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Obama Reassures Americans No Credible Terror Threat; DNC Punishes Sanders Campaign for Data Breach. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 18, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not be terrorized. We've prevailed over much greater threats.

[05:58:32] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Arrested by the FBI in connection with the San Bernardino terror attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Paris terrorists communicated with each other using encrypted applications.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: What's App and Telegram is the top of their list.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really, you're looking for a needle in a stack of needles.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Bernie Sanders campaign admitting of its staffers improperly accessed confidential voter information.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The battle intensifying.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They are trying to blur the record.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. Marshals joining the search for the so-called affluenza teenager.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one can look at this story and be anything but horrified at what wealth and privilege got this kid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Wow. It is still dark out. There you go.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Friday, December 18.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Friday.

CAMEROTA: Six a.m. in the East. Happy Friday to you. Chris is off this morning. John Berman is with us. Great to have you here on this Friday.

President Obama once again reassuring Americans that there is no credible terror threat going into the holidays. The president heads to California today to meet with victims of the San Bernardino attacks. Two weeks after the massacre, federal agents arresting 24- year-old Enrique Marquez. He's a friend of the terrorist charging him with conspiracy to support terrorism.

PEREIRA: The president also on the defensive over his strategy to defeat ISIS as he works to stem criticism that he's not doing enough. President Obama is expected to address both of these issues and much more when he holds his year-end press conference this afternoon.

Got every angle covered for you. We begin with CNN senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns, at the White House.

Joe, good morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

The president getting one more opportunity to make his case to the American public on why the administration is on the right track and the fight against international terrorism holding his last news conference of the year here at the White House before flying off to San Bernardino, California, to meet with the families of the victims there.

On Thursday, the president visiting the National Counterterrorism Center outside Washington, D.C., reporting that so far, his experts have found no specific, credible threat against the homeland. Also announcing that he has ordered a review of the so-called K-1 fiance visa program that allowed one of the attackers in San Bernardino to slip into the country. The president adopting a mostly reassuring tone at a time when some of his critics are saying he's a bit too low key on terrorism.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: For anyone trying to harm Americans need to know, they need to know that we're strong and that we're resilient, that we will not be terrorized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: After the president's visit to San Bernardino, he does fly off to Hawaii for his long family vacation there, not back in Washington until after the new year.

John Berman, back to you.

BERMAN: All right, Joe, thanks so much. That friend of the San Bernardino shooter we mentioned is waking

up behind bars this morning. What did officials uncover that led them to bring terror charges? CNN justice reporter Evan Perez has that part of the story -- Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, he's the only person thus far to face any charges as a result of the San Bernardino terror attack. Enrique Marquez is the friend and former neighbor who helped Syed Farook buy two military-style rifles that Farook and his wife used to kill 14 people.

Federal prosecutors charged him with material support for terrorism, lying on a firearms application. He bought two rifles so Farook wouldn't have to go through a background check. And immigration fraud. He took money to marry a woman who's part of Farook's extended family.

The most serious charge is material support for terrorism and stems from a plot that Marquez, a Muslim convert, and Farook planned in 2012 but never carried out. The idea was to attack a library or cafeteria using pipe bombs and guns, an attack a prosecutor said was, quote, "designed to maximize the number of casualties."

A second chilling plot involved attacking a busy highway at rush hour, an area with no exits. They would use pipe bombs to disable cars, and Farook would open fire on people in the cars. And Marquez would stand on a hillside to kill law enforcement and rescuers trying to help victims.

Prosecutors also revealed that a few hours after the San Bernardino attack, Marquez called 911 and he talked of wanting to kill himself and that he let Farook hold guns for him -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes, a little late for that remorse. Evan, thank you for that.

Let's bring in now our CNN terrorism analyst and editor in chief of "CTC Sentinel," Paul Cruickshank; and Tom Fuentes, CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director.

Tom, let me start with you. So now that Enrique Marquez has been charged and is behind bars, does that mean that investigators think they've gotten everything out of him that they could have?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I think so. I think that that would be the indication, because he cooperated for several weeks. So they had all that time to really just exhaust all the information they could get out of him. And I think when they were at the point that they were satisfied, they went ahead and informed him that he was going to be charged and informed the rest of us.

CAMEROTA: Paul, as we just heard from Evan's reporting and as we can read in the affidavit, Enrique Marquez gave them a lot of information, a lot of information about even what they had planned beforehand, how he got the weapons. What stands out to you about what he told investigators? FUENTES: I think in a way...

CAMEROTA: Hold on, Tom. I'm sorry. This is to Paul. Go ahead, Paul.

FUENTES: I'm sorry.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Fascinating new information from Enrique Marquez, relating back to those plots in late 2011 and in 2012 that Farook and he planned to hit their own community college, Riverside Community College, a library or a cafe there, also to attack a freeway.

And of course, all those years later, there were a lot of us asking the question, well, why would Farook attack his own workplace, his own holiday party?

Well, it turns out that several years previously, he'd been planning to attack his own community center, because he was familiar with the surroundings there. And I think that was the same dynamic that was playing out this time round, that he was familiar with this building, with the location. And so it was an easy target for him to hit.

[06:05:09]And some fascinating new details from the charging documents, that he arrived there at 9 a.m., basically, in the morning and put an explosive device on a table inside the holiday party in a bin liner, and inside was three pipe bombs with a remote-control mechanism linked to a toy car.

He then leaves that party an hour and a half later, and then comes back a further half an hour later to launch the attack. So it doesn't seem there was any kind of row which triggered this, but it was premeditated, planned. He was always aiming to hit that holiday party, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: That is interesting, Paul.

Tom, do you agree this was just a target of opportunity, because it was easy? What do you think is significant in what has come out in the affidavit?

FUENTES: I think in a way what didn't come out or what we -- you know, what we don't know is what excuse for not informing the authorities. I think that, you know, when you talk about doing something two, three, four years ago, that's one thing.

And then in terms of conspiracy, you have to commit an act furthering the idea, the talk that you're making, which he did. He buys the weapons. He helps assemble pipe bombs and is completely involved in this.

Then suddenly, he's not involved for a couple of years, but he's the one person that could have stopped the attack. He's the one person -- we don't know what the mother knew or didn't knew -- know, or what other people, friends and others knew. But he knew. He knew that Farook had the capability for the last several years of doing an attack, wherever that might be. And the fact that he could have been the one person to make the phone call that would have prevented it.

CAMEROTA: And Tom, you know what? I just want to stick with you for one second, Tom. Because what he does do is makes the 911 call after the attack, and then he expresses what sounds like shock, or remorse.

Let me read it to you. We don't have the audio, but we do have the transcript. He says, "My neighbor, he did the San Bernardino shooting."

Nine-one-one says, "Your neighbor did what?"

Marquez says, "He was the shooter."

Nine-one-one says, "He was the shooter?"

Marquez says, "The blank used my gun in the shooting."

They ask, "He used -- you said he used your gun?"

He says, "Yes, oh, my God."

And then they say, "How do you know it's your gun?"

He says, "They can trace all the guns back to me."

I mean, you know, this, again, just -- what do they do to guys like this, Tom? In law enforcement, after he's given all this information, so he's valuable to them. But now they've charged him with these terrorism-related crimes. Does he end up being prosecuted for a lesser crime, because he's given them all this information?

FUENTES: Well, he's already been charged with, you know, the crimes that he can be charged with in relation to, you know, helping Farook and the weapons and being involved in that sense. Unless they know that he knew information in advance of the attack, he's not going to be specifically charged with the murders.

I don't think they know that, and I don't think -- it may not be true that he did know it prior to the attack. But once he knew the attack happened, you know, it was pretty clear in his mind that he knew it was Farook.

And what I'm saying is that several years ago, when he does -- when he gives Farook the weapons but doesn't get them back and then, you know, the pipe bombs, you know, the statements they were making pipe bombs for recreational fun, you know, doesn't make sense either.

And so, again, three, four years ago he could ask Farook, "Give me those guns back. We're not going to do any attack." And then if he didn't give the guns back, then call the authorities. Since he didn't do any of that, even though there's a time delay of a couple years from the time of acquiring the guns to actually carrying out the attack, he still enabled it in the first place and could have prevented it in the second place.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

Paul, so we also know, of course, that the wife of Farook had become radicalized and, had officials been reading her personal direct messages online, they might have been able to see that.

You deal with this all the time. Is it time for counterterrorism officials to change the way they do business and investigations?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, they already are. I mean, I speak to senior U.S. Intelligence officials about this, and over the last couple of years there's been a huge move into monitoring social media from the United States intelligence points of view.

This is almost as important now as all that clandestine intelligence collection or that eavesdropping that the NSA does, is just reading people's social media, particularly overseas, looking for danger signs.

The FBI does a lot of this already. They have sort of undercover agents on these radical social media sites befriending potentially dangerous individuals. A lot of these investigations have been triggered by the FBI, looking at social media.

[06:10:05] But it's really hard, because there is just such a huge amount of social media out there. And so how to sort of spot the danger signs, how to detect when people are going from radical thought, which is perfectly legal in the United States, to radical action, very, very tricky to figure that out. They're trying to figure it out as upstream as possible.

But over the next weeks, I think, there's the worry that another couple like this or another radicalized individual or two could get through and launch some kind of attack. Because you can't stop all of this, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Of course. Let's pray that investigators are ahead of them. Paul Cruickshank, Tom Fuentes, thanks so much for all of the information this morning.

One quick programming note for you. CNN's Wolf Blitzer will have live coverage of President Obama's year-end news conference. That begins at 1:40 p.m. Eastern -- John.

BERMAN: Sure to be a subject there.

Two young Americans charged with trying to help Islamic terror groups. In Pennsylvania, 19-year-old Jalil Aziz indicted for attempting to provide support to ISIS. Officials say he shared extremist propaganda on 57 Twitter accounts and called for attacks on U.S. military members. A raid at his home last month uncovered a go bag with a knife, high-capacity magazines and survival gear.

And in Northern California, 22-year-old Adam Shafi was arrested, charged with trying to aid the al Qaeda affiliate al Nusra Front. He was arrested attempting to travel to Turkey.

PEREIRA: Overnight, breaking news. Turmoil in Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. The Democratic National Committee suspending the Sanders campaign's access to the party's voter database after improperly searching confidential data from Hillary Clinton's campaign this week.

Athena Jones live in Washington with the breaking details and the fallout, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

This is a major blow to Sanders. His campaign has been suspended, disciplined by the Democratic National Committee after snooping into rival Hillary Clinton's data. The campaign has been suspended from using the DNC's data system. This news, of course, is coming just a day before the third Democratic debate in New Hampshire.

Now, Clinton's data was accessed by at least one of Sanders' staffers after a software error occurred at a technology company that allows the campaigns to access voters' data. We're talking about vital information here that the campaigns use to make strategic plans. But you're not allowed -- one campaign is not allowed to look at another campaign's data.

The Sanders campaign is going to remain suspended until they provide the DNC with a full explanation of what happened and they provide proof that the data that they accessed has been discarded.

Now, a spokesman for Sanders blamed the tech company here, saying, quote, "On more than one occasion the vendor has dropped the firewall between the data of different Democratic campaigns." So he's also making the points that their records were also vulnerable.

But the spokesman did hold his own team accountable for the breach, saying that behavior is unacceptable and the staffer was fired immediately. So a lot of fallout here.

Back to you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right. We're going to be debating that in our political debate segment coming up. Athena, thanks so much.

All right. Die-hard "Star Wars" fans flipping out after catching the first screenings of "The Force Awakens." It's received critical acclaim, and now fan reviews are in online. Fans on Twitter raving that the movie stays true to the original trilogy. Disney is set to make a fortune off the film. Domestic numbers are not available yet, guys, but the first international screenings have hauled in more than $14 million. It could smash box office records this weekend.

PEREIRA: That's incredible.

CAMEROTA: John, how excited are you?

BERMAN: I'm extremely excited. PEREIRA: Is that why you're bleary eyed, because you were there?

You were Han Solo?

BERMAN: No. I had to be here. They made me work here to keep me away from "Star Wars." No, my plan all along was to wait until Christmas break to see the film with my boys. But I think I made an error. I think, you know, screw them. I should see it. I should see it before they get on vacation.

PEREIRA: Would you see it twice?

BERMAN: Oh, yes.

PEREIRA: So that's no problem.

CAMEROTA: What costume do you go in?

BERMAN: What costume do I go in? You've seen "Return of the Jedi" with Leia, right?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BERMAN: Just asking. Right. All right.

CAMEROTA: Princess Leia.

BERMAN: All right. Jeb Bush looking for trash in new attacks on Donald Trump. But does Bush think that Trump would make a better president than Hillary Clinton? The surprising answer he gave me, ahead.

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[06:18:28] BERMAN: Breaking overnight, the Democratic National Committee suspending the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign from accessing his voter database after one of the top staffers used confidential data belonging to Hillary Clinton. A Sanders staffer has been fired over the incident.

Here to discuss, senior politics editor of "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich; and CNN political commentator and Washington correspondent for the "New Yorker," Ryan Lizza.

Scandal, intrigue. You know, there's something going on here that's odd and hard to understand. But look...

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Very hard to understand.

BERMAN: ... what goes on here is the Democratic National Committee has a voter database. All the campaigns are allowed to access it. But you're supposed to have these firewalls so one campaign can't get into the other campaign's stuff.

LIZZA: Right.

BERMAN: That went down, a Sanders person tried to cheat, and here we are.

LIZZA: So if I am the Clinton campaign, I call you as a voter, I might learn some interesting facts about you, what moves you as a voter. I put that in the database, but only as the Clinton campaign or Sanders campaign can see that.

If the other campaign calls you, they have the same kind of data on you, and it goes into their section. There's a firewall in between the data that both of them are adding to that file, right?

In the general election that firewall goes up so all the Democrats can have access to the data. But you're not supposed -- that firewall has to stay separate in the primaries. There's all kinds of strategic information that you want to know about the voters that you are collecting.

So it sounds like, from the reporting, that the DNC had some kind of software glitch and that firewall came up. And so I got to see the data that the rival put in about you.

[06:19:58] CAMEROTA: So Jackie, this wasn't the Bernie Sanders campaign looking around, plumbing for information on their rival. This wasn't Watergate. They basically -- it was a software glitch, and they took a peek. While the firewall went down, they took a peek in.

BERMAN: Four peeks.

CAMEROTA: Four peeks according to the DNC. Or was it...

BERMAN: "The Washington Post."

CAMEROTA: "The Washington Post." That they had tried -- they just took a peek at what Hillary Clinton's data was. So how big of a deal is this?

JACKIE KUCINICH, SENIOR POLITICS EDITOR, "THE DAILY BEST": It's a very big deal that Bernie Sanders doesn't have the access to that data anymore. I can tell you that. Right now they don't know who they contacted. They don't know who they needed to call back. Who was absolutely not going to vote for them. And that takes time. It takes money to get that -- to get that information back. And they don't really have time to be backtracking right now.

So until they get all of that information to the DNC, they're kind of flying blind ahead of a really important -- really important Iowa caucus for Bernie Sanders. I mean, any wins he can register early will help diminish Hillary Clinton's -- the feeling of inevitability which she is riding high on right now.

BERMAN: So there's a big Democratic debate Saturday night here. And I want to role play for a second. Alisyn Camerota, you be Hillary Clinton. Attack me, Bernie Sanders, for this scandal. And let's see how this plays out.

CAMEROTA: Bernie, senator, keep your hands off my voter data. BERMAN: Hillary Clinton, you really want to talk to me about

computers and storage and things like that?

CAMEROTA: Ah, I see where you're going.

BERMAN: You really want to go there at this point in the campaign?

CAMEROTA: I see where you're going with that, Senator.

BERMAN: Ryan, is that how this plays out?

LIZZA: Not bad. I think that's a pretty good comeback. You should -- you should be a political consultant. That's a good line.

BERMAN: Will this come up in the debate?

LIZZA: I think it will. I think it's inevitable that the moderators are going to bring this up. And Bernie Sanders is -- he probably doesn't know. It was a low-level staffer, apparently, you know, on the computer. I don't even know if Bernie Sanders knows how to use a computer. Just kidding, Bernie Sanders.

But it will surely come up,, and I think it will be interesting to see how Clinton reacts, if she's indignant or she sort of, you know, gives him a pass, the way he gave her a pass on her email scandal in that one debate.

CAMEROTA: Interesting, right. She needs to return the favor, maybe.

Jackie, what are you...

LIZZA: Right. He said, "I'm sick of talking about your e- mails."

CAMEROTA: Yes. So Jackie, what do you think about that? Hillary can't make a big deal about sort of e-mail, computer glitch stuff.

BERMAN: Cyber issues are complicated to Hillary.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

KUCINICH: Right, right. And you know, if they can just put this on the staffer, that's one thing. I don't know. It will be interesting. Maybe she will give him a pass.

But this does -- Bernie Sanders is trying to project this brand where he wants to talk about the issues. He wants to stay positive. And if this -- it starts coming out that this was more than, you know, just an accidental or peek into her data, this could also erode some of the branding that Bernie Sanders has built up throughout this campaign.

BERMAN: All right. Let's talk about what's going on in the Republican side of the race right now. Because the answer is a lot, right? There's this battle between Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. There is a new chapter this morning, because Ted Cruz has a new ad playing in Iowa. Do we have that ad? Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Securing our borders and stopping illegal immigration is a matter 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So you didn't see Marco Rubio in that ad, but he is the clear target, Ryan.

LIZZA: I mean, this is why I think that -- Rubio has muddied the waters a little bit on this issue, right? Rubio sponsored that bill. He was...

CAMEROTA: It was for legality of the 11 million people who were here.

LIZZA: Right. It's a compromise between Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats get a pathway to citizenship, and Republicans get increased border security. And that's the big compromise.

Cruz was against that bill. Now, Rubio has come back and said, "Well, you were for this one amendment that had a legality aspect to it."

CAMEROTA: Which he was.

LIZZA: But in general, everyone who was against that bill is saying -- is on Cruz's side. Rush Limbaugh, all the conservatives who are anti-immigration reform, are with Cruz; and it allows Cruz to go out and have this conversation and do that ad that Marco Rubio does not want to be talking about.

CAMEROTA: But Jackie...

LIZZA: In the long run, despite the fact that Rubio has helped muddy the waters on who is pro-amnesty, in the long run, this is a conversation that does not benefit Marco Rubio.

CAMEROTA: But Jackie, what about from 2013 where Cruz clearly introduced a bill that was for legalizing the 11 million people who were here illegally. And he even said, it's time for them to come out of the shadows.

He has a different stance now. Is it working for Rubio to point that out? KUCINICH: I think the fact that Cruz has this ad shows that he

hit a nerve, that the fact that -- that the Cruz amendment came to light, he's trying to shore up, to make sure that he stays the immigration hard-liner, that image that he's cultivated throughout this campaign.

But look, Ryan is right. A lot of the immigration hard-liners, I mean, Steve King, for goodness sake, in Iowa, has endorsed Ted Cruz. So he is reiterating his credentials there. But we'll see if there's more out there.

I mean, Marco Rubio did draw some blood with this -- with this comparison.

[06:25:13] BERMAN: The other big fight on the Republican side right now is between Jeb Bush and Donald Trump.

And I had a chance to talk to the former Florida governor overnight. And I asked him about this reporting out there that his campaign has been doing due diligence to see if they could get out of the pledge, that Jeb Bush would support whoever the Republican nominee is, including if it's Donald Trump.

And I asked the governor, you know, does he think that Donald Trump would make a better president than Hillary Clinton? And this is the sort of answer-ish that I got.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You didn't answer my question. Would he make a better president than Hillary Clinton?

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I've learned not to answer questions. That's one of the things that you do now in political discourse. You answer what you want to say.

BERMAN: Wait. So you're just not going to answer outright? I mean, don't -- don't Republican voters deserve to know? You're attacking Donald Trump every day now, which is something you got into reluctantly.

BUSH: I am.

BERMAN: But it is that part of your campaign. So do you think he would make a better president than Hillary?

BUSH: I don't think that he's qualified to be -- absolutely. I'd be a better president than Hillary Clinton. That's why I'm running for president.

BERMAN: No. Does Donald Trump? Would Donald Trump.

BUSH: My point is -- my point is, he is not qualified to be commander in chief of the United States of America's greatest fighting force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That was an interesting exchange. It took Jeb Bush, Ryan, a long time to learn that you're supposed to answer what you want, not what the question is. He just -- he said this right after the debate, too, that he finally has learned not to answer questions that he thinks are loaded -- not that your question was loaded -- that he doesn't like.

LIZZA: Surprising that his father and brother were president and he was a two-term governor that he's just learned this about politics. I mean, points for honesty, but I honestly can't believe he said that. "Look, I'm not answering your question. I've just learned as a politician not to answer journalists' questions."

I mean, I don't know if that's a great strategy.

BERMAN: And in not answering it, it tells you something. By refusing to say that the Republican frontrunner will make a better president than Hillary Clinton, that says something.

KUCINICH: But can you imagine if that -- if they took out your question, and then there was -- there was an attack ad that just had Jeb Bush saying Hillary Clinton would make a better president than Donald Trump without any context. So I can see why he didn't say it. Because my goodness, wouldn't that be -- you can't imagine that wouldn't be splashed everywhere.

CAMEROTA: Right, right.

LIZZA: I mean, from the context, reading between the lines, I think we all have to believe that he does not think that Donald Trump would be a better president than Hillary Clinton. I mean, right? Isn't that what you have to assume? Isn't that the takeaway from that conversation?

CAMEROTA: Yes, but I mean, he's hoping that he will be the president. He also -- I mean, he did get around to that: I'll be better than any of them.

Ryan, Jackie, thanks so much. Great to have you guys. Thanks for having fun with us this morning.

LIZZA: Thanks, guys.

BERMAN: Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. New details are emerging about the ring leader of the Paris terror attacks. How did he manage to cross the French border? Could his actions trigger new calls for tighter controls on refugees? We'll look for answers ahead on NEW DAY.

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