johnson joining us exclusively. and the speaker speaks out today. paul ryan breaks his own rule because of trump s comments. normally i do not comment on what s going on in the presidential election. i will take an exception today. this is not conservatism. what was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for and, more importantly, it s not what this country stands for. good day, everyone, i m andrea mitchell in washington. donald trump escalated his anti-muslim rhetoric to a whole new level yesterday, saying that all muslims, not just refugees, all business people, tourists, all others should be barred from entering the united states during current crisis with isis. when challenged about the constitutionality, morality, wisdom of a proposal, today on morning joe and other programs he refused to back down. we have to look at mosques and respect mosques, but, yes, we have to look at mosques, we have no choice. we have to see what s happening, because something
attacks, the capital of mali is dealing with an attack of its own. according to the united nations, at least 23 people died at a hotel, 19 civilians, 3 attackers and a member of mali s security forces. gunmen stormed the hotel, the radisson blu, one of the few luxury western-style hotels there, popular with foreigners and airline crews and not far from the u.s. embassy. military have been going room to room, checking to make sure there are no more victims. a defense official tells nbc news six americans inside the hotel did make it out alive, but again, the state department now says one american died. it is a civilian, not a defense employee. msnbc s ayman mohyeldin is live in brussels. from there, he has been following this story throughout the day. what do we know additionally about this attack, and of course, ayman, who may be behind it? reporter: we re learning a little bit more about the identities of the victims. you now have confirmation that one american citizen was
now, it s not yet clear whether that includes the hostage-takers or just the hostages. we do know that over the last couple hours, malian security forces backed by the united nations and backed by a few special forces that were in country as well as french special forces that were in the region have all been involved in trying to get these hostages out. they were moving systematically from floor to floor to try and rescue some of those folks. now, some may have escaped, some may have been released as a result of the efforts of the security forces. it began this morning at about 7:00 a.m. when a group of gunmen entered that hotel. that report initially said that there were two gunmen, but it seems to be a little bit higher than just two individuals. at the time, radisson put out a statement saying that 170 people were inside that hotel, that it included 30 employees and about 140 guests. this is a hotel near government buildings frequented by a lot of western diplomats and bus
going through room by room, looking for more victims in the hotel. we can also report that two alleged terrorists have been killed in this operation to rescue these folks out of this hotel and they may be the only two who were involved in all of this. there were some wild numbers earlier in the morning, about 10 to 12 or 13, even, alleged gunmen storming this hotel but it looks like it may be a much smaller number and may in fact just be these two. we can also tell you that the hotel was hosting some sort of conference and one of the dead is, we have got this confirmed from the belgian parliament, was a civil servant who worked in the parliament building there, was on a three-day business trip to mali when this all took place friday morning down there. so the latest again is french press agency reporting at least 18 dead, there are a number of wounded being taken out of the hotel now and jim miklaszewski will report some u.s. troops on scene there to help with the evacuation.
89 people were killed inside, and this morning the european union has called an emergency meeting to discuss europe s response to the attacks. we now know that at least one american citizen was killed in paris. a 23-year-old design student from california. president obama is in turkey today for the g-20 economic summit. turkey s capital suffered a suicide bombing in october that killed more than 100 people in arrange kar ankara. as was true with the terrible attacks that took place in ankara, the killing of innocent people based on a twisted ideology is an attack not just on france, not just on turkey, but it is an attack on the civilized world. u.s. officials say the terrorist group isis which claimed responsibility for the paris attacks had released a video encouraging followers to carry out attacks in france. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel joins us now from paris. richard, given the fact that we have two of the suspects identified with about seven p