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Police Investigate San Bernardino Attack; Investigators Look at Couples' Online Activity; What Chicago Police Said Happened in Laquan McDonald Shooting; Officials: Wife Pledged Allegiance to ISIS Leader; Trump: "We Are at War"; Proposal to Ban Guns for People on No-Fly List. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired December 05, 2015 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:27] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Police are closer to determining a possible motive in Wednesday's shooting rampage in San Bernardino, California. AN ISIS radio station announcing this morning the two shooters were, quote, "supporters of the terrorist group." Tashfeen Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, killed 14 people and wounded 21 others by opening fire at the Inland Regional Center. They both died in a police shootout. Hours later, officials close to the investigation also telling CNN that the female attacker, Tashfeen Malik, posted on Facebook pledging allegiance to ISIS leading leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, while the massacre was unfolding. The FBI announced Friday they are investigating the massacre as an act of terrorism, and that there was evidence of extreme planning.

Let us get to CNN's Polo Sandoval, who is live for us in Redlands, California, in front of the apartment, the condominium where the two lived.

That community was really on edge last night too when there was a package that was delivered but it turns out it was nothing nefarious, right?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Ultimately, nothing harmful that package Fred but I think that that overnight slight scare was still enough to show how people here are not only on edge, but also on alert. It all goes down to a driver that the UPS driver that was out to deliver packages when he noticed the address on that package read 53 North Center Street. That is where that packet was destined. He quickly put two and two together and realized that's the address on the townhome right here, the home, former home of Syed Farook. The driver quickly went back to be a sorting facility. Police were called, bomb squad collated and they eventually found out that it was simply clothing. We're still trying to find a little bit more about that, by the way, trying to see there is more to the story there, waiting to hear back from the police this morning.

Again, it goes go to show that people are on alert. That driver, according to police, did the right thing. Today, you talk to the people who are walking by us, Fred. A lot curious, by the way. They have either a phone or camera in hand wanting to take a snapshot of what the home looks like. But you also have others who simply want to focus on the victims, these 14 lives cut short. These are 14 chairs that will be empty at the dinner table this holiday season. It will be very difficult for this community that's torn between healing and heartache.

WHITFIELD: And, Polo, what is the evidence investigators have that helps justify this notion of extreme planning?

SANDOVAL: We have perhaps some of the most disturbing items that were recovered by investigators here on Thursday. The garage at this facility -- you would actually see it from where we're standing, opposite of the property -- but they did find a cache of ammunition, the makings of small bomb-making laboratory, as well as several everyday items inside. Yesterday, my colleague was able to go inside after being invited by the landlord along with other TV crews and its everyday items inside. Any other family, you talk to the neighbors here, quiet, suburban neighborhood, Fred, and I think that is why so many people are scratching their heads

Back to you, the actual evidence recovered not only weapons and ammunition but also digital evidence as well. All of that, most of that shipped to Washington, D.C., where federal agents are poring over it, trying to see if there is, in fact, a solid ISIS tie to this tragic shooting on Wednesday.

WHITFIELD: Polo Sandoval, thank you so much, in Redlands, California.

So let us talk more about this with CNN national security analyst, Peter Bergen. He is also the author of "The United States of Jihad, Investigating America's Homegrown Terrorists."

Peter, this radio station claiming the shooters were ISIS supporters. This is a legitimate tool, is it not, a source of communication for people who follow ISIS?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. There is no reason to discount this is a legitimate ISIS communication. I think what we are overseeing, Fredricka, is three levels of ISIS attacks. In Paris, we saw an ISIS-trained attack. In Garland, Texas, we saw an attack that was both inspired and to some degree directed by ISIS because, in Garland, Texas, they were in touch directly with people in ISIS. And finally here, from what we know, this is merely inspired. As yet we have seen no direction. They don't appear to have been trained by ISIS. So you are looking at a hierarchy of trained, directed and inspired, is the way that we should be conceiving of these attacks are going forward.

[12:05:12] WHITFIELD: Does this sort of exemplify how much more difficult it will be for law enforcement or vigilant communities to identify a suspected terrorist, particularly because if you look at this couple, they simply blended in. They did all the things that everyone in the community were doing, or what would qualify as normal living, having a job, having a baby six months ago, and of being, at least it would appear, this nurturing family living in this condominium. Does that make it much more difficult for investigators to detect when someone has a plan, but they are masking it with a sense of normalcy?

BERGEN: Absolutely. I think there are two points to make here, Fredricka. First of all, almost invariably, when there is an attack of this kind in this country, that the perpetrators have been on the law enforcement radar screen. Think about the Tsarnaevs. The older brother was interviewed by the FBI. He might have been involved in a triple homicide, the Boston Marathon bombers. Think about Major Nidal Hasan. His communications with Al Qaeda in Yemen were known to the FBI. He reached out 18 times to one of the leaders of Al Qaeda in Yemen. In this case, there was nothing. And when there's nothing, there is nothing to go. In fact, this is quite unusual.

The second point I make very clear is these guys, this couple in San Bernardino, fit the profile of quite a number of people that have been involved in jihadi terrorism in this country, middle class, married, kids, really ordinary Americans. I have got a database of some 300 of these cases going back to 9/11, and that is the profile. It's tempting to think of these people as, you know, loners with mental problems, who are young males, who do not have kids, who have a criminal background. That, by the way, is a reasonably good description of some of the people involved in the Paris attacks. But in this country we're seeing people drawn to this ideology who are simply as well-educated, as well-adjusted, unfortunately, on the surfaces as ordinary Americans.

WHITFIELD: Did I hear you correctly, earlier, we spoke last hour that you are feeling is she must likely was not radicalized abroad, but instead both, if not at least one of them, may have been radicalized while here in the US.

BERGEN: I think there's a lot we do know. She clearly was somebody who is a fundamentalist who grew up in Pakistan and then Saudi Arabia. Her own brother in law never saw her face. So she had those views. But of course, that doesn't mean you are going to turn to violence. We do not know -- the FBI says that people are radicalizing much more quickly because of the information on the Internet, so it's quite possible that their radicalization took place here. It is also possible it took place before. We just do not know.

WHITFIELD: Peter Bergen, we'll leave it there.

Thank you, Peter.

BERGEN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, investigators say they found the killers' cell phone smashed in a garbage can and their hard drive was taken out of their computer. Next, I am talking to a tech expert about what officials can still learn about the couples' online activity.

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[12:11:17] WHITFIELD: One piece of the FBI investigation into the act of terrorism in San Bernardino involves the couples' online footprint. Investigators tell CNN the wife, Tashfeen Malik, posted on Facebook allegiance to the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, using an account with a different name. They also, investigators also recovered a computer with a missing hard drive and damaged cell phones from the shooters' home.

Let's bring in ethical hacker and CEO of TrustedSEC, David Kennedy.

So, David, talk to me about what information can still be retrieved from the damaged cell phones, which I also learned in early reports that the damage phones were actually found in a garbage can, similar to like in Paris were some damaged phones from terrorists were located. What kind of information can still be retrieved from something that may have been crushed?

DAVID KENNEDY, ETHICAL HACKER & CEO, TRUSTEDSEC: A lot of times you can reconstruct these cell phones and recover some of the data or all the data, depending on how they destroyed or damaged the cell phones. But what is most important about those cell phones is the number on the back of it, which allows you to understand the phone number that was attached to it, who they called and kind of start to build a spider web of people they might have had contact with prior to this actually happening. So the data on the cell phone may not be most important, but actually who they were talking to, trying to build the profile out of other individuals that may be involved is really important.

WHITFIELD: How about that computer that was missing a hard drive? What can you still retrieve from it?

KENNEDY: We have two pieces of that. You have the hardware itself and hopefully they can physically locate the hard drive and get information of it that they can. There's other pieces of RAM inside of there, it extracts pieces of memory that still could contain sites they visited or things they were doing prior to actually going out. The hardware itself is not actually everything that is on the computer. Things that were happening at a given time may still be contained within that memory.

WHITFIELD: So when investigating someone's digital footprint at this level, what are investigators, what are the parameters of investigators' search? We know there was this Facebook page where she pledged allegiance but it was under a different name. What other areas may there be where there could be some association made with their activity?

KENNEDY: Investigators will look at is tapping the resources of NSA, a lot of other folks to identify all the type of media they might have used to contact. You know, radicalized individuals here in the United States but also the modes of communication to ISIS and other communications to other folks outside the country. So looking at the cell phone but also e-mails, forums they might have visited that were centered towards ISIS, the individuals that were contacts through Facebook, social media, or other methods. They'll map all this out and starts to survey those and look at those, try to identify and really paint the full picture of who was all involved this and what actually happened. We do not know a lot of those details right now. (CROSSTALK)

KENNEDY: That is going to be their top priority.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. And it sounds very painstaking. Is it something that can take place in a matter of hours or days, even?

KENNEDY: It will take a little while because if you look at when they first found the Facebook accounts, they found that very quickly, so they probably have a good handle on a lot of folks they may have been interacting with and some of those, but to actually survey those individuals. You also have to be able to extract information from, you know, like online resources like Google and, you know, where they might have had e-mail boxes and things like that, to get information from Google, to get information from Apple or whoever they're be going after takes some time to paint that picture so it will be weeks and not months.

WHITFIELD: David Kennedy, thanks so much.

KENNEDY: Thank you.

[12:15:02] WHITFIELD: Coming up, CNN has obtained police accounts of what happened the night Laquan McDonald in Chicago died. We are comparing what police said to what the dash-cam video shows.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: New developments in the deadly shooting of like Laquan McDonald, the teen shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer. CNN has obtained newly released police reports from the incident. They contain officers' accounts of the shooting that happened in 2014 and they dramatically different than what the dash-cam video shows

We want to remind our viewers the video and images of McDonald's shooting our graphic, but it is important to see how they compare to the police report.

To go through these differences, I'm joined now by CNN's Rosa Flores.

Rosa, what are the discrepancies?

[12:19:32] ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the headline here is that not only does Jason Van Dyke's account of what happened not match what the video shows, but the accounts of other officers on the scene do not match, and even the sergeant who reviewed the video, his account does not match what we see on that video.

Now here is a summary that is included in that report. It gives us a preview of what we can see when it comes to those discrepancies. I'm going to quote here. It says, "Laquan McDonald was shot and killed by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke while McDonald was committing an aggravated assault with a knife against Officer Van Dyke and his partner, Chicago Police Officer Joseph Walsh." That is the overall summary. Let's dig into the details.

[12:20:21] Now, of course, like Fred mentioned, this video is graphics. We want to warn our viewers.

But if you look at this video, you can see that Laquan McDonald is walking in the middle of that street and you see responding police officers, including Jason Van Dyke. Now we know as we look at this video, second by second, six seconds after Jason Van Dyke arrived on scene, he starts firing his weapon.

Now let us dive into account on these police reports. He said, quote, "He was swinging," referring to McDonald, "the knife in an aggressive, exaggerated manner." He goes on to say, "McDonald raised the knife across his chest and over his shoulder pointing the knife at Van Dyke and attempting to kill Van Dyke.

Now here is Van Dyke's reaction to, according to what this report says, is happening. He said, "In defense of life, Van Dyke backpedaled and fired his handgun at McDonald to stop the attack and then McDonald fell to the ground but continued to move and continued to grasp the knife, refusing to let go of it."

Now we know that even after look Laquan McDonald was on the ground, Jason Van Dyke continued to fire his weapon. Now here is what he said about that. It says, "It appeared to me McDonald appeared to be attempting to get up, all while continuing to point the knife at Van Dyke." Now that the Police Officer Jason Van Dyke.

Now like I mentioned earlier, one of the things that really stand out here is that not only does Jason Van Dyke's account not match that video, here is what one of the police officers on scene also said. The officer said repeatedly, and I am quoting here, "McDonald blocked the knife." Now we do not have audio in this tape. But here is what he said next. And here's the crux of everything. "McDonald ignored the verbal direction and instead raised his right arm towards Officer Van Dyke, attempted to attack Van Dyke." Then the sergeant who reviewed the video and looked at the accounts that we just went over also mentions in the report that the accounts of the witnesses were consistent with the video, which, of course, now we know, as were looking at it, does not match.

Fred, I want to let you leave you with one last thing that stood out to me as I am going through these reports. And this alert, because Jason Van Dyke makes a note in his account of what happened as to why he fired. He refers to an alert from back in 2012 that said that there is a knife/revolver. A knife out there, according to records, that can also be a revolver and be shot like a weapon -- Fred?

All right, Rosa Flores, keep us posted on that.

We'll talk more about this with our legal guys.

Rose, thank you.

I'm joined right now, Avery Freeman, a civil rights attorney and law professor; and Richard Herman, a New York criminal defense attorney and law professor.

All right. So, Avery, you first. What is your reaction to, A, what we just saw, the discrepancies that

Rosa spelled out, and then that last bit, the knife/revolver that Van Dyke claims they received warnings about, that that potentially is what people could be carrying around?

AVERY FREEMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY & LAW PROFESSOR: I think it is a little legal -- legal knowledge derby. The problem is there really is no consistency. The idea when you look at the video and you see McDonald's knife, that in some fashion it could be revolver strikes me is a little silly at best. In reality, it looks nothing like a revolver. And I understand what the response is. What has happened here is the officers have pieced some truisms together to make it as if there is a sequence, but in fact the video really does tell the story. The difficulty is that I do not know how it is can be reconciled. Bottom line, and we talked about this Fredricka, it is time to get the Justice Department in to take a look at the Chicago Police Department, the way they operate.

WHITFIELD: So, Richard, the superintendent has already been let go, but where you see this investigation going? It is a matter of there is no way Chicago police can investigate itself or even that jurisdiction investigate itself, but it needs to go, in your view, straight to the Justice Department?

RICHARD HERMAN, NEW YORK CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY & LAW PROFESSOR: A couple of graphic points, Fred. First of all, the feds have been there for six months. That is number one. Number two, the video, it took one year to release this video and get an indictment on a case that could have been indicted within 30 days. That is because the mayor had a tough primary runoff during that year and an election during that year. The firing of the police chief was absurd. The mayor has to go. The buck stops with him. If you think he paid $5 million in a quick settlement but did not see this video, oh, my God, I've got a bridge to sell you here. These police officers and this account, this version, coming by the shooter, Van Dyke, will ensure a jury conviction. The more this insanity comes into play here, Fred, a jury is going to look at him, hear his explanation, look at this video, and convict him. They need to plea bargain this case immediately. He's going to get convicted by a jury.

[12:25:50] WHITFIELD: Avery?

FREEMAN: Yeah. You have a criminal case against Van Dyke, you need the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department taking a look at the way Chicago police do business, including, by the way, the missing audio of this video, which I think would tell us a lot. For some reason, nobody's producing it at this point.

WHITFIELD: OK, all right. Richard Avery, thank you so much.

Gentlemen, appreciate it. A very, very perplexing case all the way around. I don't think we can -- we can attend to all of the discrepancies or the confusions or answer all the questions that we've got.

Thank you so much. Meantime, officials say the female shooter in the San Bernardino attack posted her allegiance to the leader of ISIS on Facebook. What we're learning about her and her connections to the terror group, next.

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WHITFIELD: ISIS is now claiming the married couple that carried out the deadliest shooting on American soil since the Sandy Hook attack in 2012 are supporters. The terror group made that declaration on their official radio station today.

Our Brian Todd has a look at what possibly turned a seemingly ordinary married couple into cold-blooded killers.

Brian, what are you learning?

[12:30:10] BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, right now, investigators are looking into whether the female attacker, Tashfeen Malik, influenced her husband to become radical or if it was the other way around. We do have new information on the increasing number of ISIS sympathizers inside the United States and on the important roles women play in their ranks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): The 27-year-old female attacker was born in Pakistan and later traveled to Saudi Arabia at least twice, according to a Saudi official. She met Syed Rizwan Farook there, then traveled with him to the United States on a fiancee visa.

Farook family lawyers say she was a typical housewife, but traditional, often wearing a burqa.

DAVID CHESLEY, FAROOK FAMILY ATTORNEY: She did maintain certain traditions, from what I understand, in terms of fasting and prayer five times a day. She chose not to drive voluntarily.

TODD: In online dating profiles, thought to be his, Farook expressed his desire for a girl who wears a hijab and said he enjoyed target practice in his backyard.

The FBI asked directly if it was Tashfeen Malik who influenced Syed Rizwan Farook --

DAVID BOWDICH, ASSISTANCE DIRECTOR, FBI L.A. OFFICE: I do not know the answer whether she influenced him or not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I very much believe that it's possible that she influenced him when we look at (INAUDIBLE). We tend to read her through the men around, whether it's a boyfriend or has been of a cousin that is the reason for her support for the Islamic State, or any other political movement. And with this case moving forth to sort of reexamine that.

TODD: The couple wouldn't be the first Bonnie and Clyde inspired by terrorists. Hayat Boumeddiene, the widow of Paris supermarket gunmen, Amedy Coulibaly, was, according to his former lawyer, the more radical one in the couple. Boumeddiene is now believed to be with ISIS in Syria. As is Sally Jones. She is the widow of top ISIS operative, Janade Hussein (ph), believed to have inspired the only ISIS instigator to attack so far on American soil, the foiled attempt in May to shoot up a Prophet Mohammed cartoon drawing contest in Garland, Texas. Jones is now believed to be a key recruiter for ISIS.

In a sobering new report on ISIS sympathizers inside the U.S., Lorenzo Vidino, at George Washington University, says many of those supporters are women who are adept at social media.

LORENZO VIDINO, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Jannah brides, Jannah means paradise in Arabic. So you do see that women are more prolific than men. They tend to write more, they tend to post a lot of things, they tend to have a lot of accounts.

TODD (on camera): Those accounts, Vidino says, are often used for propaganda and the recruitment of other women.

But right now it is not clear who might have radicalized Tashfeen Malik. A source close to the Saudi government tells CNN she was not on any Saudi watch list or under suspicion of extremist activity by Saudi authorities -- Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much, Brian Todd.

Joining ne now to discuss more about how U.S. citizens are becoming radicalized, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.

Good to see you.

DR. ZUHDI JASSER, FOUNDER & PRESIDENT, AMERICAN ISLAMIC FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY: Thank you.

So we've heard explanations before that some recruits feel disenfranchised and so that makes them that much more vulnerable to being recruited. But this couple did not necessarily fit that bill. What is the other route or other routes in which some are radicalized?

JASSER: Fredricka, I think it's very important that we correct the language. When we say radicalized, it is sort of though of as you take a normal Muslim and all of a sudden they just bond with ISIS. The ISIS stage is the offer operationalization were they become militant jihadists and want to do something on the field operation and do the violent attack. The radicalization take years. ISIS is sort of providing the entire picture. But the picture is the Islamism, the sense that Islam and the political movement, the anti-Western, the anti-Semitism, the conspiracy theories, the victimization, the sense of needing redemption, this connection to some of the devotionals and et cetera. While certainly the solution will come from inside our faith, in this way, this is a battle within, the slides towards radicalization leads them to what many of us call Islam-o-patriotism, that allegiance to the concept of the Islamic State and the caliphate. ISIS is tapping into that. That's why it's becoming more successful recruitment that Al Qaeda, because it is tapping into that Islamist fervor, if you will.

WHITFIELD: You said the radicalization takes years, so unbeknownst to many people who have been interviewed and have said that they seemed very normal, they did not detect any that radicalization. But we do know that Tashfeen Malik did post on her Facebook the allegiance to ISIS that you were also speaking of. So is it the case where perhaps in this couple they are so conditioned to fooling, or maybe that was a primary focus, fooling everyone around them until that moment of pledging that allegiance?

[12:34:57] JASSER: Well, we're talking about two different things here. One is the bottom line is that American that need to look for things, and see something, say something. It's about the sense of violence and are they going to act out. Yes, that is what happened in the last few days to weeks. But also the Muslim community, we had a summit yesterday of reformers. We put together a two-page declaration that said these are the ideas that are the dividing line between reformers and those who believe in the Islamic State. So over years, there is this drift towards a sense of allegiance towards the Islamic State. So Muslims that are inherent to that are going to be part of the problem and part of the path with radicalization. The belief unapologetic about violent jihad, the apologetics about the inequality of men and women, sort of principles that run against what were used to in Western society, are part of the radicalization process. And until we Muslims -- we're the only communities that can address these things because we see them early. We can tell Muslims that are sort of incompatible with Western modernity and secular society versus those that are drifting towards hate towards the West, a demonization in a sense that they want to become part of some other loyalty, and thus, American citizens become dehumanized and ultimately will become targets on their battlefield.

WHITFIELD: So unbeknownst to a lot of people there is some record of activity as it relates to ISIS influencer or terror-related activity. According to the FBI, there have been ISIS-related arrests in 21 states. And in ISIS-related arrests, the investigations in the U.S., as of November 12th of this year, the vast majority of them involve U.S. citizens. 71 Americans have been charged with ISIS-related activities. About 40 percent are people who have converted to Islam. And there have been 56 arrests so far in 2015. These are astounding numbers. The most terror arrests since September 2001. And 86 percent of those arrested are males.

So what you do with all of this information, how concerning or even enlightening is it to you?

JASSER: Well, it is not a surprise because you dealing with the global ideology that is the militant end point of political movements that won elections in Egypt and Tunisia with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamists in Iran, the radical lobbies in Saudi Arabia. It is a large global movement with huge platforms and social media. ISIS is only one endpoint. So sort of like treating meth addiction, the gateway drugs, be it alcohol, marijuana, et cetera, to that, is the intoxicant of the ideology of political Islam. So if you look at my own Twitter feed and others, I am getting attacked from any of these types of Islamists and others that hate Westerners. So we Muslims, we need to generate a public-private partnership with social media giants, be it Twitter, Google, Facebook, to begin to work towards getting Muslims to leave this fight. And that is what our Muslim reform movement is all about. Because non-Muslims cannot do this. Islam, it's the same kind issue, Fredricka, that Christianity was in the 18th century, where we're battling against theocracy. And as long as the theocrats continue to control the mantle and we Muslims stay in denial that it's just about terrorism and it's just a psychotic endpoint, we're not to treat the poor gateway drug to the final violence, which is political Islam.

WHITFIELD: And are you concerned that until that were to happen, are you concerned that a good part of the Muslim community is going to suffer or feel some backlash out of people as anger, confusion, fears over even those numbers that we just shared?

JASSER: Absolutely. I mean, that is why we're doing this work. America has been hungry to hear Muslims that want to own this and take responsibility for reform. That hunger can turn into starvation and anger if we do not fill it, not by just denying it and say, oh, whoa is us, with victims, but actually turning it into, you know what, Americans realize if we take ownership that we become the solution, and that will melt away the bigotry against Muslims.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

JASSER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up, Donald Trump just telling the press that the U.S. is at war when it comes to ISIS and the San Bernardino massacre, and that is just the beginning of what he said. The rest coming up, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:43:42] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a night of glitz, glamour and giving. "CNN Heroes, An All-Star Tribute," hosted by Anderson Cooper, puts 10 everyday people in the spotlight, saluting them for their work helping others.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It's a great night and it is nice that people who do not ordinarily get his kind attention get this kind of attention.

PEREIRA: On this special night, the stars turned out to honor them.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: When we can celebrate heroes and heroic actions that's the right thing to do.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: It's a real honor.

PEREIRA: This year's amazing honoraries include a surgeon who serves Chicago's poorest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The biggest, boldest, badass doctor.

PEREIRA: And a woman who turned her home into a sanctuary for sloths. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: A woman that proved sloth is a virtue.

PEREIRA: It is a night for passion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The work that I do, this is like the air that I breathe, so I can't stop.

PEREIRA: Laughter.

KATHY GRIFFIN, COMEDIAN: Are you scared of sharing? I feel like you're scared of sharing.

COOPER: I love sharing.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: And inspiration.

(SINGING)

PEREIRA: It's a celebration of humanity with a little help from a special guess that ends with one life-changing moment.

COOPER: The 2015 "CNN Hero" of the year --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:45:02] WHITFIELD: On to politics now. Donald Trump telling not mincing words in Iowa today about the shooting in San Bernardino, California. Trump telling CNN, quote, "We are at war. And if we do not beat ISIS to the punch, it will be very ugly," end quote.

Let's bring in CNN's M.J. Lee, who is live for us in Spencer, Iowa.

So tell us more about what he had to say.

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey, there. The California shooting continues to take center stage here in Iowa. Donald Trump just gathered with some reporters prior to taking stage. As you can see, he's behind me right now. Getting a lot of questions about what happened in California. He has been striking a language about whether family members of the killers knew about their plan. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: If somebody things bad things are going on, you have to report it. That should not be racial profiling. And they thought something bad was going on and they did not report it. Not good.

LEE: Can you elaborate a little bit on your comments about racial profiling?

TRUMP: No. There is nothing to elaborate. I think you're in the way of your camera, by the way. You OK? Trying to make him look good. Right? No, the story was that they did not want to racially profile. In the meantime, a lot of people got killed. We have to use common sense, OK?

LEE: Both the people in the shooting were regular people, it seemed like, with kids. They didn't seem --

TRUMP: What people are we talking about?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The husband and wife. They --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: You mean the people that were the killers?

LEE: The killers. They were just normal people with a kid, they went to work. They were unsuspected. What --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I don't know if they were regular people. I heard the apartment was loaded up with bombs and with guns and --

LEE: But nobody could have ever seen that was the case. What would you do --

TRUMP: I don't know. When you have pipe bombs lying all over the floor, I don't think they're regular people. When you have pipe bombs all over the floor, so I do not think they're regular people.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Where's your camera, by the way?

LEE: Right there.

TRUMP: It has a microphone in it.

(CROSSTALK)

LEE: -- what do you think should be done differently --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Again, there were people that knew bad things were going on. People knew that bad things were going on and they didn't report it because of racial profiling. But I don't think they were regular people. To me, they're not regular people. To me, they were criminals. And it's too bad that somebody didn't find out about it sooner.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Trump, what are your thoughts on "The New York Times" editorial today on the guns --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: On guns?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes. TRUMP: Well, I feel very strongly that people in this country and actually the world need protect. If you look at Paris, they didn't have guns. And they were slaughtered. If you look at what happened in California, they didn't have guns. They were slaughtered. So I think it would have been better if they had guns in that room, somebody to protect. They could have protected themselves if they had guns.

This is a war. We're in a war. And if we're not smart and if we're not really cunning, and if we don't beat them to the punch, it's going to be very ugly over here. It's going to be very bad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: You can see there, Trump with some strong language on the culture of guns in the country and what should have been done to help prevent this shooting in California from happening.

I should also note that he was in a pretty good mood, talking to reporters earlier. Of course, a CNN poll this week showing 36 percent, right at the top of the pack. He even dismissed criticism from some of his rivals and their supporters. Some conservatives have started to call him or his rhetoric fascist and he dismissed it and he said, "This is because the other rivals are feeling desperate" -- Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: M.J., what in general is he talking about? You know, sometimes what he says on the podium may be up to his supporters, may be a bit different than you know when you talk to reporters on the side. IS he elaborating at all on what you shared with you and reporters about his thoughts about San Bernardino to the crowd there?

LEE: Well, we heard him say to reporters he was elaborating on some of his viewers. We also asked him for details on how he reacted to the fact that reporters were allowed into the home of the suspects in the house of the shooting. He said he thought the thing was very strange but I would note that he did not want to criticize the FBI, saying he believes the FBI had generally done a good job over the last few years. So, yes, we were able to get more out of Trump on what he is making of this shooting tragedy that happened this week.

[12:49:42] WHITFIELD: All right, M.J. Lee, thank you so much.

And be sure to tune into CNN on December 15th for the final GOP presidential primary debate of this year. That will be at 9:00 p.m. eastern time.

And we'll be right back.

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WHITFIELD: President Obama had some strong words for Congress in his weekly address today in the wake of the tragic San Bernardino shooting. He said, quote, "People on the no-fly list can walk into a store and buy a gun," end quote, and he called on Congress to close this loophole. Now the president is not the only one asking lawmakers for new gun-control measures.

Here is Rene Marsh with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D), NEW YORK: Enough, enough, enough.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A predictable refrain. The gun control debate reunited once again after a bloody attack in San Bernardino, California. Now increased urgency to stop suspected terrorists from buying weapons.

SEN. DIANE FEINSTEIN, (D), CALIFORNIA: The bill is the definition of a no-brainer. If someone is too dangerous to board an aircraft, they are too dangerous to buy a gun.

MARSH: The proposed fix, using terrorist watch lists, including the no-fly list that stops suspected terrorists from boarding planes, to also be used to ban weapons.

Since 2004, there have been more than 2,200 firearm background checks for people on terror watch lists. About 91 percent of the transactions were approved.

Under current federal law, a person cannot be prohibited from possessing firearms or explosives simply because the individual appears on the terror watch list. However, a felony conviction or illegal immigration status can disqualify someone.

Hours after the massacre, President Obama pushed for change in the countries gun law.

[12:55:06] BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a no- fly list where people can't get on planes, but those same people who we do not allow to fly could you go into a store right now in the United States and buy a firearm.

MARSH: But such a law would not have prevented the mass shooting in San Bernardino. Neither killer was on the terror watch list. They did not even have criminal records. And Syed Farook legally purchased at least two of the guns used in the massacre.

JOHN LOTT, PRESIDENT, CRIME PREVENTION RESEARCH CENTER: Not one of these mass public shootings that the president has spoken out about during his administration would have been stopped or affected in any way by any of the laws that he's pushing.

MARSH: Critics say individuals wrongfully placed on the terror list would be stripped of their constitutional rights to own a gun.

(on camera): While the FBI cannot stop the purchase, they are made aware when someone on a terror watch list has been cleared to buy guns or explosives. Now if the FBI learns about a plan to use those weapons in an attack, at that point they do have the power to block the sale. They have done it before. Legislation has been proposed in both the House and Senate to prevent people on terror watch lists from purchasing guns but it has gone nowhere in Congress.

Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And we have so much more still ahead in the NEWSROOM right after this.

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