Mitt romneys fascinating Charity Fight with Evander Holyfield. Im chuck todd and joining me for insight and analysis this sunday morning are former Senior Adviser to president obama, david axle rod, former white house political director sarah fagan, alain cooper of the New York Times and columnist and author tom friedman. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. From nbc news in washington this is meet the press, with chuck todd. Good sunday morning, battle is raging right now for the iraqi city of ramadi capital of that countrys biggest province between Iraqi Government troops and isis as the terror Group Continues to make advances despite 11 months of u. S. Led air strikes. But this weed the u. S. Has been heralding a blow against isis announcing a killing of an isis commander and the capture of his wife in a special force mission in eastern syria. Our chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engle has been assessing the significance of this raid into syria. Reporter isis has gotten used to fighting u. S. Troops when attack from the air. For months Washington Wash has led an air war against isis in iraq and syria. But that was different, a bold raid into syria into an isis stronghold with u. S. Boots on the ground. U. S. Officials say American Delta force commandos took off from Northern Iraq in blackhawk helicopters and osprey helicopters like these, and flew deep into isis tair territory in search and rescue why, it was friday evening syrian time. No allies on the ground. If u. S. Forces were captured they risked unthinkable horror. A jordanian pilot captured by isis was burned alive in a cage. A top isis money man what managed isiss oil and gas income and was personal close to the isis leader albaghdadi was the target. The fact that the u. S. Was ready to mound a capture mission to grab him shows he was a really important person in the infrastructure itself. Reporter the tart did not go quietly. There was a gun fight. Even hand to hand fighting. He was killed along with a dozen or more isis fighters. You can kill isis fighters, but if you take out the money it condenses the organizations capability to do things. Reporter the u. S. Commandos went under fire but were unharmed and took the mans wife. Its alleged she helped manage prisoners taken by isis. It was a bold and risky operation, and could yield intelligence, but it is unlikely to change the course of the war on isis. This week the group attacked the center of the iraqi city of ramadi with car bombs and took control of a government compound. Isis is also fighting its way into the historic syrian city of palmera, threatening to destroy it the way it has razed other historic treasures. This week it was washington that took the initiative going into the isis heard lnd and making it out alive. Joining me now live is Richard Engle. Richard how significant was the mission and can you say it was fully successful if we didnt get them alive. A lot of countertirm official have never heard of that man. I had never heard of him before. One described him as al capones accountant. He is significant, has a lot of information, no doubt, but he will be replaced. I think the most significant thing here was the symbolism that u. S. Special Operation Forces went into the isis heardland, grabbed someone, his wife killed other militants on the ground, and left successfully. It is a psychological blow or an attempted psychological blow against isis. Thank thats probably one of the most Important Missions here. Was it a complete success . They wanted to get him alive. They got his wife. But i think the idea of rattling isis by going into their heartland, that was successful. Is it fair to say this was almost like a test case for u. S. Intelligence almost testing they are now Getting Better intelligence in syria about isis. So they acted on this its successful to ts means suck selfbegets and we will see more raids because they now trust their Syrian Intelligence . Maybe. Once you put your toe into the water there might be a temptation to put another toe in or the foot in. This is only the second time u. S. Special Operation Forces went into syria. The first time was a rescue attempt to rescue hostages that turned out to be a dry whole. Nobody was there, the hostages were moved. This time a snatch and grab operation. But the white house want to be very careful about ordering up lots of these. Imagine what had happened if it had gone wrong if one of those helicopters had been shot down. Terrible consequences for the commandos who were involved but also terrible political consequences. For sure. Richard engle reporting for us. Thanks very much. Well turn now to the latest on the investigation of the amtrak train that crashed in philadelphia killing eight and injuries other. There is an investigation into whether or not it was hit by a project tile before the crash. Ive seen it reported that the fbi is investigating. Thats a misnomer. We are investigating the accident. We have asked the fbi to come in and provide Technical Expertise to help us resolve and figure out what was the particular damage pattern on one of the windshield. But we are investigating it at this point. And weve just asked them to come in and help us out on identifying that fracture pattern. Tom costello is outside the 30th street station in philadelphia. Tom, it does seem as if ntsb is trying to tap the brakes on this growing story that maybe some outside sbitd or force caused this accident. Reporter heres why they are concerned about this. They had a septa regional train hit by something. The engineer thought he had been shot ought. We had another train hit by something, a brick or something. And potentially in amtrak train 188 hit by something potentially on the windshield. Nobody knows the answer to this right now because the engineer says he doesnt remember. But the question is is it possible that when that brick or whatever it was hit the front of am track 188 if thats in fact what happened that it rattled this engineer that he lost situational awareness, that he forgot he was supposed to start slowing down because the train at that point was speeding up. Keep in mind this engineer had only been on that stretch of these tracks for three week. Thats it. And by the way, they have been having problems with rock throwers on this stretch of amtrak track for 40 years. Teddy roosevelts train was hit in 1905. I can assistance also tell you the federal Railroad Administration has ordered emergency steps for amtrak to take. They have to put on more speed limit signs. They have to add automatic braking. Amtrak says its doing all of the above. Tom, thanks very much. Im joined by senator booker of new jersey. Welcome back to meet the press. Good to be here. I want to start with the isis raid and turn to infrastructure which is what you were have been focused on all this week with the derail men. What do you feel about the raid . Kufl it was a success from what you understand of it now. And that b the campaign against isis is so far more successful than failure . Certainly this raid looks like it was a success a. Lot of the information we pulled out of there could be very value, the computers and other data that was recovered thats now being analyzed. This is going to be a long effort. Isis is a terrible threat in that region as well as to american security. And we are going to be involved in a manymonth if not longer effort. So weve seen some gains from the recruitment of foreign fighters going down and their territory. But then we see things like this week where we end up losing some ground. Im encouraged by some of the progress we are making but we have a lot more work to do when it comes to eliminating this threat. Let me move to the amtrak derailment. This week white House Republicans have been criticizing white house democrats, for attempting to political size this derail men. Do you think thats a fair critique . I think it is a distract from the reality. United states of america is falling behind dramatically its global peers in terms of the quality of its infrastructure. We have trillions of dollars of an infrastructure debt right now and the accident which we saw happen which the ntsb says would have been prevented should we had positive train control we should not be scrimping on investments in Public Safety of but what its even more important to understand this as china invests about 9 of their gdp in infrastructure, america is only doing 1. 5 . By withholding this investment in what america used to dominate the globe in now out of the top 10 we are losing economic competitiveness. We are losing out on jobs missing out on growth. Lets leave the partisan argument aside for a second and say the fiscally conservative thing to do right now, invest whether it is a company in your physical plant, a homeowner, your roof. As a nation we have fallen out of pace to where we were in previous years in terms of investment. Do you think the lack of Infrastructure Spending is to blame for this accident . I think the lack of Infrastructure Spending is costing us lives in america. Its costing every commuter in my region especially you see commuters paying over 1,000 a year in terms of damage to their cars costing us our roads and our jobs. The safety of our roads and bridges we know unequivocally months i have been working on this issue, our track, aviation roads and bridge is inadequate. We should be investing more. Its uneviv call unassailable and for us not to do that in a bipartisan fashion is unacceptable to me. Let me put up a couple of graphics here that sort maybe why its politically so hard to get support for amtrak on capitol hill. Ridership by kong district in 2014. Look at this in Democratic Congressional districts versus republican Congressional District in use in items of ridership on amtrak. Then if you look at the 25 busiest amtrak stations in 2013 almost all of them concentrated on the two coasts frankly, democratic, very blue and you are strung lincoln winning over democratic support. Amtrak isnt thought of as a feasible part of transportation in the middle of the country where there is much more republican representation. Is that a challenge for amtrak . In a practical political way very likely. But i tell you this im a progrowth guy. We know in the northeast corridor, onefifth of the Economic Growth that growth and the fueling of our gdp doesnt just go to republicans or democrats, it benefits this country as a whole. So in my negotiations over the past few months with people like roger wicker and others on the senate side we are seeing some movement in the idea that we must invest in this precious asset that creates so many jobs so mitch economic dynamicism it is a political fight, yes, but those folks that are fiscally conservative where in the world every wall street investor, for every dollar you invest in the northeast corridor and Passenger Rail you get two dollars back in growth and equity, every investor will take that. If we are caretakers of the great infrastructure we have inherited from our grandparents we dont want to pass it on to our children as a debt. Before i let you go when you were running for the senate no in 2013 you said this you know how to be a Disruptive Force in washington. Washington on day one ill be al qaeda able to have an impact that the freshman senator usually wont have. A year later you were asked this question, what is booker afraid of . This paradox has puzzled many since he arrived in the capitol lastee after a special election. How he could use his star power to do anything yet he is acting a conventional paul are you bog do conventional . The reality is the short time ive been in the senate ive been able to join together the majority of my legislation has been in a by part tan san issue working on an issue that may not be popular or capturing the attention of a columnist. We are talking about the overincarceration problem. 5 of the globes population 25 of the globes prison population. Now working with everybody from rand paul to ted cruz to mike lee we have started forming bipartisan movement in this country to correct a greivous injustice. Im going to continue work on both sides of the aisle on pragmatic issues. To pry to push our country forward because we are being devastated in my opinion by too much partisan talk. Easier to be disruptive as a marathon as a senator . Are you finding that out . I disagree. I think in both areas there is different types of work that are necessary. In washington while im not going to be necessarily doing the same kind of work its a different job. But in washington there is a huge space for which we can work together, find commonalities and moves things forward. That is the kind of disruption we need. Im happy to see both sides seeing more and more an optimistic conclusion. Thanks for coming on meet the pass. Let me bring in the panel. I want to go to isis first. Then well go to infrastructure. You wrote the lead story for the New York Times this morning. First of all, how confident are you in the governments storyline here . I think there is certainly a lot that we dont know. The initial reporting in all these sorts of cases is always very incomplete. There is a lot that we dope know. For instance one of the questions i was most fascinated by because i was talking to military officials yesterday when they said that these guys were using women and children as human shields. And they had freed a slave. How did she differentiate herself from the women and children they were using as shields was she tied up . Did she go running to them . There is so much we reason is found out. I think its still a ferry significant operation because lets face it war a lot of wars about the war of Public Opinion and propaganda and it looks good for the United States to be able to say that we send in highly trained Delta Force Commandos in there, they snatched one of these guys, killed him, took his wife, she could the laptop that they seized could yield a lot of intelligence. From a Public Relations angle, i think this is not a bad deal. Tom, do you think we could have done this without assad acquiesceing to some sort . I dont think he has much control there at all. Up in that area. Thats the first thing id say. The second thing, i agree with helloine that obviously you take down a key financial guy like this thats a good. You rattle them. We now have clearly penetrated them. Thats going to require them to obviously deploy protection. Ive been covering theis raleigh post. I cant tell you how many times israel killed the number two man in hamas. Never want to be number two. Thats right. There is always another number two. The only way to defeat isis is on the ground door to door and getting other sunnis to do that. The fact that in the same week isis took a major urban area ramadi is not a small town tells you thats where the war will be decided. David, do you believe your party should be trying to take political advantage. I agree with corey booker in a the lack of investment in infrastructure generally has been scandalous particularly in an era of low interest rates. The fact we reason is taken advantage of that is scandalous. But i think americans get fed up when they see i mean before the bodies are even removed from the crash people are rushing to blame each other for it and they are looking for our folks to fine out what happened and address it. And so no i dont think it was the right thing to do to leap in there and politicize this thing. But at the same time republicans are probably now going to have to be more open to amtrak funding . Perhaps. But i do democrats have been smaim shameful this week on this. If amtrak was a corporation you would fire the ceo and replace the board. The reality is it loses money every year. The reason it loses money is because it face to prioritize. These needs. You could argue along the west coast but much of amtrak is spread around the country and there is nobody riding it. Tom, you spend lot of time on this issue. Should amtrak be run as a forprofit enterprise or should it be the way every other Public Transportation system this the country is run, with a government subsidy. Im for the subsidyf as long as the money is spent efficiently. China has 2. 5 Million People a day on highspeed rail. Everybody in this country knows when you fly from hong kong to lax its like flying from the jetsons to the flintstone. And at penn station, if you have taken the elevator there up from the track its like it was invented before suit case. It can fit one narrow body. They do close the second elevator door gate. Right . It is a travesty. We should be discussing it without this kind of tragedy. It should be a top priority. I will pause there. Thank you all. Well be back. We have more to discuss including more on iraq but in political terms. Coming up my interview with republican president ial candidate rand paul. But first, why did jeb bush need five takes to answer the question he knew was coming if you knew then what you know nowcision would have been. Thats a hypothetical. Its one of the most Amazing Things we build and it doesnt even fly. We build it in classrooms and exhibit halls, mentoring tomorrows innovators. We build it raising roofs, preserving habitats and serving americas veterans. Every day, thousands of boeing volunteers help make their communities the best they can be. Building Something Better for all of us. As you know, a saturday doesnt go by without republican hopefuls gathering somewhere. Yesterday, they gathered in des moines, iowa at the lincoln dinner. 11 hopeful republicans were there. Again, they focused on foreign policy, not social issue. Here is a sampling. If im president of the