Or not, real as hell. And thoughtfully the president was not out there today giving soothing speeches, talking about the blue states loving the red states. He was talking about real problems, deadly problems, american problems. And just as thoughtfully a lot of us were hoping hes talking solutions. Changes that can restore peace and save lives, like cameras on Police Officers and mandatory training on how to make dangerous arrests without people getting killed. About minority recruitment so the communities, especially tough neighborhood have police protecting them with people who came from where they came from and know how it is. What i liked about the president , he comes at this division in our country, not denying that it exists, but making clear it does. And that he knows it does. He talked about racial differences being not unique to our time. That weve been dealing with them for centuries. But the current reality that as he put it, too many individuals, particularly young people of color, do not feel as if theyre being treated fairly by police. But he also quoted attorney general eric holder, that quote, Police Officers have a right to come home after working a tough neighborhood and not end up dead. I trust this man whos our president and im sticking to that trust. In a society in which theres too much hate, he uses his superior intellect to see through the passions and the anger justified by too much bad history. To the possibility that all have to believe we can meet the needs for of our society. Respect for human beings in the community and respect for the law and those charged to uphold it. Jonathan carl put it so well, we have a president whos not only stepped up to lead us on this difficult postferguson journey, but it deeply invested himself in making things different and better. Hes invested now. We have other news tonight, of course. The pope taking a leadership role against isis. The nfls ridiculously dishonest handling of the ray rice case. The debunking finally of the benghazi legend and the terrible discovery that 50,000 iraqi soldiers dont exist. Only their pay stubs were real and all that money has been stolen by that corrupt, absurd government that w. Bush and the neyo cons spent billions of our dollars and thousands of american lives in baghdad. But first how the president is taking us through ferguson. The mayor of baltimore joins us and the director of the a clmpt lus washington office. Laura and michael were in the meeting with the president today. I want to hear from laura first of all. Thank you for joining us at this last minute. Youre welcome. What struck you as the president s message today that got to you . What struck me was how he articulated the depth and the way these problems are entrenched not just in ferguson, but in communities across the country. He spoke with passion. He spoke with knowledge. He said he wanted policy changes. He talked about the creation of the task force on policing. He talked about his executive order on military weapons being sent to local Law Enforcement. And he was just overall specific, focused, and you could tell he was emotionally invested. Michael, what did you think of his concrete talks about apparently he talked about comras on Police Officers. Chicago announced today theyre starting a pilot program. So the Police Officers themselves will be able to show what happened. And anybody they mess with will be able to show what happened. And also recruit minorities, especially in places like ferguson, a white police force in a black community. And how do bring a big guy down, if you will. How to arrest a guy who is dangerous. Thats the job. Not to shoot to kill, but bring the guy into custody for justice. Thats his job. I agree. Young folks have been asking for Police Cameras and deescalation tactics deescalation, meaning . Saying i need backup, im not going to pull a gun and shoot him six times. Talk about biases against young people of color. The president laid that out. Hes asking congress for 263 million to fund this program. For 50,000 cameras. What would that mean in philly . You look at 50,000 cameras nationwide. How many Police Officers are on the streets right now . What percent would that be . 30,000 police in new york. A million offices around the country. 5 to 10 . Pilot programs launching in chicago. May not have stopped Darren Wilson from killing michael brown, but we would have known what happened if there was a body camera on him. And in a Big Community like baltimore, your thoughts . Im proud of the president s leadership. I think he showed the type of leadership that the public wants across the board. He took a thoughtful approach to a very challenging problem, something that im doing right now in baltimore. We are grappling with the issue of how to implement body cameras and im determined to make it happen. But like the president , it needs to be done in a thoughtful way and im very pleased he made a commitment to fund, to share funding for the cameras and i hope that Congress Moves forward it. We can use the help. We cant do it alone. Its one of the big problems of any city. You have declining tax base. Middleclass people moving out of the city. Poor people growing in populations because cities are where you go when youre poor. The president said it this was more than about ferguson. Lets watch. When any part of the American Family does not feel like it is being treated fairly, thats a problem for all of us. It means that we are not as strong as a country as we can be. And when applied to the criminal Justice System it means were not as effective in fighting crime as we could be. There was a cautionary note, i think, from everybody here, that there have been commissions before, task forces, there have been conversations and nothing happens. What i try to describe to people is why this time will be different. And part of the reason this time will be different is because the president of the United States is deeply invested in making sure that this time is different. Laura, weigh those words. Is he invested . Can you tell . Yes, i can really tell. He brought the young people he spoke to from ferguson. He was in a previous meeting with them. He brought them to our meeting, and they spoke eloquently. And he really identified with the young people and their fear of the police. He talked about his own experiences as a young man. He talked about his experiences as a young politician, where someone walked up to him in a ballroom and said, would you mind getting me more tea . And he was the guest of bill clinton. It just was really heartfelt. A real differencemaking strategy is being implemented. And were going to have lots of criticism of that strategy. Be clear. The aclu is not going to love everything that the president does. And we were are concerned about his militarization comments today, and we want to work on that executive order. But hes talking about specific action. What was it that bugged you, that you think would be an aclu problem, a Civil Liberties problem . Well, i think that the on the militarization piece, that he down played the number of militarygrade weapons that are going to Police Departments as only 4 . But people dont understand, that translates to thousands and hundreds of tanks, of humvees, of m14s and m15s, and theres no accountability once these Police Departments get these materials. So we need to drill down a little more on this, and we are hopeful that the president will entertain some of our concerns. And i asked him a question about this. The congress is currently trying to up the amount of military equipment that goes to local Law Enforcement. And hes trying to reduce it. But hes not i dont know that hes using all of his power. Because he has the power of the purse. And there should be restrictions attached to money and objects sent to local Law Enforcement. I have a concern and that is, every time i hear about robbers of a bank or a Convenience Store or bodega, having automatic weapons. It scares me. Because the Police Officer has a pistol. I do worry. Certainly tanks arent the answer. But you have a level of criminal fire power out there thats frightening. Do you accept that fact . They dont even keep track of the military they give dont you accept the fact that the criminals are state of the art in terms of fire power . Thats a fact. Absolutely. Thats all i want. But you dont need ambush protection vehicles in a situation like ferguson. Now, wouldnt you agree, chris, that that was overzealous . What was . The use of these oh, yeah. By the way, i dont pretend to be an expert, but we got problems with gang stuff in chicago thats frightening and murder rates in some of the cities. But anyway, you were going to say something. I think those arguments are frivolous. Theyre two separate arguments. One is thousands of people fighting black on black crime all across this country. It doesnt mean you cant protect young people of color from the police at the same time. Whats a frivolous argument . That the crime rates in chicago are going up and theyre attacking people of color who put them together . You just said the murder rate is going up in chicago. Therefore what . Mike brown wasnt a gang member. I never connected him to mike brown. But shouldnt have been in the same sentence. There are two separate conversations. Okay, you made your argument. I made no connection of the two. Let me go back to the mayor. When you have to put all this together, mayor. Keeping the police well led by the commissioner and yourself, and keeping a crime rate down in your city and respecting Community People who really just have kids theyre trying to keep out of trouble. Your thoughts . I think you hit the nail on the head. Its about that respect. I know very clearly that we cant do it by ourselves. A community certainly cant keep their neighborhoods safe by themselves. And the police cant do it by themselves. It has to be in relationship. Thats why i was so pleased to be in little rock for the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the cops program. Because for me, it begins and ends with the community. If we dont get the community on board and figure out how to work better together, were not going to have a sustainable reduction of Violent Crime anywhere in the country. So im fully in support of what the president is doing, something that im doing right here in baltimore and im determined to get it right. Well have you back again and again. Thank you, mayor of baltimore and thank you laura murphy and michael skulnik. Coming up, pope francis speaks of love and compassion, but singling out isis, isil. The pope is back from turkey and hes speaking out against the horror and brutality of isis. He calls the barbaric acts of theirs a profoundly grave sin against god. Thats just ahead and this is hardball, the place for politics. Heres some breaking news from philly. Late this afternoon, bill cosby resigned his post on the board of trustees of the great temple university. Hes been one of temple universitys most highly visible alumni. But hes stepping down after more than a dozen allegations of sexual assault. He doesnt want to be a distraction to the board and the university itself. Hes been on the board at temple since 1982. Well be right back. Ups is a global company, but most of our employees live in the same communities that we serve. People here know that our operations have an impact locally. Were using more natural gas vehicles than ever before. The trucks are reliable, thats good for business. But they also reduce emissions, and thats good for everyone. It makes me feel very good about the future of our company. Were for an opens you internet for all. Sing. Were for creating more innovation and competition. Were for Net Neutrality protection. Now, heres some news you may find even more surprising. Were comcast. The only isp legally bound by full Net Neutrality rules. Talking about a wild surprise and welcome back to hardball. When pope francis speaks, its usually of love and inclusiveness, but one group is most definitely not included. Isis, the islamic state. The pope used fearless language to condemn the terrorist group for their evil operation, including the killing of people from different religions. The pope condemned isis in a language its followers can clearly understand, calling their actions a grave sin against god. The pope made the comments on his trip to turkey that is 98 minimum and flooded with refugees from syria. This report on the popes historic condemnation of isis. The pope left sounding more convinced than ever that isis must be stopped, stressing it to reporters on his plane. Translator i wont soften the phrase. They are forcing christians to free from the middle east. Reporter on his last day in istanbul, he met with the leader of the worlds 250 million orthodox christians. For over a thousand years, relations between the two churches have been tense. At times descending into war. But now, they both face isis, which has given christians in syria a stark choice. Convert to islam, or be killed. Pope francis and bartholomew said they cannot resign themselves to a middle east without christians. Some neighboring countries are scarred by an inhumane and brutal war, calling it a profoundly grave sin against god. Joining me right now, my friend e. J. Dionne with the Washington Post and jason berry for the Washington Post. I think most of the viewers of the show, certainly the progressives, love the fact about this, and a lot of jewish friends of mine bring this up, they like this pope because hes inclusive. But here he draws the line. You go around killing people because they dont join your religion, youre the bad guy. Its so stark. Youre evil. Hes going after them because they are not inclusive. It was really striking id say. They crucified people. They behead them. Thats right. And he went after fanaticism and fundamentalism and what he called for was the solidarity of all believers. Thats a remarkable thing. The Catholic Church is a dogmatic church. Dogma is a good word in the Catholic Church. Here hes saying so this is a community of the faithful. Yeah, but its the solidarity of all believers. So his view is, the way you stop this persecution of christians is not simply to bash isis, which he did strongly, but call on other muslims to join in. This is frances, consistent with peace and love, but saying some lines have to be drawn and what isis is doing is over the top. Jason, you think thats a strategy . Include among your friends those who share religious faith who are not violent . I do think its a strategy and i think its shaped by his experience in argentina during the dirty war in the 1970s when the catholic country, deeply divided and under a fascist regime saw priests and nuns and people on the moderate left kidnapped and tortured. He used the phrase in turkey fratsidal religion, and i think what this man is doing, is trying in his own way is to build a philosophical coalition, if you will. I dont know how long it will take for Something Like that to happen, but inevitably thats the direction that the western world has to move in, with some relationship with muslim islam. A lot of us are struck when it hits your own people. Were not cosmic in our thinking most of us. When you read about the yazidis, you go, thats too bad. Then you read about the Christian Community in iraq that was getting killed or forced to convert, it gets to you. You say, those are the people where jesus came from. Thats the root of our religion over there and theyre being killed for being part of it. You have a lot of christians being killed and a lot of christians are packing up and leaving. So, historic Christian Communities all over the middle east, are slowly disappearing. There are still some left in lebanon. There was a lively Christian Community in iraq and a lot of them have gone away. Father casey taught us theology, but he was over at the university of baghdad, teaching over there. Right. So i think jasons right, that theres one way of doing this, which is to say, this is islam v. Christianity. But that doesnt work politically. B, that doesnt describe the reality. Because there are parts of islam, i mean, turkey has had a quite significant amount of religious freedom. And even now an islamist government wants to embrace some sense of religious toleration. How many divisions does the hope have . Stalin said as if the pope didnt have any power, and the pope had a big hand in bringing down communism with reagan and harry truman too, all the rest of them. But he did have a big hand, pope john ii in killing communism. And here he is taking on isis, having knocked off the sieve soviet union. How about the european cunning who a countries that are catholic, will they help against isis or not . Your question, how many divisions does he got . I think hes got a lot more divisions than we give him credit for. This is the most popular Single Person in the world. In poll after poll, he ranks literally at the top. People look to him, not just as a symbol of virtue, but as someone who personifies hope, and the idea that things can be worked out. You know, for so many of these young europeans, who are living at home, like Many Americans who are living at home because they cant get wellpaying jobs, he is making an issue of globalization of indifference, anesthesia of the heart. Hes an economic populist. By the same token, what he is doing in using the kind of nimble diplomatic language that hes using, unjust aggressors, is inviting moderate muslims and islam across the world to join in the resistance against this brutal and sadistic movement we see sweeping across iraq. Same question, does he have divisions . Can he move some European Countries to join us in going after isis . I think he can move you know whats funny. I think hell have more affect in the islamic world than