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President Obama To Deliver Rare Address From Oval Office; Carter, Cancer Free Now; U2 Returns To Paris Tonight After Show Was Cancelled Due To Paris Terrorism Attacks. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired December 06, 2015 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:03] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: He has only done this twice in his entire time in office, to announce the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq, that was the first time, and then following the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico.

Let's get to CNN Chris Frates. He's at the White House. So Chris, what can we expect from the president tonight?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. Well, I think the president is going to try to reassure the nation. The nation is really on edge after this terrorist or what the FBI is investigating as terrorist attacks in California and he's going to use this Oval Office address to put the weight of the whole White House behind this reassurance.

So let's look for three things tonight. The number one thing on the top of the agenda, talk about this FBI investigation in to the terrorism attacks. Will the president call it terrorism? Certainly as we know the FBI is saying it's investigating it as terrorism. Does he say it's terrorism?

We also will discuss - the president will discuss more broadly the threat of terrorism, how has it evolved since 9/11, and what's the American government doing now to keep Americans safe? Thirdly, he's going to reiterate this firm conviction that the U.S. will destroy ISIS.

And we heard from Attorney General Loretta Lynch earlier today and she said to expect to hear the president talk about specifically what the U.S. has done since the Paris attacks that first put the nation on edge that was only compounded after the California attacks. Let's take a listen and hear what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think he'll talk about the actions that we've taken not just since 9/11 but since Paris, to help keep the American people and American interests safe. You may hear him call on Congress to review measures and take action as well. But I think what you're going to hear the president say is to call on the American people to call out the best in themselves and not give in to fear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: So there you have Loretta Lynch saying he may call on Congress to take some action. We've heard from the White House on a couple of things the president would like to see Congress take action on. One, reforming visa waivers for who can come into the country and when they can come into the country.

Another thing is more airport security. And of course the president, Fred, has called on Congress to authorize a use of military force against ISIS - that's something he's looking for as well tonight. Let's see if he calls and uses this big moment to call on Congress to take any action tonight. Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then, Chris, how much pressure is there on the president to say the right things, do the right things here?

FRATES: I mean, there's a tremendous amount of pressure on the president. It echoes back a little bit to how he has characterized ISIS in the past. Right? He says that they are a JV team. He said they're a bunch of killers with good social media. He said that ISIS has been contained.

And clearly he's taken a lot of heat, particularly from Republican candidates who are looking to take his job for that. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, came out this afternoon and said that Americans are starting to understand that the threat has evolved and that ISIS is not contained.

And you saw even before these attacks in California. His approval ratings, not so good. He's looking at about 40 percent right now in people who approve of how he's handling terrorism right after Osama Bin Laden was killed. That was up near 69 percent. So this is a high stakes gambit for the president. That's why we're seeing that the oval office, this rare event. And he has a lot of pressure and lot to live up to to reassure a very, very - a nation that's very much on edge, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Chris Frates, thank you so much. Appreciate that, from the White House.

FRATES: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Let's talk more about the president's response to combating terror with CNN military analyst Lt. Gen. Mark Hurtling and CNN political commentators Maria Cardona and Buck Sexton.

All right. This is not the first time that we've heard from the president talking about ISIS, terrorism, the threat to this nation. Here's how the president's response has evolved over time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: As I've said, rooting out a cancer like ISIL will not be quick or easy but I'm confident that we can and we will.

We will degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.

In Iraq, in Syria, American leadership, including our military power, is stopping ISIL's advance.

And we have contained them.

They have not gained ground in Iraq. And in Syria, they'll come in, they'll leave.

Destroying ISIL is not only a realistic goal, we're going to get it done.

Russia is going to recognize the threat that ISIL poses to its country, to its people, is the most significant and that they need to align themselves with those of us who are fighting ISIL.

ISIL is not going to pose an existential threat to us. They are a dangerous organization, like Al Qaeda was. But we have hardened our defenses, our homeland, has never been more protected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:05:05]

WHITFIELD: All right. Maria, how does the president frame the situation tonight?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think tonight he needs to frame it so that the American people can feel reassured that the administration and the government and the country is doing everything in their power to keep Americans safe and to make sure to underscore what he has said in all of those clips that you just showed, Fredricka, which is that we are going to not just degrade but ultimately destroy ISIL.

He's got to really lay out the plan of what the administration has been doing thus far but also how they are stepping up their game, especially after Paris and especially after San Bernardino, to again reassure Americans of the plans that we have in place, the fact that we're not in this alone because I think that's a very important part of what Americans need to understand, that this is a fight that America is going to take to ISIL but we're not in this alone because it has to be a world coalition that is going against this terror group.

And I think ultimately again to show that this is his number one priority, to make sure that Americans feel safe in their own backyards.

WHITFIELD: All right. Loosely, it's a coalition of more than 60 right now. So, Buck, how do you see it? What does the president need to say and how does he need to say it today?

BUCK SEXTON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, this is an administration that has lost a tremendous amount of credibility both with regard to its strategy or lack of strategy in dealing with the Islamic state as well as in the aftermath of what was obviously and clearly a jihadist terror attack in California, the ability to defend the homeland.

So tonight's address is about politics. It's not about reassuring anybody because nobody honestly wants to hear about the president talk about how he's going to stay the course, that's he's been right all along about the Islamic state, which is just so patently false at this point. I think it's rather obvious, and that there's some new solution or strategy for him to try to defend the homeland when in reality, it's tough to get the president to even admit that there's a continuous jihadist threat against this country and that's exactly what just happened.

We were hit at home by a terrorist attack and the president just finally maybe tonight going to come around to that reality. But I think you're going to expect him to call upon Congress for gun control despite the fact that even the White House own recommended gun control measures would have done nothing to prevent the attack in California. Absolutely nothing.

And so those of us who are looking at it from the perspective of - well, it's about counter terrorism, we're going to say, no. This is about politics. This is about an administration that's losing credibility on the issue of dealing with radical Islam abroad and at home and hoping to try to find some way to browbeat Republicans into passing nonsense and meaningless gun administration. That's what tonight's address is actually about.

WHITFIELD: So, General Hurtling, is it an issue, as Buck said, a lack of strategy, or is it a lack of an effective strategy, or is it simply an issue of everything has to evolve? What has been carried out is not enough?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, I don't quite see at this time the same way that Buck does although he makes some very good points. I suggest the president is going to come on and attempt to reassure the American people that the events of last week were an anomaly.

He is then likely going to review this strategy that he does have in place. There is a strategy. It has seven lines of effort. You can debate whether or not those lines are being effective or not. But there is a strategy. Some of them have been working, not as fast as the American people would like. But as we've said from the very beginning, Fred, this fight against ISIS, this ideology, is going to take a very long time.

As he reviews those lines of effort, if that's what he does, you'll see that some of them have advanced, some of them have not advanced. Then the last thing I think he's going the do, he may petition the American people to influence Congress in one way or the other to try and pass different legislation, particularly gun laws, because even though it is not a direct contributor to the attack, it is an effect of the attack and all of these things, if taken separately, could influence the way terrorists conduct operations in the United States. The last thing I think he will do is urge restraint. So you're talking about three Rs. The restraint to the American people of saying you cannot react against what our American values are by treating all Muslims the same. We have to realize that this is a bizarre ideology with very limited number of people participating in it who take action and conduct violence.

WHITFIELD: And -

HERTLING: Those are the three things.

WHITFIELD: Yes, Maria, this White House has been very careful about language and the use of certain words or the absence of certain words. I just jotted down a few. I mean, terrorism, radicalization, Muslim or Islamic, extremism are words that this administration, particularly this president is incredibly mindful of.

Do you see in his address this evening a change in his rhetoric or his dialogue or the use of words in order to get a message across?

[16:10:00]

CARDONA: I think that you will hear him use the word terrorism probably much more definitively than he has in the past. What I don't think you will hear him say is connect the words Islam with radicalization or jihadist because I think he has been on point all along and I know he's been criticized for this, but we are not at war with Islam.

In fact, there is nothing more that ISIS fighters would want to hear than America saying that we are at war with Islam. This plays directly into their talking points and into how they actually recruit fighters to their cause. I think another thing that is incredibly important about tonight, Fredericka, this will give the president room to really speak directly to the American people.

There has been so much noise around all of these issues because of the presidential election, that Republicans and Buck just proved this, they will go directly to the politics of this and criticize everything that he has done. But that's fine. But guess what, this is not a president that has ever looked at poll numbers. He is focused on doing what he thinks is right. It's actually interesting and ironic that the Republican presidential candidates have not been able to voice one thing that is different from what this administration is doing, except going in there with guns ablazing, with hundreds of thousands of American troops.

SEXTON: There's an avalanche of falsehood going on and she's going to name me - I would like to respond to her briefly.

WHITFIELD: Yes (INAUDIBLE).

SEXTON: Fred, there are a number of things that people say should be done differently. For example, actually taking realistic measures against the Islamic state to try to degrade and destroy them. No serious analysts of these issues who understands national security, has served in the Middle East as I have and countless other have, things the president takes this problem seriously at this point. He's saying things about terrorist groups that are completely at odds with reality.

We were just hit in an attack. It took him days to say that it was possibly a jihadist terrorist attack. He's saying things that quite honestly, just don't even watch with the rest of American people watching what's going on on television. They (INAUDIBLE) better analysts of what's happening than the president himself.

WHITFIELD: I'd wonder, buck --

SEXTON: ... for all of the president's handling over this in terms of Islam and radical Islam we just got hit. So clearly it's not like we're placating the Islamic state by making sure we're careful about our language. If this is a bipartisan issue in which defense of the homeland should be, there's supposed to be consensus building on this, you would think that instead of hyper politicizing this address tonight by making about gun control which we know the president will do, it would be about defending the homeland and identifying the enemy and he's not willing to do that.

CARDONA: You have no idea he's going to make this about gun control.

WHITFIELD: Buck, if I could ask you, Buck, to kind of clarify what you just said. Because you just said the president is not taking this seriously. Do you mean it that way?

SEXTON: No, the president with the Islamic State actually hopes to push this on to the next administration. He has not been serious in trying to destroy the Islamic state. He views this as a huge liability for his political legacy. He's been making decisions all along that are way behind what he should have been doing in terms of the timeline. He has not sees this as an issue.

We talk about coalition of 60 countries. Really, what are the countries that are doing so much to fight against the Islamic state? There were a handful of them you can name. You certainly can't name 60. I think there are very few of your viewers who can name more than three or four. This is all just a PR exercise. The president mortgaged his entire Middle East foreign policy to try to get an Iran deal that in the end will do nothing to strengthen that country and (INAUDIBLE) path towards nuclear weapons.

CARDONA: I think --

WHITFIELD: General -

SEXTON: In the meantime, the Islamic state is hitting us in the homeland in California and president is saying it's workplace violence. It's preposterous.

WHITFIELD: All right. General Hertling, I'll let you have the last word on that.

CARDONA: (INAUDIBLE) your own credibility when you focus on the fact that you think the president is not taking this seriously. So I would just stop saying that.

SEXTON: His strategy -

HERTLING: I would suggest that's true, Fredricka. I think that is counter - to Buck's credibility, to say that. The president is attempting to lead the nation in this effort. He's doing. I'm not going to be an apologist for him. I'm apolitical, not Democrat or Republican. But I don't think it's fair to say a president, a leader of the - of America and a leader of the free world is ignoring this for either poll number or politics.

And, Buck, I'll counter your argument by suggesting that you said any serious person who spent time in the Middle East. I think I've spent a significant amount of time there and I think actually the strategy is right on track to what we need to do.

SEXTON: You think the strategy against the Islamic state is working. The Islamic state which now has affiliates in Libya, in Sinai. The Boka Harram -

CARDONA: I would go with general's word over yours, Buck.

SEXTON: Including the largest Sunni arab city in Iraq. You're going to tell me the strategy is working?

CARDONA: I would with the general's word over yours, Buck. Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so all of you. We're going to -

SEXTON: We're just in complete disagreement.

WHITFIELD: We'll hear this evening from the president on whether the strategy is working, whether the strategy will evolve and hopefully, this evening some of your questions might be answered.

Buck Sexton.

CARDONA: Thanks, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Maria Cardona, Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling. Thanks to all of you. Appreciate it.

CARDONA: Thank you.

HERTLING: Thank you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Our special coverage of the president's address begins tonight at 7:00 Eastern with Wolf Blitzer. The president is speaking at 8:00 Eastern Time. Then after that, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, an all- star tribute to our "CNN Heroes."

All right. Ahead, the father of one of the California shooters says his son supported ISIS. That plus reaction from a California congressman, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:18:30]

WHITFIELD: All right. New developments in the terror investigation in San Bernardino, California. The father of the male shooter Syed Rizwan Farook is speaking out, telling the Italian newspaper "La Stampa," his son, "said he shared the ideology of Al Baghdadi to create an Islamic state and he was fixated on Israel."

Now, Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, joining me now to discuss these latest developments is former FBI special agent Bobby Chacon. So Bobby, how concerning is this that the father is now speaking but he's reflecting on hindsight?

BOBBY CHACON, FMR. FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, it's concerning but it's not something that was unexpected I think at this point in the investigation. I think our people on the ground in Pakistan and other places in the Middle East have been working leads that were generated here in Los Angeles in the minutes after the shooting and certainly in the hours and days since.

The leads that have been developed leading us over there and leading to this ideology. So I don't think that is all that unexpected, at least from the investigator's stand point.

WHITFIELD: OK. So four days into the investigation, now we know investigators are looking into that digital footprint because so few people suspected very much, at least that's what we're hearing from a number of those who have had contact with this couple, four days into the investigation, what's your expectation about how much more federal investigators have been able to learn about their motivation, who may have helped them, if anyone?

[16:20:00]

CHACON: Well, I think that they probably have a good start on some of that, both here in the U.S., those gentlemen that may have been seen leaving the house in the days and weeks preceding the attack. I'm sure that there are some solid leads running who those individuals were.

And may have assisted in the day-to-day or on the ground planning of the attack here. I think that they probably also have generated some good leads to our offices in the Middle East who are tracking down and getting a better picture of the female suspect in this case and where she was radicalized and how she was radicalized and to what extent she was trained over there. So I 'm sure those leads are being run out and being developed as we speak.

WHITFIELD: And Syed Farook's brothers have weighed in too, saying that the wife there, Tashfeen Malik, was a mystery. The father even now telling "La Stampa," the Italian newspaper this, "do you know that I never saw her, not even all covered up with burqa? Would he introduce me to her? I only know that she was born in Pakistan and lived in Saudi Arabia but I never spoke to her. She did not want to see her in-laws. I told my son that this was destroying our family but he did not care."

So are you able to kind of rationalize or help people explain how this person, Malik, may have come between this family, that the brothers, the father felt like they couldn't even communicate with this young man.

CHACON: Sure. I think this is something we see. We see this with the radicalization process. There is often a step away or a swaying away from the traditional family values and their family connections. And in this case it seemed that we don't know the extent to which he was radicalized or self radicalizing on the internet before he came into contact with her, whether she was a pre-planned set-up by people over there to set her up and be the catalyst to his further radicalization or the final phases of his radicalization.

Clearly when these two got together they started down this very quick path a year or less of planning and carrying out this attack. She clearly, in my mind, was the moving catalyst to take his radicalization to the next step, which is the actual attack.

WHITFIELD: All right. Bobby Chacon, thank you so much.

CHACON: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, former President Jimmy Carter making a stunning announcement in church today. Some are even calling it a miracle.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:26:12]

WHITFIELD: All right. Just four months after revealing cancer had spread to his brain, former President Jimmy Carter, who was 91, made a stunning announcement today in church.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER, FMR. U.S. PRESIDENT: I went for a - for an MRI of my brain. The four places were still there but they were responding to the treatment. And when I went this week, they didn't find any cancer at all. So I have good news.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow. You can hear the congregation, wow, they are stunned.

Our Nick Valencia has been covering this for us. Today you spoke with some of the church members who really are calling this miraculous.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are saying this is a miracle. They've been praying for this day. They did not expect it to come. But earlier this morning former President Jimmy Carter taking the start of Sunday school service to announce that he is cancer free. He said earlier he went in for an MRI earlier this week at which point the doctors told him that the original spots of cancer were gone and that there were no new signs of cancer.

Of course, as Fredricka mentioned this happened four months ago that he did announce that he had been diagnosed with cancer. That doctors found spots on his liver, removed a small mass but the cancer had spread to his brain. He was using an experimental drug called (Primbrolizemab) that may or may not have contributed to his cancer free diagnosis.

We did not expect to get this news this morning. I know a lot of people there in that congregation, in that church service this morning, was completely caught off guard calling it miraculous.

WHITFIELD: Otherwise you would have been because you were there four months ago with the bible study with the kids after he announced that his - his cancer was terminal and malignant at the time. That was the announcement.

VALENCIA: Yes, he said that he was very scared that this would be the end of his life. He had that moment and trying to reflect that this could have been the end of him really. But he remained positive and some doctors we've spoken to said that positivity and that reason that he had so many reasons to live could have contributed to his recovery.

In fact, we spoke to a doctor earlier and we asked him also about how Carter's age could have played a role in his recovery as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Sometimes when you see older patients their cancers do grow more slowly and clearly, in the present situation that has been the case. But that still does not negate the fact that he's had an excellent response.

The reality is that they can no longer find any visible evidence of cancer and in a situation with melanoma, as I mentioned earlier, that is the best possible outcome that one could ask for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: The best possible outcome indeed. Carter did release a statement saying in part that he will continue to receive regular three-week immunotherapy treatments of that drug, (pimbrolizemab). Right now, everyone elated. President Carter, whether you agree with his politics or not, very happy he is cancer free.

WHITFIELD: Yes, we can't wait to hear more about this journey, incredible journey he has been on.

Oh yes, Nick Valencia, thanks so much.

VALENCIA: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:30:01]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Tonight, President Barack Obama will give a rare address from the Oval Office on terrorism. This picture just in of the podium there that is there in the Oval Office, the speech comes in the wake of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California that killed 14 people. Investigators have evidence those attacks may have been inspired by ISIS. The President is expected to provide an update on the FBI investigation there, discuss the threat of terrorism in the U.S., and reiterate his pledge that ISIS will be defeated.

Tonight's speech will be only the third time in his entire presidency that President Obama has addressed the nation from the Oval Office. You can watch it right here live beginning at 7 o'clock Eastern Time.

So terror is the number one issue with registered voters, according to a new CNN ORC poll. That issue outranking the economy, health care, foreign policy, and illegal immigration. Presidential candidates spent their Sunday saying what they would do to fight ISIS, a key topic should people on the no-fly list be allowed to buy guns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because there are -- the majority of the people on the no-fly list are oftentimes people that basically have the same name as somebody else, who don't belong on the no-fly list. Former Senator Ted Kennedy said he was once on a no-fly list. There are journalists on the no-fly list. There are others involved on the no-fly list that wind up there. These are everyday Americans that have nothing to do with terrorism. They wind up on the no-fly list. There is no due process or any way to get your name removed from it on a timely fashion, and now they're having the second amendment right being impeded upon.

HILLARY CLINTON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to take account of the fact that our gun laws and the easy access to those guns by people who shouldn't get them, mentally ill people, fugitives, felons, and the Congress continuing to refuse to prohibit people on the no-fly list from getting guns, which include a lot of domestic and international terrorists, these are two parts of the same approach that I am taking to make us safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Our political panel is here, CNN Commentators Donna Brazile, and Democratic Strategist and Buck Sexton, a former CIA Analyst. All right, good to see you both, so Buck, how do you balance the argument, people on the no-fly list who still have a second amendment right to bear arms. What do you want to hear from the President?

SEXTON: Well, I hope the President doesn't make tonight's speech about gun control. I have very serious concerns that we will do that. I think in part I think he knows even though it's going nowhere because Republicans control the Congress, this has become a common tactic of the White House, to distract in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack by the Islamic state. I think that the Perceptions of President Obama's policies are in free-fall.

[16:35:01]

So in the aftermath of Paris, we have about 10,000 refugees for a week. That's kind of gone away. You don't hear about that anymore. And then in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in California here against the homeland, we're hearing all about gun control, despite the fact that they passed background checks, despite the fact that those weapons and the guns were purchased legally. As to the no-fly list, there are eight-year-olds on the no-fly list, journalists on the no- fly list. You either believe in a due process rights as a function of law or you don't. If you believe there is due process to abrogate somebody's second amendment rights, there has to be some process to go through the legal system for that. You can't just say you're on this bureaucratic list that has 900,000 names by the way and it's a giant bureaucratic mess. It's a distraction and it's meaningless.

WHITFIELD: All right, Donna, do you see the President's message may be double pronged, about terrorism and also about gun control?

DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: You know I don't know what the President is going to say tonight. I heard the outline of what would be -- I guess, a reiteration of what the country is doing to ensure that we're defeating ISIS, ISIS. I also heard that the President is going to discuss other steps that the country will take with our allies to ensure that we're doing our strategy as effective and defeating ISIS. With regard to the gun control conversation, yes, we need to have a conversation. There's nothing wrong with having a conversation about -- you know, guns. I support the second amendment.

If the no-fly list is flawed, yes, have a conversation. Congress gets paid a hell of a lot of money and there's no reason why we shouldn't have a hearing at least to make sure that no one is coming into this country and have the ability to purchase guns, and those who are here who are on various lists have the ability to purchase these military style weapons. And I know in California they have one of the strictest laws. Look, at the end of the day, the Presidential candidates, there are 16 of them, Fredericka. They are all out there today telling us what they would do differently.

And I think tonight the President has an opportunity to tell us what he's been doing since August of 2014 when we began to launch military strikes against ISIS. So I think this is a very important speech. I hope the American people tune in. And I hope the politicians also tune in and tell us what they would do differently.

WHITFIELD: All right, and among those Presidential candidates, GOP front-runner Donald Trump, he was asked today if his idea of tracking Muslim-Americans and giving every American guns would go too far in effect create more terrorists. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're killing people. Whether it is what we just saw the California or in Paris. They're killing people, innocent people, people without guns. You look at Paris. No guns, nothing. And you look at California, no guns. I can tell you one thing. If I am in there and I had a gun, we're going down -- we're going to knock them out, ok, one way or the other. A couple of guns are in that room, you talk about second amendment which I am a big believer in the second amendment. In Paris they had no guns. In California they have no guns. Only the bad guys had the guns. So they were like sitting ducks, every one of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, and I wonder how much more this moment compels candidates like Donald Trump or others to be more specific about what they have in find, Donna.

BRAZILE: Well, you know, I have heard a similar version of this from Mr. Carson as well, that if people have more of this or more of that, maybe we wouldn't have any of this. Look, we've had what I call a rampage recently in gun shootings across this country and, of course, we saw the attacks in Paris and Lebanon and other places. We have to find a comprehensive way of dealing with the crisis that we're undergoing here. Not just in this country but also abroad. So I believe that the President has every right to at least say a little bit about guns. I mean, after all, you know, thousands of people have been murdered since Sandy Hook and many of them innocent.

Again, I don't believe they're providing -- putting guns in more hands would solve the problem.

WHITFIELD: Ok.

SEXTON: Let me respond to Ms. Brazile for a moment. The notion that we should have a conversation is not what's being discussed right now by many Democrats, including Martin O'Malley, who is advocating for the seizure of firearms, the executive order as of today. This is not an issue that should be legislative. The President should decide to take guns from people -- as we know California has strict gun laws, so does Paris by the way. Nonetheless, terrorists are able to get weapons and kill whole lot of people. A conversation about guns would be fine. The reality is this President is trying to browbeat people into essentially giving up their legislative right. We're talking about the Congress here to say that, no, these are not actually fixes that will work in a meaningful way.

[16:40:01]

Counter terrorism policy for the homeland should be a bipartisan issue. The President should stick specifically to how he's going to defend the homeland in a better fashion, because we were just hit despite the fact that we know ISIS has been on the rise. There were plenty of warnings that this was coming. If the President makes this about gun control, he's just politicizing this. Again, I think it's mostly distraction...

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: Sir, with all due respect, it's been politicized so we don't have to blame anyone for making all of these issues political. The fact is this -- from our children who are being murdered on campuses and being murdered on our streets. We deserve to have a conversation.

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: Martin O'Malley has his solution. Donald Trump has his solution. I don't agree with either solution, by the way, but the fact is there is nothing wrong with having a conversation.

(CROSSTALK)

SEXTON: Conversation, that's not what the President is offering. The President is saying they need to change laws. The President has been talking about this for days.

BRAZILE: I absolutely -- you can scream as loud as you want to, honey...

(CROSSTALK)

SEXTON: Madam, I listened very peaceably during your speech.

BRAZILE: That is not a strategy. We have to have a strategy. Too many of our families are being murdered in this country.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Go ahead and finish your point -- one at a time.

SEXTON: Ms. Brazile and I could have a productive discussion about this. It actually could happen. I think the President could deal with the American people. The problem is the things he's been discussing for days now in the aftermath of a Jihadist terrorist attack on the U.S. soil would have done nothing to prevent that attack or meant to antagonize people...

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: That's what we hear every time.

SEXTON: Are meant to demonize the GOP and people who do not agree him when it comes to policies that we keep talking about fixes or ending violence. They would have ended no violence whatsoever in the circumstance being used to justify the response.

BRAZILE: Many Republicans believe we need sensible gun control laws in this country as well. Let's not smear all of them because many of them are calling for some of the same things the President is asking for.

WHITFIELD: All right, we're all going to be engaged to see exactly what President has to say this evening beginning at 7 o'clock on CNN, the President's speech from the Oval Office at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. All right, thanks so much, Buck Sexton, Donna Brazile, appreciate it. We'll be right back.

BRAZILE: Thanks, Fred.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:47:01]

WHITFIELD: British police are investigating a London subway stabbing as an act of terror. A bystander captured the incident on camera. And now police are investigating reports the suspect yelled this is for Syria. Our Phil Black is in London with details.

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, police here in Britain have publicly declared they are treating this as a terror investigation. That is not the usual response to knife crime here in London. Video taken by witnesses at the scene uploaded to social media show the chaotic scene, after this 29-year-old man is said to have slashed randomly at two people, threatened at least one more. He's then confronted by police. He is still wielding the knife. They used Tasers to bring him down. Now that he's in custody, the police are working to determine just what his motives were, his state of mind, and crucially, whether or not he was in this doing this alone. Witnesses say they heard the man talking about Syria as he was taken away by police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL GARCIA, WITNESS: An altercation, told me as soon as I got there, this guy has just split the other guy's throat. I look over. I see a guy huddled on the floor behind the barriers, a guy bran dishing a knife. It was a small blade, about three inches long. And he's screaming go on and run and run. When I got back to the station, the police had already arrived. Put him in handcuffs. And then they took him out at the station. As they walk him past everyone, he's within an arm's reach of me, I just hear him say this is for Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: It was only days ago that Britain's parliament voted in favor of expanding this country's military operations against ISIS by conducting air strikes against the organization in Syria. In addition to the air operations, Britain has been conducting against ISIS in Iraq. Critics of the move, politicians and activists, argued that in doing so Britain risked raising its profile, increasing the threat of terrorist attack against U.K. citizens either here or abroad. But the British government disputes this, insisting the intelligence assessment says that Britain is already within the top few targets ISIS aspires to hit, and Britain has already disrupted as many as seven ISIS-related terror plots in this country just in the last year, Fredericka?

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much, Phil Black.

All right, the fear of terrorism, it's something one of the world's most popular bands knows all too well. Next, we talk to Bono of U2 about the latest wave of terror, and how he is using music to try to change minds.

BONO, U2: It's poetry in music. And humor. A child sings before it can speak. It's the very essence of our humanity. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:54:01]

WHITFIELD: The rock band U2 returned to Paris tonight. The show was scheduled for the day after the Paris attack. On stage with them was the band, Eagles of Death Metal tonight. They were the band playing in Paris the night of the attacks. CNN's Fareed Zakaria talked to U2 Lead Singer Bono and the Guitarist the Edge, he asked what it was like to be in Parisian on that night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO: It was obviously awful and chaotic, and you think of whom you know, the crew. Who is out in the city? That kind of mentality and of course we thought about our fellow troubadours, the Eagles and Death Metal, and just what was happening there because they were still locked in at the time.

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was the band playing at the Bataclan where the largest number of people died.

BONO: Yeah. We tried to help them the next day, tried to find a plane for them to get out. Turns out the best way to help them was finding them phones, because their phones had been left in the venue and the venue had been sealed off. So they were at the police station and back in the hotel rooms without communication. So it turns out that was the most useful thing that we did, was find them some phones.

ZAKARIA: In a way this was an attack on the kind of life you guys represent, right?

BONO: Yeah.

ZAKARIA: An attack on rock music, the single largest place where people died was a rock concert.

THE EDGE, U2 GUITARIST: It seemed like the target was culture and every kind of expression of the best of humanity. Great, you know, music, restaurants, French food, everything that was -- that we hold dear was the target. And of course, France is also -- it's the birth of the enlightenment movement which gave birth to America. It's like the place where the modern western world was born. So I think the thing that we have to hold on the now in the aftermath was that, you know, we are not wrong. The instinct to start doubting, you know, these values and these ideas are like we're right, we're right. And that's why we're so determined to get back to Paris as soon as we can.

ZAKARIA: Did you think about even playing the next day? Was it even possible?

BONO: We hoped we could play the next day. Then it dawned on us just how serious it was and we had to just give up on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: All right. That's going to do it for me. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Poppy Harlow has much more straight ahead in the Newsroom right after this.

[17:00:00]