Transcripts For WRC Meet The Press 20150831

Finally, ten years after katrina, are we learning that some parts of new orleans needed to be destroyed in order to be saved . Joining me for insight and analysis this sunday are matt bai of yahoo news, msnbc Michelle Harris perry, steven schmidt. Announcer this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Have i a couple of shock poll results out of iowa from the Des Moines Register and bloomberg. On the democratic side Bernie Sanders has pulled within seven points of Hillary Clinton. Throw in joe biden, he sits at 14 . Back in may, the same poll had clinton leading sanders by 41 points. On the republican side, another shock. Donald trump leads at 23 . Almost out of nowhere, here comes ben carson with 18 . Ready for this . Nobody else is in double digits. Scott walker, ted crews, jeb bush, marco rubio, carly fiorina. Anybody else i havent named, less than 5 . If you add up the first and second choices on the republican side, ben carson and donald trump are actually tied. Ben carson, the highest favorable rating among republicans. Of course, it is donald trump that is dictating things. Him being on top is not the surprise this morning. Hes been dominating all the polls in every state, the media. It turns out hes getting into the heads of his opponents as well. We put together some examples of just how just in the past few weeks when trump talks the other republicans feel forced to respond. Make America Great again. Make America Great again. Its not too late for america. With your help, we can make o s country great again. The issue is not that america isnt great. The issue is that america can be even greater. Well call it the great wall of trump. Build the wall, have the technology, the personnel. Its not feasible to build a wall as the sole solution. Ill use the word anchor baby. Do you regret using anchor babies . No, i dont. Y dont regret it. Theyre human beings. Theyre not just statistics. Rand paul, you have to understand, is a disaster in the polls. Hes a disaster on military and defense. Hes getting decimated by everybody. I think people are going to have to decide whether they want someone who can say, shes fat, yeah im so good looking. Shes stupid and im rich or im smart because im rich. Has anyone ever heard of lindsey graham. If he becomes the nominee, well get killed. Come to South Carolina and ill beat his brains out. Jeb is nice person. Hes very low energy. Im not used to that kind of a person. We need leadership is washington, d. C. Highenergy leadership. There you have it. It seems as if they all want to respond and feel like they have to respond to trump. Matt bai, for yahoo news, Melissa Harrisperry and steve schmidt, former senior add adviser to john mccain. Steve, your party, im going to start with you. I think the most important poll number in this Des Moines Register poll is not carson, sanders, clinton, its this number. Satisfaction with the republicans in congress. Among republican caucusgoers in iowa, 75 say theyre not satisfied. Should we be surprised carson and trump on top . Its the complete and utter con temp of Republican Voters toward the establishment of the Republican Party in the Political Leadership of the country. Increasingly what you see also is now a severability between conservativism, which is defined as huge selections of the republican electorate as rhetoric emotion. The more incendiary the rhetoric, the more conservative you are. The test of true conservativism is fidelity to the person that has the most incendiary rhetoric. So, at a time of great cultural transition, change in the country, economic dislocation with globalization, with a blue color, noncollege educated, working class base that hasnt seen real wage growth in 30 years, heres the backlash. Heres the trump candidacy. And every day this message of america nationalism, we were once great. We no longer are, but we can be again is gaining strength. Melissa, im watching you nodding and nodding and nodding. Dont think you disagree with a point. I absolutely agree. Its the culmination of this question that i think many of us have been asking as we watched the Republican Party over recent years. On the one hand having these important successes in state and local races, particularly in the midterm elections and then asking whether or not the Republican Party is where the Democratic Party was when it finally had to split. When the Democratic Party that had been this coalition of southern democrats who were really there because they hated the emancipation proclamation in this you be easy alliance with northern liberals is split and southern democrats became republicans. Thats part of the question here. Do we finally see a culmination of a tea party saying, you know what, were actually not conservatives in the way the Republican Party has long defined conservativism. We are actually thinking about a different kind of nativism, nationalism, strong rhetoric and more than anything, that government is itself the problem. Right. Now, obviously this is having an affect on candidates itself. Matt, you wrote about jeb bush this week. I want to put up the Des Moines Register poll. Favorability rating in iowa. 61 . Donald trump has better numbers among republicans in iowa. He just reeked establishment to these people, i think. Because hes an establishment candidate. I said many times, its not so much trump is actually winning this race. Everybody else is losing. Hes actually have about a quarter of republican vote. I agree its real and signifies real. Hes where herman cain was four years ago. Its a natural constituency. Whats going on, unlike four years ago where mitt romney was a couple points behind, have you this vast field of candidates, divided. The rest of the electorate cant find a candidate they feel at this early stage they could rally around. They thought it was jeb bush. Its not. Hes falling. Who emerges to fill that void . Thats the most significant question of the primary process. The other part of this poll, we all just talked trump, trump, trump, the news is really ben carson. Hes sitting at 18 . More importantly here, highest favorable rating. Its eclipsing everybody. Right now he leads among christian conservatives, if i were looking at this poll in january, i would tell you, carson would win the caucuses. If this were january, this would mean carson would win the caucuses. But this is not january. This is august. We have been really focused on, this but i dont think the rest of the country has to the point that we i think iowans are. Iowans. But youre still looking although both both in the case of trump and with ben carson, i think youre looking at candidates with a ceiling. Particularly in the case of trump, i dont know how much higher that ceiling is going to be. The one candidate we didnt mention is my next guest here. Were going to turn to scott walker of wisconsin. He was supposed to be the conservative alternative favorite in this race. The conservative from a republican from a blue state, got things done. Like Many Republican candidates, walker has been swept away by the trump storm. I sat down with the governor yesterday for a meet the can days interview. Your good friend, Milwaukee County sheriff said, your campaigns stuck in neutral and you need to find a spark to counter the, quote, donald trump juggernaut. What do you say to him and do you agree with him . Its hard work. I was in iowa, South Carolina, new hampshire, doing town hall meetings, doing the sorts of things that remember, eight years ago about in time, there was i think a poll out in october of 2007, last time we had an open seat for president , and Hillary Clinton was way ahead of a guy by the name of barack obama and Rudy Giuliani were ahead of mitt romney and john mccain. The biggest spark for us is getting the message out that now is not the time to put in place someone who hasnt been tested. Now poll in your home state. Youre a 30 job Approval Rating and barack obama has 48 . Back then we were pushing big, bold reforms, like the big, bold reforms we pushed in the latest budget. Year later i won the recall because the reforms worked. For all the hype and hysteria of the 100,000 protesters, our schools are better. A. C. T. Scores are second best in the country, Graduation Rates are up, third grade reading scores are up. Same thing holds true for students who are my son at the university of wisconsin, reforms work there as well, property taxes continue to go down. When people see the benefits of our reforms, just like they did four years ago, i think our numbers will go up again. Let me go to a facebook question here. This is probably the topic brought up by more posters than anybody, which was the Milwaukee Bucks deal. How can you from sam barren. How can you talk about a fiscally responsible conservative then approve a deal for billionaires, so billionaires can get a shiny new are arena. Not one new penny of taxpayers dollars talk about being a fiscally responsible person. I am. Thats whydy this. 6. 5 million every year. Right now 6. 5 million per year comes into the state of wisconsin in income taxes. Not all these other things people talk about, in income taxes from nba players that play in the state of wisconsin. I would lose that money if we did nothing. The birth right citizenship issue. I can get a final there was some confusion last week on the issue its clear. Youre for getting rid of it, you werent, where are you . What i point out repeatedly since the beginning of this year. People have heard me, people have heard me say this a thousand times. Secure the border, enforce the laws, no amnesty, go forward in a way that provides for a Legal Immigration system, that puts a priority in american working families and their wages in a way that will improve the american economy. Whether its talking about the 14th amendment or anything else, until we secure the borders and enforce the law, we shouldnt talk about any other issue. Politicians should distract from the fact that for years in this town, in washington, d. C. , politicians have made promises about securing the border sxen forcing the laws they havent been able to fulfill. Im not talking about changing. Im not talking you want to keep in place. Birth right citizenship stays. Im not talking change the constitution. Youre going to try to tear up this agreement with iran on day one. Why not give it a chance . See if it works . I have no problem doing a deal if its on our terms. This is a horrible deal. Its a horrible deal. Its not just republicans. Chuck schumer isnt exactly mr. Conservative out there. He knows this is a bad deal. Other democrats know this is a bad deal. The American People know this is a bad deal. If you know its a bad deal and you know it today, why do you need a week or a month to put a cabinet in or panel in there. You need to tear it up and say, you want to do a deal with us . Heres the deal. You need to completely go out and get rid of your nuclear facility. Secondly, you need full disclosure. None of these side deals we heard about where somehow the iranians are part of their own inspection. Full disclosure, timely disclosure. On top of, that you need to start dealing with the destructive behaviors that iran is directly involved in when it comes to statesponsored terrorism. On day one f you reneglecte the deal, they can say iranians reneged, we will renege. Were sending a clear message that in the future well pull back f you want to do business, you have to decide, do it with iran or america. Were going to pull back and terminate this deal on day one. We tried toppling leaders in iraq and libya. We created drone strikes. Weve pulled back. Weve gone in. Nothing seems to stop this issue of islamic terrorism. What is it what are you going to do differently that is somehow going to solve this problem . Different from this president and the policy that Hillary Clinton was involved with is lifting the political restrictions and the ill give you a good example. We have people in iraq right now in the military, over 3,000 troops. Its not a question of sending more in. Its about empowering them to unleash the power of the United States military. We have people right there as air controllers who can literally draw in air strikes with absolute precision. They cant do that. Thats particularly difficult because i talked to a general earlier this year who said, air strikes can be effective, but right now, theyre like a drizzle. He said, we need to have a thunderstorm there. The comment you made at the end of the 2014 on samesex marriage, you said for us, wisconsin, the debate is over. Now you said thats not right. For us you said its over. A judge turned over it was over in terms of our legal option. We had no other option than waiting for what the Supreme Court would do. There was no other option for the state of wisconsin. The most immediate thing the next president , ill be involved in, is protecting peoples religious liberties. Its inherent in the constitution, part of the bill of rights, was to be free of religious persecution. Does that mean a business could fire somebody thats gay . Just because theyre gay . That means well, have you to have bounds up. That means we have to uphold the constitution which says you have the freedom of religion. Not freedom from religion. The freedom of religion. Our justice department, our irs and others out there will uphold that. All right. Caucuses are february 1st. First sunday in february. The super bowl. Who has a better shot, you in iowa or ann rodgers in the nfl . Im hoping i can do both. After i was first elected november 2nd of 2010, the packers went on to win the super bowl on my wedding anniversary youre saying youre good luck . I like the good luck. If i win, packers win the super bowl. I like it both ways. A lot more of my interview with governor walker, including his reaction to the idea of that minnesota and their liberal policies have been more successful than wisconsin and their conservative policies. All of it on our website. Meetthepressnbc. Com. When we come back, Hillary Clintons email troubles are growing. Joe biden made a surprise appearance on the campaign trail yesterday. Sort of. It was in delaware. Well show you [ male announcer ] we know theyre out there. You cant always see them. But its our job to find them. The answers. The solutions. The innovations. All waiting to help us build Something Better. Something more amazing. A safer, cleaner, brighter future. At boeing, thats what building Something Better is all about. Its me . Alright emma, i know its not your favorite but its time for your medicine, okay . You ready . One, two, three. [ both ] emma, emma bobemma bananafanafofemma feefifofemma emma very good sweety, how do you feel . Good. Yeah . You did a really good job, okay . [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, thank you, from johnson johnson. For weeks weve been hearing r rumblings for biden movement. In the history of modern democratic primaries theres always been a establishment favorite and progressive alternative. In 2008 barack obama succeeded where previous challenges where hart and brown lee failed because he combined progressive liberal whites and africanamericans. So, how does joe biden avoid being bill bradley or gary hart in 2016 . If he runs, bidens hope would be these groups would become the base of his support. Thats not going to be easy. Right now, the barack obama 2008 coalition is already splintered. Let me take a look. Africanamericans right now are for Hillary Clinton in a big way. The progressive liberal democrats, which have been a way to slow down establishment candidates in the past, well, theyre starting to break for Bernie Sanders. So, biden right now cant comment on progressive whites because theyre split between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and they cant count on africanamericans right now because theyre for Hillary Clinton. So, the question, and Melissa Harrisperry, i want to start with you, joe biden gets in. Is there a way for him to excite the africanamerican vote, that somehow they would abandon Hillary Clinton . Oh, absolutely. You believe that . Sure. I think biden is great for the Democratic Party if he runs even if he has no shot of winning because democrats need to win in the general election is a broad group of people across the country who have become not only excited but also registered. Thats what we saw in 2008. So, you need a long and hardfought campaign in order to get them registered to show up to vote. The important thing about africanamerican voters, they were also in Hillary Clintons camp prior to the Iowa Caucuses in 2008. If joe biden can present your way that is more clearly responsive to black lives matter and if he can present in a way that he is truly the white houses guy, hes really the person who is kind of obamas guy. The third obama term, i do think and he has really almost not president clinton but good enough to do the fluidity discourse with with black communities. Matt bai, weve been covering joe biden a long time. Hes author of the infamous crime bill from the mid90s that increased incarceration rates among africanamericans. Im told hes not totally ready to renounce that deal. Thats going to be a dealbreaker with the black lives matter movement. I dont know how look, i think on the crime issue, omalley has this problem, too, i think theres a defensible record. Dont think he should disown it. I think the reforms have you to put yourself in the context of that time. I was covering urban affairs at that time. The reforms they made in crime control at that time were the predominant beneficiaries were africanamericans, were poor, urban residents. You couldnt go out on the street, you couldnt send your kid out to play. I think with a more contextual explanation, i think its a perfectly defensible record. I think that record sits on the door step of Hillary Clinton. We saw it when the black lives matter activists she has to own it, too. Right. They went to Hillary Clinton and said, what about your role in this as both first lady in the Clinton White house as well as your later role . If theres a problem with this, it exists for both of them. I do think biden, because he would be getting in so late, he has a moment about what is the strategy, what is the discourse. He actually got to watch and see how sanders and clinton sort of flubbed it at the beginning. Let me transition to emails. Steve schmidt, we got a different Hillary Clinton on emails than the one last week. Last week, very defensive. This week, a little contrition. Let me play a clip for you. Clearly wasnt the best choice. I should have used two emails, one personal, one for work. And i take responsibility for that decision. You can make different decisions because things have changed, circumstances have changed, but it doesnt change the fact that i did not send or receive material marked classified. A different tone . Better . Enough to put this issue to bed . A a political matter, the effect of all of this has been that a substantial percentage of the country when they hear the naem Hillary Clinton, they respond with liar, dishonest, not trustworthy at a level enough to make her unee leblgtable. Its driving such a demand in the democratic electorate for another choice. You have a socialist from vermont beating her in new hampshire, competitive with her in iowa and driving demand for the incumbent Vice President , whos a great politician, to get in the race. Then you have the secondary issue, which is the handling of classified material, so a very serious issue. Most americans dont have clearances. If youve had a security clearance, the rules are not very nuanced and not very subtle. Theyre very, very clear. This is a very serious matter thats being investigated. As the investigation goes on, there is great peril for Hillary Clinton. This is now being investigated at a level that is apart and aside from the ability its not in congress. Do you think joe biden has the fire in the belly to take this issue and use it . Barack obama had no problem raising trust issues with Hillary Clinton eight years ago and its part of the reason why he won. Do you think joe biden has it . Absolutely. Hes a politician. He has if he gets in the race, i think hes going to want to win. But i think melissa brought up a really good point earlier, that is the barack obama factor when you were talking about biden and getting people who voted for obama on board. Obama as of now still you know, hes still playing he hasnt konl out and said and hes not going to. This is his former secretary of state and his Vice President. How hard do you think barack obama is going to be campaigning for joe biden . No. Thats like but theres no history of joe biden attacking barack obama in the way that there is of Hillary Clinton no, but joe biden calling clean and articulate. And thats not going to go over very well. All right. I will pause there, but i think this is why theres so much skepticism about biden being able to pull this off. He can win the africanamerican vote . Coming up, ten years after katrina, there are some people that make an argument it might have been necessary to destroy parts of new orleans in order to save it. That debate is next. Announcer meet the press is brought to you by morgan stanley. I hate cleaning the gutters. Have you touched the stuff . Its evil. And ladders. Sfx [screams] they have all those warnings on em. Might as well say. youre gonna die, jeff. you hired someone to clean the gutters. Not just someone. Angies list helped me find a highly rated Service Provider to do the work at a fair price. Everyone can shop, but members get more with reviews, live customer support, and better pricing. Come see what the new angies list can do for you. What if there were only one kind of dog . Then it would be easy to know everything about that one breed. But in fact, there are over three hundred breeds of dogs. Because no one can be an expert in every one. An app powered by ibm watson will help vets tap Specialized Knowledge in the cloud for every breed. And whatever else walks, flies or slithers through the door. Ibm watson is working to make medicine smarter every day. Can a a subconscious. Mind . A knack for predicting the future. Reflexes faster than the speed of thought. Can a business have a spirit . Can a business have a soul . Can a business be. Alive . Its hard to believe now, but when Hurricane Katrina hit new orleans, everyone thought the city dodged a bullet. No direct hit and wind damage was minimal. And then the levees broke. Exactly ten years ago today, the day after landfall, we became aware water was pouring into the city and an epic disaster was unfolding in slow motion. There are entire neighborhoods packed with thousands of people who would kill to get to the convention center. Theyre stuck in their homes. The waters 10 feet high. What were seeing at the convention center, all of the pictures could just be the tip of the iceberg. Were suffering. Were suffering here. Everybody lives here from paycheck to paycheck. We dont have the money to get out of town like they want us to do. Its just a devastating sight to see. Its about people. Nobody wants to hurt anybody in this city. Heres comes the rescue. Help help help those images are hard to watch. Well go back to the lower ninth ward,s area hit hardest by katrina. Well have a we stop arthritis pain, so you dont have to stop. Because you believe in go. Onward. Todays the day. 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Wealth management at Charles Schwab help help we need help help help we need help ten years after katrina and those pictures very hard to watch, but the question people are asking, as has the city of new orleans recovered . That answer is very hard to pin down. According to the data center in new orleans, new industries are investing in the city and the surrounding areas and incarceration have dropped, but the poverty rate is back up to prekatrina levels, 27 . The population in 2005, 455,000 people lived in new orleans. Last year it was 384,000. One person who did come back after fleeing the citys lower ninth ward was a woman named lacresha phillips. Tremaine spoke to her as part and went back. Reporter in 2005 as water poured into the city, i was a reporter for the timespicayune. One of my first stories about katrinas devastation was published about lucrece phillips. She has sleepless nights filled with the images of dead babies and women. You can see her here when the water was up to the balcony of her home. This house isnt here anymore, but she is. This is it. Reporter its hard to imagine. This was your house. Its hard to imagine this was a house on here. But if you can imagine it floating off its foundation, you know, and us bracing each other and the house, stop, dont move, because the house is teetering. Reporter after she was rescued, she tried to go inside the superdome. But back then it looks pristine now as opposed to the way it looked back then. Back then it just looked like a tomb. I was like, i dont to want go in here. I dont want to go in here. Reporter she didnt. I met her at the hyatt where it looked like a bomb had gone off. I wrote then, in a darkened lobby of the Downtown Hyatt Hotel turned refuge, she hugged an emergency worker closely. A handful of his sweaty blue tshirt rippling from each of her fists. She had barely gotten out of a filth. Now the hyatt gleans but lucrece who spent eight years in texas is skeptical of the shine. Theres not many that came back. I cant say that, you know this city is not as full and vibrant as it used to be. Those people reporter can you feel the difference . Yes, i can feel the difference. You know,i its more of an eerie a touristy feeling. Reporter some parts of the different, more entrepreneurship are hard to see in the lower ninth ward. That being said, i can see that the spirit of resilience that was always here was never swept pa way. Trymaine lee, nbc, new orleans. The massive destruction of a city has raised a provocative question. Did new orleans need to be destroyed in order to be saved . The bestselling author of outliars and the tipping point, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article for the new yorker looking into the citys neighborhoods, School System and if some people were better off never coming back to new orleans. I met with gladwell and i asked him about a study he writes about regarding recidivism rates for those who return to their old neighborhoods. This is a guy by mcguchlt rk and he got all the prison records postkatrina and he looked at those released from katrina, whose neighborhoods had been steroid, who couldnt go back to new orleans h to go somewhere else, usually houston. He compared their reincarceration rate to the reincarceration rates of prisoners who could return to their old neighborhood. What he found was there was a striking difference. 25 difference in the reincarceration rates of those two groups. If you couldnt go back to your old neighborhood, you were far less likely to return to jail in one, two years and now doing an eightyear followup and doing the same pattern. Someone in this category, a former crack user from new orleans who had moved gotten out of prison and moved to houston calls up and calls him up and says, you know, i hate to say it, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I got a fresh start. I got separated from all of the influences that were such a negative voice in my life. The next part of your article was dealing with the School System. This had also been had you a perfect phrase. Instead of a School System p became a system of schools. Essentially were getting the first New High School graduates in this system, beginning to end. Success or failure . I would say i mean, my suspicion is that in the long term, we will look at this as a success. At the same time, when you look right now, ten years out at tests and all the kind of statistical indicators of how much better the School System the reinstituted School System in new orleans is than the previous one, the gains seem very modest. But i think thats because were its too soon. I read your piece, you came to this, when do you move and when do you rebuild . I think thats ultimately the story of the ninth ward. Whats been the theres been some rebuilding. Are People Better off . Yeah. Can we say that . Its always a complex issue. This is the issue, of course, at the heart of immigration. So, my family, half of my family, are jamaicans. Virtually all in the last 30 years have left jamaica for canada or the United States. Is jamaica worse off for them having left . Probably. Jamaica has suffered because the middle class moved en masse. Are my cousins and mother better from losing jamaica . Absolutely. My mother would tell you shes better in canada, far more prospects, got an education, career, things unimaginable growing up in jamaica. Its almost an impossible question to say its better or worse. It really depends on what are you asking about . Are you asking about the community or are you asking about the individuals. So, is this a case lets go back to new orleans today. Did we destroy the village in order to save it . Is that what katrina did . Have we saved new orleans . We have changed new orleans. And i am still optimistic that in the long run, we will have changed it for the better. But i still think that ten years is hopelessly premature to pass any kind of judgment. I am also aware that the process of changing a city in the wake of a disaster, as opposed to simply going back to the way things were before, is unbelievably painful, right . And you cannot gloss over just how much disruption was piled upon disruption in the years after katrina. And i would not wish that on anyone. I want to bring in Melissa Harrisperry here, longtime new orleans resident. Wh you digested that new yorker article. New orleans today s it better city than it was prekatrina . What do you say to that . Maybe the only thing i agree on with Malcolm Gladwell, thats a tough question to answer and it depends on where you are standing. If youre a ninth ward resident, whose home was destroyed, whose home was destroyed, not by katrina, but, rather, by the federal levees that failed in the context of katrina, then, no, it simply is not better off. I would also suggest for many who are africanamerican its not a better city in part because this socalled Success Story in the schools also included charterizing the entire system, which meant deunionizing all teachers. Whatever people feel about teachers union, one thing to remember is it is the heart of the black middle class, particularly in new orleans. So, that loss of income and of economic stability for the black middle class there has been meaningful, so its not just the schools but also the people who work in schools. And i think the final thing i would say is, yes, there are some ways in in which the city has had a huge amount of federal investment it deserved before the storm, but also remember that that that stands on whether or not you are living in a community and a neighborhood that can take advantage of it. What do you say to africanamericans that fled, went to houston and their lives are better . Is this a message to any Poor Community that says, you know what absolutely. Leave, get out, you will make your life better. Is this is the problem in part with the gladwell piece. He seems unaware hes a smart enough guy to know this. Correlation is not causation. He uses the language of natural experiment to talk about what happens in the context of katrina. Theres nothing less like an experiment or social Scientific Evidence than what we see postkatrina. People who leave and people who say are different draws from the box. The reason people can go and stay. People may move and make great lives from themselves. That actually tells us nothing as a matter of a social scientific piece of evidence we could then extend pep also makes a really false equivalency between immigration and what happens after the storm. Immigrants are people who make choice and they make a choice to leave. This wasnt a choice. This was not a choice. This matters critically for the things we are as americans, saying we want to maximize human freedom. Thanks very much on that. Im going to bring the rest of the panel in in a few minutes. One year ago this week, president obama famously said the u. S. Didnt have a real strategy to deal with isis. He did present one about a week later. Do we have a strategy that is working now . These two oil rigs look the same. Can you tell what makes them so different . Did you hear that sound . Of course you didnt. Youre not using ge Software Like the rig on the right. 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An app powered by ibm watson will help vets tap Specialized Knowledge in the cloud for every breed. And whatever else walks, flies or slithers through the door. Ibm watson is working to make medicine smarter every day. You cant always see them. But its our job to find them. The answers. The solutions. The innovations. All waiting to help us build Something Better. Something more amazing. A safer, cleaner, brighter future. At boeing, thats what building Something Better is all about. Welcome back. While the debate over the Iran Nuclear Deal is the one dominating Foreign Policy discussion this summer, well be reminded in about a week of the oneyear anniversary of trying to take on isis. Were reminded all the time of the brutality of isis. In fact, this week the Group Released footage purports to show the ancient city of palmyra in syria. The humanitarian crisis is reaching syria. As hundreds of thousands release, while those that suffocated in austria in those drowning off the coast of libya. Heres a chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel with more. Reporter the only part of the u. S. Strategy against isis thats on target so far in the u. S. Air strikes. Last september the u. S. Administration announced a war on isis. To degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as isil. Reporter two weeks ago washington got what sounded like longawaited good news. The u. S. Has been bombing isis for nearly a year, and finally got access to bases here in southern turkey, bringing jets and drones far closer to their targets. A huge tactical gain. But isis doesnt seem to be shrinking. In fact, to quote one u. S. Official, isiss international branchs are growing like crazy. Isis has spread rapidly across north and west africa, arabiya, afghanistan, even into the far east. Isis has expanded far more quickly and extensively than al qaeda ever did. Whats happening mostly is the brand of isis is as powerful as the brand of osama bin laden. The isis battle is not going to be a quick battle. It takes years. Reporter and even at home in isis strongholds in iraq and syria, the Group Continues to operate openly, ruling by fear. This was a midlevel isis commander who ran a village near raqqa in syria like a mayor. I was responsible for everything, he says, the security of the town, its food, water, electricity, the fighters. I was the chairman of the police station. But he eventually became disillusioned. Isis, he says, is corrupt and kills too many muslims. I started doubting the Islamic State when they began to fight with other islamic groups, he says. So, why isnt the u. S. Strategy working . Its based on three pillars, and theyre all shaky. Retraining the iraqi army. Its been slow and iran often calls the shots. Training syrian rebels, but so far only a handful are ready to fight and many of them have already been kidnapped. And finally, the air strikes, which are killing isis fighters and leaders, but who are then replaced. The problem with air strikes is it gives you a sense youve done more than youve done. Its very hard to have desired political effects from the air as we saw in u. S. Operations in libya. Reporter and so nbc news has learned the u. S. Military led by special operations is now in the midst muof a major policy revie to come up with a new global strategy to deal with what is now a global isis. For meet the press, Richard Engel, nbc news, southern turkey. To discuss the administrations isis strategy im joined by ambassador brett mcgurk, a personal adviser to president obama and, of course, a former adviser to president bush. Welcome back to meet the press. Honored to be here. Based on richards reporting right now, this new policy review, what more can you tell us about it and how soon will we see a new strategy . Well, were implementing the policy we put together about a year ago. Its very important to step back. It was about a year ago at this point. We didnt even have an Iraqi Government in place, we didnt have a coalition in place. When president obama spoke to the American People on september 10th, he said its going to be a multiyear campaign. That was based on our assessment of isil. Its better than al qaeda and iraq, which we fought, best military in the world, took years to defeat and degrade that enemy. We said there will be a multiyear campaign. Were in the first year. We said to degrade its capabilities, remove its leaders, and maneuver around the battlefield. Thats what were doing now. A year later, can you say isis is weaker today than it was a year ago . Doesnt sound like it is. Degrading its overall capabilities. Thats the objective. If you take this from the leader of isils perspective, a year ago he was out in the open, speaking to his cohorts in the openly, expanding the caliphate. Right now his caliphate in iraq and syria is shrinking. He just lost last week, his number one deputy, a terrorist by the name of muttas, the number one leader of isil in iraq. He was killed last week. We also killed just in the heart of raqqa of isils capital a computer technician who was trying to inspire attacks here in the u. S. Dont get me wrong, chuck, this is going to be a very longterm, multiyear campaign. I was here about two months ago. At that time isil was contr controlling almost the entire border with syria. Since that time the entire bored from her euphrates east, we have taken away from isil, now working with turkey and other groups to take away the last 60 miles of the border. He shaller this week that there was a report that intelligence strathd strategies of isil may have been exaggerated. I know theres an investigation. Do you believe youre getting proper information . Well w he get all of us involved in this. Every morning we get a book of intelligence reports from the 17 departments and agencies across the Intelligence Community and theyre doing a tremendous job. The president s secretary of defense secretary of defense demands rigor as to the assess many of isil. A year ago do you think youre getting good intelligence because the reports are maybe you youre not . We have a debate internally how things are going every day, as we should. Weve had debates intentionally from time to time. An example is when isis was surrounding kobani. You had 200 fighters surrounded by thousands of isil fighters. We made a decision to give those fighters a chance. Those fighters with syrian kurds and those from the Free Syrian Army expanded and took it away from isil. Bottom line, i want to be clear about this, this is something weve never seen before, the extent of isil. 25,000 foreign fighters coming from all around the world, it will take years. We have to be honest and sober about how difficult this is going to be. Brett mcgurk, ambassador, thanks for coming in. Im sure well check in again soon. Thanks for having me. A quick reminder f you cant be in front of your tv on sundays, no problem. Watch us on demand, hit the dvr, hit the season pass. Even if its not sunday, its still meet the press. Well be back in 45 swekdz our end game seven segment. Announcer stay tuned for end time now for meet the press end game brought to you by boeing, where the drive to build Something Better inspires us every day. Id be remiss, helenef i didnt make you tell me whats going on on all things isis. And this strategy review was interesting to hear ambassador mcgurk deny theyre reviewing everything. I think theyve been the pentagon will say that theyre always doing a strategy review. They have been for some time well aware of the fact they have to attack the psychology of isis. Its not just about killing people on the ground. Its about this message, this theology. Two weeks ago i was on the Aircraft Carrier to theater in persian gulf and i was there reporting on the air strikes. These guys were taking over from that carrier 20 to 25 strikes a day. And a lot of them were coming back at night, after these 6 1 2 to 7hour flights with their weapons still intact because they dont have enough Iraqi Security forces they dont get the coordinates. On the ground to get the coordinates. You see this incredible array of american super power weaponry. I had never been on an Aircraft Carrier before, so my mind was completely blown. But at the same time, they can only go as far as as fast as the iraqi forces on the ground. And that training has been going slowly and painstakingly. Again, you look at the flip side of that and, do we want american Ground Troops there . We dont. Its sort of like a year ago when the Administration First announced the air strike campaign, they said then that this is going to take four to five years. So, i think the fact whats surprising is how quickly this ideology has spread globally. And that, i think, is what was interesting about your report. Thats whats scaring people. Let me turn to the tragedy in roanoke, the two journalists, alison parker, adam ward, gunned down on live television. This cultural change and using social media. What i found depressing, steve, the political reaction was predictable. Those that want gun control said it, we have to have gun control. Then the rhetoric, those on the right, its not about guns, its about mental health. But i didnt see any action. I didnt see anybody saying, okay, enough is enough. We know we have this political stalemate. Lets get down to brass tacks. Where are we . Is this are we intractable because of the nra aspect . Its completely intractable. One of the seminole events of this generation was the massacre in newtown. Most horrific events in the history the country. You had a moment in time where 90 of the country, including nra members, said, we ought to have common sense gun restriction measures. We ought to have a more rigorous background check system. And Nothing Happened. And Nothing Happened because of the intensity of the empower of the gun control lobby on the members of congress, both democrats and republicans. So, nothing will happen as a result of this. And i think thats demonstrated out of the aftermath of the newtown tragedy. Matt, we hear all the talks, lets on the mental health. We dont see any political will on that either. No. And that was supposed to get fixed back when they created back with the brady bill and they created the waiting list. The history on this issue steve is exactly right. The reason it plays out this way, if you poll 80 of the country tells you they believe in higher restrictions. Its not an intensity issue for them. Theres ten things they care about more. It doesnt affect their lives on a daily basis. For nra members, for the conservative base, its going to take a republican to get that done, a conservative to break that stronghold. Democrats cant do that. Do you buy that, melissa, progressive activists care about the gun issue . Do they care enough that it becomes they force democrats to own it even more . Part of the problem is, what is the gun issue . This goes back to steves point, postnewtown, we think, this is the moment when it will all happen. N newtown and even this horrible tragedy in virginia, gun violence is quite different than that. The majority of gunshot wound deaths, selfinflicted, suicides. Then the next you have the kind of ordinary violence we think of as occurring in communities that are racked with it. None of what we talk about, when we talk about mental health, tends to get to that. I will pause it there. Thats all the we have for today. Lots of stuff in this show, thats for sure. Well be back next week because if its sunday, its meet the press. Air etta. Coming up on early today, havoc in the caribbean and flood watches in effect for the southeast u. S. As it prepares for a soaking. Bernie sanders and donald trump surge in iowa polls as Hillary Clintons support drops. Hundreds turn out into a march for a gunned down texas lawman. Eye popping scenes at the mtv music awards introducing a run for president in 2015. The passing of the legends of horror and much more as we kick off early today. Good morning. Tropical storm erika may b