This controversy now two days in a row, making his case against calling this fight a fight against islamic extremists. You heard him make the point that that just feeds into the terrorist arguments who are trying to say that this is a war against the west and islam. President obama saying that that only encourages more young people to sign up and join the fight with isis. So this is going to be a debate that will likely continue to play out, but president obama clearly trying to put that debate to rest to some extent today. Now, critics are also claiming that this summit wont have any tangible results. White house officials acknowledge, look, there arent going to be any major policy developments that have come out f of this threeday summit. Having said that president obama used his remarks yesterday and today to previve the call within the International Community to fight violent extremism, to fight isis. Today he announced two new programs. One, a Virtual Exchange program. He said that would be aimed at getting a million young people from the United States to interact with young people in the middle east. And he also announced a new information hub. A Communications Hub essentially between the United States and the uae, which would be aimed at countering some of the propaganda mess samgs sages from isis. Theyve been effective at reeling in young people to their cause. The white house, administration trying to counter that and, again, making the call this is a fight that has to happen in local communities and unless in cities and countries worldwide. Joy . Kristen, really quickly while were talking about language and debates, any comment from the white house about the remarks by former new york mayor Rudy Giuliani that the president does not love his country . Reporter well Deputy Press Secretary eric schultz was asked about this when he was gaggleingeing with reporters aboard air force one. He deferred reporters to the comments made by rick stengel of the state department who essentially said those comments are just wrong in every way, dont represent president obama, and are really a sideshow to what is a much broader, more important debate that is going on. So the white house sort of trying to stay out of that but sending out other democratic operatives to respond, Debbie Wassermanschultz also today criticized former mayor giuliani for making the comments against the president. Joy . Nbcs kristen welker, thanks very much. Reporter thanks. Walmart said today it will raise wages for a half a million of its employees. The company said that all of its workers will earn at least 9 an hour by april. That would mean a raise for 40 of the retailers workforce. That would put all walmart workers above the federal minimum wage of 7. 25 an hour. Now, heres how it breaks down. In april, half a million walmart and sams club store employees will start making at least 9 an hour. By next february hourly employees will make at least 10 an hour after completing about six months of training. The move will cost walmart about 1 billion. Lets go to cnbcs Courtney Reagan for more on what all of this means. All right, courtney. So, first of all, what is the training required to get from 9 to 10 an hour . I guess that would be one obvious question. What does this mean overall for the retailer . Reporter walmart has always been one of the top retailers or companies in general that come up in points of discussion when talking about minimum wage. And what it costs to basically live and work in america today. As far as the Training Programs were not exactly sure what those Training Programs will be to move from 9 to 10 an hour but we know that other Training Programs will be in place in order to help employees advance throughout their careers, managers, too, are getting a pay raise because actually before today, walmart has always said only about 6,000 of its 1. 3 million u. S. Employees make the federal minimum wage of 7. 25 an hour. Now theyre saying 40 of folks are going to get a raise. Thats above and beyond just those 6,000 that were making that federal minimum wage. And walmart has come under a lot of criticism over the years by various groups, employees, or walmart supporters that say they need to pay their employees more. Well, many of those groups are fairly satisfied today, though there have been previous calls for walmart to pay about 15 an hour, but it is a step in the right direction. Well see if perhaps, Fast Food Companies will follow walmarts lead as well. All right. Lets see what happens. Cnbcs courtny reagan. Thank you. Thank you. First it was the measles then the mumps and now the Ucla Medical Center is notifying 179 people of possible exposure to a deadly superbug thats already been linked to two deaths. Its the latest in a serious of outbreaks across the country of bacterial infections that are very dangerous because theyre incredibly resistant to antibiotic antibiotics. So what do you need to know . Nbcs Hallie Jackson has more. Reporter its been called a night mare bacteria by federal health officials. A superbug that can kill up to half the people who become infected with it in their bloodstreams. Now, about 170 patients at ucla are learning they may have been exposed to cre after having endoscopies between october and january. The hospital says seven people caught the bug from instruments that may have been contaminated and two died, possibly because they were infected. Cre normally lives in the gut. If it gets into the bloodstream, it may kill 50 of the people it infects. Reporter similar outbreaks have happened in seattle, chicago, and pittsburgh and the cdc says at least one cre case has been reported in nearly every state. This is unprecedented. What were watching now in terms of patients dying, patients getting infected. Reporter the infections are linked to a specialized procedure called ercp when gastrointo gastrointologists use a scope to go into the throat, the stomach, and beyond into the small intestine to get a closer look at the patients dieivegestive system. Bacteria can get trapped at the tip of the endoscope. Sometimes desterilization is not enough before its used again. The instruments have been transmitting somewhat innocuous bacteria to patients and now that the bacteria is resistant, theyre killing patients. Reporter a half million of the potentially lifesaving procedures are given every year with a tiny fraction reporting problems from dirty scopes. Any risk must be weighed against the consequences of not seeking necessary treatment. Nbcs Hallie Jackson, thank you. Weather forecasters, meanwhile, expected more than 100 record lows will be broken today and tomorrow. With temperatures 20 to 35 degrees below average. In chicago, officials closed schools for the day in anticipation of dangerous windchills of negative 30 degrees. In baltimore, a broken water main left cars literally frozen in time as temperatures there are expected to drop to 1 degree above zero tonight. Who better to discuss this weather madness than wnbc meteorologist janice huff . Hi joy. We have a graphic here weve imported coming detectly from noaa tracking the cold air over the last couple of weeks. The first couple of cold waves came in from Northern Canada and the Arctic Circle down into the northeastern states and the great lakes. This area thats coming in today is coming in from siberia in russia. Thats where the air is originateing from. From siberia straight through north america, the air mass is complete the landmass is completely covered with snow. Weve got 47 million square kilometers of snow pack from siberia all the way to the northeastern state. So theres no warming at all with all these sub zero temperatures and all the snow cominge inging through. In the meantime on the other side of the jet stream its warmer across the west coast. Meanwhile, were very cold in the east. These are windchill alerts. Warnings and advisories that stretch from michigan all the way down to florida. Theyre expecting freezing conditions there into south florida. Thats 1,500 miles worth of cold air thats stretching across the eastern portion of the country. Across south florida from tampa, to ft. Pierce down to miami and ft. Myers, all this entire area freeze alerts. There are warnings tonight for freezing temperatures across the area. You can see the temperatures right now, its 2 in chicago, 25 in boston 24 in atlanta. Very cold air. This is the snow pack across the United States. Right now 41 of the United States is covered with snow. Last month it was 27 . New england, 99. 2 is covered with snow right now. Wow, you know what janice come over here for a second. Sure. Come over here. Were doing these weather stories daily and talking about cold in the winter. Part of me wants to say its supposed to be cold in the winter. Thats true. But then we get all of these recordbreaking inging temperatures. January this janice janice, is this unusual, the sigh breer yanberian express . Youre a professional meteorologist. Is this unusual this year . Its always unusual to get large bouts of cold air especially extreme cold. We always get its winter. We get cold air. The siberian express has been here before. Weve had that before. What were seeing is these huge amplifications in the jet stream. Theyre huge. Were seeing the cold air not only make it across the great lakes but go really far south with this one. Yeah. And were stuck in this pattern of the jet stream. Its not changing. We get one wave of cold air after another. We get one snowstorm after another. Thats why boston is seeing so much snow. Its not moving into its normal pattern. So, yes, a bit unusual for us. Climate change. You cannot hate on florida. In the middle of winter, something is clearly wrong. Were supposed to be able to hate on them. One of the most famous faces and one of my girl crushes. I appreciate you being here from wnbc. Lawmakers in oklahoma are walking back a bill aimed at scrubbing away the ugly parts of American History. Well tell you about that controversy. Plus the debate over whether the terrorist group isis should be labeled as islamic. Al qaeda and isil and groups like it are desperate for legitimacy. They try to portray themselves as religious leaders. Holy warriors in defense of islam. They are not religious leaders. Theyre terrorists. Denver international is one of the busiest airports in the country. We operate just like a city and that takes a lot of energy. We use natural gas throughout the airport for heating the entire terminal generating electricity onsite and fueling hundreds of vehicles. Were very focused on reducing our environmental impact. And natural gas is a big part of that commitment. vo for eight straight years, purina pro plan has been the nutrition of choice that has fueled each westminster best in show winner. And this year, with her strong athletic build her fluid gait and her confidence in the ring the beagle by the name of miss p became the ninth. judge the best in show is the beagle vo congrats, miss p, on winning the 139th westminster best in show. Were proud youre continuing the purina pro plan tradition. Purina pro plan. Nutrition that performs. These new Nature Valley nut crisp bars are packed with nuts, seeds and sweetness. Stick to simple, like Nature Valley nut crisp bars. Nuts. Seeds. Sweetness. Boom. Delicious. Terrorists traffic in lies and stereotypes about others. Other religions. Other ethnic groups. So lets share the truth of our faiths with each other. Thats president obama this morning talking about the threat of terrorism in his trademark ecumenical fashion. The president has been taking a lot of heat for his refusal when he makes comments like those to say isgy gyisis has any connection whatsoever to the religion of islam. While criticism of president obama is not surprising coming from republican opponents like senator john mccain who weighed in with more of the barbs today, criticism is now coming from voices who are typically more sympathetic to the president. For example, the news site vox published this article a few hours ago entitled obama should stop pretending islamist terrorism has nothing to do with islam. The discussion of isis and islam kicked into full gear this week with the publication of this extensive article in the atlanta. The author writes muslims can say that slavery is not legitimate now and crucifixion is wrong at this historical juncture. Many say precisely this they cannot condemn slavery or crucifixion outright without contradicting the koran and the example of the prophet. And graham wood is a contributing writer, contributing editor, i should say, with the atlantic and joins me now. Thanks for coming off my twitter feed and on to the show. Thanks for having me. Your piece is really fascinating for the way it sort of compared who isis is doing to what the david caresh and other, they consider themselves christian cults really did with the religion of christianity. Do you believe it is wrong to not call isis islamic . Well i think there are political reasons to avoid calling isis islamic, but theres also a fact of the matter, and that is that they derive from this diverse, often contradictly lyly lylyiry tradition called islam and motive of discourse and selfjustification that reaches into the same texts many muslims, all muslims share. Which are the koran and the hadif. Theyre very selective and almost all muslims reject their interpretation. Certainly, yes, they are an islamic movement, extremely unpopular one, brutal one. Theyre an islamic movement. Like david caresh his movement was a Christian Movement extremely unpopular one, christian none necessary christian nonetheless. The ku klux klan calls themselves a Christian Organization. Is it fair to label them a Christian Organization . Would you say that would be fair to say . Yes, absolutely. The kkk certainly emerged from a christian tradition. To deny for example, that stoning adultresses is part of the bible or part would also be false. These are things that dont have any part to the religions to almost anyone who adheres to them today. That does not mean theyre not part of the tradition. Same thing with islam. Almost everybody who is ajects slavery, has no interest in its reimplementation. To say it doesnt exist in the koran or islamic history, thats false. Some of the criticism that your piece is getting. Theres a piece in think progress which actually quotes a professor of islam Union Theological seminary in new york city as saying the following. Woods position confirms what isis wants people to think about them, that theyre the only legitimate voice echos that rhetoric 14urks00 . Yes, thats what isis says about themselves. Its a different step to say yes that is true about the islamic tradition and all muslims. How do you respond . The professor should real the article more closely. Theres a distinction i draw between whats legitimate in islam and part of this diverse contradictory tradition called islam. I take no position on whether theyre correct. Im not a muslim. Thats now something that i am qualified to do or anyone cares who my position is. I have no authority in that. As someone who can look objectively as anyone can have the ability to see these things are in the text and history. I think most muslims are able to do that. Just as most christians are. Most jews are. They can look unflinchingly at their own traditions and be modern people. Thats what we see muslims doing. And one of the other things thats sort of fascinating about what you do in your piece is you talk about the apocalyptic nature of this cult. There have been apocalyptic cults before. There was jonestown, much of americans went down to guyana and had a apocalyptic cult experience. You describe isis similarly. You write much of what the group does looks nonsensical, sincere Careful Movement to returning civilization to a 7th century Legal Environment and ultimately to bring about the apocalypse. If that is what isis is after creating a 7th century world are they a threat in terms of radiating that violence back to the countries where these isis adherents come from or a group thats more about drawing adherents from countries like the United States into where they are in the middle east . Definitely the latter. Isis efforts have overwhelmingly been to get muslims to migrate to the Islamic State and to support it there. Contrast that with al qaeda, for example, which was with the core group of al qaeda was emphasizing sending bombers overseas attack the infidels where they live. Isis does not do that quite as aggressively. We see the lone wolf attacks. They often look much less like isissponsored attacks than lone wolves who decide theyre going to act unilaterally in isis name. The fact theyre concentrating on syria and iraq, should be worrisome for those people in those regions. Yeah. Its a fascinating discussion, graeme wood. I recommend people should read your article whether they agree or not. Its interesting. Graeme wood with the atlantic. Appreciate it. Three things to know on this thursday. A federal Appeals Court heard arguments today to move the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect tsarnaev out of massachusetts. Tsarnaevs attorneys argue 85 of potential jurors believe tsarnaev is guilty or have some connection to the bombing and its aftermath. The original judge already turned down three requests from Defense Attorneys to move the trial. In prescott arizona, hundreds of people came out last night to remember kayla mueller, the 26yearold american aide worker who died in isis captivity. Several of kaylas friends also posted a tribute video on youtube which includes this message from kayla. I hope i never forget that everything happens for a reason and that nothing should be a regret, and that youre always learning about yourself through other peo