once again the president walking with dennis mcdonough. does that mean they're mulling do they pull back, do they go forward or go to congress? a fellow democrat for the president, senator tim kaine said i urge the administration to use the next two weeks to clearly define the strategy and objectives of its mission against isil, then bring it to congress for a debate and authorization vote. so pressure there from the left anyway for the president to come and get it authorized by congress. but when i pressed josh earnest about this, he was trying to make a distinction. when the president said he was going to congress to consider air strikes it was in response to president assad's use of chemical weapons. in this case, it could potentially be air strikes in response to the beheading of that american journalist, james foley, and they seem to be trying at least to draw a distinction here that that would be in the president's prerogative under the war powers act to go ahead unilaterally to protect the american interests, protect the american ho

the president taking a walk with white house chief of staff, dennis mcdonough. you may remember the last time the president considered air strikes against syria, he also took a walk with dennis mcdonough. that ended up with a call for congress to weigh in and those air strikes never happened. steve, a lot of people are trying to read the tea leaves here. that picture tell you anything? >> it was obviously, i think the white house put it out so that it would conjure up thoughts of the meeting of the walk they had last year. part of the problem is we're all reading tea leaves. nobody knows what this president is going to do. by all accounts he has no strategy. he hasn't had a strategy in the region basically since the beginning of the the administration. he's had senior officials at the state department announced that leave the administration because of the lack of strategy. it's hard to feel that anything significant is going to change from the president unless he has support of republicans or others from the outside urging him to get serious about eliminating is

try to get other forces on our side, this was a year ago this started, the white house with dennis mcdonough talking about the importance of air attacks in syria and our allies pulled out and, pulled the rug out and the allies it is hard to get back in a coalition and vice president biden in the white house trying to get support, virtually nothing has been done on that, we can't wait forever and the longer with doe wait the stronger isis becomes, more people and more america and bring tape come at risk. i would like to ask you both, i will girlfriend you a second, let me ask you both is this a situation that should remind us of what we did or did not do with al qaeda? he we did not declare war on a al qaeda, should we declare war on isis and get a military strategy about defeating them even if we can't have the perfect or even near perfect coalition that you talk about a minute ago, congressman smith? >> i think problem with doing that is with repeated references the air attacks, the president threatened and didn't do, those are air attacks that were going to be against the assad regime the

try to get other forces on our side, this was a year ago this started, the white house with dennis mcdonough talking about the importance of air attacks in syria and our allies pulled out and, pulled the rug out and the allies it is hard to get back in a coalition and vice president biden in the white house trying to get support, virtually nothing has been done on that, we can't wait forever and the longer with doe wait the stronger isis becomes, more people and more america and bring tape come at risk. i would like to ask you both, i will girlfriend you a second, let me ask you both is this a situation that should remind us of what we did or did not do with al qaeda? he we did not declare war on a al qaeda, should we declare war on isis and get a military strategy about defeating them even if we can't have the perfect or even near perfect coalition that you talk about a minute ago, congressman smith? >> i think problem with doing that is with repeated references the air attacks, the president threatened and didn't do, those are air attacks that were going to be against the assad regime the

leaves in a picture they sent out of the president walking with the white house chief of staff, dennis mcdonough. you may remember there was a similar image walking on the south lawn before the president decided to not strike inside syria around the chemical attacks era and instead have congress weigh in. they never did. and those strikes never happened. whether that was a signal by the white house that that's the way he's heading, we don't know. the bottom line is this, the president is rediscent to get involved. they continue to say this is not a 9/11 style attack that's pending. they do realize it is a real threat to the u.s. and western interests. >> very significant time for the obama white house. we'll see where this goes. bret, thanks so much. we'll see you tonight. >> see you, martha. >>> president obama once again reportedly looking to sidestep congress. this situation to get the world's biggest leaders in the economy to sign a u.n. treaty to cut their fossil fuel emissions without the constitutional required congressional approval on this. it would be classified as a binding agreement

. >> dennis mcdonough the chief of staff could do that i don't think he was on martha's vineyard withones, there is email. the idea of playing golf as we already discussed minutes after the talk about the beheading didn't make sense. so, my point being, if there was someone who could actually actually do it and wants to do it they had their chance then. nobody is standing up to him on that. >> okay. now, when his guy goes out to talk to you, what's the new guy's name again. >> josh earnest, he looks to me to be befuddled. i mean, jay carney, you may not have liked him but he looked like he understood the process. mr. earnest doesn't look like he doesn't have a lot of credibility. is that the buzz in the press corps? i know you have got to work with him and i don't expect him you to hammer. >> i think is he up to the job. i do think as somebody new on his first few weeks of the job is he dealing with air strikes in iraq, maybe air strikes in syria. a journalist beheaded. it's been a difficult, rocky start that would be difficult for anyone who had been doing the job for a long time. so

saw him in animated conversation with his chief of staff and a key national security adviser dennis mcdonough who was the deputy national security adviser before. we saw them in a very animated conversation before he left the white house. he then went to fort belvoir. there were indications all along when i asked a senior official whether or not as "the new york times" reported they were considering these options of air strikes and/or humanitarian drops, the comment was, i have nothing for you on that, which as colonel jack knows is the classic nondenial, which is a confirmation. so they're considering it. he was late leaving. it's under consideration. something is definitely afoot. there was no ruling out or denial from josh earnest. everything is on the table. >> you can watch andrea's show at 1:00 p.m. -- i'm sorry, 12:00. we're on at 1:00 p.m. >>> the candidates are in for our underreported poll. you sent us the stories you think need reporting. now time to vote on the finalists. this week's options, chicago's violence as the windy city struggles through one of its most tumultuous periods

it was a year ago this week that the president took a now famous walk on the south lawn with dennis mcdonough when he was about to launch air strikes and pulled back at the last minute. >> ed, thank you so much. ed henry live at the white house. we'll take you over to the pentagon where the press secretary of the pentagon is speaking out. he's certainly going(tn get some questions on this. >> and secretary hagel made clear the determination of the iraqi people and the international commune to the counter this threat will only grow. the united states looks forward to working with our friends from around the world to assist in that effort. with that, i'll take some questions. bob? >> could you be more specific, i think you used the word munit n munitions. what type of munitions you're talking about? >> this is an important point. what's great about this effort is, many of these partner nations have in their stocks more than we do, the kinds of equipment that kurdish forces use, which isn't necessarily american-made material. so it covers the full range, small arms ammunition and other personnel

animated conversation yesterday right before the decision was announced between the president and dennis mcdonough as he left for the bill signing. i wouldn't be surprised that there was some disagreement about the pitfalls here. that's what a chief of staff does. warn him. >> no, no. >> thank you. >> who could warn president obama? president obama circa five years ago. he can go back to his speeches and get the warning of what bad things can happen. >> and could still happen. >> i think he reached a point where he felt -- >> bad things happen when you don't intervene as well. that's what they are facing now. it's not making the region better. >> or invasion may have caused the instability that led to this. we could go back and blame somebody. i want to focus on -- ironically, i don't want to talk politics right now. thank you, andrea mitchell, gene robinson and michael leiter, for coming. >>> coming up here, we want to take ary newed look at the involvement in iraq from all the angles. what are the u.s. military options now? who are the enemies? isis members who are bent onslaughtering in their p

upset and that day had been a "new york times" op-ed that he had read and he mentioned that to dennis mcdonough about the constitutional authorities involved and about getting congress involved. as you remember, the u.k. parliament had balked also just the day before. >> most underreported part of what the president said yesterday was this essentially a demand that he had is the u.s. isn't going into syria without a middle east coalition. andrea, what would that look like? is that the saudis, uae, qatar. give me an example of what you think this coalition of arab states and the united states could look like in syria. >> it could be turkey. it could be those that are against assad but also worried about isil on their borders. so this is a very fine line because anybody who attacks isis is also propping up assad and they have got to figure out what the space is to bolster the so-called moderate rebels so that it isn't a choice, as the president pointed out, between isis and assad. that's something that was resonating in the region, that they don't want it to be that choice. these are the allies w