Its making headlines after that 9yearold girl accidentally shot her instructor. A losing bet. Three Atlantic City casinos set to shut down over this labor day weekend. Well take a look at the Ripple Effect in the economy there. In politics reverend al sharpton well see what he has in common with kentucky senator rand paul. May, there, everyone just past high noon welcome to weekends with alex witt, Dianne Feinstein giving her assessment of president obamas handling of the isis threat. I think ive learned one thing about this president , and that is, hes very cautious. Maybe in this instance, too cautious. I do know the military i know the state department, i know others have been putting plans together and so hopefully those plans will coalesce into a strategy. Meantime u. S. Military carried out a new round of air strikes in a town about 105 miles north of baghdad. Those strikes were in conjunction with humanitarian aid airdrops that have been surrounded by isis fighters for weeks now. Shia have been able to keep them at bay. U. S. Central command says five Additional Air strikes near mosul dam took place friday which brings the total number of air strikes across iraq to 116 since august 8th. What senator feinstein is saying, we heard that. What is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee saying today . It was interesting, alex you had a lot of democrats sounding a lot like republicans today. Chairman mike rogers echoing what he heard from Dianne Feinstein. In syria he made another point, alex, he said he wants the u. S. To try to take on the problem of dealing with those u. S. Passports, who have trained with isis militants, who might want to get into the u. S. Or other western countries and threaten the homeland. He said he agrees with the proposal under way in the uk to actually revoke passports of suspected isis militants. Heres a little more from chairman rogers. Take a listen. Im very concerned. Were not sure if the brits have a good handle on theres about 500 in britain, several in canada. If one gets through, now they have a passport to allow them free travel to the United States of america. President obama getting pressure to act in syria, but he also has poll numbers which show majority of americans dont want the u. S. To get engaged in foreign conflict. Officials say the president is working with the Pentagon NationalSecurity Team to develop a strategy when it comes to dealing with isis in syria. Secretary of state john kerry travels to the middle east at the end of next week to shore up an internal coalition and president obama will travel to nato to build up a colags as well. In nato meeting is going to take a a whole new meaning. I want to bring in senator Robert Menendez joining me on the phone from kiev, ukraine. With a welcome to you, sir. Well get to the latest from ukraine in a moment. First, you heard what your colleague diane stein stein said about president obamas approach to fighting isis. Do you agree with her . Is he being too cautious . Well look i think the president is deciding upon a strategy. Hes taking all options into account. I believe isis is a serious threat. There is an interesting story in Foreign Policy magazine where a laptop from one of isis operatives were found and a lot of interesting and challenging information there about trying to attack with weapons of mass destruction and biological and chemical weapons. I think you have to take isis seriously. Theyve been pervasive in terms of their ability to move and move quickly and move successfully even before we had the intelligence analysis to tell us that. And we have to look at them as a challenge, which is why when we return to session, i asked the secretary of state and others to talk about what is happening in iraq. Senator, you mentioned this whats being called by Foreign Policy magazine the laptop of doom. Do you believe isis is capable of doing what they intend to do to develop a bubonic plague bomb . I dont know if theyre capable but it gives you a sense of their intent, right, alex . Whether or not its that or whether or not its another element of trying to create in the postseptember 11th world, we have to remember there are those who took anthrax, took a simple letter and made it into a deadly weapon. Those who took an airplane traveling for commercial or pleasure and turned it into mass destruction. Have you to think outside of the box in a postseptember 11th world. When you see what a terrorist entity is considering doing, whether or not theyre capable of it, you also to have to think about what distribution theyre headed in. Obviously, theyre in a direction in which they want to try to affect as many lives as possible, to kill as many people as possible. We have to judge their capabilities of doing that. We have judged their capability to go over syria and iraq to do it quickly, to be ruthless in the process, well financed. Those are all elements we have to take seriously. Absolutely. Lets talk about the crisis in ukraine. Senator feinstein also spoke about on meet the press. Lets take a listen to what she said. I think there ought to be some direct discussions with Vladimir Putin. I think this is deeply personal with him. I really do. And i think hes calling the shots himself. People say, well just wait till the sanctions bite and the economy slips. I dont think so. I think if russians follow him and up to date they are following him, the russians are very brave and very long suffering. They will tough out any economic difficulty. Senator, what is your reaction to senator feinsteins remarks . Do you think the u. S. Should deal directly with president putin . Well, let me just say, i think that the president had a couple of conversations with president putin and described to him what was coming. This is one i disagree with senator feinstein in this regard. This is a moment in which weakness is more provocative to putin than strength. And our failure to enforce the International Standards that countries dont invade other countries and take land from other countries by force invites violations elsewhere. I mean i have to tell you, we have thousands of Russian Forces have invaded here in ukraine. With missiles with tanks, with heavy artillery. Theres no this is no longer the question about some you know, separatist rebels. This is a direct naked act of aggression by russia into ukraine. And the Global International order is going to either be upheld by how we deal with this or other actors in the world are going to say, well the rest of the United States really wont ultimately act in a way that is decisive and creates a real cost, in this case to russia, for their naked aggression. Senator, im actually going to read part of the letter which you recently wrote to the president with recommendations on how to handle this situation. In addition to tougher sanctions heres your coat. Nows the time for the United States to act with our European Partners to counter russias goals by providing weapons to allow ukrainians to defend themselves as well as Additional Support and training to the ukrainian military. Does this at all concern you that if you follow this path it could lead to a broader conflict . No i dont. Look the west has constantly held back because we didnt want to quote unquote, provoke putin. So, what has putin done . Invaded crimea provided weaponry that killed hundreds of innocent lives in Malaysian Air flight and now has sent hundreds of soldiers into ukraine. I dont know that our actions have done anything to provoke him. On the con temporary, the European Unions retisence to provide you kran yans to defend themselves so the cost to russia would be so significant that they would have to think twice about continuing this aggression has, i think invited putin to pursue the actions that he has done to date. I dont understand how anywhere in the world and one country would invade another and there would be any question about what our collective response would be. And in this case having just walked out, and seen the hundreds of lives lost and looked at each of the people i dont see how the west can allow this to stand without severe if we give them nightvision goggles, thats great, but you cant defend yourselves by seeing the enemy. You have to be able to shoot back at them. Of course, a good point there, senator menendez. Thank you for your time and safe travels home. The midatlantic may get hit with severe thunderstorms this Holiday Weekend. Meanwhile, people in southwest louisiana, theyre trying to get their homes back in order after a storm in the lake charles area. Can you see what it did there. Dumped up to 6 inches of rain and flooded homes. We have the forecast. Good morning or actually good afternoon. Good afternoon. We are tracking the rain across the houston area. Houston looking at showers and thunderstorms, heavy at times. Houston and nearby areas looking at half an inch to an inch of rainfall. As alex mentioned, lake charles area looking a lot different. What a difference a day makes. Yesterday this time southern louisiana was dealing with heavy rainfall. Today, a lot dryer. There could be popup thunderstorms around lake charles and new orleans. In the east cold front marching east bringing showers and thunderstorms from southern sections of ohio into central pen pep. Showers over much of new york. Well see thunderstorm hitting big cities of the i95 corridor later this afternoon. Best chance for thunderstorms in new york city will be about 4 p. M. Today. Severe Weather Threat in the Northern Plains extended from minnesota to kansas. These thunderstorms looking to bring heavy downpours, damaging winds and hail isolated tornadoes cant be ruled out. Best chance for these thunderstorms will be late today into tonight. Another area of concern for Severe Weather, labor day will be the chicago area as that system heads farther to the south and east. Thunderstorms in the northeast on labor day will be early in the day, then looking dryer in the big cities of the northeast by monday afternoon, alex. Oh, yeah. I can tell its coming our way. You can feel it outside. Thanks for the heads up. 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Hes against Insurance Benefits and hes turned his backs on College Students across the nation. What these tapes reveal is that if reelected he wont even consider a vote to increase the minimum wage. He wont even consider a vote to extend employment benefits. He wont consider making college more affordable for our students. That is Democratic Senate candidate Allison Grimes of kentucky reacting to leaked audio, purportedly of mitch mcconnell. They leaked the tape saying he plans to block many including minimum wage. Joining me now, democratic congressman john yarmuth. Thank you. The mcconnell camp is fighting back, releasing this new tv ad. Renting a tour bus from her Fathers Company for less than fair market value. That would be a violation of Campaign Finance laws. Questions swirling whether her campaign gets an illegal sweetheart deal. The Grimes Campaign and bus company, they say they arrived at a fair price after getting comparative bids. Even with all this back and forth, senator mcconnell is still leading in the poles. The most recent one was four points. Why hasnt grimes been able to pull ahead . I think two things alex. Of course, there was a poll last week that had her up by 4946. Whats happened is youve had 30 million spent by mcconnell and his allies, attacking alison, so thats been a problem. And i dont think alison has made her case yet. Shes holding her fire conserving her resources. I think after labor day youll see her come on really strong making her case and not just attacking senator mcconnell. I think things will change. I think the critical thing, in the latest poll that came out today, mcconnell is no better off than he has been in the last 25 polls, at 46 , stuck in the mid40s the entire campaign. Anybody who follows this type of thing knows if youre not at 50 , particularly as a 0year incumbent, youre in real trouble. Which means voter turnout come election day. Before we get to that senator mcconnells strategy has been to tie grimes to president obama. Its been a tough few months. For grimes to win, do you think she has to distance herself from the white house . I think shes trying to do that, specially on the issue of coal. Im not all thrilled about. I respect that. I think shes taken issue with him where she can. Theres no question that senator mcconnell has no other avenue of campaigning. Hes got to tie her to obama, tie her to harry reid because she doesnt have a record to attack. Shes the first female state wide officeholder in a long time. She got the most votes in her election of any candidate running state wide. Shes the youngest secretary of state in the kung. He has a lot to worry about. Thats the only thing he can tie his campaign too. Thats already baked into the numbers. People understand shes a democrat and Barack Obamas a democrat. I think shes making a very strong point and that is hes only going to be president for two more years. Were going to electricity a senator for six years. So, that kind of that kind of angle is not something thats really relevant to kentuckians lives and i think thats where people will ultimately cast their vote. In terms of things to worry about, lets talk about the isis threat. On todays meet the press senator feinstein said president obama is maybe in this instance too cautious. Do you agree . No i really dont. People talk about this whole question of a strategy. To me a strategy is a plan to reach an objective. And i dont think you can actually set the objective of how to deal with isis until you know how many partners we have how many resources we have across the world and particularly the region to deal with this. We can set a limited goal to help iraq take back some of their occupied cities which we have done in a couple of instances. But i think everybody wants to see us have a broader strategy aimed at a broader strategy and thats to stop isis around the region. Thats going to require a lot of planning and marshalling of support in the region and also marshalling of resources. In that region, i mean the point has been made you cant necessarily go along country borderlines here. So would you support authorizing air strikes right now against isis in syria . I think the limited activity weve used in iraq is something i would feel comfortable using in syria if appropriate. The syrians have actually joined with us in resisting isis. And i think any kind of shortterm strategy to stop the spread of isis across syria and iraq would require us to do that. Beyond that, though again, i think we need to we need to do what secretary kerry has talked about. Thats getting these meetings with nato with the arab states and figuring out whos going to starp and what kind of cooperation well have. Ultimately the existential threat isis poses to countries in that region. Its not an existential threat to the United States. King abof arabiya issued this terrorism at this time is an evil force that must be fought with wisdom and speed. I says the International Community must face the terrorist. Why would King Abdullah say this . Hes being real. I dont minimize the danger of isis at all, but in terms of defining threats, yes, there are a terrorist threats in a variety of places. Theyre a much greater existential threat to syria, jordan, to iraq and possibly iran. Iran has been cooperating in resisting isis, and they actually offer a great deal of of could offer potentially a great deal support. They have a million person military waiting in that region. So again, i think secretary kerrys mission is to find out whos willing to put up to resist isis. Because the threat to that region is much greater than the threat to the United States