with us, jeffrey goldberg of the "atlantic's" magazine, jeffrey goldberg, paul gigot, and katty kay. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> good morning. the president and his family are on day four of their ten-day vacation. before leaving for martha's vineyard, he made the case for democrats in tough races this november. here this morning, the current minority leader, the leader of the republicans, mitch mcconnell of kentucky. leader mcconnell, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning. >> we will talk politics but i also want to talk about the controversy surrounding plans for build a mosque and a community center in lower manhattan near the site of ground zero. here is "time" magazine out on newsstands now, is america islamaphobic? we know that it is their right to build a community center and mosque near ground zero. my question for you is, is it the wise thing to do? >> obviously this is not about freedom of religion in america. typically these kinds of decisions are made by local officials. what's been different about this one is you have the president of th

joining us, jeffrey goldberg, a republican candidate for governor of new york, former congressman rick, the bbc's katty kay and from "the wall street journal," paul gigot. welcome to all of you. i want to explore this mosque debate in greater depth. it's striking one of the more powerful republican figures in the country, mitch mcconnell, does not want to take a stand on it. rick lazio you are running for governor of new york and you have taken a stand. you have made a point of politicizing this issue. you have a web ad that i want to pay a portion of on the screen here. >> it just hit me in the gut. it doesn't have to be right here. it doesn't have to be at this site. >> you've been criticized by firefighting unions for using those images of 9/11. why is it that the mosque does not belong where they say it should go? >> i would say, david, there are millions of peace loving good muslims in america. this imam is not one of them. he's not a bridge builder. this is a man who in the same month people were burying their loved ones lost in 9/11 he said america was an accessory to the crime

jeffrey goldberg is a national correspondent for "the atlantic" and has covered the imam extensively. he has actually walked the walk. he goes to churches. he goes to synagogues. he talks about the commonalties. he condemns terrorism. fundamentalism. in all forms. including islamic fundamentalism. i've seen this. >> reporter: still, some don't buy it. they say the imam is a sympathi sympathizer, pointing to this interview with "60 minutes. ". >> i wouldn't say the united states deserved what happened but the united states policies were an accessory to the crime that happened. >> reporter: his wife came to his defense on abc's "this week." >> it was a longer interview. and in the longer interview, he talked about the cia support specifically to osama bin laden and the taliban. >> reporter: in fact be a spokesman for the imam reiterated that, telling us the comments were, quote, taken out of context. he went on to describe the mistakes the cia made in the 1980s by financing osama bin laden and strengthening the taliban. and what about claims that the imam sympathizes with hamas? asked i

bring this up is because lately we've just been hearing too much from the john bolton's and the jeffrey goldberg of the world and now you know there's a new article by robert kaplan in the atlantic those reverting back to henry kissinger's book from one nine hundred fifty seven in which he talks about limited nuclear war as the best deterrence. do you think of these guys are a little too bomb happy. yeah but to put it in a word yes absolutely there are there are always going to be elements within every society who gravitate toward the u.s. or terror and toward the violence and for whom violence is the easiest solution and and there are going to be always intellectual snobbery society who are going to route violence the easy solution of violence which frankly typically isn't actually is a solution going to wrap it in an intellectual mystique and justification kissinger did that with it nom so i frankly i think unsuccessfully he's a i think most of the world judges him as a war criminal and and suggested that we should even consider nuclear as you point out back in the fifty's suggested that we sh