebody in d.c. get away with that? >> when i received the assignment to prosecute the case involving the murder of viola draft, i realized this was going to be a