Transcripts For MSNBCW The Cycle 20130910

Considering it is because of a threat of an american strike. It is only because of the threat of force that we are discussing today and that threat is more compelling if Congress Stands with the commander in chief. The president believes we need to keep this threat, this reality absolutely on the table. With the white house still pursuing authorization for the use of force to keep the pressure on, congress is scrambling to draft an alternative after the senate delayed tomorrows key vote on the use of force. We start at the center of the action, the white house with nbcs peter alexander. Whats the latest there . Reporter crystal, good day to visit with you right now. The president is wrapping up meeting with senators on both sides as we can show you from new pictures were just getting in as he heads back here to the white house to prepare his remarks for tonights speech, of course, in prime time. A Senior Administration official tells us that the president is updating his speech over the course of this day to reflect the new diplomatic developments that are taking place. They say the president will argue that Americas National security interests are at stake and thats exactly why assad must give up must be removed of his chemical weapons, that the president will say military force may be necessary as well, otherwise in the words of the president , his conversations with senators today, syria could simply walk away and we also understand the president and white house has been in support of the Senate Leadership of harry reids decision to pause any floor action there. Within the last few minutes, i heard from another official telling us within the last hour, secretary of state john kerry had another conversation with russias foreign minister lavrov where kerry said it must be real and verifiable, according to this official. It cannot be used as another delay tactic. I know weve referred to this as sort of an off the cuff remark that kerry made yesterday but this official says in fact that these conversations on this very topic have been percolating more than a year, first between president obama and putin at los cabos one year ago and again in april and more recently during the g20 summit before the conversations took place in the last couple of days. The biggest Sticking Point remains that putin insisted the only way to go forward right now is if the u. S. Renounces the threat of force and obviously the white house made it clear repeatedly and you were playing that a short time ago from john kerry that it is that credible threat of force that created this situation. At this point thats where the true standoff exists. Peter alexander. Lets bring in buzz feeds john stanton. His latest piece is up right now. Congress greets potential diplomatic solution to syria with relief and that is the story today. I wanted to pick up where peter left off. These latest developments with russia and syria and john kerrys off the cuff remark that has become a real potential solution. How has that changed the game for the president and what he needs to accomplish in the speech tonight . I think it changes it dramatically, particularly on the hill. He no plonger is facing the problem of having a defeat of vote which gives him wiggle room. He can get back to froblly making the case that assad is sort of this horrible dictator and it is a National Security threat. He can maybe try to shift debate back into a little bit and make it if he decides to use force or reason to use force Going Forward from the future, he doesnt necessarily have to come back to congress. He can sort of make that case. This is the moment that creates his ability to do that. Your piece says that congress was relieved by the latest developments. Are folks there its no secret the democrats have been in a bind between supporting the president and listening to what the constituents are saying. Are they relieved just because this gives them a potential out, or do they think the syrian and russian offers are a real potential diplomatic solution . I think some members certainly believe this is a real potential solution. But i think most of them understand that the russians are playing their own game in this situation, that the syrians are not trust worthy act ors at all in this process. And so i think most of them are going in with a lot of skepticism. At the bare minimum is allows them to get breathing room and get back into washington and find a with a to thread this needle of having Massive Public opposition theyve been feeling at home for weeks. And the impulse to support not only the president because they are maybe democrats but the president in general. There are a lot of republicans like john boehner and others who believe it is members of congresss duty to follow the commander in chief in these sorts of matters. This has been very difficult for all of them. I think the prospect of any kind of weapons inspections can be heartening. And for people who remember Foreign Policy history, we have been down this road before and the inspections regime, iraq, these are real things that happen sometimes to prevent a war or delay a war for people who arent overly cynical. Thats separate from whether you have a regime that can deal with figuring out what they are up to. What do you think all of this does on the timing of the actual vote well get . Obviously were seeing the senate push the delay. How does this all play out with your understanding of how votes work on the hill . Well, i think it seems unlikely there will be a vote in the house barring some major change in the state of play. The senate probably will continue to go forward with a vote, probably next week. It sounds like they are trying to come up with a resolution since the negotiations have been going on between the United States and russia and syria. So that it would create some sort of a system to endorse that for the senate. From what i understand in the house, it seems unlikely they would actually bring up some ig to vote on at this point. John, the majority of americans are zbens a strike and feel the situation has been mishandle d which is why yesterday with the developments congress and American People are relieved that maybe there is a possibility for a diplomatic resolution. And you have people saying, thank you, russia for stepping up. You have others saying president obama was behind this and brought this up to putin at the g20 summit. Some are saying john kerry is responsible. If this works out, who deserves the credit . I think putin gets the credit for this. The white house and state Department Yesterday got to remember were telling reporters over and over again this is not a real thing. This is very were skeptical of this, no meat to this, what the russians are saying, playing a game here. Then towards the end of the day, that language began to shift towards, well, the president did talk about this last year at the g20 with mr. Putin. So i think you have to look at putins sort of ability to game out american politics and give him credit for that at least. Okay, so putin at the moment when were about to say, congress is saying, we dont want to strike, then hes game teenag ing it out and saying thats interesting. What i really want to talk about with you is the development of the gop, used to be the war party and Defense Party. In this moment, the leaders of the gop, rand paul and ted cruz, are leading this concept of isolationism. They used to be are or are the small government and Defense Party and now they seem small government in every aspect. Its a fascinating change thats happened over the last two elections with the party, particularly in the house, where you have a lot of conservatives are very willing to give up defense spending with the sequester. When they tried to change the sequester, they were willing to sacrifice those cuts. On this issue again, youre seeing a libertarian streak within the party. Which is a fundamental change in how they approach things over the last 30 or 40 years. In my mind as well no coincidence that that exceskeptm has come along. Well put all of this into historical context, how unusual is for majority of americans to oppose military action. The cycle rolls on for this tuesday, september 10th. This is for you. [ male announcer ] bobs heart attack didnt come with a warning. Today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. 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And now theres ocuvite eye multi. An eye vitamin and multivitamin in one. Tonight the president faces an American Public more skeptical about taking military action than any time in the last two decades. Just 36 of the americans favor military action in syria. That was much higher before we invited iraq and afghanistan and the u. S. Had been hit. Our mindsets was different so maybe a better comparison is kos vo. Regardless of how americans feel go into the conflict, support usually grows within the first month of the strikes. We have to turn to the man who knows it all, michael beschloss. I wish i did know it all. You seem to and thats all that matters. Do you think were more wary of this one because of the long shadow of iraq that goes over the American Publics consciousness which shows us the war plan generally sold by washington is not usually the war plan were going to get . Thats right. Theres a huge iraq syndrome because rumor has it americans do not think that the iraq war that went very well, our recent big experience with offering a president to go to war. 1991, president bush 41 wanted to start the gulf war to get kuwait back from Saddam Hussein and dealing with the very et ie syndrome. The best example of this was 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt thought we may have to stand up to hitler and the Imperial Japanese and started moving us in the direction of rearment, Many Americans were angry about the way world war i turned out. There was considerable support for the ludlow amendment, and what that would have said would be if a president wants to go to war, unless our land is literally attacked, the ho homeland, the president will have to go to the public, a 30 day referendum and everybody in the country will vote and decide whether we go to war or not. The big problem for the messaging from the Obama Administration and on morning joe, jay carney was pressed about this very issue. Do you understand why we all feel theres a message problem . Well, i understand that this is complicated business and that for most let me just stop. Thats what you say when you think people are stupid and the public the public is not stupid. We get complicated. We get nuanced and people voted two times for a president who is nuanced. But he has been down right contradictory. Michael, we know there has been a messaging people and the American People are not stupid which is why were seeing numbers in the polls today. This is going to be a challenge for the president tonight. What can he say to change Public Perception . Talk very directly about his real reasons for wanting to possibly have the strike. I think one of the problems with both iraq and vietnam is that to this day, for instance, there are Many Americans who feel they do not know the central reason why the Bush Administration wanted to go to war in iraq, why the Johnson Administration wanted that war in vietnam. If he has a case to make, this is the place to make it. But the worst thing is for us to get into any war and American People feel they have not been told in advance the real reason. Even more than that, what the worst case can be, if hes trying to make the case for war, one of the best things he can do to say before you americans support this, you should know that its entirely possible that such and such could happen and may last a long time. Certain things we can foresee might happen. You should know those things before you support this. That way if they do happen when the war god forbid if it is entrained, at least the president will have some support americans will feel they were told. Terry was putting up numbers for public support, iraq, afghanistan, the first gulf war. Very high levels of public support, not so much for kosovo. Are republican president s better at it than democratic president s . I think has hard to make this case. God bless the founders, what they wanted to do when they wrote the constitution, they wanted to make it as hard as possible for the United States to get into a war. Especially for a president to suggest to americans that we get into war in the same way that the monarchs of europe had done that. They would be very chagrin by the fact you go through history, only five wars declaked by Congress Despite the fact weve done a few more than that. Five declared. Many authorizations of force but to your point, many also off the books. How do you contrast this unscripted diplomacy were seeing now in the hopes for a a weapons inspector style resolution . How do you contrast that to what weve seen in the cold war era in the cuban missile crisis or with ronald reagan, trying to telegraph certain things to adversaries . It never looks later on the way it does at the first moment. We should be cautious today in saying that this is serious or not serious. We just do not know yet. On the negative side during the cold war, as you mentionsed, there are many times when the soviets would try to throw up a hammer into our alliance by making offers to certain countries that were intended to separate them from friendship from the United States. Just before the gux war in 1991, we remember gorbachev being friendly to the u. S. But he had an envoy set in to do his own diplomacy which may have been the soviets trying to do their own deal. In retrospect it looks different. The cuban missile crisis, john kennedy proposes to a diplomat in new york that the u. N. Be approached with a deal where openly we would trade giving up missiles in turkey for the soviets taking missiles out of cuba as it turned out that was a secret deal but willing to do that in public. Thats the kind of thing that really does take a while to really understand. Michael beschloss, thank you very much. Youve proved that you do know pretty much everything. I do try. State ahead, what the military makes of this from two different perspectives and well spin through the other stories making headlines today in the news cycle. In the market for a new phone . Iphone. The cycle is coming at you. Ho ho ho [ female announcer ] at 100 calories, not all food choices add up. Some are giant. Some not so giant. When managing your weight, bigger is always better. Ho ho ho green giant [ chainsaw buzzing ] humans. Sometimes, life trips us up. Sometimes, we trip ourselves up. And although the mistakes may seem to just keep coming at you, so do the solutions. 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They presented the congressional gold medals to the victims, the four little black girls. This begins several days of events leading up to the anniversary on sunday. Were a week past the unofficial end of summer. A huge chunk of the country is going to be baking in mid90 degree week for the end of the week. Were finally seeing tropical develop. Humberto could become the first hurricane. If it doesnt reach hurricane strength by tomorrow, it will be the longest weve gone on record without one developing. Thats not the only heat news around here, abby huntsman. This afternoon, iphone 5 with a processor twice as fast and cheaper model, the iphone 5c. I dont know if c is for cheaper, we havent confirmed that and comes in a variety of colors and retails for 99. I dont get how they have so much iphones coming out and im a blackberry guy myself. All right, grandpa. Mcdonalds is going outside the bun with the blitsz box, two quarter pounders with cheese and two medium fries and chicken mcnuggets. Its a limited promotion only in kansas city. Smaller portions that re at reduced cost and that is a little food for thought. In kansas city. Now back to our coverage of the crisis in syria. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and top House Democrats are lining up behind a diplomatic solution. President obama insists a strike in syria does not mean war, at least not with syria. Syria doesnt have significant capabilities to retaliate against us. Iran does. But iran is not going to risk a war with the United States over this. Particularly given that our goal here is to make sure the chemical weapons are not used on children. We are lucky to have three star admiral and congressman joe sestak with us today. As a former congressman, right out of the gates, if you were in congress today, how would you be preparing to vote on an authorization of force . I would support the president. I think the president was fairly inartful in how he drew the red line, that if the Syrian Government used chemical weapons we would act, but the president of the United States, maybe not down in washington, d. C. , doesnt mean very much. But overseas it is gold. Weve drawn a red line with iran and if the president doesnt back it up with action, if this other new diplomatic effort doesnt bear out, then i think he harms our National Security in the future when a president speak. This strike is not going to have any impact i believe on the situation within syria. But this strike has to be done to speak to north korea, iran, hezbollah and allies. Thats would i would support it. I see things in a similar way but to that point, do you think that the impact of a strike will be lessened or compromised by the way weve gone about this debate, both having the open public debate, the length of time thats passed, the conversations with john kerry saying this will be an unbelievably small strike. Do you think that compromised our effectiveness here . I think it is going to have an impact. I think when you have had a president of United States, over 130 times, resolution having been passed into law, act on an intervention type of strike from panama to bosnia, you know, to small i cant, without going to congress because its very limited in time and scope. I think that the stat tour, when a president said and the way we went about this will have some impact. I hope its demin mus but its not going to be the most artful way to have gone about it for leadership of the world. Admiral, do the military folks youre in contact with think this strike as currently planned is a good idea . I havent spoken to anyone about how it is planned in terms of what the targets are. But you know, its going to be pretty obvious what the targets are. Its going to be some type of military target. Were going to probably strike at night when even military personnel are not within those facilities. They are going to be located away from civilian population so we dont have collateral damage. It may have some impact upon his military prouess but very little. We would have to take down his air force, within the capital of the air force, take down the runways and air Defense Systems in order to do that. We are not nor should we do this. This strike again is for one purpose and that is to make sure the word of the president of the United States might mean something in the future. But we have a nation where or conflict where assad is literally fighting for her life. If he loses there will potentially be ethnic cleansing in syria. We have iran fully supportive of him and cannot afford to lose their bridge to tell boz la and lebanon and we want to have a punishing, limited, small strike. When youre in a situation militarily where the other guy has to win his life is on the line and yours not, youre in trouble. Thats why i agreed, when i said this wont have any impact within the asaid regime. Hes hunkered down fighting for survival. When the president drew the red line at the end of a press conference, had he thought through what if the rebels then use chemical weapons . Has he thought through what if assad again uses chemical weapons . When you draw a red line you better be ready to make sure you have a strategy behind it. I think quite frankly for quite a period of time we havent had a strategy. When i was in the white house serving for president clinton, i remember when he drew a red line. He told north korea, you pull the plutonium out of the cooling pounds and build a warhead, that will be an act of war. He briefed the president in the situation room, these are the divisions that will go over next week and these are marines and battle groups and the president knew he had drawn a red line and would back it up. Thats what this is about. To make sure that maybe we dont have to use our military in the future by whenever a president said this is the red line. Well, and sticking to your word, theres so much to that, yet theres still so many questions that are unanswered, for members of congress, for the American People. What if syria retaliates, how can we ensure we will not have boots on the ground. I have to ask the question looking back, you mention the drawing the red line, is that where we got it wrong, drawing the red line assuming that we have our allies on our side to back us up if syria does use chemical weapons . Well, you said it again, very well. Had he throughout through how he drew the red line when he said a whole bunch of chemical weapons would mean i have to change my calculus, when youre president of the United States, every word is watched overseas, why i did not support the intervention into libya, when youre making an announcement to do that from south america and when you didnt quite understand, i think the public, that this is our objective and only how far well go in, my sense is when youre going to men and women of our nation in harm aegs way, you have better been able to make clear the cost and benefits because there will be a cost of this strike, potentially the types you both brought up. But i still believe that the greater cost will be that word of a president that when he draws a red line, israel, our allies, iran knows we will back it up. We dont know quite well at all what the consequences would be very well, i think you have a good point but i weigh having watched it, visiting scores of countries overseas as well as at the white house, that the word of the president can mean that we wont have to use our military in the future. All right, admiral joe sestak, thanks so much for those insights. What a leading group of military vets wants the president to do and it may surprise you. And didnt know where to start. A contractor before at angies list, youll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare written by people just like you. No company can pay to be on angies list, so you can trust what youre reading. Angies list is like having thousands of close neighbors, where i can go ask for personal recommendations. Thats the idea. Before you have any work done, check angies list. Find out why more than two million members count on angies list. Angies list reviews you can trust. I love you, angie. Sorry, honey. She took an early spring break thanks to her double miles from the capital one venture card. Now what was mrs. Davis teaching . Spelling. Thats not a subject, right . I mean, spell check. Thats a program. Algebra. Okay. Persons a and b are flying to the bahamas. How fast will they get there . Dont you need distance, rate and. No, all it takes is double miles. [ all ] whoa. Yeah. [ male announcer ] get away fast with unlimited double miles from the capital one venture card. Youre the worlds best teacher. This is so unexpected. Whats in your wallet . As the president continues to drum up support for military action against syria. An Unlikely Group is taking a stand against him. One of the largest campaigns on behalf of the military veterans and their families has started a petition urging congress to vote against syrian intervention, their reasoning, they dont believe a missile strike would do anything to rid syria of chemical weapons. When a group whose soul purpose is looking out for the military and loved ones and defended president obama in the past comes out against military action, what does that mean for the white house . Here to fill us in on their position and why congress should take notice of their petition, john, great to have you here. Id like to unpack your reasons for opposing strikes a bit more for us. We heard defense secretary hagel again assuring congress the operation would be limited in nature. Lets listen and i want your response in return. The department of defense developed military objections to achieve these objectives and we have positioned u. S. Assets throughout the region to successfully execute the mission. We believe we can achieve them. We can achieve them with military action that would be targeted, consequential and limited. We will not send americas sons and daughters to fight another countrys civil war. We are not contemplating any kind of open ended intervention. Were an operation involving America Ground troops. A political solution created by the Syrian People is the only way to ultimately end the violence in syria. Do you just not buy that . I have the utmost respect for secretary hagel, a personal inspiration of mine. But weve got 360,000 people in our organize, 120,000 of those are veterans and military families, many like myself served multiple tours in iraq and 78 dont agree with striking syria. Theres a 100 chance with a Cruise Missile attack or even using air power that we wont be able to destroy his chemical weapon sites. But theres a very amount theres a lot of uneasiness what the objective is, with the insurge ens, if you dont really want to hurt him and cant hurt him enough, what would prevent him from using these weapons further and get us further pulled into a war where many people like myself served multiple tours in a state next door. The president giving a big prime time address tonight to try to make his case and make those things more clear. Is there anything he could say that would change your mind or are you pretty much set on this . I dont doubt the fact that chemical weapons are used or dont think anybody in the organization doubts they are used but theres not a whole lot hes going to say. We understand what intervention means. If he strikes theres going to be the Opposition Forces are going to say, we didnt do enough and senator mccain will say it took so long so it didnt work. 1 we cant change the do namic on the ground with this intervention. Were just going to sit aside, 100,000 more civilians get killed. What is the National Security interest . What is it we want to achieve strategically if we dont want regime change . I feel theres a bit of feeling in the country, you know about these issues in the iraq war context and i pulled up some of the numbers from the runup to the iraq war. On network nightly news, where a lot of people get information, 29 of the sources used in the case for the war were from Bush Administration officials and government at the time making the case for war. Only 3 during that period were from democratic officials. As for the antiwar case itself, the majority, 60 plus percent of views regarding opposition of war were from foreign sources, obviously a different kind of significance hearing from americans and in your case hearing from veterans the arguments against the war. What do you take from this evolution were seeing on the issue . Weve never seen momentum like this in regards to our members. We almost have 15 who have opted into this Campaign Already to oppose this. Ive never had so many people inside the military email me, that i have seen us as a democratic organization, support me and support what im saying or members are doing. I think its important we dont listen to foreign sources. The insurge enlts fighting assad, they want the United States to intervene and group troops. Going back to the first question, we dont know what diplomatic resolution looks like when you hear what secretary hagel is saying. What they are saying overseas and what the syrian insurge enlts are saying, many of which fought troops in iraq is irrelevant. Were having a real conversation at this point. John, i appreciate your opposition and the way youre going about it. I think you, like few others understand that just because we are the most powerful military in the world doesnt mean we can use military power to solve our problems. Thats absolutely right. Were the most powerful military in the world. Probably the most powerful military in the history of the entire world but were not the all powerful. Some of these things we cant fix with military force alone. Certainly with a limited strike, we cant literally affect anything on ground. John shultz, thanks so much for joining us. Up next, as the president gets set to give one of the defining speeches of his presidency, some advice for obama, be more like Woodrow Wilson. Hell join us to talk about his long awayed bio and what we can expect next p. [ male announcer ] pepcid® presents the burns family bbq. Guys, you took tums® a couple hours ago. Why keep taking it if you know your heartburn keeps coming back . Thats how it works. You take some tums®. If heartburn comes back, you take some more. That doesnt make any sense. It makes plenty of sense if you dont think about it really, honey, why cant you just deal with it like everybody else . Because i took a pepcid®. Fine. Debbie, youre my new favorite. [ male announcer ] break with tradition, take pepcid® complete. It works fast and lasts. Get relief from your heartburn relief with pepcid® complete. Before mike could see his banking and investing accounts on one page. Before he could easily transfer funds between the two in real time. Before he could even think about planning for his daughters future. Mike opened a merrill edge investment account and linked it to his bank of america bank account to help free up plenty of time for the here and now. Thats the wonder of streamlined connections. Thats merrill edge and bank of america. Hes been called too academic to relate to the average american. He led america through a war to end all wars and instituted the kind of lasting progressive policy changes that should make him a watermark on u. S. History. Instead hes seen by many as a failure. Does this sound familiar . 100 years ago it was Woodrow Wilson and our next guest writes that he was the most misunderstood president ever to take the office and a man the current president in congress could learn from, dealing with syria, the International Community or relating with each other. A scott burg, his new work wilson 13 years in the maker. Thanks for having me here. You talk about wilsons role as a scholar and thinking of american government. You say that he was strangely wrote a treatis that questioned the ability to lead in a system in which the legislature outweighed the branch. He was in his 30s when he wrote that and extremely one of our First Political scientists in this country, the only president with a ph. D. He knew what he was talking about. But he also knew that the presidency was the least defined office in the constitution. And that it was basically up to the president himself to define what the president can do. Some of the early scholarship brought up in contact with Henry Cabot Lodge. Its a great irony of history, wilsons First Published piece, which got published just after he graduated from princeton, was about the government and it went off to a journal in new england where Henry Cabot Lodge who had not run for office was one of the editors there. So they encountered each other and little did they know they would square off against each other a generation later. And that would define the debate he had with congress over the role of the United States in trying to have international agreements. I want to read more one thing, seldom had the american body of politics been so frachios. Some so opposed to the president they game known as the ir reir irreconciliable is. Henry cabot lodge until wilson arrived in washington in 1913 was considered the great scholar in the capital. In comes not only a ph. D. But ph. D. President , there was genuine animosity there. Now what happened was world war i was fought and Woodrow Wilson proved to be an incredible war time leader. We fought in the name of his 14 points, the 14th of which was the rather idealistic league of nations and now the republicans are saying, gee, we let the democrats win the war, we cant let them win the peace. Weve got to come up with something of our own. So whatever Woodrow Wilson brings back from paris, were against it. Now a lot of them were against it on certain principles but in large measure a lot of it was strictly personal and political. Weve heard that before somewhere. And Woodrow Wilson dreamed big but he left a broken man. You write, few if any figures in modern history held loftier dreams and endured greater pain than Woodrow Wilson. A lot of similarities between the challenges he faced and obama is facing today. He was also a communicator and gave 60 press conferences to the American People. In the first are these two m . When you compare wilson and obama facing different challenges, how do they differ . I think they differ in one big way, which is wilson believed very strongly in sustained dialogue. It was always a conversation going on between wilson and the American People and the congress. Wilson strongly believed that those two branches, the executive and the legislative, should cooperate. They should literally cooperate the government. And so wilson was the first in over 100 years to deliver state of the union address, called 25 joint sessions of congress. Whenever he had an important measure, he wanted to pass. And it was wilson, really, who went to this little room in the senate called the president s room, which is just feet away from the senate floor, and he would sit there. Sometimes day after day. And just grab senators when they walked out of the floor. Wow. You think president obama could learn something from that . I wish. I mean entirely different world. But i think theres something to be said for it. You know, we sort of leap from crisis to crisis. That was not the case, and wilson faced opposition as great as obama. Greater, i think. But because there was an ongoing conversation, people were inclined to listen to him. The International Ban on chemical weapons comes after world war i out of the experiences that happened in world war i. What was wilsons part in that . What did they see that made them say we cant allow this anymore . Well, they saw human destruction, the likes of which the world hadnt ever seen. There had been a growing use of Chemical Warfare in the late 19th century. But by the 20th century, they had such disgusting means of killing people now that it just became it was just unhuman. And so they had to ban them. And how transformative was it to have a president , someone who was not just a theoritician but a powerful person, dream the idea that we should have some sort of civilized order to avoid war . It was quite amazing, really. When Woodrow Wilson arrived in washington, people assumed he was just the theorist, just the academicician, but because he did know how to work the system to a degree, he would pass not only the most progressive legislative agenda the United States had ever seen, but in this in this wartime debate, it was ongoing. And he really fought until he just collapsed. Yeah. Literally collapsed. The book is wilson. We wish you luck on another pulitzer. And the parts that i was able to dig through are so deep and detailed, you feel like youre kind of there. Well, 13 years to write. Yes, well, i better get it right. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Up next, we have crystal ball telling you, and us, about her daughter, ellas first day of school. What it has to do with todays new york city mayors race and some picks you dont want to miss. Not of candidate anthony weiner. T tthe millionth customer. Would you mind if i go ahead of you . Instead we had someone go ahead of him and win fifty thousand dollars. Congratulations you are our one millionth customer. Nobody likes to miss out. Thats why ally treats all their customers the same. Whether youre the first or the millionth. If your bank doesnt think youre special anymore, you need an ally. Ally bank. Your money needs an ally. Humans. Even when we cross our ts and dot our is, we still run into problems. Namely, other humans. Which is why at Liberty Mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. See what else comes standard at libertymutual. Com. Liberty Mutual Insurance. Responsibility. Whats your policy . If i can make it there ill make it anywhere yesterday, 5yearolds from all across new york city put on their favorite outfit, struggled into a toobig backpack, took the hand of their grown up and set off for the first day of kindergarten. Me and my husband and baby lowell washed the two blocks to the crowded school and joined others waiting to go in for the big day. The entire block was jammed. Everyone seemed to have mom and dad there, everyone had their bags full of supplies, carefully labeled lunches and spiffy new backpacks with names embroidered on the back. We walked into her classroom to find a beautiful bright space full of blocks, markers and paints, the latest Smart Board Technology and two excited teachers, eagerly awaiting her class of 20. In short, it was a lovely, id i willic first day and my husband and i were delighted to picture her there every school day for the next six years. But i couldnt help thinking what that special first day might have been like in the harlem neighborhood that we just moved out of, fled, really. We loved the area, but would never send our daughter to the school she was assigned to there. And we could avoid it. We were blessed to have the means to move to another neighborhood, a more expensive neighborhood, a whiter neighborhood, a neighborhood with a good school. Most of the families in our Old Neighborhood did not have that luxury, and so their first day is likely in a crumbling school, poorly staffed and with inadequate supplies. A school that statistics tell us will disproportionately have the lowest performing teachers. Children sent off to a third rate school for education. What does it say to a child when their First Experience is a brokendown school and third rate education . What are they subconsciously learn about the way their city and country feels about them . What Human Potential is lost in such an unequal system . We know in america we have the best and the worst in education, but living in manhattan, you really see it up close. Some of the best schools in the country, Public Schools in the country, and some of the worst in the same borough of the same city. You can learn everything you need to know about a school in the city based on one number. The percent of kids in the school on free or reduced lunch. Its just not fair. Its all i kept thinking as i dropped my daughter off yesterday. It is just not fair. And so as i voted in new yorks mayoral primary today, i did so with one issue in mind. Who has the best shot at fixing our tale of two cities Public School system . Who can make it so the beautiful child in harlem and the bronx and brooklyn has the same experience, the same shot at a good education as my beautiful child on the Upper East Side . Because if we can fix it here, we can fix it anywhere, and as sin at rah let us know, its up to you, new york, new york. All right. That does it for us here at the cycle. Martin bashir, it is all yours. Thank you so much, crystal. Good afternoon. Tuesday, september 10th. And at this rapid pace, the president s speech to the nation is likely getting a rewrite. I have a chance to talk to the American People directly. Everything is on the blink of explosion. He has not made the sale. Thats why i think tonight is so important. The people arent with you. Yeah, well, not yet. If you ask michelle, do we want to be involved in another war, the answer is no. Are you confident youre going to get the votes . Im confident members of congress are taking this issue very seriously. Unlimited kind of effort. What does that mean . The u. S. Does not do pinpr k pinpric pinpricks. Try to help the president provide a unified front. You dont send out a save the date card to the enemy. Kerry would consider international inspections. Do you believe it . These are conversations ive had directly with mr. Putin. We see this as potentially a positive development. It has to be swift, real, verifiable. A famous american president once said trust, but verify. Ill have a chance to talk to the American People directly