will he strike? the president, of course, has the authority to act. it s neither his desire nor his intention to use that authority absent congress backing him. has the authority to act. john, what does this tell us? what s going on behind the scenes? what it tells us is the white house is ready to act if they need to, but they can t say publicly that they ll act without a congressional vote because that will take the momentum that s already moving against them in congress and compound it even further. this is a delicate line the president needs to walk. that s why that tuesday speech is so important. this is about the power of the bully pulpit. the responsibility of the president to go to a war weary nation and a deeply divided congress and to make the case that this is about principle. we were listening to the president speaking from russia. he said i believe he said he feels pretty confident once these members of congress go in these classified briefings that they will kno
the u.s. says nearly 1,500 people, including at least 400 children, were killed in a chemical weapons attack outside the syrian capital damascus last month. the obama administration says america cannot turn a blind eye to such a volatile corner of the world. that poses a serious national security threat to the united states. and to the region. reporter: president obama insists this is a limited strike. there will not be boots on the ground. he said this is not iraq. this is not afghanistan. but john and diana, that is a very tough sell to a war weary nation. karen travers. thank you. on a lighter note. even senate heavyweight need a break some times. cameras catching senator john mccain playing poker on his iphone during the heated hearing on syria. afterward, mccain came clean in a sarcastic tweet that began with the word scandal. he was playing during a hearing that he said exceeded three hours. the senate action is giving president obama a boost as he
now we have john kerry and chuck hagel, the defense secretary also. i m told more will be announced. this is going to be a very, very interesting, important hearing tomorrow. let s talk more about the influence that john mccain and lindsey graham might have on other lawmakers. how much influence do they have? a lot of lawmakers are up for re-election in 2014. that s going to enter into their decision, too, right, in a war-weary nation. lindsey graham is one of people who is running for re election next year. look, i don t know the answer to how much impact they are going to have on the senate and the house broadly. i think it is fair to say that when you are talking about members of oh their own party who trust their judgment on issues of national security, particularly military issues, there could be a few who might be able to be persuaded by them if they choose to support this. and given the way the voteses are now which is completely up
afternoon, karen, this congress doesn t move quickly. so certainly, the momentum has slowed here considerably. i would expect that behind the scenes, you will see a robust outreach from particularly the vice president. i m sure the president as well will be working the phones as well as senior administration officials and secretary of state john kerry. thank you, kristin welker. coming up, more reaction on the president s speech today and how a war weary nation will view this vote. usua l please. usua thank you very much. ok guys, i m back. i need a template of a template. oh my gosh. i ve never even seen this record, i ve only read about it in books. yeah we can get some peanut.that is huge. please don t judge the amount of peanut butter we are getting. from prepaid to platinum, cashback and more membership has a card for every character. i m carrie brownstein and i get to be whoever i want.
destroyers in the mediterranean. they could potentially fire cruise missiles if that is part of the plan. the president has made it clear this will be a limited operation. that means no boots on the ground. that s what we expect from president obama. alex, i want to set the scene outside the white house for a few minutes to give you a sense of the feeling here. there are protesters, dozens of them saying that they don t want military intervention in syria and that sort of squares with the latest nbc news wall street journal poll that found 50% of americans are opposed to military intervention. if you asked them about a limited strike, that number flips. we have 50% of people saying they could get behind and support some kind of limited military strike. of course, part of this is the spillover from iraq. this is a war weary nation and of course president obama and this administration has been keenly aware of that as they have tried to figure out how to