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President Obama Holds Final News Conference Of The Year; Bernie Sanders' Campaign Threatens To Take Democratic National Committee To Federal Court; Rivalry Between Cruz And Rubio Heats Up; 18-Year-Old Ethan Couch Sought By Texas Police, FBI and U.S. Marshals. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired December 18, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:00] JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: He talked about the nuclear deal with Iran. Cuba and other things that he achieved. But he couldn't get past the issues of ISIS. And he did say he wanted to underline that even though he pointed out that 40 percent of the land ISIS had seized in the Syria-Iraq region has - they have been driven away from, they are going to continue to be very dangerous. And he noted that the reason he was saying that is because he has gotten in some hot water with the public before and with pundits before saying that there's an achievement and then ISIS went on to do other unspeakable acts of horror whether in France or possibly in San Bernardino.

As you note, he did point out and argue that, and it's a sad reality, that lone wolf attacks are going to be very difficult to prevent and he compared them to mass shootings. Just like mass shootings are not able to be prevented every time. It's an interesting comparison, both of them are horrific. I'm not sure that putting them in the same bucket is fair given that one is an intelligence area, but at the same - I guess, the bottom line is, it is horrible death and destruction.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: What struck you, Gloria?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: His move into politics, which was scarce, was that had he said that the Republican Party in in this country is the only major party that denies climate change and he called it an outlier. Then he was asked if he was embarrassed by that and he said no, because we were still a key leader in this this fight, the key leader in this fight on climate change and the leader in the Paris agreement.

But I want to agree with Jake here because this press conference was distinguished largely by the questions that really remained on the table about this off the record session the president had with journalist.

One other thing I want to point out is that he, according to Peter Baker in "The New York Times" he also told the columnists that the only way he would envision sending significant amounts of ground forces to the Middle East would be in the case of a catastrophic terror attack that disrupted normal life here in the United States. And I think that's going to become a topic of conversation on the campaign trail among Republicans. I wouldn't be surprised if Hillary Clinton were asked about some of the things the president said in this off the record session at her debate tomorrow night.

But again, there wasn't much news out of this press conference. The president took a little bow. The question about closing Guantanamo, he still clearly wants to close it.

BLITZER: He praised the house speaker Paul Ryan.

BORGER: Kiss of death of Paul Ryan in the Republican part.

BLITZER: He said he's developing a good relationship with the new house speaker.

BORGER: Right. And he didn't say how he would close Gitmo, what would happen to those prisoners.

BLITZER: He did try and he wants to close the Guantanamo Bay. He did suggest, Jim Sciutto, that there's a difference between posts that potential terrorists are putting online, public posts, as opposed to private communications. In the case of the San Bernardino terrorist maybe some of these posts that were private communications much more difficult for law enforcement to detect.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This goes to the question as whether there was an Intel failure in preventing the San Bernardino attack. There was incorrect reporting 48 hours ago that they had posted publicly on social media about support for jihad, the husband and wife team that carried out this that shooting. Turns out, it was in private messages. So something that would not have been caught, for instance, before getting a visa overseas, this fiance that the wife got, if for instance, the state department was checking social media postings because it was private messaging. So that gets to, you know, answering that question is whether it was an Intel failure there.

I think there was a nod in this to the administration acknowledging that there's great fear in this country. The president said in so many words, my most important job is keep more thanes safe. He acknowledges that. He acknowledges that fear. But he went on to defend the strategy and in affect say there's going to be no new strategy. He said ISIS has lost 40 percent of the populated areas it used to control in Iraq. It's losing ground in Syria as well. And that the air campaign, in his words, is hitting ISIS harder than ever. So in effect, he is doubling down on strategy saying there is going to be no change.

I would just make one more point about connecting San Bernardino to mass shootings. Because I could be wrong about this, but that connection seems to be fit with a broader narrative that not just the White House but other U.S. officials are trying to get out there to tamp down some fears to say that, listen, yes, this was a terror attack, but the fact is there aren't that many of them. And the fact is we have these other shootings, you know, trying to put it in the same category in effect as other shootings violence.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Sandy Hook.

SCIUTTO: Exactly. Which may be a fair comparison, but the fact is, as you said Jake, Americans view it differently. There is something about an ISIS attack inspired from abroad that frightens Americans more. That's a fact. And that connection, I thought, was an interesting one for him to make.

[15:05:11] BORGER: And it is also the connection about guns, you know, which the president says people on the watch list should not be able to get guns. And that wasn't specifically raised today but it's clearly something the president wants to change.

TAPPER: The president did acknowledge that he and the administration are speeding up the process of transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay and that's interesting.

BLITZER: He said there would be fewer than 100 early next year.

TAPPER: And that is -- it's true. And he also acknowledged that many of them, 70 I think he said or so, would be in this strange category of they can't transfer them and they can't try them. So what do you do with them? And he was saying he was going to turn to Congress and hope for help with that. It's, of course, the big dilemma of what you do with them. If you bring them to the United States, then they are constitutionally protected, right, to a fair trial. And that's one of the reasons they are at Guantanamo outside of the United States.

But what's interesting is the connection that I think a lot of Republicans and opponents of the president are going to make between letting these prisoners out, and there's a recidivism rate, people who are either going to or return to the battlefield, resuming or starting a life of terrorism against the United States, one presumes by the state, resuming. And the disconnect between that act and the fear that the people of the United States are feeling right now when it comes to the terrorist threats.

BLITZER: Hold on, Gloria, for a second. David Ignatius is joining us. He is a "Washington Post" columnist. He was at the off the record meeting with the president of the United States at the White House. David is a good friend.

David, thanks very much for joining us. I want to pick your brain. You wrote a column. You didn't quote the president, but you took us inside the mind of the president in your column yesterday in "the Washington Post." Your headline, in fighting the Islamic State, Obama is a tortuous and the GOP is hair-brained. That was the headline, the title of your article in the "Washington Post."

As a result of that article, "The New York Times," Peter Baker and company, they went ahead and did a full report on what the president said. And I don't know what your restrictions are as far as ground rules or whatever, but if you can give us the context of what the president said when there would be if the U.S. went in on mass with ground troupes in Syria, 100 would come home in body bags every month, 500 would be wounded. It would cost U.S. taxpayers $10 billion a month. Are those accurate numbers? DAVID IGNATIUS, COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON POST: First of all, I don't

feel comfortable talking about sessions that were On the Record or off the record. I do feel comfortable talking about what I wrote in my column yesterday and giving your viewers some background on it.

What I said in the column was that President Obama's advisers have been telling him that the cost of and all-in ground combat involvement in Syria is on the order that you mentioned. The 100 killed a month, 500 seriously wounded a month, $10 billion in costs a month. So as the president weighs this, getting advice from military advisers, he I think continues to view the all-in response with a strategy that admittedly is going slowly. I thought it was important in the president's news conference just now when he said progress is spotty. In other words, this isn't going as quickly as we would like or as the American people would like. So he is saying the alternative to that spotty, uneven, uncertain progress would be a much greater commitment of U.S. forces with very high costs. And as I said in my column, I don't think the president at this point feels that those costs are justified by the benefit to the country.

BLITZER: Under what circumstances, David, would the president think those costs would be justified?

IGNATIUS: Obviously, we don't know that. Even the columnists drawing on sources can't read the president's mind. But I think based on the reporting that I have done that it's fair to say the president at this it point does not view the crisis in Syria and Iraq as an existential crisis to the United States. Whether is the ability of ISIS to project its power into the United States to cause the kind of mass casualties that would truly disrupt our society, we haven't seen yet.

If we got to that point, if there were attacks on the United States at that level, then I think the president's calculus and everyone else's would change. But as to what precisely would be the trigger for his decisions or his adviser's recommendations, I can't say.

BLITZER: You would think, David, that the president would have volunteered that kind of public statement at this news conference because it does -- it is a pretty powerful justification for his reluctance to do what some of his critics want to do. Have a no-fly zone or send in 10,000 or 20,000 U.S. troops into Syria and Iraq to fight ISIS. If he were to spell out his view based presumably on what the U.S. military tells him of the enormous cost in blood and treasure, that would be a powerful statement.

[15:10:28] IGNATIUS: I share the view that at this time when the public is anxious, concerned, wants to know how the White House is looking at these issues, it's important that they have a better sense of how the commander-in-chief is viewing them. That's why I wrote the column that I did yesterday drawing on my sources, which I don't want to talk about, to give people as clear a sense as I could of how this is seen. I think it would be better for the president in news conference like this speaking to the whole country directly on camera to say more because this is a public that's hungry for leadership and clarity about where we're going. But I think the president the basics that I report in my column

yesterday I did hear in the news conference. The way we are going, we have spotty progress, but we will defeat ISIS in the end. He is effectively saying to have patience. He is saying it's difficult to it deal with lone wolf and other attacks that the U.S. is working and struggling to know more. It was interesting that this week he visibly publicly went to the Pentagon, went to the national counterterrorism center. He could be briefed in the situation room and get the same briefing and chose to go there publicly again, I think as a symbolic statement to the country -- I'm working the progress problem.

BLITZER: David, I want you to standby for a moment. Retired general Mark Hertling, our military analyst, is joining us right now.

General, the numbers that the president is suggesting of casualties and costs if the U.S. were o to deploy ground troops into Syria, I want your analysis, are they basically what you have been hearing as well? A hundred American troops would get killed every month, 500 would seriously injured and would cost U.S. taxpayers $10 billion a month. Is that what you've heard?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It has been what I've heard, Wolf. And it's also part of what's called a force deletion study. But it's also what I have experienced. You know, when you've been in combat and you see soldiers under your command sacrifice their lives, how much money you're spending, the kinds of things that accompany this, I have to comment, too, this is what soldiers are sometimes asked to do. It is part of our job description.

But the real question is, should we provide deployments under these kind of situations? Is it a smart move to insert ourselves in the middle of what is a fight for the heart and soul of Islam? And we have been there before. We know how long this is going to take. Even when not deploying soldiers on the ground in this fight as we have been talking so many times before. We have often said this is going to be a very long, slow slot. And yet, the American people still want -- the American, by the way, people, 99 percent who don't serve in the cloth of their country but want other people to do it, have been told repeatedly this is going to be a long fight yet we still want it right away. It's inconceivable to me to understand the dichotomy in this kind of suggestion. But I believe, yes, the president has been given these figures by his advisers and I would suggest they are close to being accurate.

BLITZER: S.E. Cupp, the debate, the Republican presidential debate the other night, you heard several of the Republican candidates suggesting the U.S. should go in ground forces. Lindsey Graham, for example, he wants 10,000 U.S. troops in Syria right now and another 10,000 in Iraq. You think the American public is ready right now for these kinds of casualties and costs if the U.S. were to deploy troops in that manner?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look. You're never ready for casualties in the cost of war, but for the first time, a majority of Americans want ground troops in Iraq and Syria. And that's for a number of reasons. One, it feels like the current strategy that the Obama administration has been defending for months isn't working. And that's been sort of reassured by some of the members of his own cabinet who have contradicted this idea that ISIS is contained.

When President Obama said just now, you know, that doesn't mean that ISIS won't still be dangerous. It does. They will still be dangerous. That doesn't jive with past explanations that ISIS is JV, ISIS is contained, ISIS is not an existential threat.

After San Bernardino, it's very difficult to compel the American audience - American voters that taking back 40 percent of ISIS east's territory overseas is making us safe. I'm sure that is the case. But the American people are very, very concerned. And I think maybe for the first time, there is more of an appetite to go in to Iraq and Syria with our troops and fight is more definitively so that the threat and the fear at home can be somewhat assuaged.

[15:15:24] BLITZER: Donna Brazile, on most of the issues, national security issue, the president and the leading Democratic presidential candidates, the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton seem to be on the same page. But when it comes to Syria, she is a bit more hawkish. She does supports what he oppose a no-fly zone over Syria. There's some concern that kind of no-fly zone could resolve in an exchange between the U.S. and Russia. Russian planes are flying all over the place over Syria right now. How much of a difference is there between the president and Hillary Clinton?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think Secretary Clinton has outlined her own views and strategy in terms of how she will approach this crisis if she becomes the president of the United States. And I think she has every right to do that along with senator Sanders and Governor O'Malley. I mean, that's what the debate is in the Democratic Party you will hear more about.

But look, I want to be very careful. I think we're so, you know, gung sometimes who to go to war and to go reoccupy or try to occupy other countries, Iraq, for example. We're not a real strategy of what we're going to do once we get there and how we're going to get out.

Look. We have a government in Iraq that has to put a leading role in helping to defeat ISIS within Iraq. And we have a fractured government in Syria. So I think we have to be very careful. Yes, the American people are worried. They are fearful. They are concerned. But bombing, as the president say, having just a less bomb strategy may not be workable in this situation. I think we have to put all these various tools that the president, the United States and the coalition and allies are using together to ensure that it's effective, it's working including the internet and the access that these terrorists now have with all of this stuff. I don't even know because, Wolf, as you know, I'm not that great with all this technology.

But we have to make sure that we're doing the right thing and have a strategy. Listen to those who know exactly how we're going to get in, expedite whatever we're going to do and get the hell out. Because I tell you, what we are doing right now is causing more conflict. And what I believe long-term is going to be a bad strategy for the United States. It's going to make the situation even worse.

I hope we have a smart strategy and not want to simply march us back into the Middle East believing, you know, that we're going to conquer the day when this is more difficult. We need to get more of our Arab allies, more of the Sunnis involved in this campaign as well.

BLITZER: Donna Brazile, thanks very much. S.E. Cupp, and General Hertling, David Ignatius, very important discussion right now.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the SITUATION ROOM."

Brooke Baldwin is standing by live.

Brooke, you have got a lot more coming up.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: I do indeed. Wolf Blitzer, my friend, thank you so much. We'll see you later today on "the SITUATION ROOM." I'll take it from here.

Also today, breaking news. We are learning about the other terror attacks in the works by the San Bernardino killers including plots involving rush hour and a college.

Also ahead today, the homework that sent everyone home. And in higher school district shutting down today over a geography lesson. Hear why parents say the teacher wanted to convert their kids to Islam.

And does an old video contradict Ted Cruz's claims on immigration? His ongoing feud with Marco Rubio escalating today. The question we are asking is who is telling the truth.

You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:22:33] BALDWIN: All right. We are back here. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

You just saw President Obama just holding his final news conference here of this year, 2015 as the nation is, you know, on edge from these recent terror attacks. And now, comes breaking news on an act that may have exposed the United States in another way online. A major breach has officials worried that hackers have been able to spy on encrypted government information for possibly the last three years.

Let me get right to our justice correspondent Evan Perez.

So just how did this happen? Who do U.S. officials think is to blame here?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, let me just explain real quick what happened here. Juniper networks is a company that makes routers and computer network equipment. And a lot of their equipment is used by the U.S. government. Everybody from the FBI, treasury department, department of defense. Yesterday they disclosed there was a major, major breach of their

systems. Somebody three years ago it appears changed the source code unauthorized source code. And basically, what this allowed was some sort of back-door for hackers to be able to come in and out without leaving a trace and being able to spy on encrypted communications. And so, what we are talking about is, you know, government communications that are supposed to be secure. Even private companies that are using VPN networks, the things that you and I use to log into our computers. All of that these hackers would have been able to spy on for the last three years.

Now, this flaw was only recently discovered. And now we have the FBI investigating. The Homeland security department is very, very concerned. Now they are trying to do an assessment to see how many government agencies including some are the ones handling some of the most sensitive secrets in the U.S. government have these networks and whether or not there was some breach, some of their top classified information, some of their top security information has been exposed by hackers, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, Evan Perez, thank you in New York.

Let's get straight now to the race for 2016. And this is the Bernie Sanders campaign is threatening to take the Democratic National Committee, the DNC, to federal court. So the DNC suspended the campaign from its national d database. This all started when a database firewall went down and the Sanders staff member accessed confidential voter information collected by Hillary Clinton's team. The Sanders campaign has since fired that staffer. Senator's campaign manager is putting this entirely on the DNC saying the DNC's vender failed to keep information between the rival camps' confidential. Here is more of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:25:10] JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN MANAGER: We are announcing today that if the DNC continues to hold our data hostage and continue to attack the heart and soul of our grass roots campaign, we will be in federal court this afternoon seeking immediate release. What is required here is a full and independent audit of the DNC's mishandling of this data and security from the beginning of this campaign to the present, including the incident in October that we alerted them to when we were fairly confident that large amounts of our data were sent to another campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now is CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

And Jeff Zeleny, we will get to the DNC here in a second. But first, now that we have kind of a better grasp of how this happened, I want to get to the why. Because from what I understand, you asked the Sanders camp, you know, one of the words that they have used is sabotage. Can you explain? JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Brooke,

this is just an extraordinary episode. I mean, all of the fighting is on the Republican side so far in this campaign, but this is an unusual and a very important thing going on here.

I mean, we have to back up a little bit. You may wonder why they would have had had access to anything that Clinton campaign had at all. Well, the Democratic Party sort of has a unified list. Think of it as more of like a phonebook. And all those volunteers out there, all those campaign staffers when they are knocking on doors, and talking to people, they are inputting new information into this phonebook.

Well, all the campaigns pay for access to this. So they can all use it. But theoretically, it's supposed to be walled off campaign to campaign to campaign wall. You know, there was a broken firewall for a few minutes on Wednesday just for about 25 minutes or so, Brooke. And during that time, the DNC is saying the Sanders campaign went in and started looking at a bunch of stuff they shouldn't have been looking including how many Iowa voters specifically were more likely to support Hillary Clinton and how many New Hampshire voters were skeptical of Hillary Clinton. So by using all this information, they can sort of build a sense of what the lay of the land is. And the DNC saw this was happening and they said, well, this is a huge violation of the agreement here.

So that's one of the reasons that the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz is being so strong on this. She responded just shortly after Jeff Weaver had his press conference. She was on with Wolf Blitzer and this is what she had had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I guess the Sanders campaign unfortunately doesn't have anything other than bluster at the moment that they can put out there, because what they are doing, what they have done is it's like if you had - if you found the front door of your house unlocked. And someone decided to go into the house and take things that didn't belong to them. And then when they were caught, they still insisted on having access to the house.

I mean, the only way for us at the moment to make sure that we analyze what amount of information was taken, and that we can prevent and make sure that the Sanders campaign no longer has access to it is to suspend their ability to manipulate it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So that right there is the comment from the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. She is saying that they are going to do a full audit on this before they decide whether they are going to restore full access to the Sanders campaign.

And Brooke, the reason this all matters, we are about six weeks or so before the Iowa caucuses. And the Sanders campaign uses all this information to see who is supporting them, who is not and not having access to this for even for a few days, they believe, is a problem. But I can tell you that the Sanders campaign by acknowledging wrong doing, by firing one person looking into up to three more, they are initially in the wrong here no question.

So we are just going to have to see how this plays out. And of course, tomorrow night is the final Democratic debate Saturday night in New Hampshire. So I can tell you this is going to be a topic of discussion at that debate.

BALDWIN: That is precisely what I was going to say. Debate tomorrow night.

Jeff Zeleny, a lot happening now in the Democratic side as well. Thank you, sir, for that.

Chilling new details out today about the terror attacks that did not happen. The friend of the San Bernardino killer admit they plotted a rush hour attack and a massacre inside of a college. How much more does this man really know?

And a homework assignment has parents accusing this Virginia teacher of trying to convert their kids to Islam. And now the entire county has shut down its schools for security concerns. We'll explain what has everyone so totally outraged ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:33:44] BALDWIN: The rivalry between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio is getting increasingly intense. The center of all of this here, immigration. Senator Cruz came out swinging against Senator Rubio for his role in being a member of the gang of eight in 2013, which supported a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Rubio then accused Cruz of using crafty language to cover up his own immigration voting record. But Cruz is on the campaign trail today with a new ad hitting back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Securing our borders and stopping illegal immigration is a mart of national security. That's why I fought so hard to defeat President Obama and the Republican establishment's gang of eight amnesty plan. Their misguided plan would have given Obama the authority to admit Syrian refugees including ISIS terrorists. That's just wrong. When it comes to radical Islamic terrorism, I think we need to rediscover Ronald Reagan's strategy. We win, they lose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's get to the heart of this. Let me bring in Congressman Jim Bridenstine. He chairs Senator Cruz's Oklahoma campaign. He is also a major in Oklahoma air national guard.

Congressman, thank you for joining me. REP. JIM BRIDENSTINE (R), OKLAHOMA: Thank you. It's good to be here.

BALDWIN: So, let's just clear this up in terms of right now here 2015, December. What is Senator Cruz's position on pathway to citizenship?

[15:35:04] BRIDENSTINE: Senator Cruz has never supported a pathway to citizenship. He has never supported a pathway to legalization. This is a ploy by the Marco Rubio campaign going back to 2013. Marco Rubio was a part of the gang of eight amnesty plan that did not provide border security. That is a record that is going to be problematic for him in the Republican primary.

BALDWIN: OK. But we are not talking about Marco Rubio. What about Senator Cruz and how he feels right now about pathway to citizenship?

BRIDENSTINE: He does not support a pathway to citizenship.

BALDWIN: So what about 2013? I mean, you brought up. Senator Cruz indicated he was open to legal status for undocumented immigrants who is trying to get, let me be precise, it was the path to legalization amendment trying to get that in. And this is, you know, we pulled this clip from 2013. Here he was at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: I don't want immigration reform to fail. I want immigration reform to pass. And so I would urge people of good faith on both sides of the aisle if the objective is to pass common sense immigration reform that secures the borders, that improves legal immigration and that allows those who are here illegally to come in out of the shadow shadows, then we should look for areas of bipartisan agreement and compromise to come together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right. So that was Senator Cruz's owned words that was in 2013, May. My question to you is in that time since, did he just change his mind?

BRIDENSTINE: Not at all. You heard him say, and what we were told over and over again, that the goal here was to take 11 million people that were living in the shadows, take them out of the shadows. That's what they were telling us. We have to provide a path to citizenship to take them out of the shadows.

What Senator Cruz can was exposing is this was not just about taking them out of the shadows. If it was then the path to legalization would have been sufficient, not a path to citizenship. So what Ted Cruz did was just provide an amendment that said there is a permanent prohibition. If you break our laws coming in, you cannot get a path to citizenship.

Now, ultimately what he did is he exposed what was really going on. They did not just want to bring them out of the shadows. They wanted to have a path to citizenship. This, as you know, you have been around Washington, D.C. You know that this is what you do when you have a really bad bill and you're trying to make it a little better. That's what Ted Cruz was trying to do.

Ultimately, if you were there back in 2013, there's nobody in their right mind could possibly suggest that Ted Cruz was in favor of this bill in any way, shape or form. He was leading the effort against it from the beginning and he led the effort against it until the very end.

To suggest that somehow Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have a similar record on this amnesty bill is categorically false and nobody there, not a single person there could suggest otherwise.

BALDWIN: OK. Congressman, let me ask you this. Which Republican candidate of the whole crowd right now, which Republican candidate do you think is the greatest threat to a Ted Cruz nomination?

BRIDENSTINE: The greatest threat to a Ted Cruz nomination? I don't think anybody is a great threat.

BALDWIN: Donald Trump.

BRIDENSTINE: I think Ted Cruz is going to win. And I think the Republican electorate across this country needs to back my guy Ted Cruz for the presidency of the United States.

BALDWIN: OK, not going to get a name out of you I hear. But let me ask you this then. You know, obviously, you are a Ted Cruz guy. But what does it say to you that Donald Trump now says it is an honor to be praised by Vladimir Putin?

BRIDENSTINE: Well, I think that's problematic. You know, Vladimir Putin has invaded Crimea. He still is destabilizing broader eastern Ukraine. He has invaded Georgia. He occupies south (INAUDIBLE) in Georgia. He has cut off energy in the Baltic States, (INAUDIBLE), Lithuania and Estonia. He has threatened nuclear war in Poland. And of course, now he is partnered with the Assad regime and the (INAUDIBLE) in Iran in the Middle East.

BALDWIN: So problematic.

BRIDENSTINE: What I would tell you is that anybody who is looking for praise from Vladimir Putin probably should not be commander-in-chief of the United States.

BALDWIN: What would Ted Cruz say if Vladimir Putin was calling him, you know, talented and outstanding? What would his response be?

BRIDENSTINE: I would imagine Ted Cruz would not get that kind of praise from Vladimir Putin. Ted Cruz has been very clear about what's going on in Russia and that this Russian aggression throughout the entire world needs to stop.

BALDWIN: Congressman Jim Bridenstine, thank you, sir.

BRIDENSTINE: Thank you. BALDWIN: All right. Right now, let's take a peek at the big board

here. A lot of red on the board. It's down 300 points 20 minutes before the end of the trading day. We will check in and find out why this is happening.

Plus the friend of the San Bernardino killer admits they plotted a rush hour attack and a mass shooting inside of a college. What else could he tell investigators now that he has been arrested?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:43:09] BALDWIN: You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

The first criminal charges have been filed in the deadliest terror attack since 9/11 on U.S. soil when 14 people were murdered earlier this month in San Bernardino, California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sore now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Enrique Marquez here, this was totally unrelated local news story. This is the guy accused of supplying two of the rifles use the in that mass murder. He is now charged with federal weapons violations as well as conspiring to commit terror in 2011 and 2012 and immigration fraud for an alleged sham marriage.

The 24-year-old used to live next door to one of the San Bernardino shooters, the husband of this husband and wife killer duo. And a federal criminal affidavit reveals how the two friends were initially planning to use the guns that Marquez admits he bought and the details are extraordinary chilling.

We have learned that one plot involved setting off a pipe bombs, plural, on state route 91 as cars were stopped. The male husband here involved in the San Bernardino killings, according to his affidavit, would travel the lane shooting trapped drivers while Marquez would fire from a hillside ready to attack first responders and police arriving on the scene.

Citing at affidavit, the friends chose a specific spot along this state route because, quote, "according to Marquez, the lack of exits would increase the number of targets in the eastbound lanes during afternoon rush hour traffic."

Officials say that plan and a second plot were dropped after the two men were spooked by some terrorists in 2012.

In Virginia this simple homework assignment for some high school students did not at all go over very well for some parents. In fact, the backlash over this assignment was so great that officials decided to close the entire school system today.

What was the assignment? To copy this Arabic image in calligraphy. This is called the Shahada (ph). And it is the basic Islamic statement of faith. Now, the assignment was for this world geography class and came from a standard workbook on world religions, but some parents here in this Virginia area, they were not having it. They fired off angry phone calls and emails. Some view as an attempt to convert students to Islam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why couldn't we just learn to write hello, good- bye, you know, normal words, not that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will not have my children set under a woman who indoctrinates them with the Islamic religion. Well, I am a Christian. And I'm going to stand behind Christ.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: There has been no specific threat of harm to students. So why shut down the school system?

Let's go to our national correspondent Jason Carroll, who is following this one for us today.

Jason Carroll, right, so if it wasn't hello or good-bye, well, it is you know, begin basic question, what was exactly was the assignment? What did it translate to and why shut the entire school district down?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was a decision that was reached by the school district superintendent and the sheriff. I spoke to the sheriff actually, Brooke, this morning. And he told me the school had received so much hate mail from non-Muslims upset about this assignment. They really felt they had no choice.

Even though, this is an assignment that came from a standard workbook and one that had been handed out before with no backlash. But even so, they decided this was the best course of action to shut down classes for all of the district's 10,000 students. More about that assignment.

According to the school district, the assignment read here is the Shahada, the Islamic statement of faith written in Arabic in the space below try copying it by hand. This should give you an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy. A number of parents clearly, as you say there, not happy about that.

You heard their voices there. Very upset. Their thought is this assignment was in some way trying to convert these children to Islam. The school district released a statement about it basically saying as we emphasize no lesson was designed to promote a religious viewpoint or change any student's religious belief. Although students will continue to learn about world religions as required by the state board of education and the commonwealth's standard of learning, a different non-religious sample of Arabic calligraphy will be used in the future.

We should also point out, Brooke, that we did reach out to the teacher that made this assignment. We were unable to reach her. But, you know, when you look at some of the Facebook postings, a number of her students are supporting her saying they were not offended by the students and they are standing by their teacher.

BALDWIN: Jason Carroll, thanks.

Next to the Chicago police officer charged. We'll be right back to find out what is behind the big (INAUDIBLE).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:35] BALDWIN: All right. Breaking news. Taking a look at the big board here. Nine minutes until the end of trading day. And you can see the Dow down triple digits down 304 points. Right now let's go straight to Paul La Monica in New York.

Paul La Monica, what is going on?

PAUL LA MONICA, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT (on the phone): Yes. It's a pretty ugly day. But I think one thing to keep in mind to try and reassure some investors here, we had the market rally pretty strongly earlier in the week. So even with the losses we are seeing today and yesterday we are relatively flat for the week. I think investors are just starting to wonder maybe the Federal Reserve, which remember raised interest rates for the first time in nine years on Wednesday, perhaps the fed is going to raise rates a little bit more than the market is expecting. I think that's contributing to some of the spooking -- the selloff that's going on today.

BALDWIN: OK. Paul La Monica, thank you for the perspective. Thank you for calling in.

Still ahead, he is the teenager too rich and too spoiled to go to jail. He killed four people in a drunk driving accident. Remember he was put on probation. He is now missing. Find out who just joined the search after authorities believe he fled the country. And we will hear from the family of one of his victims.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:56:31] BALDWIN: An update for you today on the affluenza teen who we reported has gone missing with his mother. 18-year-old Ethan Couch is now being sought by the Texas police, the FBI and the U.S. marshals because he has gone missing while he is supposed to be on probation.

This is the aftermath of the 2013 accident that landed Couch in trouble on probation. He was convicted two years ago of drunk driving. His truck plowed into a group of people killing four of them. But instead of jail time, as I mentioned, he got probation. His attorney sold the judge on the idea that the then-16-year-old suffered from affluenza, that he's rich, and that he is spoiled and then his parents didn't tell him the difference between right and wrong.

Fast forward to today, he and his mother appeared after this video surfaced allegedly showing Couch playing beer pong. And if it's him, it could be a violation of his probation. Not surprised by this. The father of a victim who survived that original crash and an attorney for others who did not, they talked to my colleague John Berman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN MCCONNELL, SON INJURED BY ETHAN COUCH: Anger has to subside at some point. Anger's a temporary emotion. And, you know, I try not to hang onto that, but I do feel like accountability hasn't been demonstrated yet. And I would still like to have some accountability because I need for my son, Lucas, to see that there are consequences for bad decisions.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you have any updates right now in the hunt?

TODD CLEMENT, ATTORNEY FOR MCCONNELL FAMILY AND ERIC BOYLES: No. From what we understand is he was gone for a while before it was determined that he was gone. And the sheriff here in Ft. Worth has made statements like, you know, he is number one on our list. We have enlisted the U.S. marshals. We have enlisted the FBI. And the local sheriff here rather colorfully said when we find him he is going to go to big boy jail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The sheriff in Tarrant County, Texas has named Couch top fugitive saying directly to Ethan and his mother quote "we are going to find you wherever you are."

And Lebron James, listen. A lot of people want to get close to Lebron. I mean, not this close, this guy, 6-feet, 8-inches tall, 250 pounds, seen in this video from last night's NBA game, chasing loose ball, wait for it, he ends up -- hurts every time I watch crashing into the wife of PGA golfer Jason Day. You see it from another angle. You can't really see her. He landed smack dab on top. Here are some of the close-up stills of the collision. Ellie day was knocked from her chair right there, front row seat, play was halted until she was put on a stretcher with a neck brace and she was taken to the hospital. The good news I can tell you is that she is back home today recovering. Lebron James did jump on twitter and say he was sorry.

Before I let you go, the White House -- you saw the president just a moment ago, he is now officially joining in on the "Star Wars" mania today. The president and first lady hosting a screening of the super popular sci-fi movie for Gold Star families. This is so wonderful. This is an organization for family who is have lost relatives in combat. And here are storm troopers arriving with press secretary John Earnest a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have got a bunch of gold star families and their kids who are going to get a special screening of the movie. And so, we obviously are very grateful for all that they are doing to pay tribute to the sacrifice that so many (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP) [16:00:04] BALDWIN: So from the storm troopers, I believe it got an urgent email that R2D2 is in the White House as well. So there you have it. May the force be with you on this Friday.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks so for being with me. "THE LEAD" starts now.