Fictional characters. Im chuck todd joining me this morning are former White House Press secretary to president obama, robert gibbs. The cook political reports walker. Former chief speech writer for george w. Bush and columnist, michael gerson. Welcome to sunday its meet the press. This is meet the press with chuck todd. Its been a battle that has raged since isis shocked the world with its cult of violence and death. What should president obama call this enemy . Hes refused to use the terms islamist or radical islam. Insisting that were not at war with islam. But with some perversion of a great religion. Conservatives argue that in doing so mr. Obama is failing to recognize the true face of the enemy. So we wondered in this debate about semantics and security is there precedent for the president s position . We went back to the videotape and heres what we found. The terrorists do not speak for over a billion muslims who reject their hateful ideology. All is not the true face of islam. We are not at war with islam. We are at war with people who have perverted islam. This is by i think all of us recognize that this great religion in the hands of a few extremists has been distorted to justify violence towards innocent people that is never justified. The face of terror is not the true faith of islam. Thats not what islam is all about. Islam is peace. So in fact president obama doesnt sound very different from president bush or Vice President cheney. Now into this controversy jumps former new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani who insisted again and again this week that he believes mr. Obama doesnt love his country. Should giulianis opinion even matter though. Is it relevant or constructive . Those questions werent dealt with. Instead we got the media feeding frenzy who was wholly unsatisfactory and likely met with more than a few eye rolls. Breaking tonight. New outrage and backlash. Is Rudy Giuliani adding insult to injury . I cant believe it came out of his mouth. Its cable catnip and front page catnip too. Exhibit a of what happens when a former official desperate to stay relevant is given a megaphone. Television turns up the volume and politicians, afraid of their own base refuse to take it away. Rudy giuliani. This weeks race to the bottom led by former new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani is proving why americans are learning to hate politics and the media. On wednesday, giuliani told a group of donors at a fundraiser for scott walker i do not believe and i know this is a horrible thing to say, but i do not believe that the president loves america. He wasnt brought up the way you were brought up and i was brought up through love of this country. Over the next 48 hours, giuliani attempted to explain himself and either doubled down or dug deeper depending on your point of view. Mr. Mayor, do you want to apologize . Not at all. I want to repeat it. The reality from all i can see of this president , all ive heard of him, he apologizes for america, criticizes america. Giuliani defended his comments to the New York Times saying some people thought it was racist. I thought that was a joke since he was brought up by a white mother a white grandfather, went to white schools and most of this he learned from white people. This isnt racism. This is socialism on or possibly anticolonialism. He used a racial dog whistle of another era, communism. Frank Marshall Davis was a communist. Democrats seemed to enjoy watching the spectacle unfold. The white house introduced the obama loves america on thursday. Its sad to see when somebody who attained a certain level of public stature and even admiration tarnishes that legacy. Florida senator marco rubio demonstrated that it is possible to criticize the president but stay rational. Democrats arent asked to answer every time joe biden says something embarrassing. I shouldnt answer every time a republican does. Suffice it i think his ideas are bad. Given the opportunity to take the high road other republicans whiffed. I think the president and the mayor can speak for themselves. I know america theres people from republican to democrat who certainly do. Thats something the mayor and the president have to talk about. Bobby jindal put out a statement saying if youre looking for something to condemn the mayor, look elsewhere. Im joined by Haley Barbour, the former chairman of the Republican National committee. So hes had to give advice or two every now and then. Governor barbour welcome back. Thank you, chuck. I want to start with your afterward in your book. I advocated that we we manage our party, coalition, 60 of voters feel welcome in the party or consider voting for the gop nominee. You also write, be polite to the 40 but make sure the 60 super majority is welcome and feels welcome. If Rudy Giuliani prove that he wasnt being polite to the 40 . Well we got 60 of those twice in my lifetime and we can still get 60 of the vote. I wouldnt characterize my views of president obama the way mayor giuliani did. I think the problem with barack obama is his policies. Bad policy produced bad results. Thats what we all want to talk about. The democrats are loving not having to talk about it. They want to talk about Rudy Giuliani until the cows come home. Should we care what giuliani thinks . Hes not in office not running for anything . Should it even matter . Hes like me. His political future is behind him. To make this such a big deal is partially being fed by people that want to change the subject. I thought a couple of republican candidates for president made the point. You had marco rubio on the screen a minute ago. He said this is about policy. Jeb bush says we ought to talk about policy. Criticizeing on the policies and the bad results from the policies. I agree with that. Thats how you run your party so that 60 of the people will be willing to consider voting for a republican. I know a lot of republicans ask you advice how to handle this day and age. It seems that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is learning what its like to be considered a frontrunner. He was asked over the weekend, has been in town for the nags governors conference and he was asked about the president s religion. We can debate whether that was an appropriate question or now. Ive actually never talked about or read about that. Ive never asked him that. Youve asked me to make statements about people i havent had a conversation with about. How can i say if i know either of you are a christian referring to the reporters in the washington post. Whats your advice. He left it open. It was sort of call it a gotcha question but he left it open and thats what he did. Is that a mistake . Scott walker had a great record as governor of wisconsin. Hes won three times in four years in a tough state. He shares with Chris Christie the fact thattist won in the state thats hard for republicans to win. I dont think its a glaring problem. I think the post is trying to make more out of it. Theres a lot less than meets the eye. Did respond. I should full disclosure here. After this story appeared and there was dustup last night. His office put out a response that said this. Of course the governor thinks the president is a christian. He thinks that these kinds of gotcha questions distract from what hes doing as governor of wisconsin and making life better for the people in the state. You got to be nimble if youre running for president of the United States. Very unpopular among the people voting in the republican primary. If someone were asking me about that question if i wanted to be political, i would take the question. I think scott walker was probably just being truthful. He is the son of a preacher he is a christian and he may have taken that question the way i did the first time i heard about it. Do you believe its really a christian or professes to be a christian . I dont know the answer to that either. What does that mean . A lot of people say im a christian. Deep down inside theyre not. Thats what i thought the question was. Do you think he really is. I understand that. This is how it comes across. This is how it comes across to some folks. When suddenly theres a debate about this. Why is it barack obama the first africanamerican president has had questions about his religion pop up in the political conversation and it didnt happen to bill clinton or george w. Bush. Thats a lot of his supporters share that and think this has racial overtones. What do you say to that . I dont know how race has anything to do with it. I would bet a higher percentage of africanamericans in the United States are christians than of whites. I mean of course i come from a place where im very familiar with that. Very religious leaders, very powerful leaders in the black community in my state. Theyre good christians. I dont get the race question about christianity. I understand. Im telling you how other people hear it. How does a Republican Party deal with that larger issue here. How the vast middle this 20 extra of the 6 0e that you want to get. What do they hear when they hear republican candidates questioning things like this. President s patriotism or his religion. Well its not where we want to be talking. We want to be talking about policy we want to be talking about results. Thats our strength, thats obamas weakness. His bad policies have produced bad results at the governors conference yesterday. Democratic governors. Were talking about the weakest recovery since world war ii. Were talking about lack of confidence in the country. That wasnt the case ten years ago. But its the case now. Those are democrat governors talking about that. Thats where we ought to be focused not on personal characteristics. You mentioned i was chairman of Republican National committee when bill clinton was president. Our rule was we never talked about clinton personally. We never talked about anything except clintons policies and this should be the rule . Thats exactly what the rule should be. Thats our strength. Do you wish Rudy Giuliani would apologize . Hes been a great mayor and a hero and a terrifically hard time on september 11th. I admire what he did. So thats up to him. All right. Governor barbour, thanks for coming on meet the press. Appreciate it. Let me go to the panel. So amy, what have we learned from this mess . When i say ts a mess, i tell you ive hated this story in so many ways. I think it brings out the worst in the press, i think its bringing out the worst in politicians and its a race to the bottom and why everybody is cynical about the present politics. Also, welcome to the nfl. Right . When you get asked these questions, which you will get from the press and by the way, wait until voters start asking you questions, because theyre going to be even more i am politic than these. You have to have a better answer than answering the question the way that scott walker does. Marco rubio did a good job, jeb bush and rand paul did a good job. Hillary clinton will get some of the same questions too. Well be back around on this. Michael, what did you learn from this . What should scott walker learn from this . I think republicans have a specific problem with a dangerous feedback loop between partisan media and populous candidates. All of a sudden for some it feeds the worst discourse. All of a sudden, talk radio is the voice inside your head. You cant address the country that way. Its too inward looking. Effective communicator would view the stereotype of the party that theyre involved in some holy war as an opportunity to distinguish yourself to say im different here. I think rubio took that opportunity. I think that walker proved that he wasnt there yet. There was something written yesterday that i thought was interesting. Ask any parent. Our culture is civility is eroding. The internet this goes to your point michael. The internet easily reinforces hateful language. Nobody wants to live in a country where the single measure of patriotism is that you agree with me. Giuliani isnt a deplorable man. His words were. I dont think this has anything to do with social media or the culture. I think culture was coarse and uncivil in the 1950s and 1960s. I think as far as we should focus on what Rudy Giuliani is saying. In so many ways its a flashback to 2007. We all covered that campaign. In hearing Haley Barbour talk just now, him bringing up Jeremiah Wright and saying lets focus on policy and Rudy Giuliani of course essentially saying that the president was raised as a communist, that he somehow is different although i cant figure out why. Thats his argument. Its despicable. It has really no place in politics. Its unfortunate the president came out or his press people came out and said this is a sad fall for Rudy Giuliani. I think in some ways, its indicateive of the Rudy Giuliani knew in new york pre9 11. Im going to i do think the internet is encouraging mainstream people to get into the base where a progressive is more likely to call a republican a fascist. A conservative is more likely to call a democrat a communist. We get into the name calling and mainstream people are engaging in it. No doubt that this is coarse ening our discourse. It makes the political debate that our country was founded on impossible to have. It increases polarization. It makes it more difficult for somebody to sit down at a table and come to a series of compromises. Lets be clear, chuck, had scott walker been asked if he thought the president was a christian and he said yes, there wouldnt be a story in the washington post. Thats the part that i dont get. That seemed like an easy answer. There are trap doors every day running for president. If you want to run and talk about policy then you have to answer the very easy questions easily. If not, chuck, i will say this. If we had a pack of dogs on the set, they would be going crazy from all the dog whistles in this. They were maybe even worse this morning. But if you answer the easy questions, do you think barack obama loves his country. Right. But i think his policies are bad. There isnt a story. Do i think hes a christian . Yes. Its a terrible task for scott walker. But i havent asked him. Chuck, ive known you for 20 years, i havent asked you if you loved your country. You host a political show with a lot of flags. I do. By the way, i love both major parties. I love all political parties. Come on along. Anyway when we come back well have another debate thats taking. Another war of words. Terror threat against the u. S. Thats also out there. Ill ask jeh johnson how serious this new threat to the mall of america is. The real question that needs to be asked is what is it that we can do that is impactful . What the cloud enables is computing to empower cancer researchers. It used to take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome; with the microsoft cloud we can analyze 100 per day. Whatever i can do to help compute a cure for cancer, thats what id like to do. Daughter do you and mom still have money with that broker . Dad yeah, 20 something years now. Thinking about what you want to do with your money . Daughter looking at options. What do you guys pay in fees . Dad i dont know exactly. Daughter if youre not happy do they have to pay you back . Dad it doesnt really work that way. Daughter you sure . Vo are you asking enough questions about the way your wealth is managed . Wealth management at charles schwab. Welcome back. This morning a new Terror Threat that is targeting malls in the u. S. Canada and great britain. In a moment ill ask jeh johnson how serious u. S. Officials are taking this threat from an al qaeda offshoot from somalia. First this weeks brutal mass beheadings of egyptian Coptic Christians shows the threat has expanded beyond syria and iraq. Richard engel has been looking at how this has become such a menace to the world. Reporter the hostages werent famous, just egyptian christians who had been looking for migrant work in libya. Theyre famous now, butchered as part of the isis plan to enslave, convert or exterminate opposing faiths. And today were on the south of rome on the land of islam libya, sending another message. Reporter and Something Else was murdered 21 times on that terrible day on the beach. The hopes and dreams of the arab spring and with them, the u. S. Administrations middle east policy. Some experts are now calling libya the somalia of the mediterranean, a lawless land across from europes shores. Libya was the obama administrations first war of choice. What george w. Bush did to iraq is the same thing that president barack obama did to libya. That is he took a state that was stable that was an ally in the war on terror, and went in with the military intervention and destroyed the state. Reporter although there was no identifiable threat or benefit to the United States, the administration sent in the jets to defend libyan rebels on moral grounds. Colonel Moammar Gadhafi had repeatedly said he was about to flatten with no mercy the city of benghazi, where a rebel uprising live tweeted and full of hope was brewing. We have intervened to stop a massacre. Reporter and administration that couldnt wait to get out of iraq sent american troops into libya, and kept them overhead until gadhafi was well and truly gone. We came, we saw, he died. Reporter then the u. S. Left libya to the mad max militia men who had taken it over. The best rebels turned out to be radical islamists. Reporter the war in libya would have far broader implications than that. It raised expectations in the wider arab world. In syria, people took to the streets, confident that they too would get american help. The administration at first syrian rebels, but never sent them any meaningful assistance or heavy weapons. And like a wound in the body, the growing chaos in syria spread isis advanced and brought down iraq next door which was barely on its feet after ten years of war. It was there, in the iraqi city of mosul, that isis leader Abu Al Baghdadi declared himself the kalive of the Islamic State founding a terrorist state across syria and iraq armed with american weapons. His man to