may have to engage. >> that's already happened. >> an important exchange between jim acosta and josh ernestat breaking story coming up throughout the day here on cnn. an important programming note before i let you go on the state of the union. cnn sits down with john boehner and paul ryan, the outgoing and incoming speakers of the house. dana bash has spoken with both of them. those interview this is sunday at 9:00 a.m. eastern and specific on "state of the union" this sunday. thanks very much for watching. i'll be back. "newsroom" with brooke baldwin starts right now. >>> wolf blitzer, thank you so much. great to be with you on this friday. i'm brooke baldwin. you're watching cnn. more on our breaking news in the war on isis. this major shift in policy will now see boots ob the ground for the first time in syria. we know a small contingent of special operations forces will be heading into kurdish-controlled territory in northern syria. these are the moderate rebels the u.s. has been arming and training. but just to be clear here, the rebels these troops will be helping are the same individ

>> reporter: you can expect that josh ernest would be getting sufficient questions from the press. he did say many times with regard to the fight against isil that there would be no american combat boots on the ground. this is sort of walks like a duck, talks like a duck test here. these are american forces that will be, a small number as we put it, less than 50, are there to advise and assist forces on the ground opposing isil. obviously he is leaving open the possible that they could and likely will be engaged in live-fire exercises. they are going to be in grave danger as anybody in the military to engages in this kind of thing -- >> mike, i have to cut you off for a moment, because there is a live press conference coming out of the talks on syria with sergei lavrov and john kerry. so let's listen in. >> i want to begin by thanking all of our foreign minister counterparts, sergei lavrov and i asked many people to come and many dropped things at the last minute. they changed their schedules, and made themselves available, and we're very grateful that they all sensed the importanc

just a few minutes ago at the white house briefing, josh ernest was asked numerous ways about what thedent, president obama was thinking about all of this. here's some of what josh ernest had to say. >> the president's staying out of it, in that he understands that the vice president has to make his own personal decision about this. and the president's staying out of it. and with regard to his understanding that this is only a decision that vice president biden can make for himself and for his family. i think the president's sympathetic to how difficult a decision this is to make. >> polls like ours would show that 38% of democrats say that he should not get in. and so there are obstacles. he's also looking at every possibility. how to raise money, thousand build an organization -- how to build an organization. no decision yet today, the bottom line. >> looking how instacampaign would fire up. great to see you, sir, thank you so much. >>> also developing, this brand new nbc news/wall street journal poll. hillary clinton widening her lead, look at this, up 20 points over bernie sanders,

listen to josh ernest today. >> it continues to be important.nying that the risk that's posed by those terrorist elements inside of afghanistan is significantly lower than the risks posed by core al qaeda pre- 9/11. >> draw down will continue? >> this is part of the policy decision that we announced the president has to make. >> reporter: a policy decision that will include consultation with the state and pentagon. at this point it still looks like that's the plan and they're sticking to it so far. >> big serious news day in israel. what is the white house response to the ongoing violence there? >> reporter: we've been watching the coverage on fox news throughout the day. just devastating. the white house is condemning the violence whether it be on israelis or palestinians. this is a circumstance where innocent people are being attacked with knives and it's escalated. >> thank you. >>> let's continue on with that. israel's military deploying hundreds of troops to help police deal with this wave of deadly palestinian shootings and stabbing attack

i want to show the folks at home, this is what the pat said in 2013 and here is how josh ernest respondedo that today. >> my answer is simple, i will not put american boot os on the ground in syria. >> the president did go out of his way to make sure our strategy is different. the strategy that difference interested then and today. >> it's boots on the ground. they're saying it's not in a combat mission what we saw under the bush administration. that's ha they will keep saying. that's their story and they are sticking to it. i think the facts bear out. thanks so much. one thing that people aren't saying yet and maybe because it hasn't come out, what role did russia have in prompting the obama administration to finally realize this is a bigger deal and we can't get away from not doing anything. >> it's a good observation and significant question. i'm always blown away by why woe would announce that 50 special ops will go to syria. i'll let the facts speak for themselves in terms of this contradiction, this about face. i also don't understand the mind set of having to make a big announcemen

white house spokesman josh ernest. >> available evidence at this point does not support the notion that law w forcement officers are shying away from fulfilling their responsibilities. >> reporter: comey says he has no data on the youtube effect but his hunch was strong enough to start talking about it publicly. scott others say the rise in crime is due to drug related violence and gang activity. >> jeff, thank you. we saw it again late today. social media circulating a new video of alleged abuse by an officer. it is a little bit difficult to watch. today a sheriff avenue deputy in columbia, south carolina, forcibly removed a student from a classroom at spring valley high school. late today the school district said it is deeply concerned by sheriff's department is investigating. today we learned that the woman accused of driving her car into a crowd at the oklahoma state university homecoming parade may have b bn suicidal. adacia chambers s held on $1 million bail and faces for counts of murder. one of the victims was a toddler. today her father spoke and adrianandiaz has more on that.

white house spokesman josh ernest said the president offered his condolences and promised that an investigationunderway. >> the president assured dr. lu that the department of defense investigation currently underway would provide a transparent, thorough, and objective accounting of the facts, and circumstances of the incident. >> the white house says president obama also spoke with the afghan president and pledged to keep working closely with his government. >>> more than half a million dollars in cash was found buried in the yard of a southern california home. the home was once occupied by an armored car driver convicted of stealing $1 million from a downtown los angeles bank in 2014. court documents say some of the money was dropped in a trash can. video from the scene shows federal agents carrying a plastic tub and a paper bag from that house. it's not clear what led the fbi to this tub of cash. another $300,000, though, is still missing. >>> a man driving a stolen car led australian police on a wild chase. it lasted for nearly two hours before the driver decided to off road it. first throu

wheel vice president joe biden today certainly sounded like a candidate, white house spokesman, josh ernestlled him a candidate. >> spending a lot of time discussing the presidential prospects of a candidate. >> you know something we don't? >> no, i guess i meant potential candidate, if i misspoke. >> at event honoring former vice president walter mondale, took multiple world meeting of families as former secretary of state, hillary clinton, but by declaring he has more clout around the worlds. >> two great secretary of state. but when i go, they know that i am speaking for the president. i don't think my chief enemy is the republican party. >> the second straight day biden took aim at clinton's answer in the first debate about her chief enemies. >> the iranians, probably the republicans. >> biden today suggested he's the hear to president obama to help wind up the pivotal support of african-americans in the primaries. clinton responded by announcing more than 50 african-american mayors have now endorsed her as new wall street journal nbc news poll, clinton has climbed seven-point to 49%. w

that's why the white house you saw josh ernest gloating a little bit and then saying, he wants to seethe republicans figure this out because they need someone who can work with president obama to sort of steer this ship through the end of the year at least as the republicans deal with this. paul ryan is somebody who john boehner thinks could maybe bring the conservatives and the more moderates, more main stream folks together. very respected, former budget chairman on the budget issues, economic and tax issues as well. hillary clinton, you mentioned. she is trying to tithe in -- dive in here as well. she is trying to turn the page on the e-mail controversy to show, she can lead. specifically going after wall street reform today, yesterday it was that flip-flop on the transpacific partnership, moving to the left to deal with the stronger than expected challenge from bernie sanders. today, tickloguing thes she intalking about. strengthen the voelker rule. fine executives for wrongdoing, a financial convictions, statute of limitations extended to ten years for financial climbs and reject

spokesman josh ernest explained the apparently reversal. >> in 2013, the president was receiving questionsut what the u.s. was prepared to do given our assistance that president assad had to go, that he'd lost legitimacy to lead. and the president was making the point that he was not prepared to put boots on the ground to take down the assad regime. again, that is precisely the mistake that the previous administration made. the quote that you hold there is a very different situation. >> different situation, same country. my issue is, not so much that the president is reversing his position,is, my issue is whether if even 50 of the world's top fighters is too few and megan. >> i agree. one thing hillary clinton and general petraeus have all said, we need to start having no-fly zones, which i agree with. so bashar al assad can stop barrel bombing his people. if anyone knows president obama's foreign policy plan and can explain it to me, you should have them on this show, because i don't understand it. >> you know, eric, in the surge, and i was there in 2006, we had 150,000 troops on the grou

white house spokesman josh ernest. >> available evidence at this point does not support the notion that law enforcement officers are shying away from fulfillingheir responsibilities. >> reporter: comey says he has no data on the youtube effect but his hunch was strong enough scott others say the rise in crime is due to drug related violence and gang activity. >> jeff, thank you. we saw it again late today. social media circulating a new video of alleged abuse by an officer. it is a little bit difficult to today a sheriff avenue deputy in columbia, south carolina, forcibly removed a student from a classroom at spring valley high school. late today the school district said it is deeply concerned by this. sheriff's department is investigating. today we learned that the woman accused of driving her car into a crowd at the oklahoma state university homecoming parade may have been suicidal. adacia chambers is held on $1 million bail and faces for counts of murder. one of the victims was a toddler. today her father spoke and adriana diaz has more on that. >> i'm very sorry for the victims and

but white house press secretary josh ernest pushed back.mmendation that came to the president from the pentagon is what he went with. what do you think? >> the recommendation was actually closer to 10,000. for every 500 afghan troops you're training, you need about 20 american advisers. and to protect those 20 american advisers, you need about 100 americans to come to their aid when they're in a situation that requires helping the afghan forces fight or also helping protect americans when they're in a fight. so you're looking at 120 to every 500 afghan troops, so this number is really low. and that's one of the biggest problems. >> and also when you look at the policy here, just overall, look, war is many things, but it is never simple. and if you look at the zig zags by president obama on troop levels in afghanistan, his decision making sort of incrementally, does that at all diminish public trust on his policy in the region? >> it does. especially when we tell the taliban, no matter how many of you join the afghan national army, we will r

press secretary josh ernest said the president has been considering a range of optionles. >> the president's under no illusions that there's a law that could be passed to present every incidence of gun violence. there surely is something congress can do to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others that shouldn't have them to have a corresponding impact on the frequency of these kind of incidents. >> president obama plans to be in oregon friday, meeting privately with the families of shooting victims from the community college. teachers are preparing for classes to resume next week. >> just up the road from a growing memorial for the victims, a community resolved to move forward, reopening campus just days after the shooting. college staff arrived for work and students pick up personal belongings they were forced to leave behind last thursday. grief counselors also are on hand for support. for the first time, we are hearing from one of the students who was shot. >> he sounded really deranged, because he said that he had been waiting to do that for a really long time and he laughed af

despite all of that, josh ernest said yesterday that will not dictate the president's future plans. >does have a policy decision to make as it relates to our future military presence in afghanistan. and certainly conditions on the ground will influence that process but they will not dictate the outcome. there is a range of considerations the president will factor in in making that decision. >> we will talk to the leaders at the state department, the leaders at the pentagon, but unless things decline, the president has the ultimate say and we will push forward with the drawdown in afghanistan despite what you are reading. >> martha: fascinating. kevin, thank you. >> bill: taking a close look at the performances of the candidates in vegas. how about the moderators? and how about the network cnn? anderson cooper tossed out the questions but didn't see much of dana bash and others. howard kurtz is here. good morning to you. we have a lot to go through. your column is titled hillary moves left and best bernie with two e-mails questions. >> anderson cooper overall turned in a solid performa

press secretary josh ernest earlier this week said the president and his team are considering a range of options following the mass shooting in oregon. >> the penalty's under no illusions that there's a law that could be passed that would prevent every incident of gun violence, but there surely is something that congress can do to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others who shouldn't have them, and that will have a corresponding impact on the frequency of these kinds of incidents. >> senate democrats have unveiled here proposal to overhaul the nation's gun laws. the legislation would make it harder to buy weapons on line and at gun shows and call for comprehensive background checks for all gun sales and tougher penalties for illegal sales. oregon senator said the killings at the college show an urgent need for new measures. >> these ideas would make a real difference in stopping gun violence, but they won't become law without an outcry from the american people. >> it's unclear when or if the measure will be brought to a vote in the senate. >> republicans in the house of rep

in the past, they have raised -- >> consider it the neil: josh ernest now. >> my apologies for the latestart today. we do one thing at top. we'll get to your questions. president received an update today from the his homeland security advisor, lisa monaco, about the forecast for hurricane joaquin. he received additional details about the preparations underway at fema, in advance of the storm. a couple of those points. fema increased its staffing at our 24-hour national watch center in washington, d.c. to provide additional reporting and monitoring of the situation. other lead element either deployed or peeping to deploy to potentially affected area and to insure there are to unmet needs. fema staff have been activated to prepare for the establishment of potential incident support bases which prepositioned supplies like water, meals, blankets and other resources closer to potentially affected areas. of course fema maintains significant stockpiles of commodity, millions of liters of water, meals, blankets and other resources like that at distribution centers across the country. final thin

let's not get ourselves, fbi director has more credibility than josh ernest, this president or quentinny of them when you look at reality on the ground police officers are seen as the opponents or enemies by some, and you know, there are issues to be dealt with in the police lines and police forces, we deal with that. but this is becoming a pervasive narrative by the least, elitists, progress sieve democrat president obama who goes to chicago but doesn't address all the lives that matter, or crime that matters. martha: how helpful would that be, you know, you hear it from the fbi director and it is a different tone than what we've heard from the president on this, leslie? how powerful would it be to hear something like that from the president? >> well, first of all, even mr. comey has admitted there is no research that backs up what he said in his discussion, with those officers in that city. what we do research in research -- martha: do you think that is not true, leslie. do you think it is not true given everything that has been happening many police officers are reluctant or nervous

some reaction to those events also from 1600 pennsylvania avenue, white house press secretary josh ernest asked for his -- jorn earnest asked for his thoughts on the difficulty of finding new house leadership. josh: good afternoon, everybody. anybody have any news they'd like to discuss? well, you can tivo it and -- i'll be honest. i did have a topper but in light of breaking news, we'll save it for tuesday so you can eagerly anticipate that over your columbus day weekend. so let's go straight to the questions. >> i guess we'll start with the obvious. the republicans are looking for a speaker. do you have any -- is there anyone you think the white house would want? josh: my guess is an endorsement from me, from here, would, well, not be viewed as an endorsement. so i -- look. republicans have to make some decisions about how to lead their conference and it certainly is easy to poke fun at the chaos but the fact is, the challenge that is facing the next republican speaker of the house regardless of who it is is the same challenge that john boehner faced. it's the same challenge that kevin

the obama administration appears to agree, white house spokesman josh ernest dismissed the f.b.i.ectors theory. >> the available evidence at building point does not support the notion that law enforcement officers around the country are shying away from full figure their respondents. >> this was the second time in a week that comey spoke about the concern that police officers are under the microscope. >> in many cities, violence is the same at last year and in some places thank goodness even lower. in many others, we are seeing an explosion of senseless violence. we must stair at this problem to figure out why it's happening and what we can do about it. >> mike viqueira, al jazeera, washington. >> we'll bring you the president's speech to the chief's association. it is airing this afternoon at 3:15 eastern time. >> new details with the oklahoma woman accused of driving into a crowd at a homecoming parade. prosecutors say 25-year-old chambers ran a red light then went around a barricade before driving over a police motorcycle and crashing into the spectators. 14 were killed, dozens

right now, today's press briefing with press secretary josh earnest. ernest: good afternoon -- press secretary ernest: good afternoon. i do not have any announcements, so we can go right to questions. kathleen, it is nice to see right up front today. we will also let you start today. i guess i will just go straight to the ttp. you got 90 days at least before it comes up for a vote. some critics, some of them are your allies, some labor, some analysts. what do you think will keep it from getting pounded and beat up in the next two months? press secretary ernest: our world will be to talk about the agreement, like the one that the president sent out -- set out to achieve. we will spend a lot of time talking about the details included in this agreement, our agreement essentially to cut 18,000 in taxes, essentially important axis on american goods -- import taxes on american goods shipped to different parts of the world. this enhances opportunity for american businesses and workers. american poultry, for example, in some of these countries are taxed at 40%. ameri

president, how they spend four to seven hours a day with each other, by the way, it was affirmed by josh ernest today that i'd logically, they have no disagreement, why is that significant? well, for one thing, he wants to presumably, if he's going to run, make nice with democrats who may be concerned about him inserting himself in the race this late in the game, or based on what you just said in that poll from nbc, but in addition to that, the president's own poll ratings are going up, now at 51% in a recent poll, that is a six-point jump from july. and his support among democrats is even stronger, in addition to that, you play the first part of the sound from joe biden where he talked about how he would go into these meetings with people like putin, and they knew he spoke with the president. what he said after that was, and i'm quoting here, we have had two great secretaries of state, but when i go, they know i am speaking for the president. probably very thinly vailed swipe at secretary of state hillary clinton, and so it goes. >> certainly sounds like it, yeah, not too thinly veiled. also h

white house press second josh ernest says will not complicate u.s.nuclear deal with iran i spoke we former defense secretary leon panetta asked what u.s. needs to do now. >> i think the united states, and our al lose have to be very tough on iran with regard to nothing of the deal if iran keeping prodding trying to it have the whether we are serious on the deal this is a moment we have to show resolve we have to show that we're not going to simply stand back. maria: bernie sanders bailed out hillary clinton debating for the first time it was sanders not clinton took on the elephant in the room. >> enough of the e-mail let's talk about the real issues facing america, [cheers and applause] . >> thank you, bernie. thank you. maria: and beginning of third quarter reporting stn financials this morning trying to beat back woerz that earnings this quarter bank of america beat expectations, last hour, reporting earnings 37 cents a share, better than 33 cents, analysts were looking for revenue bank of america coming in 20.9 billion dollars, wells fargo next,

this guy with josh ernest has to do, the white house has to do. >> he's a spinner. >> they have to talk to the average states policeman, not the secret service that guards them on a daily basis, not just black lives matter summits but go to the people who do this for a living abdomen want to go home to their families at the end of the day. a liberal mayor in new york, they have one thing in common along with ray kelly. they know the climate has changed and the everyday cop, they feel underappreciated and under siege. here's the former commissioner from new york. >> police officers are hesitating. they're not engaging in the way they engaged two decades, quite frankly. police are backing off now. anybody who denies that, i think, is not facing reality. >> the obama administration is currently launching 20 investigations across the country right now. some of those need to be looked into. police, you're hearing it going to the source, are concerned. they feel they can't get out of their cars. one thing that director comey said that was concerning of note. communities in color especially, y

here's what white house secretary josh ernests had to is a about that. >> this is the inevitable consequence of hollow words, red lines crossed. tarnished influence, beating from behind and a total lack of american leadership. >> russia will not succeed in opposing a military on syria. even more than the united states was success in imposing that on iraq years ago. >> reporter: and they're saying they're just pouring gasoline on the fire in syria. and the fear is, the russian air strikes could prompt more to join us with isis and make the terror group even strong. they're not telling the white house to stop what they're doing. alison, that means the president has no choice but to see how the president's plan plays out. >> jim, thanks for that. >>> on the campaign trail, republican front-runner donald trump flashing jeb bush. he said if he's president, they'll be sent back, and trump also addressing the russian strikes in syria. take a listen. >> big international news, russia striking giving the u.s. an hour's notice. >> sure. well, they don't respect the u.s. >> number one, they don't respe

bottom line is earlier that day, josh ernest said on 60 minutes, which was it was a problem and the president is not sure yet because the investigation is continuing if there's going to be a security brea. so he even admitted to the president, to the white house that there's a problem. meanwhile, i was looking forward to twitter for a variety of reasons. good way to contact others and see what they're thinking as well as donald trump was live tweeting last night. >> he sure was. >> "time" magazine said the winner of the night on twitter was donald trump. if you missed it, we monitored this so you didn't have to. at one point he tweeted out the hardest thing clinton has to do is defend her bad decision-making, including iraq vote, e-mails et cetera. >> illegal immigrants will be given free college and few igs but nothing about our veterans. there was a mention when senator webb talked about he had the pen behind -- for the g.i. bill. there was a mention about veterans there. bernie sanders did turn at one point and thank senator webb for his service. no one else did. everyone else should have

when you hear josh ernest at the white house, he was asked in a creative way by jonathan carl, this guyn the right of your screen look like he's about to run for president? he couldn't deny that he did. he said serm he has a lot to offer. you can only tell the timing what someone is thinking by how they're attacking the person on top. when you look at vice president joe biden saying that republicans are not his enemy, the direct shot at hillary clinton who had just called republicans her enemies. this right here might be an indication. >> darrell issa, not a republican friend of mine. i don't consider republicans enemies, they're friend. >> interesting. what he's doing is showing, well, you know, i'm bipartisan. i get along with republicans. unlike what's her name. >> well, in addition to the nra, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the iranians, probably the republicans. okay. why would she -- why would he announce this week? it's simple. out in iowa this saturday, they have their annual jefferson jackson dinner. they're still call it that. even though they said they ha

ernest: somebody does, but i can't say. major: will they be near the hill? they were near the operations losecause josh wheeler to his life in northern iraq. this is a relevant question about proximity. secretary ernest: our military personnel will be in a train, advise, and assist mission. it will not be their primary responsibility to lead the charge of the hill. that is a rather antiquated, hypothetical analogy i am drawing her, but i'm joined to illustrate what their role is. will they be in the vicinity, offering advice and assistance? yeah, i would not be surprised that is the case. in fact, the situation you just described, where u.s. special operations forces a company iraqi security forces on a raid, that is precisely b scenario. you saw iraqi security forces conduct the incursion to try to and the u.s.stages military personnel were in the vicinity, but they were not leaving the charge. the iraqi security forces got pinned down, they sought assistance from the u.s. military personnel that were , and in the context of that engagement, master sergeant wheeler lost his life. major: if this into h

ernest: that is the current plan. have a good weekend. >> white house press secretary josh earnest and today's briefing at the james brady briefing room in the white house. at the top of the briefing, taking most of the questions on syria today. ,he president announcing through the press secretary, that he is ordering a small number of special operations forces to syria. boots on the ground in syria for the first time in the syrian and combating isis. the white house announcing that a small number of special operation forces will be sent to syria work alongside groups with a proven record of fighting isis. we would like to get your thoughts. do you agree that it is time to send u.s. forces to syria? the numbers are on your screen. 202-748-8921 is the number for republicans. democrats, 202-748-8920. independence and all others, the number is 202-748-8920. we will take your calls in just a few moments. we are going to show you the very top of today's briefing with josh earnest -- earnest, about a minute and a half. then we will come back and get your calls, tweets, and facebook comments. [video clip] secretary earnest: goo

, josh earnest answered questions about the upcoming climate change negotiations in paris, the possibility of joe biden running for president, and the u.s. combating isis. this is one hour. mr. ernest: happy monday and happy fall. the seasons are changing. i do not have anything, so i will start with questions. the president is having a lot of events on the climate, having a lot of events leading up to it. ernest: i do not have an update on the president's travel schedule. i know many are considering traveling to paris to participate in the discussions, but i do not have enough they on the president's travel. [inaudible] mr. ernest. you can count on him being among the leaders. >> has there been a change to the decision on this? does plan toent veto the bill that was passed primarily with republican support in both houses. is concern we have expressed that it advocates the use of essentially a slash fund for funding critically important national security priorities. we believe that is utterly irresponsible and the president has indicated he would veto it. i do not believe it has been transmitted to the white house, however, but every one knows how this will play out. president runn