chris jansing, nbc news. >>> we're back in a moment with a party animal from outer space. why scientists are calling this the happy hour comet. >>> great news at the gas pump as we head into the holiday travel season. drivers are saving a dollar a gallon compared to a year ago with the average price at now $2.25 a gallon, down ten cents this month. the lowest price is 1 boyne -- 1.85 in south carolina and the highest, $2.87 in los angeles. >>> today the american academy of pediatrics called for raising the national minimum age to buy tobacco products including e cigarettes to 21. they call out e-cigarettes for, quote, threatening to addict a new generation to nicotine by one estimate, raising the age to 21 would save over four million years total in the life spans of today's kids. >>> in our galaxy, it is not a party until the lovejoy comet shows up. at peak activity, lovejoy was releasing the same amount of alcohol as in 500 bottles of wine every second. according to experts, it is the first time ethanol alcohol and a certain kind of sugar have been observed in a comet. t

chris jansing, nbc news, the white house. >>> we have breaking news from washington. the drama may soon be over in the search for a new speaker of the house as congressman paul ryan has officially jumped in the race. feeling he has enough support from the republican caucus and his conditions satisfied. ryan declared his candidacy moments ago in a letter to colleagues. the vote for a new speaker will take place next week. >>> still ahead as we continue here tonight, a new warning for drivers who use hands-free devices. you may think all your focus is on the road after you hang up a call or change the radio, but you may still be distracted for a surprising and dangerous amount of time. >> also, stand and deliver. how come classrooms are doing away with old school desks and keeping kids on their toes. >>> we are back with an eye-opening new look at the dangers of distracted driving which kills over 3,000 americans each year. we heard about the dangers of talking and texting while driving. many states have laws outlawing it unless it's hands-free. researchers are warning

here's senior white house correspondent chris jansing. >> reporter: thick black smoke billowing in the skies over syria. death and destruction on the ground after russian air strikes opened a dangerous new phase in an already complicated and bloody war. >> this kind of action by the russians is ill advised and will backfire. that approach is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire. >> reporter: vladimir putin today saying the target is isis. russia releasing a video claiming terrorist targets were destroyed, but the real target appears to be opponents of syrian president assad, russia's ally. a direct challenge to the u.s. which wants assad out. >> strikes of that kind would question russia's real intentions fighting isil or protecting the assad regime. >> reporter: the russian moves come just two days after this visibly frosty meeting at the u.n. president obama and putin agreeing to coordinate military action in syria. but the u.s. got just an hour's notice today with a russian official bizarrely knocking on the door of the u.s. embassy in baghdad with the news. >> this prevents a

chris jansing, nbc news. >> we're back in a moment with a party animal from outer space. why scientists are calling this the happy hour comet. where scientists a calling this the happy hour comet. i'm mary ellen, and i quit smoking with chantix. i have smoked for thirty years and by taking chantix, i was able to quit in three months. and that was amazing. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it absolutely reduced my urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some had seizures while taking chantix. if you have any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse or of seizures. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you have these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. tell your doctor if you have heart or blood vessel problems

chris jansing, nbc news, the white house. >>> we have breaking news from washington. the drama may soon be over in the search for a new speaker of the house as congressman paul ryan has officially jumped in the race. feeling he has enough support from the republican caucus and his conditions satisfied. ryan declared his candidacy moments ago in a letter to colleagues. the vote for a new speaker will take place next week. >>> still ahead as we continue here tonight, a new warning for drivers who use hands-free devices. you may think all your focus is on the road after you hang up a call or change the radio, but you may still be distracted for a surprising and dangerous amount of >>. deliver. how come classrooms are doing away with old school desks and this bale of hay cannot be controlled. through elkhorn ranch, the sudden loss of pasture became a serious problem for a family business. that needed feeding sent hay prices soaring, the owners had to act fast. with chase for business. and with greater financial clarity and a relationship built for the unexpected, she coul

and chris jansing is up in new york and howard feinman, political analyst. thank you, chris and howard. what do we know about the meeting, chris jansing? >> everyone has signed on the representative. they will get all folks into the room sunday night. it is hard to imagine how this is all going to play out. they go in of course with competing expectations. and if you're carson or trump, you want to say how do i keep my place on top of the polls? if you're lindsey graham or bobby jindal, how do i get more airtime. does it benefit my candidate to have longer, more open-ended answers or keep to a shorter format. you go in with competing goals and expectations. the level of discontent is so high. i have talked to so many people in the different campaigns. i know i'm told by organizers the rnc called them several times last night, once this morning, wanting to make nice. they say it's a day late and a dollar short. >> here's what some of them have to say. >> why should we have these people that hate everything we stand for? >> in my view, republican primary debate

and chris jansing up in new hampshire with the bush administration. and chris matthews is getting ready to play hard ball himself in las vegas. so chris, set the scene here. there's no donald trump on stage. but right now, the person who's most likely to be the next president of the united states, if you were to look at all the oddsmakers is hillary clinton, and she will be. >> yeah, she will. chuck, i think you've got it. the fact that this is in vegas makes perfect sense. it's about betting odds. there's a weird disconnect, if you go out and talk to the people who are rooting for bernie sanders, they remind me of the people -- from the '60s. november doesn't count. they will argue that everything that bernie is fighting for, tr free tuition, bigger social security benefits, health care, all that can be paid by cutting defense or taxing wall street. by the argument they're not ready for, does he have a chance of being elected to the white house? a socialist, self-described older socialist from vermont. that's the weird thing. so they don't think about

and chris jansing is tracking the latest on the republicans plans to disrupt the debate process. >>> but first, obama's decision to put u.s. forces on the ground in syria -- or to admit there are u.s. special forces on the ground in syria. it's a two-pronged choreographed announcement that took place today. josh earnest and john kerry made simultaneous statements from different sides of the globe. >> our special operations personnel inside of syria have a very different mission. that mission is to build the capacity of local forces so that they can be even more effective than they've already been in taking the fight to isil on the ground in syria. >> make no mistake, the answer to the syrian civil war is not found in a military alliance with assad, from our point of view. but i am convinced that it can be found through a broadly supported diplomatic initiative aimed at a negotiated political transition consistent with the geneva communiquÉ. >> live in istanbul, richard, is this a change in strategy or a public admission of a tactic that's been taking place for some time? >> reporter:

in the background, cnn -- sorry, nbc's chris jansing. we're getting punchy here. also, we look back at the aerial photos of campus in oregon. a community college campus, 10:38 this morning. the first call went to 911. we have since heard some of those first phone calls. people giving a fairly calm and explicit instructions to the operator to send help. we knew we had a mass casualty event. what we did not know -- in exchange of gunfire. death toll still officially 13. we're hoping that gets brought downward and the number of wounded kate snow, around 20. >> that's right. umpqua community college will be closed monday not a surprise. they'll keep the campus shut down. they've canceled all student activities for the weekend there. actually, in abundance of caution, portland has also told us -- portland police say they'll be adding extra executor for public schools and recall that's far north from the area they've been talking about in roseburg, a few hours drive north. it often happens in the wake of a tragedy like this. >> happens to be a beautiful part of the worl

chris jansing, thank you. the campaign trail, hillary clinton, potential successor, not yet responded publicly to the president's afghanistan troop announcement. secretary clinton is in texas, doing outreach to latino voter. everything is in bigger in texas, including endorsements. the former mayor of san antonio and current housing urban development secretary, castro, pledged his support and created vp buzz. >> i think really highly of him and i am thrilled to have his endorsement today. i am going to really look hard at him for anything because that's how good he is. >> well, castro, of course, was asked to respond to the buzz about a potential -- being potential clinton running mate. he didn't say no. oh, i doubt that's going to happen. you know -- >> you say yes? >> others have talked about that. i doubt that's going to happen. what i'm saying yes to is to do a great job at hud. >> that's the way you're supposed to not run for vice president. anyway, let's go to hallie jackson, in san antonio. i ham surpri

joining me now with the latest on biden's thinking, nbc's senior white house correspondent chris jansing. chris, what do you know? >> reporter: well, that is the question. what is joe biden thinking? i can tell you that here at the white house and all throughout washington and in political circles throughout the country the anticipation is very high. again, sources telling nbc news that that decision is very close. you mentioned the benghazi testimony on thursday. there are a couple of other things that are playing into this timing question. one is the number of people who are sitting on the sidelines, people who would go out and be a part of this team, people who would work to make him president. they are obviously waiting to hear. there's a very practical set of deadlines that start in early november. you have to get organized and get ready to get on ballots in various states. but then ultimately there are folks who say look, joe biden is not going to be pressured by anyone no matter what any other democrats even have to say. this is going to be something he does in his own time. i can

chris jansing, thank you so much.olitical reporter kasie hunt is joining me from the washington burro. we'll start with the front-runner of the gop side, donald trump. what is he seeing? >> reporter: donald trump is getting into what is becoming sort of a theme of the presidential statements, talking about -- excuse me, gop statements, talking about the fact that this is actually better for him because it means he gets a chance to run more likely against hillary clinton. there's some discussion that joe biden would have been the strongest general election nominee. and therefore they will have an easier time. i would push back against that a little bit. i mean, this is definitely the republican party putting this spin on there. the reality is had joe biden decided to jump into this race, it could have created a potentially very nasty primary between clinton and biden, which we know. but one thing about that that republicans were privately talking to me about is this idea it would have made the democratic primary much m

now, as chris jansing reports, ethan hughes first had memories are vivid... since then - the pressure of tests has been unrelenting... a new study of seven million students .found that from pre-k to 12th grade, they take an average of 112 standardized tests... spending as much as 25 hours a year just testing. but it isn't helping kids learn more testing didn't yield better students? no. did not yield better results. so now the obama administration- is saying enough -- calling on schools to cut back tests to no more than 2 percent of classroom time. it's a major reversal -- to fix a problem they admit they in new york city last year- parents got so fed up - 20% of them let their children opt out of the tests ... and teachers have been frustrated, too. what it does it keeps you from giving them what you know they including civil rights groups - have argued schools in poor neighborhoods need the tess to help level the educational playing field... so under the white house plan - annual standardized testing will stay as an assessment tool...but fewer overall tests

chris jansing, thank you.lie jackson, thanks as well. >>> we want to turn now to the democrats and specifically, vermont senator and presidential candidate bernie sanders, who joins us now. sir, can you hear me? senator, it's thomas roberts in new york. can you hear me? >> i can't hear him. >> senator, how about now? can you hear me now? >> yes. >> excellent. it's good to have you with us. thanks for making time for me. i know we will have a lot to talk about specifically about marijuana, you gave a speech earlier this week that you say you want that off the government's list of dangerous drugs. you are the first presidential candidate to ever publicly make a statement like that. we are going to speak about why you want to do that in a moment. but first, i need to talk to you about what's taking place on the left and get your reaction to this latest charge from senator hillary clinton and you, when it comes to sexism. take a listen. >> i have been told to stop and i quote, shouting about gun violence. well, fi

joining us now is chris jansing at the white house, and jeff kiran on the phone. and chris, it seem ed in a strange way it would help us to gather up the forces in a coalition there, and now since the president has spoken to the u.n., it is like there is no way that the because the russians and the americans are different pages. >> well, they couldn't be further apart on so many issues, but as you well know, chris, the question is what to do in terms of bashar al assad. let's just look at where we are right now, because we have the most powerful militaries in the sky over syria, and not just the united states and now russia, but of course france and the uk, and they need to coordinate at the very least, they have to coordinate these flights. what is going on right now, as we are speaking is that they are having the high level meetings by teleconference to figure out the basic part of it, but the second part of it that is far more complicated and goes to the point of how far apart the u.s. and russia are, who exactly are they targeting? they claim to be targeting is

nbc's chris jansing is in colorado. first to chris. the changes ben carson is talking about, he doesn't like the "gotcha" questions as he calls them. any specifics on what the new format would be like? >> reporter: everything is on the table. it might be a longer opening statement, a longer closing statement. some of the answers are too short. they think the questions are designed to get the candidates to go at each other instead of inform the public. they are even talking about the commercial structure. when i talked to doug watts who is communications director for dr. carson saying we see this more as a tv show and we want this about the american people hearing what our views are. they have had success before when ben carson and donald trump got together and didn't want it as long as it was going to be and wanted other changes and they got them. it will be interesting to see how far they will push this. i know they have support from reince priebus the rnc chairman who came out after the debate and voiced his complaints verbally and o

>> let's get right to nbc's chris jansing and hallie jackson. chris, let me start with you.t many people are talking about is the bush/rubio conflict. it seems like the points made by bush fell flat. >> this is a very bad morning for the bush campaign, no doubt about it. arguably he had the most pressure on him. there was that big meeting with the family in houston. they had many major donors there, many of the supporters. they were going to reboot. they did this big powerpoint presentation. they wanted to see him come out last night, they wanted to see him as a fighter, as looking presidential. it didn't happen. marco rubio was able to get the best of him. so the real question this morning is, is this the beginning of the end for him? the headlines have been bad, there are long-time supporters who are suggesting that he needs to think about whether or not he can stay in this race, or is it, and we've seen this with past presidential campaigns including john mccain's, is it a point at which he hits the bottom and then figures out a way to rebound. it's a very big road for hi

back to you. >> chris jansing at the white house. a lot of you have been weighing in on the vice president's decision and take a look at the results of the flash survey. as you can see, the majority of people who voted say biden made the right move by deciding to not run for president. if you'd like to leave a comment head over to the nbc washington facebook page and tell us what you think. >> the vice president's decision comes just a day before a critical day for hillary clinton. she's set to testify before the benghazi committee and after getting a bump in the polls from the debate, many consider tomorrow's appearance to be the last major test of her campaign. >>> here's a sign of just how busy wisconsin congressman paul ryan is right now. he didn't hear about joe biden's news believe two hours later when a reporter asked them about it. ryan met with the house freedom caucus. he said he won't take the speakership if they don't unite behind him. he also said he won't spend weekends traveling because he refuses to give up time with

, the event itself, the announcement from the president, our senior white house correspondent, chris jansing is at the white house to start off our coverage for this hour. chris, what was it like there? >> reporter: well, this is a very big strategic change, obviously, for this white house, an administration that ran on making sure that america had no more troops in either iraq or afghanistan. it is something that we've been waiting for. so it wasn't totally a surprise. we knew that this had been under review since march when president ghani came here to the white house and asked the president very pointedly not to withdraw. and there were a lot of other forces at work here as well. we have learned today that among those consulted besides who you would expect or the members of the joint chiefs of staff, obviously military leaders on the ground, that there were members of congress from both parties, although the white house won't say who, who were part of this plan of what has been, we understand, a lively debate. they had a whole range of options that were presented and each had its advocate

over to the white house, chris jansing, our senior white house correspondent. chris, at the end of a president's two terms in office, it's always difficult to look back and say, well, this -- this one issue was in the background or the foreground the entire time, and this is going to be one of these. when we say america's longest war, it takes another turn this late in the game. >> reporter: it does indeed, brian. and remember, this is a president who got elected on a promise that he wanted to get out of war. he acknowledged that, right? he acknowledged that at the end of -- the answer to the one shouted question when he said, you know, i've never been for an open-ended war, but i think jack picked up on exactly the right thing, which is that he said there were going to be this series of adjustments. other people might call it a significant strategic shift. having said that, i think it's worthwhile to look back that when he was running for re-election in 2012, brian, he said we're going to withdraw troops by the end of 2014. and then, of course, that didn't happ

chris jansing standing by at the white house. chris, it's not like this hasn't been a part of the national conversation. >> no, it's been a huge part of the national conversation for this president, as you mentioned. national security adviser briefed him on the shooting and he has to get updates regularly throughout the day. but my producer and i were putting together a list of just the mass shootings where the president has traveled to speak and take that role that is such a terrible role, which is consoler in chief, by my count, at least seven times that has happened for him, most recently, of course, in charleston. but the navy yard shooting, after the tucson shooting, of course gabby gifford was so seriously injured. twice he traveled to ft. hood, to aurora, colorado, and sandy hook, of course for the new town shooting. so there is that familiarity. but there is also a terrible frustration in this white house and with the president, very specifically there was a very strong feeling in the aftermath of sandy hook, in particular

. >> our senior white house correspondent chris jansing is available to talk to us now. chris, we'll keep looking at the lectern in the rose garden they have set up and the technical crews are scrambling right now, i take it. >> reporter: and i can tell you that i was in a meeting that was a briefing on the climate summit. and one of the aides came in to whisper in the ear of folks and there was a lot of chattering that went on and a quick departure. so obviously this was something that was set, at least the timing of it, pretty much late. it wasn't something they planned for. i think it is also interesting to look at the context of what this might mean for the administration, brian. i mean, if this is a man who josh earnest affirmed what he said yesterday that spends four to seven hours a day at the side of the president who has been key in some of the things that have happened here from budget deals to nuclear deals with the liason with congress on capitol hill, this obviously has strong implications for what happens here even though josh earnest yesterday tried to down

nbc's chris jansing is there. chris, good morning. so what's prompting this change in strategy?eard a great explanation from colonel jacobs, but there is also this months-long review, it started in march, that was done in consultation with the national security team, u.s. military and afghan security officials, and the decision was made that this needed to be done. and look, they had a whole range of options that were presented to the president. one was 1,000 essentially what is on the -- was planned, and that was an embassy-only force up to recommendations of 10,000 troops. so this sort of cuts somewhere down in the middle. there's obviously a serious political component for this because this is something that the president had promised to do from the very beginning, to end the war in afghanistan, to get americans out. in fact, when he ran for re-election in 2012, he was still sticking to that, that it was going to happen, end the war in 2014. obviously, that didn't happen. and then just in march, after meeting with the afghan president, president obama said that they were not

as as chris jansing reports, lawmakers are joining the call for change. >> reporter: ethan had testing anxiety when he was only in third grade. he is 15 now but his memories have vivid. >> i would feel so, i guess anxious, that i ran out of the classroom because i felt like i was going to throw up because there is so much pressure they put on you. >> since then the pressure is relentless. from prek to 12th grade they take an average of 112 standardized tests spending 25 hours a year just testing. but it isn't helping kids learn. >> more testing did not yield bester results. >> it doesn't have any particular strategy to it. and it doesn't necessarily do what any of those want -- we want our tests to. >> reporter: so the obama administration is saying enough. calling on schools to cut back testing to no more than 2% of class time. it is a major reversal to fix a problem they admit they helped create. in new york city last year parents got fed up 20% let their children opt out of the tests and teachers are frustrating too. >> it keeps you from giving them what you know they need because y

nbc 10's chris jansing is in the briefing room right now. chris, what are you being told there? >> the president made a decision a short time ago he had to speak on this and i'm reminded what he had to say in charleston when he gave the eulogy, it would be a betrayal if we let this pass in silence. the president has said many times before that this has no place in a civilized society and he talked about the unique mayhem that gun violence in this country has caused as opposed to many other civilized countries around the world. at least seven times he has traveled to the site of mass shootings, most recently charleston and he's come out to this podium before, but he's had no success in getting what he calls common sense gun legislation passed, lester? >> and here is the president. >> there's been another mass shooting in america. this time in a community college in oregon. that means there are more american families, moms, dads, childr children, whose lives have been changed forever. that means there's another community stunned with grief and communities across the country forced

joining us now is chris jansing. she's nbc news senior white house correspondent. she's covering the presidential campaign. chris, it is great to have you here. >> great to be here. >> you have been i know discussing this planned sunday meeting with the campaigns. what's the latest you know about what they're going to do? >> well, there's a lot going on. let's start with the fact that reince priebus has apparently been calling organizers. he called them multiple times last night. he called them again today and said let's all come to a nice agreement. let's talk. to which they said you're not invited. >> so he's calling the campaigns and saying i want -- >> there are a group of organizers who are putting this together who may be outreach to the campaigns. it was just late this afternoon, early this evening that jeb bush's campaign became the last campaign to say yes, we will send a representative to this meeting sunday night to figure out what we're going to do about the debates going forward. so those organizers are picking up the phone, and it's the rny and the rnc

from our own chris jansing. >> reporter: what do you say to people who are concerned about your ability to wage a vigorous campaign in a general election? >> i would say i can find just as many people who would say his demeanor and his intellect will allow him to make hillary look like what she is. >> reporter: which is what? >> you'll find out. >> joining us now, nbc's hallie jackson in nevada, ahead of donald trump's event this afternoon and chris jansing live in colorado covering the carson campaign, as you just saw. we heard a little bit there in terms of what ben carson was saying today moving forward. what's the assessment from his team, though, based on what we saw last night, is there a change in the campaign or the plan moving forward? >> reporter: no change in the plan. that's for sure. they had modest expectations going in. they know the debate format is not fantastic for him. there is a little bit i think of general feeling that the best he can do is do no harm. they don't think that he did. having said that, he made news just a short time ago when he said that he is contact

and we are talking to chris jansing, katy tur, halle jackson but let's have chris jansing start us off. >> reporter: i just got an e-mail from chris or ben carson's aide now as a frontrunner he'll be a target, both by his fellow candidates as well as tough questions as you say on the economy by the moderators. how will he hold up under the scrutiny? that's the big question, andrea, for ben carson tonight. >> and the big question, thanks to chris. the big question now for donald trump, is he going to attack ben carson? katy tur, you're covering what trump has been up to all along. >> reporter: i think we can expect him to attack ben carson one way or the other, but he's already lowering the expectations for the debate tweeting out just now that he's looking forward to what he is sure will be an unfair debate. but this is a chance for donald trump to really shine. it's a chance to prove that he is the right leader to turn this country around. that he'll create jobs and that he'll run this country like he runs one of his businesses. it's a chance for him to shine, especially against ben c

i'm joined by nbc's chris jansing. specifically, what do the candidates want to see overhauled?feel like they've been left out of the process largely. although the rnc would tell you throughout the whole period when they were negotiating, they got feedback from the campaigns. but i do know that just last night, the rnc made several calls to the organizers of the meeting and the message to them, you're not invited. as one person put it to me, this offer to help them along is a day late and a dollar short. but to your very specific question, which is what do they want, that's really going to be the fly in the ointment. we all know they want changes. you could see on the debate stage and you could see how unhappy people were with the way things went. different campaigns have different ideas about what these coming debates should look like, how many there should be. you could say generally, some of the campaigns that need help and don't have much money in their coffers might want more debates, because they want more free publicity. others, they want to have that time to be on the ca

decide for himself if that's the right call for -- for him personally and for his family. >> nbc's chris jansingte house. chris, what's the latest there? >> you heard josh earnest addressing the neigh-sayers in the democratic party. i'll get to the poll in a minute. but i thought it was interesting, what he said was that it would be a luxury and not a burden for someone like that to get in. when i pressed him, he made it plural to include hillary clinton as someone who has fought for her party and has been advanced by this administration. having said that, you see joe biden today, really aligning himself with this president, who, by the way, has the best approval ratings he's had in a couple of years. among the things joe biden said at that event today, honoring the former vice president walter mond ail, saying he's spends 4 to 7 hours a day with the president. that they ideologically have no disagreements, none, zero. but in what seems to be a pointed shot at hillary clinton, he said when the president sends a leader to talk to foreign leaders, they know joe biden speaks for the president. and

nbc's chris jansing, our senior white house correspondent for nbc news, joins me now.expected to be at the top of the agenda. explain what's at stake here. >> reporter: yeah, without a doubt. obviously the big picture is that this is part of the rebalancing of u.s. foreign policy toward asia but you mentioned north korea and the nuclear threat and that is a concern that south korea and the united states share. where they diverge is over china. we have seen overtures towards president park as a hedge against that north korean nuclear threat at a time when the united states has been working hard to diminish china's influence in the region and the world as part of that sort of restructuring of foreign policy with more of a focus on asia. having said that, the bilateral meeting that we saw dtoday in te oval office and a lunch, by the way, this press conference is getting a late start because the lunch they are having together seems to be running over, that's a sign that they want to show very outwardly that there is still a close relationship between these two countries, p

katie tur, chris jansing. chuck todd, moderator of "meet the press" has caught up with ben carson. you, chris. dr. carson, let me ask you this question. what was your goal tonight? and do you think you accomplished it? >> the goal was to show up. >> fair enough. >> i accomplished that. >> check. >> but i was hoping to obviously get a chance to weigh in on at least a few economic questions. and that was possible. not in the depth that you would like to do. >> let's go to your tax plan. that, i feel like you did get cut off. you didn't get to finish it. i remember you had said, you use 10%, because it's easy to do the math. >> right. >> you say it's closer to 15%. walk us through what your tax plan is. >> we're talking about an $18 trillion economy. now, i'm hoping it's going to be a whole bunch more than that when we get things done the right way. we have to deal with what we have. so 15% on that gets you to $2.7 trillion. now, the annual budget is around $3.5 trillion. so you know, you've got to make up another $800 billion. but, remember, you have capital gains tax. and capital gai

currently there are 9,800 american there is from a peak of 100,000 in 2011: chris jansing is at the white house. chris, how long has this been in the works? >> reporter: since march when he ordered a review of what to do about the war plan in afghanistan but as recently as march the president said he intended to end this war, get most of the troops out by the end of his administration. obviously that won't happen. it's a significant shift in u.s. policy. it means he can't keep his campaign promise to end the war and he'll be surrounded by his vice president, his defense secretary and the chairman of the joint chiefs. >> jim miklaszewski standing by. is this a reflection on recentre surge yens? >> absolutely. officials say it was necessary to maintain a troop presence because the afghan military is in no position right now to be able to take on the resurgence of taliban, al qaeda and now even isis terrorists in afghanistan they need the u.s. help. >> here is the president in the roosevelt room. >> good morning. last december more than 13 years after our nation was attacked by al qaeda in 9

joining me now with the latest on biden's thinking, nbc's senior white house correspondent chris jansing well, that is the question. what is joe biden thinking? i can tell you that here at the white house and all throughout washington and in political circles throughout the country the anticipation is very high. again, sources telling nbc news that that decision is very close. you mentioned the benghazi testimony on thursday. there are a couple of other things that are playing into this timing question. one is the number of people who are sitting on the sidelines, people who would go out and be a part of this team, people who would work to make him president. they are obviously waiting to hear. there's a very practical set of deadlines that start in early november. you have to get organized and get ready to get on ballots in various states. but then ultimately there are folks who say look, joe biden is not going to be pressured by anyone no matter what a

but he answered that question quickly and moved on. >> katy tur, chris jansing, thanks to you both. >alking about the candidates. what are the issues that could make or break the debate tonight? >>> plus, developing news out of jerusalem. a rash of stabbings on the street. we go live there. >>> and richard engel checks back in with a refugee who was pregnant and succumbing to tear gas in front of our crew. we have an important update coming up. cash back from bank of america to take their act to the next level... before earning 1% cash back everywhere, every time... 2% back at the grocery store... and 3% back on gas... vince of the flying branzinos got a bankamericard cash rewards credit card, because he may earn his living jumping through hoops, but he'd rather not earn cash back that way. that's the spectacle of rewarding connections. apply online or at a bank of america near you. ♪ everything kids touch during cold and flu season sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. because no one kills germs better than clorox.

chris jansing is senior white house correspondent, jim miklaszewski chief pentagon correspondent and kevin baron, executive editor of defense one. chris, explain what the president says altered his judgment on this and this decision being viewed in washington, is it sufficient or insufficient to accomplish the military mission? >> reporter: good question. let me start with the first one, which is that you heard the president say his concern about the security situation on the ground in afghanistan and what that could mean to our national security. a number of things have happened with escalating violence there. obviously the taliban gaining strength, their ability to take control for a time of kunduz. there is concern that senior white house officials have affirmed about the possible resurgence of al qaeda. there's a new threat there as well in isis. so you combine all these things and as this group looked at this since march, they were given the task in march to do this review, it included members of his national security team, military commanders and folks from afghanistan. there's

chris jansing and peter alexander are standing by tonight. good morning to you both.eter, let's look at these iowa polls. trump is falling pretty far behind carson. what is this dip doing to mr. trump and his campaign? >> well, i think that's what we're all going to watch for tonight, isn't it? how donald trump, now in second place for the first time in months, how he handles this sort of moment of adversity, as it were. here is what we do know. the latest national poll. this may be as telling as any right now. it shows as he acknowledges, if not scientific, it shows a trend. he is now trailing by 4 percentage points to dr. ben carson right now. the number that's the standout and what everybody on the stage realizes tonight is more than 70% of republicans stay they still haven't made their mind up about who they'll support in the race. 28% of them say they believe they are locked in. in fact, about a half of donald trump's supporters say they're locked in on trump the rest of the way, which is good news for him. it's the fluidity, the softness of the support right now

we have eugene robinson, chris jansing, associate editor for "the washington post," david ignatius. >k through about afghanistan, syria. >> never ends, does it? >> no, it never ends. the pace seems to quicken by the day. i remember david sanger's book, "the inheritance" as george w. bush left office and what he was leaving the next president. i cast no aspersions, no blames. this is just a view on my part. but the inbox for the neshs preside -- next president is going to be far more complicated than what barack obama inherited. >> this was a president who said i'm going to turn the page on it era of wars. the predecessor, george w. bush had begun. and he meant it. that was his central passion in foreign policy. and it is moving and painful to see this president at the end of his second term having to say we can't leave afghanistan, i'm not going to be able to take those troops out, that page i wanted to turn, it's still there. >> and more than that. somebody -- a high-ranking official in obama's first term once told me he asked the president what do you want to be remembered as? the a

he has not made up his mind. >> chris jansing, thank you. leaders meanwhile fresh off the news that congressman paul ryan could jump in the race for house speaker. brian williams is in new york. >> jose, thanks. we're going to show folks the room we're waiting to cut to on capitol hill and there's a small lectern on the left there and the phrase on it matching the phraseology on the wall behind it is "sign the bill." before john boehner walks into this room still the speaker of the house, before he talks about the future, to say nothing of signing the bill, kelly o'donnell's prepared to explain to us just what it is we're talking about there, kelly. >> reporter: well, good to be with you, brian. congress has passed the national defense authorization act and that is the big spending bill for the department of defense. the white house has signaled that the president would veto that and certainly republicans here on capitol hill want to see him sign that. it is very rare for a president to veto the defense authorization act. there's a dispute a