President Obama Criticized for Handling of ISIS
BLACKWELL: Welcome back to NEW DAY. I'm Victor Blackwell here in San Bernardino, California. And we now know of the shooters, apparently there was one who pledged allegiance to ISIS' leader, Tashfeen Malik. And now in his weekly radio address, President Obama says they have been preparing for a threat like this. Listen.</s>OBAMA: It is entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalized to commit this act of terror, and if so it would underscore a threat we have been focused on for years, the danger of people succumbing to violent extremist ideologies.</s>BLACKWELL: Well, you'll remember this attack came on the very day President Obama told CBS news that ISIS will not pose an existential threat to the U.S. CNN's Chris Frates is here to talk more about what the president said. And Chris, the timing there unfortunate, but there are people who are wondering if the U.S. has grossly underestimated ISIS. As we've seen, there has been evidence of that in the past.</s>CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor. That is exactly right. And this news that the attacks may have been inspired by ISIS, it is only fueling Republican criticism that President Obama's strategy to defeat the terrorist group has failed. Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, he says despite Obama's arguments to the contrary, ISIS is not under control.</s>SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The threat we faced in California this week is the most dangerous terrorist threat we have ever faced. And here is why. Because the other individual, the husband, was a U.S. citizen, born in the United States, lived here his entire life, had never, ever, ever done anything radical or strange that caused anyone to be suspicious of him. And the next president of the United States better be someone that knows how to handle it because they understand exactly what it is made of. It begins by recognizing that, indeed, we are at war with radical jihadists.</s>FRATES: Now, for his part, Obama has worried publicly for years about the possibility of an attack by a lone wolf that was, in fact, self- radicalized, because, as law enforcement will tell you, Victor, it is incredibly difficult to track terrorists working in isolation. And on the day of the attacks but before the possible ISIS link was discovered, Obama again downplayed the threat ISIS poses.</s>OBAMA: ISIL is not going to pose an existential threat to us. They are a dangerous organization like Al Qaeda was. But we have hardened our defenses. Our homeland has never been more protected by more effective intelligence and law enforcement professionals at every level than they are now.</s>FRATES: But even before the massacre in California, Americans expressed doubts about Obama's strategy. A survey out last month found that more than half of those polled disapproved of how the president has handled the issue. That's not a good sign for the president as his administration comes to grips with what could be the biggest terrorist attack in American since 9/11. Victor?</s>BLACKWELL: Yes, similar to when we heard the president's statement that ISIS is contained hours before the attacks in Paris. Chris Frates, thanks so much. Let's talk now with CNN military analyst, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. General Hertling, we talk about these statements we hear from the president that ISIS is not an existential threat to the U.S., that ISIS is contained, and now this week we're seeing the attack here. What is this gap that we're seeing between the intelligence, between the government, and what ISIS is able to do even through inspiration if not direct involvement?</s>LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Victor, I think we need to talk a little bit about wordplay here. I think the president did say in his interview that ISIS was a serious threat to international security. And then he followed up, because some of the presidential candidates have been saying it is an existential threat. If we define existential, that means that it is a threat to U.S. sovereignty, a threat to our constitution, and a threat to a gross number of American people. So the president has admitted that this is a terrible organization. They do have an unbelievably bad ideology which has to be stamped out and prevented, but what he is saying is, I believe, not trying to interpret for the president, but what he is saying is we will certainly have security issues. And anyone that says we will not be attacked in the United States, just like Paris has not been tacked or other countries have not been attacked, that's never a good thing to do. But to say an existential threat, meaning the entire nation is going to fall, that's an altogether different story. And I think that's the question he was addressing during the interview. Will we have continued attacks like this? My belief is, yes, we will, because this ideology is tough to stamp out. The security forces in our intelligence services are attempting to counter it, but they can't be 100 percent certain all the time that they have hit every target that they need to hit.</s>BLACKWELL: And let's talk about the strategy, the intelligence strategy, the military strategy. We know that the U.S. leading a coalition to take the fight to ISIS in Iraq, in Syria. But we have these home grown terrorists. We also have in Tashfeen Malik a woman who has connections to Pakistan and to Saudi Arabia. Give us some insight on to the fight that's being taken to radicals there, if at all, if the U.S. is involved in those two countries.</s>HERTLING: When you talk about the military line of effort, if you will, it has actually been advancing. We are seeing things in Iraq and Syria that seem to indicate we are getting after this organization. It is decreasing in size and decreasing in amount of territory. We are actually getting after some of the financial networks, and we see indicators of that. A "New York Times" story said today that ISIS has decided to cut the pay of their fighters from $400 a month to $300 a month. There are indicators that the financial attacks against them have contributed to this. We still have problems on the border with Turkey of having fighters cross that border and return to their homeland. The hardest part of this fight, Victor, and that's what we are talking about right now, is the spread of the ideology to some who just do not truly understand the Muslim religion and are attempting to bastardize it, to do things that are contrary to that religion. The ideological fight is going to be the hardest thing in defeating ISIS.</s>BLACKWELL: All right, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, always good to have your insight. Christi, as I toss it back to you, of course the specific investigation is going to be our focus this morning. But the larger question about how does the U.S., how does the coalition prevent this from happening in cities like San Bernardino and Paris and cities across the country, we are going to talk about that of course this morning and throughout coverage of what is now a changing world.</s>PAUL: All right, yes, we'll get back to you here in just a second. Victor, thank you so much. Meanwhile, I want to tell you about this new report this morning about that police shooting of a teenager in Chicago. What we are finding out about the officer's report that doesn't match what's on his dash cam video. Also, oil prices plummet. So what does that really mean?