Say so myself. We wanted in the last three years to do what was different and let you hear the views of me and others, whether you agree or disagree, it is best that americans talk and discuss and raise the issues to a level where we can try to find Common Ground to make a better nation. Thanks for watching. Im al sharpton. Hardball starts right now. Killers at the gate . Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in washington. Let me start with a grum killing of 150 soldiers. Isil had them stripped to the underwear, trooped them through the desert barefoot and executed
a lot of them. They are soldiers enlisted, taunted and executed by the terrorist force controlling much of syria and iraq. A group that beheads and crucifies those who fall into its hands. It is the blood lust of members including increasing number of recruits who join for the hatred it embodied and the opportunity to kill which it offers. Today the Prime Minister of britain said it is taking the killing spree westward. This is not some foreign conflict thousands of miles are from home we can hope to ignore. The ambition to create an extremist caliphate in the heart of iraq and syria is a threat to our own security hear in t hee in the uk. As i mentioned yesterday isis released a propaganda video showing what appears to be the massacre of well over 100 syrian
soldiers. There they are. The men are humiliated first, stripped to their underwear and forced to walk in the desert while being taunted by isis fighters. Later, bloody bodies are piled up in the desert. Another horrific video showing captured kurdish soldiers in orange jumpsuits. One is later beheaded. You see the setup to that. Evan coleman, this is what we are up against. Is it regional . Does it have a global reach . It has a global reach. In the latest video where they beheaded a kurd there was a message issued to barack obama saying we are coming for you. We are going to kill your soldiers, et cetera. This is the consistent message. Its difficult to understand people dont see what a threat isis represents. Isis has been open about it for a long time. Two years ago baghdadi threatened terrorist attacks inside the u. S. Homeland. We can choose not to believe
him. As far as isis is concerned the u. S. s adversary is looking to carry out terrorist attacks in western and European Countries including the u. S. It believes it can do that if it recruits western operatives, individuals who speak english, carrying are british and american passports. If you look at the numbers, 500 to 600 british nationals have traveleded to syria. 900 french nationals. 100 american nationals. These are numbers that dwarf anything we have seen in afghanistan, yemen, any other conflict that al qaeda or a jihadi group established a base. We have never seen these numbers before. An open invitation to war. If isis, the state of islam pulls a dozen deaths or more, by doing it in name dont they invite us, make it irresistible to go in there during the president s direction and kill tens of thousands of them . Dont they know its coming . Its ease morally and politically. Once they strike us there is no more debating about what to do with the band of killers. Eel kill them. You could read it either way. You can say there is a chance they will show restraint if we show restraint. I agree. They are already a big threat. The weight of evidence suggests they are already coming for us. They are certainly coming for our regional allies. If there was a doubt their attempted march into kurdistan showed they are not trying to unify the arabs, sunni arabs of region immediately contiguous to where they are. They are trying to expand. The notion of a caliphate is to rule where muslims have been in power before. Jordan will be in the cross hairs. Other parts of iraq. Certainly saudi arabia if they had a chance. This is an ambitious group. Im not suggesting they will be successful. Its up to us to make sure
arent. The good news is if they are going to do that, they know they will do that. Will we be able to recruit implicitly a coalition against other neighbors . I think we will. I think the kurds are already on our side. We saw it in the mosul dam. The jordanians have to worry about hunkering down, taking care of their territory and refugees spilled to their territory from syria already. Im not sure they can help us out a lot. Certainly kurds and i think the iraqi army has to be our number one ally. They have to do their own surge. I supported the surge seven years ago but im not supporting we should contemplate that ourselves. We have to help them empower themselves, reconstitute their own forces to go on the offensive and do their own surge in the sunniarab parts of iraq. Do we have the fire power the jordanians, kurds, iraqi army,
do we have enough firepower to overwhelm isis even if they enjoy this morale advantage in the sense they want to kill and kill whereas the other countries are trying to defend their lives . The only way to defeat isis is convincing sunni iraqis and syrians that they do not have a common cause with the group. We have to convince insurgent groups and syrian rebel groups to actively fight and disparage and get rid of isis. The problem is we have been talking about it now for over a year. We have been talking about trying to empower the iraqi army, trying to empower the sunni community. None of this is working. Whatever we are doing its not working. At a certain point we have to consider what happens the if we cant do this. Do we go it alone . Do we not do anything at all . The problem is right now we are waffling. We are not doing anything. What was the president doing yesterday in the press conference . He seemed to be muting the talk he was going to announce an
attack. A lot of us thought he was going to announce an attack yesterday afternoon. What was he trying to do besides say to dempsey and the rest, cool it, we are not tighting for the homeland yet, cool it. When he said i dont have a strategy do you mean he doesnt have a way of getting these countries to do the what wed like them to do in attacking isis . Politically speaking i understand attacking syria isnt the number one most popular thing in the american public. I understand the idea of trying to wrestle together a regional or International Coalition isnt going to be easy when you have countries like saudi arabia and qatar providing money and weapons to al qaedas official branch in syria. How do you organize those forces together . I appreciate this is not easy for the president. I appreciate that philosophically hes opposed to trying to get back into the quagmire of iraq. We have to ask at a certain point, its been a year. We talked about launching air strikes in syria a year ago. We still dont have a strategy. We dont know what to do about isis. Youre conflating here, talking about airstrikes. They were talked about a year ago aimed at assad. Not all of them. We were also talking back then as well about potentially targeting jabar al nusra, al qaeda in syria, with the understanding assad was only part p of the problem. Suicide bombings in civilian areas was a part of the problem. I dont accept that we dont have a strategy. I dont think thats realistic. We have part of a strategy but the problem is the strategy is limiteded to military options. The president seems reticent to use military option s now in syria in the absence of some other med thod political means of pushing sunnis toward fighting alongside us or pushing regional actors to stop supporting jabad al nusra. The question is do we sit on our hands and do nothing . I dont think thats an answer. I want to get back to michael. Hab you know the answer. What was the president s hesitancy about yesterday. He called a press Conference Many of us thought would announce air strikes in syria. Then he announced, we are getting the cart before the horse and used other metaphors to say we are ahead on our skis. Clearly he was trying to pull back somebody whether it was dempsey or chuck hagel talking about attacking and he didnt want to attack. What was going on inside do you think . Its a great question. I think he should have given himself a wee bit more credit for the iraq strategy. Maybe evan and i disagree here. But the last few months of iraqs strategy have been moving this the right direction. You need a political consensus and a government of National Unit to get the army to obey their commander in chief. That part im happy with. We have to use more military tool thes in iraq than we have been willing to acknowledge yet. The political strategy piece was good. On syria and what the president said yesterday, getting to your question, if the president is trying to reign in hay gel and dempsey, doing it on Live National tv is a funny way when they work for him. Doesnt look for him to go public with internal debates. I like to want to believe it as a moment of brutal honesty, recognizing the syria policy hasnt worked and hes in need of a new one. Thats the best interpretation i can give. Thats a lenient interpretation. I want to ask you a simple question, starting with evan are. If we told the Iraqi Government its now constituted, shia dominated. Take the air force equipment youve got now, put every fighter or bomber plane in the air and hit isis everywhere you can. Well give you the gas and spare parts, back you up, replace your equipment if you lose planes. Go on the attack. Would it have success . It might have the reverse of oh success. There is every reason to believe the Iraqi Air Force would bomb the wrong people. They have little intelligence and they are sectarian. They might bomb sunni insurgent factions that we need to go against isis. I dont have faith in the Iraqi Military whatsoever. Its a good thing al maliki is gone. We havent seen any turnaround in the Iraqi Military. They are still losing ground, even with our air strikes. 11 years has given us kaput, nothing. Very, very little. Michael, your assessment. Could iraq, if we gave them everything backed them up with everything they had could they give a knockdown punch at least to isis . Not without their army performing well on the ground. We had more air power in iraq in the period before the surge than the iraqis will have in the foreseeable future. We couldnt do it with air power
and drones. This is inherently an undoable proposition from the air, especially in the cities isis controls. The only way to root them out in places where are they are already rooted in is to use Ground Forces to go in and do a search, to police neighborhoods, get intelligence sources from people you then protect, to raid demots, go after leaders that are transitory. You have to go with the army that believes in the mission. The iraqi army may not. They have not in recent months. We have to hope a body can rebuild their confidence and support. It will take quite a bit of doing. I guess this explains why the president said he doesnt have a strategy yet. You have been lenient on him. Thank you so much. We get to find out monday where it stands. Next, the president is making it clear we are not on the verge of a new war in syria. Critics are knocking his wording but his intent was to dial back rhetoric from those in his own
administration. Thats the way i read it. Plus the smelly burger king deal moving over the border to enjoy a lower tax base in canada. Is this tip of the iceberg . Can washington to anything . They are leaving the country to sell here and not pay taxes here. And a veteran producer on the tonight show with jay leno gives us an inside account from hugh grants apology for you know what to interviewing me. Finally there was something about the press conference yesterday that got people talking. Its not what he said. Its what he showed up in. Thats in the sideshow, where it belongs. This is hardball, the place for politics. Toffee into a business. My goal was to take an idea and make it happen. Im janet long and i formed my Toffee Company through legalzoom. I never really thought i would make money doing what i love. We created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. Go to legalzoom. Com today and make your business dream a reality. At legalzoom. Com we put the law on your side. Let that phrase sit with you for a second. Unlimited. As in, no limits on your hardearned cash back. As in no more dealing with those rotating categories. The quicksilver card from capital one. Unlimited 1. 5 cash back on everything you purchase, every day. Dont settle for anything less. Ill keep asking. Whats in your wallet . Senator rand paul took a shot at Hillary Clinton at the Koch Brothers americans for prosperity summit. He said this. There will be a discussion
over the next four years whether or not Hillary Clinton is fit to lead this country. Is Hillary Clinton fit to be commander in chief . If she wants to be commander in chief and she cannot protect our embassies, i dont think that she should or should be. It precludes her from ever being considered as commander in chief. [ applause ] you dont have a brain, just keep saying benghazi. Senator paul sounds like a man running p for president. That was feeding time at the zoo known as the Koch Brothers summit. Well be right back. To combine solar and natural gas at the same location. During the day, we generate as much electricity as we can using solar. At night and when its cloudy, we use more natural gas. This ensures we can produce Clean Electricity whenever our customers need it. Eachwont have a claim. Wners thats why allstate claim free rewards gives you money back for every year you dont have one. And why if youre part of the other 5 , allstate offers claim rateguard. So your rates wont go up just because of a claim. No matter what comes your way, your home protects you. Protect it back allstate Home Insurance from an allstate agent. Thats why i always choose the fastest intern. R slow. The fastest printer. The fastest lunch. Turkey club. The fastest pencil sharpener. The fastest elevator. The fastest speed dial. The Fastest Office plant. So why wouldnt i choose the fastest wifi . I would. Switch to comcast Business Internet and get the fastest wifi included. Comcast business. Built for business. As a strategy develops, we will continue to consult with congress. I dont want to put the cart before the horse. We dont have a strategy yet. Welcome back to hardball. Words from president obama yet certainly ignited the herd. The president s message was clear to dial back some of the hawkish sounding language that had been coming from people in
his administration. Comments like this one from general martin dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. This is an organization that has an apocalyptic end of days Strategic Vision which will eventually have to be defeated. To your question, can they be defeated without addressing that part of the organization which resides in syria, the answer is no. That will have to be addressed on both sides of whats essentially at this point a nonexistent border. Chuck hagels comments on the threat we face from the Islamic State. Lets listen. They are an imminent threat to every interest we have, whether its this iraq or anywhere else. Or this tweet from secretary of state john kerry, isil must be destroyed, will be crushed. With language like that bouncing around many thought the president called yesterdays press conference to announce bombing strikes in syria. I did. Today White House Press secretary josh ernest put
comments about not having a strategy into what he said was the context. Listen. The president was talking specifically about military options for countering isis in syria. The president hasnt yet laid out his specific plan for military action in syria. The reason for that is that the pentagon is still developing the plan. Hes still reviewing them. It would be putting the cart before the horse to talk about what sort offal authorization would be required for a plan that hasnt been put in place yet. Joining me now is washington buy rerow chief from mother jones, david korn and the great eugene robinson, both msnbc political analysts. Gene, im trying to figure out. I thought the president was pushing back. I think we are looking at the bay of pigs when you have le may saying hit them. Obama saying, they will be there when we leave. There are problems. You dont get rid of someone because you dont like them this the middle east. It sounded like that. Dech dempsey, hagel, kerry, their hair is on fire. They are saying this is an imminent threat we have to deal with. We have to crush them, destroy them. That means going into syria. So one did expect the president to say, okay, the outlines, here is what were going to do or something. He said, we dont have a strategy yet. What do you make of that admission . Well. Say the herd, the pack went after him. I got phone calls after that saying, what the president meant to say from the white house. Exactly. It sounded like i will make the point in my own little way at the end of the show. Agree with you now. I think president s whether its eisenhower when we kept us from using a Nuclear Weapon like nixon wanted to do and kennedy with the bay of pigs saying,
wait a minute, im not getting dragged into something because i dont know how to get out once i get into it. People obsessed about the use of the word strategy. He meant to say we dont have a specific plan yet about what to do in syria so i wont talk to congress about it as of this moment. Does he are have the pieces of a plan . The president is deliberative. When i wrote my book about him covering the libya operation, he spent weeks while everyone was running around saying we have to do something now. He went back to the pentagon a couple of different times for plans that were sometimes more aggressive and robust than what he had before. He wanted to though, a, can we do this. B, what would have a positive impact and not have more costs than benefits. He wants to know how we come out. While everybody is saying what they are saying, i dont think he disagrees with their appraisal of the situation. But he wants to say, listen, take a deep breath. Isis wont be taken care of with an attack, within a week or a
couple of months. As the longterm game. This guy play it is the long game. Last week when we saw james foley who is an appealin