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ISIS Leader Killed In Raid; Biden Talks Crime In NYC; Biden: U.S. Took "Every Precaution Possible" To Minimize Civilian Casualty Risk During Special Forces Raid; Justice Dept. To Crack Down On "Ghost Guns," Firearms Trafficking. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired February 03, 2022 - 12:00   ET

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

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello, everybody. Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing what is a very busy breaking news day with us. President Biden says a major global terrorist is no more. The leader of ISIS was killed in a dramatic U.S. special forces raid in northern Syria.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Last night's operation took a major terrorist leader off the battlefield and has sent a strong message to terrorists around the world, we will come after you and find you.

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KING: Plus, the president heads to New York right now. He meets with New York City's Mayor and New York's Governor to promise new federal help in the face of a nationwide crime spike. And, a new Hollywood low, Rudy Giuliani gets a spot on the masked singer despite his sidekick role in Trump's big lie. Two of the program's celebrity judges were not pleased.

We begin the hour though with what the president calls a major message to terrorists and remarkable, simply remarkable details of a daring overnight U.S. special forces raid in northern Syria. ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed. The president says he detonated a suicide vest instead of surrendering to American forces. About two dozen American special forces troops were involved on the ground. A much more dangerous plan, the president said, was chosen to limit civilian casualties. The White House releasing this photo of the president, the vice president and other national security age (ph) watching this raid play out from the White House Situation Room.

CNN tracking all the developments in Washington across the globe, and we start with our Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, tell us more.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John, the Pentagon, a short time ago, issued a statement from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, again specifically reiterating the mission was designed to minimize civilian casualties on the ground. That appears to be one of the major reasons they went in with Special Operations Forces via helicopter and put them right on the ground at the compound. The U.S. says they believe al-Qurayshi detonated some explosives inside the building on the third floor, killing himself and Syrian Civil Defense sources on the ground who support this area say 13 people were killed. Austin says they really think it came from him detonating explosives but because of the complexity of the operation, the Pentagon will take a very close look at this now.

We have images that show the building, before and after, from the air, that show clearly an area that was blown up. The U.S. says no bombs were dropped. This would have come from explosives on the ground. Qurayshi is someone the U.S. had had their eye on for some time, somebody they wanted to get. He, by all accounts, more than just a bad actor. He is said to be responsible for the genocide of the Yazidi ethnic minority in the region. He has led attacks. He oversaw the U.S. ISIS - pardon me, the ISIS branch that is said to have been responsible for the killing of U.S. servicemembers at the airport in Kabul this past summer during that hasty evacuation of responsible for the bomb - the killer that detonated the bomb in that area.

So, this is somebody they very definitely wanted to get. The forces that went in, not just special forces but part of the Joint Special Operations Command, that is the part of the U.S. military that oversees the most elite forces. Think SEAL Team Six, think Army Delta Force, the Pentagon clearly not telling us exactly which troops were are on the ground but these are the guys that do this very dangerous work. They go in quick, hot, heavy. They minimize their time on the ground for their own protection. They try and get out as fast as possible. For them, this was a successful operation because the target was killed. No U.S. injuries. No U.S. fatalities, but there will be a look at those civilian casualties and try and make a specific determination how that might have happened, John.

KING: Barbara Starr, grateful for the live reporting kicking us off from the Pentagon. Keep us posted as we learn more. Let's move to the White House now where we are told there was tremendous tension in the Situation Room during this raid that from senior administration officials including we are told at one point the president watching anxiously as one of the American helicopters involved in this operation suffered mechanical problems. CNN's Jeremy Diamond live at the White House with more of that. Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. It was a moment of tremendous tension. Those were the words that a senior administration official used to describe to us earlier today that moment in the Situation Room as President Biden watched alongside Vice president Kamala Harris, and it's top notch security advisors he watched in real time as this raid was carried out including that mechanical issue that one of those helicopters suffered and there was tension and anxiety exist as those forces landed on the ground and arrived at this building where U.S. intelligence officials believed and ultimately confirmed that this ISIS leader was indeed house. There was relief those officials also said when civilians who were living on the first floor including children came out of the building and were able to be rushed to safety before ultimately the ISIS leader detonated those explosives on the third floor, killing not only himself, but apparently his family members, including several children.

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This operation that was in the works were told for several months. One senior administration official told me on this call that it was in early December that they finally got that certainty that confirmation that indeed al-Qurayshi was in this building that they had identified several months earlier as a possible location for the ISIS leader. The president was then briefed several times by operational commanders including one meeting in December where the president was presented with a tabletop model of this actual building. And, it was after that point that President Biden decided to move forward, not with a strike, a drone strike, for example, which could have been one of the options here, but instead, with a raid by special forces on the ground.

The president himself explaining this morning that that raid was carried out at greater risk to U.S. forces but it was designed to minimize the risk of civilian casualties. Obviously, had a drone strike taken place, you might have had casualties, including that family on the first floor that they were able to get out. I also asked the senior officials this morning about the impact that this will have on ISIS's capabilities going forward.

And, one of those officials said that this will be a blow to ISIS, a major blow to ISIS, not only because al-Qurayshi was the leader of ISIS but also because he was heavily involved in running many of this organization's operations for years before including under al- Baghdadi, the previous leader of ISIS. He was responsible for the genocide of Yazidis, this official said, in Syria and also involved in coordinating ISIS's operations of its international partners, including for example in other countries as well. John.

KING: Jeremy Diamond, very important details and context from the White House. Appreciate it. Thanks so much. Let's get some perspective now. Retired Army Major General James 'Spider' Marks, general, grateful for your time today. Now, let's start with the complexity and the heroism, the bravery of this operation. The president himself saying we had other options, could have used jets, could have used drones, could have used airstrikes, but he wanted to put the commandos on the ground, about two dozen we are told, helicopter gunships, some jets support, some drone support. Walk through what it takes to pull something like that off in northern Syria.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES 'SPIDER' MARKS (RET.), CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, first, John, thanks very much. But, we're not surprised by this. Are we? I mean, this is exactly what our Special Operations Command does, and specifically, what JSOC does so incredibly well, these immensely, as Barbara described, Elite Special Operators. This is how they train as a matter of routine.

So, it starts with incredible, precise intelligence, over the course of time, intelligence, that confirms intelligence you get into pattern of life and the types of intelligence can be technical intelligence, imagery, signals intelligence, maintenance, measurements, and signature intelligence, and then you try to get some human intelligence. Who are the sources? How do we get in there? How do we confirm that this is the target? And then, based on pattern of life, a decision is made probably weeks or months in advance, once it becomes clear what it's going to look like.

The forces are pre-positioned. Everything, as described, is very quick, in and out very quickly. It's going to be incredibly destructive. And, the reason you want to put forces on the ground is you not only can conduct the raid, you minimize the risk because of the speed and the training. But, you also can do confirmation on the target. If it went in with some type of precision ammunition, we probably would have had to go back in and do some forensic DNA work. We can do that on the spot. If the soldiers - if they are soldiers, if they're SEALs, it doesn't really matter. These are incredibly gifted interchangeable parts, but they can get that done on the ground during the raid itself, and then get extracted very quickly.

KING: And, the technology today makes this fascinating. We learned some of this back in the days of the Bin Laden raid, and we've earned it in some other special operations since but to have the President of the United States at the White House, obviously the Pentagon brass at the Pentagon, all watching this play out in real time including they have a helicopter that has some mechanical problems and these men on the ground, in the middle of this mission, having the wherewithal, to not only achieve their objective but they have to block their own helicopter, one of their own helicopters as they leave the scene. Just walk us through the training involved in that.

MARKS: Oh, well, that is all part of the training. Look, you go in with a level of redundancy so that when these conditions are met, not inevitably but often those that - and have to plan for the unknown or at least the unknown that might occur and then you work the probabilities.

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But, you walk through that and you're not married to that piece of kit. You'll blow that thing up in a heartbeat. It doesn't matter as long as you can get everybody back. Redundancy allows you to do that. And, what's really important, when you've got the President of the United States and his national security crew in the Situation Room in the White House, the most important thing they can do is be quiet. They don't need to interfere and they can look over their shoulder. And, that really is a technological advantage. It's quite phenomenal but we shouldn't be surprised by it, right? But, what's important is the discipline in that Situation Room to stay quiet. Let the operators execute. But, the commanders at the Echelon directly above make those contingency calls. So, the operators on the ground can do their job and not have to worry about some type of what we call the 6,000 mile screwdriver that comes in to try to fix a problem. It's not theirs to fix,

KING: Right. They've - they're involved at that moment to deal with the heroism. General, stand by for second. I just want our viewers to listen here to a little bit of what we have from the scene.

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KING: That posted on Syrian social media. This sounds to me, tell me if I'm wrong, machine gun fire capturing at least some of what's happening on that scene. So, the question after a day like this is that number one, you will plot, again, the special forces involved. Number two, you plot the Pentagon, and you applaud the commander in chief for executing the orders here. The question is what is the impact Americans don't hear as much about terrorism anymore? ISIS today is not what Al-Qaeda was 20 years ago when it could project globally and have horrific events like 9/11 But, twice now in a little over two years, the United States, the Trump administration got Baghdadi. The Biden administration now gets Qurayshi . What does that mean? What signal does it send to ISIS and its ability to operate--

MARKS: Sure.

KING: --and then to the other bad actors? (inaudible). I think General Marks is - we've lost the signal with General Marks. General 'spider' Marks, appreciate sir your time and perspective today. We'll continue that conversation as we go ahead. Up next, President Biden heads to New York City promising federal help to fight rising crime and rising gun violence.

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KING: President Biden landed just moments ago in New York City. He is there to promise more federal help fighting crime and fighting gun violence. The Attorney General Merrick Garland traveled with the president and New York's governor, New York City's mayor, will be on hand for that event. Mayor Eric Adams took office just a month ago and just this week attended the funerals of two police officers gunned down in the line of duty. Before leaving the White House, the White House released some new crime fighting commitments. They include new guidance to every U.S. attorney and a new program to target so called ghost guns. Our chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins in New York awaiting the president. Kaitlan, what are we going to hear?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're going to see President Biden come here in a few moments. Of course, he is going to be meeting with the New York City Mayor Eric Adams. While he is here, there are two people who a lot of people compare it as like-minded Democrats when it comes to striking this balance of supporting the police but also taking efforts to curb police violence in the wake of the George Floyd's - of George Floyd's death and the way that you see Democrats have to handle that after progressive members of their party had used slogans like defund the police, something that the White House has pushed back on in recent months saying that is not something that President Biden himself ever used talking about his support for the police.

And, I think part of the message at the White House is trying to drive home here by making this visit to New York City today is that President Biden is aware of the challenges across the country. He is aware of the uptick in crime and his understanding the concern that people have about that, the numbers that we have seen in polls that have been conducted in recent weeks and months about the concern that Americans have with that.

And so, part of the effort that you're going to see is not just this visit, a symbolic aspect of this visit, but also you saw the White House today saying that they are encouraging Attorneys' offices across the country to bolster resources to try to fight crime on a local level to do what they can. So, it's not just what President Biden is doing at the executive level but also what they can do at the local level. And also, going after and talking to prosecutors about how to go after those so-called ghost guns that you've heard the Attorney General Merrick Garland and other top Justice Department officials talk about, being able to police those because the way that they are conducted, the way they are handled, their law enforcement who have said they're basically not traceable.

And so, those are the efforts that they're trying to take. But, really it is also just sending the message home that the president is aware of this issue that he is trying to address it and he is making this trip here today to talk about it and to show that it is on his priority list, John.

KING: Kaitlan Collins, live for us awaiting the president, big day in New York City. Kaitlan, thanks so much. Let's go out to San Francisco now and get some perspective from the San Francisco Police Chief, Bill Scott. Chief Scott, grateful for your time on this important issue on this day. Let's listen first to the new New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The president is coming and they've spoken several times, they get along well. Mayor Adam says this is what I need from Washington.

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ERIC ADAMS, MAYOR, NEW YORK: I want him to acknowledge and see what I call the rivers that have feet in the sea of violence in our city and in our country. We're saying to Washington, D.C., SOS. We need your help. We have to stop the flow of illegal guns in our city, 6,000 guns removed off the street last year, close to 400 since I've been in office, yet they keep coming from gun dealers throughout this entire country.

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KING: You're not going to see, Chief Scott, you know this. You're not going to see any major gun control legislation passed by the United States Congress in this national political environment. So, what can the President - what can they determine? Any general do today that would help you tomorrow

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CHIEF WILLIAM SCOTT, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE: Well, I - first of all, good morning, John.

KING: Good morning.

SCOTT: Mayor Adams, his comments about help from the federal level is really important and federal authorities can help today. And, the first thing, we have to work in partnership with our federal partners, the FBI, the ATF, and we do here in San Francisco and many cities, and they do outstanding work.

But, like us, they need funding, they need staffing. And, I think that really goes a significant - significantly long way in terms of what we can do today, the collaboration of gun task forces to use technology to identify serial shooters and serial crime guns, gun using crimes, that's what we're doing here in San Francisco, and we've had the Bay Area region, and we've had some success. And, we're struggling like everybody else. But, luckily, in our city, violent crime, we're much better off than many, but it's because we've had assistance from our federal partners. We started three years ago and it is working, it's paying off.

KING: Walk through, I saw some of the notes and you've talked to our staff before the program, are you talking about the sophistication of crime changing, the organization using tools like the internet and the like. How is your challenge different today than it might have been three, five years ago?

SCOTT: It was significantly different with these privately manufactured guns that Mayor Adams spoke about a ghost guns. You - with just a little bit of knowhow you can make a gun from instructions on a computer. You can make a gun from a 3D printer. So, that's a whole new dynamic. And, John, the problem is, technology has really outpaced changes in the law. Technology has really outpaced our ability to deal with now, what people who want to harm by use of a gun have the capability of. So, we got to catch up.

And, I think that's another thing where if I were fortunate enough to have a conversation with the president and the Attorney General, that we have to catch up and we have to have smart legislation to address that, how technology plays into this issue and people who want to use guns in a bad way or ahead of the game and in many ways.

KING: One of the ways to get to that smart legislation is to have political consensus. And, this is an issue, hey, we're in the national - -you know the national divide in the country, the polarization. But, there has also been a debate within the president's own party, the Democratic Party. You have the defund police movement. You have people saying the priority should be on taking money from departments like yours or reprocessing, reprogramming money from departments like yours. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the president travels up to New York City. She is a Congresswoman from New York City. She says we risk reverting back to the 1990s era "tough on crime rhetoric", where policies may be rolled out to make it look like we're being responsive to public safety, but actually could potentially be making those issues worse, even if they might play well politically. Help me from a chief's perspective, from a guy who puts his life at risk, and the men and women who work for you put your life at risk every day. What's the sweet spot? What should the political conversation be about, yes, we should reform police departments and weed out the bad actors, but we need to help the cops as well.

SCOTT: Well, absolutely, I think it starts with that. It's about the people and all people. We have to be conscious and aware and have forward-thinking policies on protecting the people who we protect, the public, who are who are impacted by our work. But, we also have to protect the men and women who do the job every day. And, I think that gets lost in the balance, John, sometimes. People have to want to do this work. And, with support, and I'm talking about sensible support, I'm not talking about not holding people accountable, I'm talking about sensible support, support for the people to do this work goes a long way. And, there has to be balanced in this conversation. I'm all for reform, all for it.

But, we also have to support the officers who are out there doing work day in and day out because they matter. We need to let them know they matter. And, if we don't have that balance, we are going to have a staffing crisis on our hands in this country. We're already very short staffed in the city right now. And, my colleague chiefs around the Bay Area, many of them are facing the same problem. It's very tough to recruit. We have to get the right people in the shop and it's really hard to do that when this profession isn't respected by the very people that we need to protect and serve. There just needs to be a lot more balanced in this conversation.

KING: Chief, at moments where you think it's out of balance, raise your hand, you'd have to find us. That's why you're here today. So, please do. We'd appreciate your perspective throughout this what is hopefully hopefully the president today can start a good national conversation about that balance you talked about. Chief Scott, really grateful for your time today, sir.

SCOTT: Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

[12:25:00]

KING: My pleasure, sir. Thank you very much. After his big meeting with President Biden, you can hear from New York City's Mayor Eric Adams. He sits down tonight with CNN's Anderson Cooper. AC 360 begins tonight 8 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

When we come back, a key Trump department justice official meets with the January 6 committee for nearly two hours and a controversial, outrageous I would say, cameo by Rudy Giuliani. Why on earth was he invited on the masked singer?

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