Air strike killed the leader of a Somali Terrorist Group affiliated with al qaeda. He once vowed to follow in the foot steps of bin laden and it looks like he did. Thats what president obama was working on while some were just criticizing him. Thanks for watching. Im al sharpton. Have a great weekend. Hardball starts right now. The pressure builds. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in washington. In a few minutes were going to get to the latest on the mystery plane that crashed off of jamaica. Well jump into Hillary Clintons announcement today that shell decide after new years whether or not to run for president. News that could influence democrats and republicans hoping
to beat her in the 2016 contest. And now that secretary clinton set the shot clock, if you will, well ask now a male candidate should debate a woman candidate. Are there rules . Well give you the latest in the investigation surrounding new jersey governor Chris Christie. What will be the impact of yesterdays big guilty verdict on the former governor of virginia. We begin with president obamas challenge to europe and the countries of arabia to go to war with the islamic state. Does this mean we wont act against the beheaders if they dont . Or are we doing things, sending in special ops teams that the president doesnt want to go public with yet. In wales today the president said he was working on building a Broad Coalition and ruled out u. S. Boots on the ground in syria. Our goal is to act with urgency but also to make sure that we are doing it right. Its not going to happen overnight. We are steadily hoving th in ing this in the right direction. We are going to degrade and
ultimately defeat isil, the same way we have gone after al qaeda. We have been very systematic and methodical in going after the organizations that may threaten u. S. Personnel and the homeland. And that deliberation allows us to do it right. But have no doubt we will continue and i will continue to do whats necessary to protect the American People. How i hate that word homeland. It is pure neocon talk. Chuck todd is moderator of meet the press and political director for nbc news. You are interviewing the president for meet the press. Congratulations, you will be a bold moderator for that historic program. What can you tell us as a reporter that might be between the lines of what the president said today in wales . How does it work . If we wait for the saudis, the jordanians, they may never act. Is he going to act alone if he has to the president to go after isis . Well, he already announced we though he has part one of the coalition. He has the western parties that agreed to go after isis or as the administration referred to him as isil. He talked about the next step. Whats the next gathering of World Leaders . Its at the General Assembly of the united nations. I think thats where they believe they will get the arab thagss on board. When you hear this talk he ruled out bootings on the ground of the United States. But they are not ruling out the idea that youre going to need boots on the ground to deal with isis in syria. Its clear that the United States wants it to be saudi boots or jordanian boots. Doesnt want it to be United States boots on the ground. So thats another couple of weeks of putting the coalition together. At its best, this looks like an
administration after a president seemeded a little bit nervous about how to go about this, how aggressive to get. They decided to go the bush 41 route. Think jim baker in 90 where he built a Large Coalition to go after saddam. Thats what they want. They hope to get one. I had a snarky email from a viewer who said, you know, the United States gives a lot of military support to saudi arabia. Are they ever going to use it . Why is it the United States that has to use their own military even after the United States sends so much military to these chris and allies. Its a little snarky, but you understand. Im with you. The president is channelling the same war fatigue thats in the United States saying we know this is a problem. We dont want to keep doing it by ourselves. Would he have answered a direct question if one of the reporters got to him with a question that said do we or do
we not have special ops teams, contract workers now in syria going after isil . Would he have answered that question negatively . I dont think he would have answered it. I think there is a lot of occupation going on. I think he would have focused the question more on iraq. Theres been hesitancy about the syria aspect of the problem. When asked about it, he talks up the potential solution they feel they have put together in iraq with a new government, with the reinforced Iraqi Military that might be able to deal with the threat in a more direct way. Its the syria aspect of this thats seemed to knock him a little bit for not a loop but hes been cautious, reluctant the. Its clear his team made the decision. They have to go after isis in syria. Its not the United States. Its not going to be just western powers. They are going to do it and try to build the Large Coalition so that it is essentially sunni states perhaps that are going
and doing this on the front lines with the support and the assistance of the United States military. Youre going to be on pitching mound against the president the this weekend. Whats your best question . Well, do i give it away now . Do i say it here . Ill be honest. I think the first question is a simple question. Are we at war . Isis is at war with us. Are we back on war footing . This is a president that wants us off war footing. Now i feel hes trying to prepare the country for going back on war footing. Maybe similar to with al qaeda, a different type of war footing. Thats what it feels like. Is that what hes trying to prepare the country for . I think it is a basic question a lot of americans have. Do you think he feels the pull on him from the American People who want, to use a phrase, a captain kirk and not mr. Spock . They want somebody controlling the ship, not somebody telling us which way it should be going. Does he know the disconnect is
there . Does he care . Look, this is not who he is. The American People elected him because he was not a guy who saw everything in black and white. His rise was because he did see gray. Now the criticism is he sees too much gray. There is too much nuance. I think you see it does feel like from an outsider perspective watching this that his entire National Security team has been publically trying to push him into this position. Hes there now. Think about joe biden and his rhetoric, chuck hagel, john kerry. They seem to be this a more aggressive place about isis than the president himself. Its not as if the president doesnt they agree on going after him. Hes just so weary of opening up the syrian can of worms. We should stop using or ma ge
don talk, homeland. Dont say that. We know where we live. Good luck, chuck. Break a leg this this weekend. Thank you. Chuck will interview the president of the United States this weekend. It will be his debut chucks, not the president s on meet the press this sunday. The president ruled out u. S. Boots on the ground in syria saying the International Community needs to do more to help moderate Opposition Forces in syria. Lets watch the president now. We will not be placing u. S. Ground troops to try to control the areas that are part of the conflict inside of syria. I dont think thats necessary for us to accomplish our goal. We are going to have to find effective partners on the ground to push back against isil. And the moderate coalition there is one that we can work with. We have experience working with many of them. They have been, to some degree,
outgunned and outmanned. Thats why it is important for us to work with friends and allies to support them more effectively. Joining me is brian katoulis from the American Center for progress. How do you get others to do the fighting . There hes talking specifically about the Syrian Opposition against assad and the islamic state, isis. For the last couple of years we have been providing some form of support. So have the saw disand the qataris. Its going to different factions and isnt organized. I hope hes talking about getting boots on the ground, more organized and the network behind him. They know the sunni tribes which could be the anvil against which we hit the islamic state. Doing it is easier said than done. Saudi arabia doesnt like qatar. They dont coordinate. Its not 1991. It is 2014 and these countries are often at odds with one
another. The Syrian Opposition against assad and isis is in disarray because oil rich countries have squandered money and weapons themselves the last couple of years and havent organized the effort. I hope the president is saying lets get it organized better. Chuck talked about the president taking step one and getting europeans behind it. I would say thats an optimistic view. The president really only said he faced no pushback. Its important that some of the nato ally partners joined us. Theyre not fighting. No, they are not. Lets talk about what kind of fight it is. We talk often in homeland. You were mentioning these comments. We use the word war like a traditional combat here, conventional military fight. Its not. The intelligence networks, the types of operations that we have seen in somalia earlier this week. Thats the sort of fight. I think what they talked about at nato is the intelligence on
the networks that include 12,000 foreign fighters. Its a different we are not talking about fighting the state though it calls itself a state. Those guys marching in the black uniforms with black flags. Are they foreign fighters or syrians . I cant tell from the to. Its a mix. What we know is there are 12,000 from either the region, 3,000 coming. My point is we often talk about where we bomb. Can we get intel, can we contain them . I hope thats what hesing about in forming a coalition. Wearing those uniforms they should be easy to spot. They dress like darth vader coming to town. In thes last week or so we have done aerial surveillance. We need good intelligence on the ground. It took two months. Politically we have to stop the beheadings. We cant watch that every two weeks. Well have you back many times. Coming up, Hillary Clinton start it is shot clock like in basketball. Shell make a decision about running for president in the first of the year. Thats coming up in the new year. So the timetable is set for a democratic contest. There are new developments many the George Washington bridge lane closure a year are afterward. They were closed a year ago. Somebody yelled shut up to the police there. They werent supposed to talk about what was going on. Whats going on now . Thats what we want to know. What does it hold for the future of christie . And the debate between u. S. Senator kay haguen and republican challengerer thom tillis showed, i think, how a man shouldnt run against a woman candidate. Here is tillis. Thats reality, math, something kay needs to accept. The answer leads me to believe she hasnt been in North Carolina much lately. Kays math doesnt add up. What a sarcastic being. Hes sniping at the United States senator calling her kay as if they are buds. cause this work . Finally, let me finish with the decision by organizers of the st. Patricks day parade in new york to allow gay groups to join in. Thats a great decision. This is hardball, the place for politics. Chael looking good trying to keep up with you i told my producer karen that i take metamucil because it helps me feel fuller between meals. Its just one small change that can help lead to good things. Now shes breaking up with the vending machine. Nope. I call that the meta effect. [ female announcer ] 4in1 multihealth metamucil now clinically proven to help you feel less hungry between meals. And promotes heart health. Experience the meta effect with our new multihealth wellness line and see how one small change can lead to good things. [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. She can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ]
[ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. My mom works at ge. We are back. If you missed it there was a sad drama in the skies over eastern cuba, the caribbean and cuba. F15 fighters trailed a plane with an unresponsive pilot until he crashed off the coast of jamaica. Two people were on board the doomed flight. A Real Estate Developer and his wife. A former ntsb investigator is with us now. What do you think happened with the plane . What do we know . One of the things thats a telltale sign of hypoxia is what the f15 pilot saw. Thats the ice built up or the frost built up on the windows of the airplane. There was likely a depressurization problem and the pilot suck coming to the effects of hypoxia. Thank you. Well know more tomorrow morning. Thank you so much. Formerly of the ntsb. Well be right back after this. Driver 1 you ready . Yeah go [sfx] roaring altima engine woah ahhhha we told people they were riding nissans most advanced altima race car. We lied. About the race car part. Altima, with 270 horsepower and active understeer control. How did you . What i dont even, im speechless. Innovation that excites. We are a collection of smalls. A home saved. A hero homebound for a new opportunity. A kitchen that kick starts careers
wells fargo invests in our communities a little differently. Small measures that add up to make our whole even greater. Little by little we can do a lot. Because. Small is huge. Visit www. Wellsfargo. Com to see how big small can be. Welcome back to hardball. Today Hillary Clinton speaking in mexico city of all places laid out a political timetable. Here she is. So i do have a unique Vantage Point and set of experiences about what makes the United States operate well and what doesnt. And what a president can do and should be doing. So oh i am going to be making a decision around probably after the first of the year about whether im going to run again or not. Just like that, probably after the first of the year. A declaration like that puts a lot of Political Action into motion. Not just for the democratic side, of course, but the republican side as well. Hillary clinton just started, as they say in the nba, the shot clock for 2016. Joining me now is perry bacon, msnbc senior political reporter and blumberg editor jean cummings. Tell me what you think about this. I have been thinking about it a lot. Your thoughts is this. I was surprised she was so explicit. I talked to democrats who were likely to work on the campaign. What i was told was two things. The reason you want to announce early in january is the first reason is the republicans will be attacking her anyway. Like rand paul, ted cruz are going to be on the campaign trail by that time. You want to have an apparatus defending Hillary Clinton formally in a campaign. The second reason being democratic do fors already want to start rallying around her. You cant drag it out until
april or may. They will wonder if we have a candidate, who is the candidate. Sthek anoups in january but not start going to iowa, New Hampshire all the time until july or august or much later in the year. Your thoughts, jean . I love all that. I think she had to do it for the party. The party needs to know shes in. If theres a notion she may not run, she cant wait until april or may. Then leave somebody to start from scratch at that point. Its too late. I agree. Shell be attacked anyway. Might as well prepare herself. There is in a modern campaign so much work that has to be done in building that broad base, the email bases and building out the computer infrastructure. Its a lot harder to build a modern you need a war room are. Right. One thing youre right about is when she was getting hit during the book tour she had people from the Publishing House but they wont help her politically. She didnt have thor war room with Stefan George stephanopoulos and carville batting them down. There is always an outside thing that joe biden may figure his last hurrah. It seems when she announces this in january she will announce shell run probably. We all think it probably. Does biden athouns bf that or does this shut him off and he says, well, i can wait until january. If he waits he wont run. He wont announce after she announces. Your thoughts about the interest aring scrabble over whos first. My understanding is biden is unlikely to run if hillary does, period. If she waits until april he could maybe rumble. By her talking about january, that closes the door. Joe biden had trouble raising money in 2008 when he ran. If donors know Hillary Clinton will announce in january im not
sure who will say money will buy or join the staff in december if they know hillary will announce the week after and shell be ahead by 70 points in the polls. Who does she want to run against . My hunch is she wants sparring partners. Hold a convention in new york and be crowned . Thats too much, i think. What do you think she thinks . I think it would benefit her to have some kind of primary early in the book tour she stumbled on many questions. She was out of practice on gay marriage. On the rechbs to wealth. Her language wasnt sharp. It wasnt ready for the campaign trail. To have a sparring part