back to you. >> kristin welker at the white house, thank you.he president's own party are weighing in, some more skeptical than republicans. tim kaine hedged his support this more than, questioning the syrian air strikes without congressional approval. >> but these specific strikes in syria, do they -- do you feel they should have gotten their own vote, these ones in syria? >> yes. the constitution is pretty clear. the president always has the ability to defend the united states against any kind of an imminent attack, but as soon as a president decides as the president described it to chuck todd a few weeks ago to go on offense against isil. if it's not just a defensive mission, but offense, that's when congress is needed. that's what the constitution says. >> for more on the politics of all of this, let's bring in jonathan allen, bloomberg washington bureau chief. love having you in the flesh, john. we're hearing from congress. have i to say this today is probably going to go down in history as one of the most important days of obama's presiden

. >> for more, let me bring in nbc news white house correspondent kristin welker. od to have you with us tonight. this, of course, is a big move beyeric holder. he is a very close confidant any friend of the president. any indication or word out of the white house who has successor might be? >> reporter: hi, ed. thank you for having me on. at this point, no word on who his successor might be. i am told that the president has not chosen that successor, though. some of the names that are being floated around, kathy rumler, she, of course, was white house counsel here. don virilli is being tossed around as a potential front-runner. he's solicitor general. he got a lot of criticism at the time, as you'll recall, ed, but, of course, the health care law was upheld and right now his name is being talked about quite a bit also. duval patrick, governor of massachusetts. so there are a number of names that are being batted around and i'm trying on squeeze it out of this white house and i haven't been able to get the short list yet, but those are some of the names and you've h

. >> that was nbc's kristin welker reporting. >>> coming up next californians may have no choice between paper and plastic. more on the plastic bag ban that could go statewide. >>> a big win for workers. california lawmakers approve mandatory sick time. what it means for people who need to stay home. can't say thank you enough. you have made my life special by being apart of it. (everyone) cheers! glad you made it buddy. thanks for inviting me. thanks again my friends. for everything, for all your help. through all life's milestones, our trusted advisors are with you every step of the way. congratulations! thanks for helping me plan for my retirement. you should come celebrate with us. i'd be honored. plan for your goals with advisors you know and trust. so you can celebrate today and feel confident about tomorrow. chase. so you can. >>> millions of californians working in retail, restaurant and other service industries might not have to worry about taking sick days. lawmakers passed a bill that requires all employers to provide three days of sick leave to workers every year. >> it is ve

nbc's white house correspondent kristin welker tells us about the new concerns. >> reporter: with the secret service under intense scrutiny, new revelations today about gunshots fired into the executive mansion three years ago. >> this is where investigators believe the shots came from. >> reporter: "the washington post" reports back in november 2011, oscar romero or tako hernandez fired a semiautomatic at the white house. initially, there was confusion. >> the supervisor that night on duty calls out, you know, stand down, disregard, it's just a construction noise. >> reporter: it took four days for the agency to realize the white house had been hit seven times. the discovery came only after a housekeeper found broken glass on the truman balcony. >> there appears to be a bullet lodged in a windowsill. certainly a bullet hole in one of the central glass windows. that is, again, right outside the family's living room. >> sasha was home at the time with her grandmother. the president and first lady were traveling and didn't find out for several days. it was an usher who told the first la

let's go to kristin welker. >> how did he managed to get that far? >> reporter: alex, it's stunning and secret service trying to answer that this morning. i was here when he caused the secret service to evacuate the entire press corp. this is the first time it happened in my time in covering the white house and there's no indication this type of security breach has happened in recent history. we have video capturing dramatic moments of the man running across the lawn. the 42-year-old gonzalez of texas jumped the fence last night at 7:20 p.m. and made it all the way up the north lawn and was apprehended inside the north doors. our news photographer also captured video of secret service trying to stop the man. secret service officials say gonzalez did not appear to be armed and was not holding a bag or backpack, and the first family had already left for camp david. now gonzalez was taken to the hospital for evacuation, and officials say he may have been mentally disturbed. no shots fired and nobody hurt. that's the good news in all of this. fence stopp

nbc's kristin welker joins us from the white house now. we are learning tonight the strikes aren't just targeting isis. tell bus that. >> reporter: that's right, pat. good evening. president obama today addressing the nation announced that in addition to launching strikes against isis in syria, the u.s. also launched strikes against an al qaeda offshoot called khorasan. the reason why this is significant, administration officials say, that group was posing an imminent threat to the united states. important to point out that the u.s. launched strikes unilaterally against that group. but in terms of launching strikes against isis, the u.s. was joined by five arab partners. that's significant, because you have heard president obama talk a lot about building an international coalition about the fact that the united states is not going to take on isis by itself. so the fact that the u.s. was able to get these arab partners on board certainly suggests that they are moving forward in terms of building this coalition. now, of course, president oba

. >> kristin welker, thank you. we'll be carrying the remarks from the president here on msnbc. stay tuned. >>> we just recently spoke to a republican just minutes ago, now let's bring in a democrat. joe garcia. good to see you. >> good to see you, jose. >> thanks. and congressman, democrats are increasingly divided on the president's isis strategy. what is the main concern? >> well, obviously we don't want to find ourselves sort of on a slippery slope. the idea to see the threat and to, you know, you begin with a small commitment as we've seen in american actions abroad, and it turns into, for example, iraq $2 trillion 6,000 lives, thousands of soldiers that are going to be hurt for a long time. in essence a quagmire we getting out of and it brings us in. let's be clear. these folks are enemies of our country. we should kill them. they are brutal. we should punish them for hurt americans. but we also have to understand that we've got have a long-term strategy to deal with the instability in the war, and that the reality is it's a 1400 year conflict we're not going to solve betw

nbc's kristin welker is at the white house. certainly a lot on the line this week. what is the latest there? >> reporter: there is so much on the line that a senior administration official tells me president obama will be reaching out to individual lawmakers throughout the week to press them to pass that legislation that you just talked about, that piece of legislation, which would include funding to arm and train the syrian opposition forces. of course, this is not something we see every day. president obama reaching out to lawmakers. but he began this process last week after he addressed the nation and mapped out his strategy for defeating isis. of course, something else we don't see regularly here in washington, you have a number of republican leaders saying that they are behind president obama on this. they believe passing this legislation, arming and training the syrian rebel army is the right thing to do. i was talking to my sources on capitol hill that believes the legislation is going to pass with bipartisan support. as you pointed out, the process begins to

and kristin welker joins us as well. what are we missing?ere there, went through the hearings. this thing seems bizarrely broken. >> it's actually jaw-dropping. i mean, if you put this in a bad story, it would make for a bad novel in washington. and yet it really happened. >> you know how that guy, omar gonzalez, how he got across the lawn? there's a lot of space that, and all the way to the back of the white house? >> it was a series of failures. he wasn't detained before he got over the fence, on the lawn. he wasn't detained getting into the white house. the door was unlocked and unguarded and he roamed around the white house for some time before being tackled. >> the secret service statement left the impression that the fence jumper was apprehended quickly. something me now know was true. that description leaves the impression to anybody listening now that he was tackled after he walked steps through the door. >> were you lying to the american people? >> again, i look forward to having an open discussion today. thank you. >> were you lyin

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. >> nbc's kristin welker is a safe distance from capitol hill on the white house north lawn. what is happening behind you right now? >> reporter: well, abby, after president obama met with his national security team earlier today, he went to the oval office to work on the final draft of his address that he will be delivering tonight. i am told that so far there have been about three or four drafts. the lead in terms of writing this speech deputy national security adviser is ben rhodes, also assisting, president's other speechwriters including chief speechwriter, cody keenan. a few themes the president will map out as he talks about his strategy to destroy and defeat isis. one will include going on the offense. that's something president obama signaled in his interview with "meet the press." they say that will be a very big topic tonight. that will include an expansion of military power in terms of defeating isis. white house officials say the president is prepared to authorize air strikes against isis targets in syria, although it's important to point out, it's not clear if p