Pressure to define a strategy on isis after announcing that he didnt have one. Charles krauthammer until we had the brutal murder, the contemptible murder of the americans, throwing down the gauntlet. Where American Public opinion had radically changed from being against air strikes to being heavily in favor that obama decided to do it. This is a classic example of la leading from behind when he waits for public opinion. Joins us for what we do you get a sense in washington today that the white house has any sort of regrets that it has come to this. That the president is actually going having to address the nation, in the sixth year of his presidency that theyre actually going to do what he needs to do to protect the country . I dont get any sense of regret, in fact i think they sense more of an opportunity here. They changed it from an afternoon speech to a prime time speech, basically because they felt after the president s appearance on meet the press that he had turned some of the skeptics i think tonights speech is going to be talking about the coalition, talking about congress, getting involved money wise and talking about whats next going after this fight that he essentially remember, said was over a couple of years ago. All right, bob . Bob, the i saw Mitch Mcconnell among other republicans already using isis as part of their campaigns for november. Given the fact that its always a little dangerous to take on a president during times of crisis, but they believe that obama is not going to be stuck sessi sessionful. Already you have seen the House Majority leader Kevin Mccarthy come out and say theres now a hold on the continuing resolution, thats the funding of the government. Theyre not moving forward, waiting on the president s speech because they may insert this funding request to train and arm rebels. Frankly theres push back on the democratic side of the aisle as well on some of that fundinging, but for the most part, publicly they say they stand with the president. We have heard the president in the past refer to congress as dysfunctional, that he would have to sir couple havent them on issues like Immigration Reform if they dont act in an immediate fashion before, now hes okay with going to congress. Do you think that this is cover for the president politically and if he doesnt get that 500 million request, will he act alone . Thats a great question, andrea. I think this is going to congress for an element of this. But he has already signaled to them at a private meet agent the white house yesterday that he had the authority to strike, something that he obviously chose not to deal with last time he wanted to go into syria when the chemical weapons red line and the rose garden speech. I think this money pitch is a way to get congress to have buy in, in the words of white house, but not full authority. I do want to point out one thing. About this arming and training of the rebels. Remember this is three years in the making, and in may, the senate the head of the Senate Foreign relations committee, bob menendez was pushing for this, the training of foreign rebels, the moderates. But the push back came from the administration and from senator reid and it died. Brett, so one year ago, president obama stood in front of the American People said, by the way, in the days leading up to that speech, that the american sentiment had changed with regard to syria, americans didnt want to go into syria. So president obama said im going to give this to congress and he turned it over to congress and that ended up not happening, the opposite is happening here, where the american sentiment is united. 90 of people feel thats sis is a threat to the united states. Will that give president obama the idea that he doesnt need congress anymore and circumvent congress. Because a lot of people want that same authority, they want the American People still want him to go to congress and gets approval before doing it, even though they agree with him doing it . Youre exactly right. It has changed dramatically, those two different scenarios. And you add to that the video of james foley and Steve Sotloff being beheaded and that changed the entire dynamics, does anybody think that the Obama AdministrationForeign Policy in regards to isis in syria in particular would be the same if we did not see those two beheading videos . Not many people here in washington do. Go ahead, greg. Hello, brett. Quick question, its basically kind of going off what krauthammer has said, do you think that president obama is looking at this as kind of like a chore, that america, almost like being the parents that are rousing a teenager out of bed to go mow the lawn . And if thats how can rerouse the American Public to do something if he himself does not believe it . I always love your analogies, greg. Clearly he has been taken to this and has been reticent to get involved, to hear the inside takes of the National Security meetings, some people telling reporters that it was all designed to convince one person and thats president obama. Theres a sense that hes convinced now and after meeting with nato, theres a shot today, reporters were allowed to see him making a phone call to the king in saudi arabia, building this coalition with muslim nations, i think hes there now, but youre right, it took him a while to get there. Brett, you mentioned in may that the president rejected and senator menendezs call to have the plan in place, then you have an entire time between may, june, july, august, now september the president is going to put forward a strategy. They decided late last week that they would do the interview. The interview gave them confidence that they could have a prime time address. Do you think theyre going to be able to meet expectations, one, and number two, i wonder if this speech is specific to isis . I hope that it is not, because as these groups metastasize, al qaeda 4. 0, al qaeda 6. 0. Do you think its a world view of how were going to fight a global war on terror or specific to this group in syria . I think a couple of things, da dana, one it will probably be broader, were already getting indications of that, the department of treasure saying thatre going to have that their own efforts to go after funding, but islamic extremist terrorist funding thats something hes going to have to address and remember also the context of this speech, this happened on september 10. Tomorrow obviously september 11th anniversary. So that all will have to be a part of this speech. Whether he can meet expectations or not, you know this better than anybody, thats a big thing, and this has been supercharged, this speech. And now theres a lot riding on it, if you look at the polls, especially the democrats across the board. Let me just give you a comment on your comment. By the way, thank you for allowing Charles Krauthammer to come on. We dont have a chance to put him on very often. So i appreciate it that. I dont control the schedule. The expectations on president obama are quite low. The public believes hes not very good at these kind of things, hes not very good at Foreign Policy. And if any pluses come out of this, i think its skis has been driven back because of final low being driven back. Isnt there really a risk, the risk is more on the republicans than the democrats . If they oppose it . If you look at the polls and the latest wall street journal nbc poll bob has republicans now on the issue of being able to deal with Foreign Policy challenges up 38 points. You have chuck todd who just did that interview on meet the press saying that president obama is at the risk of hurting democrats to the point of jimmy carter proportions. So there are other who is feel like this is a dangerous moment for politically the democrats. I think youre right in the sense that the opportunity is there, if he hits all of the marks and the president does deliver on this speech tonight as much as he can without authorizing strikes and were told hes not going to tonight. But if he does hit all the marks, there is up side potentially. But there are expectations. Brett, were reading reports that hes going to argue for arming the Syrian Rebels, the moderates. But theres also reports out there that these same moderates that the president s expected to argue need our weapons and our training were the ones that sold american journalists Steve Sotloff, how does the white house explaining the position on the moderates, he had the opportunity to arm them before, it did not, president obama, how does he do that tonight no how does he convince them of a position that he himself has been opposed to . I think thats the biggest changes. The report that to moderates sold sotloff to terrorists, we dont have that independently confirmed, there are reports out there. Clearly there are a mixed bag of rebels in sere yachlt we talked about this before, we talked about this months ago. When there were reports about arming these folks. Democrats and republicans have me concerned. You have president obama in an interview with tom freedman, new york times, august 8 saying it was essential to arm the Syrian Rebels because there were doctors and farmers and radio operators and they were never going to have this field to be able to change the ball game, move the needle, and now it has changed. The Free Syrian Army are the boots on the ground that the president will talk about. All right, brett, your thoughts that that chuck todd interview was so great for the white house. The speech tonight is to match the tone of the American People. President obama gets asked by chuck todd about golfing, he said i misjudged the optics on that. For me it would seem that in the meantime, americans are outraged by beheaded mentameric journalists, a female is going to get beheaded next. So he has to bring his own outrage or concern to the level of the American People, clearly he hasnt with 38 or so saying hes doing a good job with regards to isis. My point about the white house was that the white house believes that the reaction to the chuck todd interview changed the dine familin dynamic, the w felt embowledened back to that chuck todd interview, thats why they moved that speech from afternoon to prime time. This will be the strongest speech you heard from the president , after we saw three false starts on those news conferences, this will be the strongest hes been. The white house might say that was why they changed it, but their internal polling show what all the other polls have shown this week, that the only way to focus the americans people is to have a prime time address. You can preempt a lot of peoples viewing and go the other way in the polls too. Thats right. I guess expectation and risk, those are two things that hes going to have to put in balance. But now greg is going to get the last word. He also said one thing, he said were far safer than we have ever been, which its true if you factor in evil thing like fattening foods and bullying and evil business owners. If you can address the overarching fear that we are not safe and that the polls contradict what he said . We have to and safety overall because of the timing, september 10 and september 11. We have new polls coming out in 45 minutes with fox and they are upside down on people believing that we are safer than we were six years ago. Brett, thank you for being here with us, well see you tonight. You can catch a special report of course at 6 00 p. M. , also a special treat, 11 00 p. M. Eastern live tonight with brt bayer. What would we like to hear the president saying in the speech tonight . Were going to take it around the table when we come back right back. Hey pal . You ready . Can you pick me up at 6 30 . Ah. boy im here im here cop too late. 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For the past six years we have lived in a bubble of obamas making, where all of our troubles are within our boarders, america is in turmoil, not the world. We were a patient needing an iv of tolerance. President obama offered up alternative medicine, a fuzzy herbal supplement that sounds good but is portion than a plas sooep seen bow. President obama united against the toxic threat that is radical islam. He must speak of the evil that he dare not speak of before. Because its the fear of that truth that comes to the beheading and a paris riddled with radicals, its isl islamophobia. Sadly it whether take an event rather than a man that will unify us. It wont be extrodary, but just awful. What do you want to hear . What would you love to hear . I would love to hear him walk out to the podium and talk about closing the border. If those polls are as we suspect them to be and the ones we have seen already come out thatmore americans feel less safe than they did before 9 11 thats a huge problem. Hes not to say that, thats what i would want him to say. I would also want him to make a really compelling specific case for going after islamist jihadism. He should say i was wrong, i should have acted sooner. Hes not going to do any of those things. I am trucked by what he will say, which is arming the Syrian Rebels. These same moderates sold Steven Sotloff to isis for 25 million. Theyre already riding around in our equipment in libya, theyre doing it in iraq. Were not going to get a moderate government in syria, were not going to debt the response we want, were going to be turning them over to the hands of the enemy, which very well could be al qaeda . Syria. What do you think . What do you want him to say . What i would like him to say is that he has indeed put together a coalition of muslim countries. I think turkey will be a part of that. But i dont think he whethill. He will get turkey but no one else. You said they take an event, not a person. I think those events have happened. Theres two beheadings in my political career, i dont think i have seen something that has turninged the public as quickly at that did. Before that the public was not interested in getting involved in all of this, now they have these two events and it turns them. It also obviously turns obama. An event has to happen. And as a result of that, you got to meet that, and he campaigns as a domestic president and theres not the luxury of the president to pick out whether if you only had to be a domestic president , thats not really a president at all kwlouchlt are a president to the world and he hasnt. The things i would like to hear, number one i would like to hear we are going to step up, we have stepped up our air attacks, mass lively. Not just 138 or 158. About 158 a day, in skiera has well. I would love to hear turkey is on board as well, maybe saudi arabia, throw iran in there as well. Im pretty darn sure that youre not going to hear that tonight. I want to hear one thing very specifically about intelligence gathering. I want to stay that our policy is not going to be just to bomb them, but to capture so they with can bring them to Guantanamo Bay bay, but i think the intelligence gathering piece is something we definitely need to find out where the other one is hiding, where are they keeping our people and what their plans are so that we can why are you laughing at me . No, im not laughing. You were. That was a really great point about intelligence gathering. It was a good point. I was thinking of the two things i want him to say which he is not going to say, which is about Energy Independence so we dont have to worry about these crazy people. All the pieces of this stuff, it would be very good. It would very good. More power to allow zack to go and make a decision to bomb. He has to go to congress to get 500 million more training. No president can decide to get 500 million and pick it out wherever he wants it. Hell get the money. Hell get congressional approval too. How about you do it. Then hell blame them if something goes wrong. The nfl seen the second ray rice tape before suspending him for only two games . Theres new information on that coming up. [ breathing deeply ] [ inhales deeply ]