the three people who are arrested. the one at the top, the 24-year-old, the fbi said it appears that they got on to him first because federal agents say he posted a message on a islamic sympathetic jihadist website in the uzbekhi language why which he talked about trying to go to syria to support isis and if he couldn't get there he would do anything, if ordered to do so including killing the president. the fbi talked to him and kept talking to him and put him under surveillance. he was not too concerned because according to court documents, just a few weeks later he was in communication with the person who ran an islamic -- or an isis rather, website overseas and the operator of the website how come you are not coming here. and he seemed in his answer more concerned about his family than the fbi. he said, according to court documents, my parents, i need to get out of here with extreme caution without being noticed by them. and the fbi introduced an undercover agent and the two people are charged with trying to go to syria and a third man is accused of providing support to them and there is at least the suggestion in court documents that at least two or three other people were also willing to provide funds to help these two get to syria to join isis. >> nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. thank you very much. we'll continue to follow this story closely. and msnbc retired special agent jim cavanaugh joins me. we became familiar with this during the bush administration where there are reports that there are supposed individuals plotting against the united states and the isis is trying to get them to come there to their caliphate and when they stay home they are more dangerous. and how do you determine who want to do something ugly but isn't organized or funded or equipped to do anything really? >> well what you do joy, is what the special agents and the nypd did in this case for 18 months, they talked to them and listened to them and monitoring their websites and got their criminal intent and disposition and outlined the conspiracy. i looked over the complaint and it is detailed in what they were planning to do. and conspiracies are a powerful federal statute and we use it in bombing conspiracies like this case. and in a conspiracy the group gets together to plan something. that is talk. it takes overt acts. you have to do something in furtherance of the conspiracy to make the conspiracy come together. and then once that happens, the act of one becomes the act of all. so just in simplified terms briefly, if the three of us talk about robbing a bank but never do anything in furtherance to do that robbery, that is not a conspiracy. but if we all agree to rob a bank and i go out and steal the car or buy the masks, once i do that the conspiracy has culminated for the law and the conspiracy is in effect a conspiracy to rob a bank. and that is what you have here. conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, isis in particular. >> and let's talk about what the real world threat or danger is to americans here. you have somebody as pete williams just said even though he was already under surveillance wasn't -- didn't have the cognition to think maybe i shouldn't make a phone call or get in contact directly with somebody who is known to be connected with the terrorist group isis. so if the person doesn't seem to have a savvy plan or maybe doesn't have the wear with all to do -- the wherewithal to do anything dangerous, are they still a threat that they have the goal to attack the country. >> it is a great question joy. but history is reif with people who had disasters that didn't have any planning. oswald hinckley hassan and fasad, there are people who didn't have great planning that could cause death and destruction if they had desire. and that is what we might have had here. >> thank you very much. we appreciate. and back to the fight over dhs funding. we are watching jeh johnson who is giving say homeland security press conference right now. let's listen in. >> i'm pleased that everyone could be here. i'm particularly pleased to be here with secretaries ridge and chertoff to with them express the importance of reaching an agreement in congress so that we have a fully-funded department of homeland security in fiscal year 2015. as i've said for weeks, today on capitol hill meeting with republicans and democrats, and with the press and the public in these challenging times, it is critical that the department of homeland security receive a full year appropriation. there are concrete dramatic consequences for the homeland security of this nation if we allow the funding of the department to lapse. there are consequences if we have to exist on a continued c.r., another continuing resolution passed on friday night. there are huge drawbacks to that which i've talked about repeatedly over the last several weeks. and so we need on behalf of the american public a fully-funded department of homeland security. now, i want to turn it over to my predecessor number one, secretary tom ridge. and thank you for being here. >> thank you, secretary. first of all, let me say, mr. secretary, i'm grateful that you gave me an opportunity to participate in this press conference. because i think your goal is one that i'm proud to say and as you've indicated, all four secretaries of the department of homeland security embrace. let me say at the outset ladies and gentlemen, that i personally believe as a former member of the congress of the united states that the president has gravely overstepped his constitutional authority. that is my strong opinion. and i do think from the political and legislative point of view there is -- the party in opposition, the republican party has every right to challenge that. but i don't think we right that wrong on the backs of the patriots that go to work every day to provide safety and security at the department of homeland security. >> that is former pennsylvania governor and former department of homeland security secretary tom ridge, opening with politics and saying that as a political matter, he believes that the president of the united states overstepped his boundaries when it comes to immigration. but that in his words, that wrong, as he called it shouldn't be righted on the back of the people. and jeh johnson attempting to make the case for fully funding his department with republicans withdrawing or with holding funding for that department basically as a retribution for the president's action on immigration. let's bring in luke russert on capitol hill. luke, so leading with politics tom ridge there, and they are still marrying together these dhs issues regarding homeland security and immigration, which surprised me a little bit. i'm wondering how that struck you? >> reporter: well, it was the surprise, in fact that we got here from the government funding bill they passed last year because even some republicans were very -- i should say they were wore kbri -- worried how this would look because they were the party of national security and as tom rinl said there, they would be fighting this battle of immigration on the backs of those that go to work every day. and on the hill, the last hour harry reid announced he is okay moving forward with mitch mcconnell's plan to move forward to divide the two issues. a clean homeland security bill would go on the senate floor and another vote where republicans could have the opportunity to express their anger regarding the president's immigration executive actions. we do not know when exactly that vote will occur. it could be within the next day that we had the procedural vote to move forward, but then the ball is still in the senate's court and the question becomes what does ted cruz do and jeff sessions of alabama do? do they try and block the clean dhs bill from moving forward. we still have to see that in the senate. now when we go to the house side it is even more complicated. john boehner has three options. he can take the mcconnell bill which will pass in the house, which i told by two members, it will get 65 votes along with democrats, or say no way, jose and let the conservative part of his conference scream and yell and join them and say we are going to fight the immigration fight now. or he can come up with a third option which is a temporary funding of the department of homeland security and figure out a way in the court system to challenge the legality of the president's executive actions. so two things. can the bill get through the senate before friday at 11:59 p.m. and then what happens with john boehner and out of the three options i mentioned. >> and luke, this is playing out on a day when we do have the new report from the fbi that there were three -- three people potentially attempting to join isis or wanting to join isis or plotting, if they couldn't get to syria, attacks here in the u.s. so it is a very interesting atmosphere in which they are now debating this. has that news started to resonate on the hill with people you are talking with. >> reporter: it is interesting that you bring that up joy. i had an opportunity to talk with the homeland security secretary jeh johnson and i asked him that question. i said what do members of congress say to you, you have one hand behind your back and take a listen to what he told me. >> the response is we need to fund homeland security. and go talk to the other guy. and that is a little frustrating. so i'm talking to everybody i can. >> reporter: so there it is joy. the typical capitol hill washington, d.c. answer. yeah we acknowledge the problem and know it is there and the individuals arrested in new york and we know that al shabab has threatened the mall of america and we support homeland security but go bother the other guy about it because maybe they can get it done. what else is new here. >> it is like dr. seuss is writing the script for what is happening in our nation's capital right now. luke russert. >> take care. senator warren throwns down the gauntlet to hillary clinton, show us. >> and eddie ray routh found guilty for the killing of kyle and littlefield and we'll discuss what led the jury to reject the insanity defense. >> it was all an act. that is just the way he was. he never grew up. he was still just opposite and defiant and he had nothing wrong in the mind. this is the equivalent of the sugar in one regular can of soda. and this is a soda a day for a year. over an average adult lifetime that's 221,314 cubes of sugar. but you can help change that with a simple choice. drink more water. filtered by brita. ♪ and introducing our new advanced filter, now better than ever. i'm type e. my golden years will not just be gold plated. i had 3 different 401(k)s. e*trade offers rollover options and a retirement planning calculator. now i know "when" i'm going to retire. not "if." i need to look for a used car. but i just keep putting it off. it's daunting. what if i make the wrong choice? 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i look around this room and i see nothing but untapped potential. you have potential. you have...oh boy. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. any moment now we expect to hear from nypd commissioner bill bratton on the three mep a -- men accused of going to sear to fight with isis and we'll have that when that begins. and can we stop hinting and saying she is running already. and there are hints that hillary clinton is running for president. she spoke to 5,000 people at a tech con conference yesterday but she said light into her thinking in 2016. >> why wait announcing and all of these women here in silicon family. >> all in good time is sort of my response. because there is a lot to think about. i have to tell you. i don't know how many of you are list makers. i have a very long list. i'm going down it. i'm very committed to go down it but i haven't checked off the last couple of things. >> and while clinton may be getting closer to a decision there are some in the world who are skeptical of a clinton bid. enter massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. >> i think that is what we have to see. i want to hear what she wants to run on and what she says she wants to do. that is what campaigns are supposed to be about. >> and joining me now, former ohio state friend jo