thanks for watching this two hour edition of "360." i'm anderson cooper from ferguson. "cnn tonight" starts right now. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> good evening, everyone. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. we're live on the streets of ferguson, missouri. calmer now, 12 days after the shooting death of michael brown. make none nesmistake about it, e here are angry and they want answers, answers that may be hard to come by. eyewitnesses disagreeing about what they saw. and sources contradicting each other. one source tells us today that

reports that officer darren wilson suffered a injured eye socket in the scuffle are false. amidcalls for justice for murdered james foley, chuck hagel calls isis beyond anything we have seen. we know they will stop at nothing to get what they want. so how worried is the white house and what will president obama do about all of this? and is all that criticism of martha vineyard vacation fair? we'll get into all that tonight. we'll begin with the latest from here in ferguson, missouri. let's go to jake tapper. jake, what do you have for us this evening? >> well, don, it has been a pretty quiet night this evening. roughly 75 to 100 protesters all possessful. a huge showing of religious leaders and clergy men here this evening. there is -- yesterday, as you know, they added the clergy tents, which is right behind me.

and interesting scene earlier tonight when captain ron johnson of the missouri state highway patrol who is in charge of security has been in charge of security here in ferguson now since the governor appointed him to that job one week ago, very interesting scene as he was out and about, shaking hands, getting a lot of praise, a lot of lavish attention from citizens here, a lot of members of the clergy praising him and in fact there was a prayer circle that put hands on him and prayed for him and said he was here for this time, not because he's african-american, but because he was anointed by jesus to be in charge of security. very intense scene. police are here in force as they have been. much smaller and low key presence than we have seen for instance a week ago, more of the kind of presence we have seen in last few days where they are in small groups all along the sides here, but not the kind of show of force that we have seen in previous nights. i talked to a lot of individuals

about eric holder, the attorney general, coming here yesterday and talking to the family of michael brown, talking to other members of the community. and really it was a very strong positive response that people in the community, who needless to say don't particularly trust local elected officials and they are reassured to know that attorney general holder is overlooking and also that the fbi and the department of justice are conducting their own investigation into what happened. so that's what's going on, so far, so good, quiet night as we have seen over the last few days. the numbers of protesters dwindling and becoming more peaceful, don. >> yeah. yeah. absolutely. so, listen, i want you to listen to this. anderson spoke with michael brown's parents earlier today. here is what they had to say. take a listen. >> did you see your son? >> when i got -- when we arrived, he was covered up. so i didn't see him, the other

people have seen him, laying in the street. >> did it upset you that he was left out for so long? >> yes. >> did that -- is that something that still upsets you? >> yes. >> we couldn't even see him. they wouldn't let us go see him. just left him out there four and a half hours. with no answers. nobody tell us nothing. >> just heart breaking. raw emotions, just part of what has upset so many of the people out in the streets. >> it is tragic, the story, it is what is motivating a lot of the people out here.

the diehards here who are out here tonight, almost two weeks after the incident. many of them knew michael brown. many of them very, very focused on michael brown and the specific cause of justice for michael brown. i know for other people who have been here and for many of the media and many on all sides of this issue, this issue that has been about issues larger than just what happened in ferguson, issues of security and police and race relations, but for people here, it is really about mike brown and what they want to see, what they perceive to be justice for mike brown. don? >> all right, jake, thank you very much. i want to turn to the man who has been charged with keeping the peace here in ferguson, missouri. that is captain ron johnson of the missouri state highway patrol. thank you, captain johnson, for joining us. you see things as peaceful tonight. let's talk about the families. that is heart wrenching. is that part of your motivation for making sure there is order tonight and that the focus is

kept not on rowdy protesters but on the family. >> i think we must allow the family to have a chance to grieve and make sure that's not lost. and i think the community is understanding of that. and i think that's what we see tonight. >> how do you think that -- why do you think things turned a corner? every night it seems progressively seems to be less violence, less arrests, if any at all. >> i think we're turning the corner because it is not us against them. i think the law enforcement out here are partnering with the fine men and women of this community and we had clergy come out. we had elders come out. we had activists come out. but last night i was amazed and humbled by the number of youth that came out in protest, and peaceful protest. >> i had a chance to ride along with you yesterday. and we spoke to a lot of those youth and it was very interesting to watch the reaction and look into their feelings. what did you do today? because i understand you spoke to youth again today as well. >> yeah, i spoke to youth at

ferguson library. and had a good conversation. and got to sit down with them and some of them made me a sock puppet and i got to sit down with a bunch of preschoolers and i sat in a circle in a small chair in the middle of them and they were asking me questions about school and about policemen and it was touching. but that tells me that is the answer to part of our problem, is the growth and education of those young kids and that's what we have to get them back in school. >> i spoke to governor jay nixon today, sat down with him, and he talked about what he learned from this situation, and in particular he talked about the disconnect between the community and police officers. and he said right now while they're in the middle of it, they want to make sure there is peace. this is going to be something considering this shooting, the shooting in st. louis city, they have to get a grip on as soon as all of this is over, if not sooner. >> and i looked at this past week as a classroom for law enforcement. we're doing a lot of learning.

this is a classroom. i and i hope the officers that responded here, i know they're learning, when they leave here, they go back here and take their experiences back to their agencies. >> what do you make of today, wasn't pulling the national guard out, but he said it was a gradual drawdown of the national guard. are you okay with that decision? >> yes, i am. >> why so? >> because, you know, they were definitely here to help secure the command post. and i think that at this time things have changed, the environment has changed, so i think the governor is making the right decision. >> as we are standing here, behind you, right over -- most of the protesters have gathered here, and, again, they have been peaceful. are you -- do you think that this will continue to last, even after the national guard has gone. they were just basically making sure that the command post was secure, right? they had nothing to do -- >> yes. >> still going to be safe once they leave here? >> yes, i do.

i believe people know that their voices are being heard. yesterday, some information went to the grand jury. yesterday, general holder came to town. so their voices are being heard and i think the people are seeing that. >> you know, one thing i would love to do is i was -- i was actually heartened in a good way by the young man who spoke to you today, yesterday, so candidly as we went out, about what kind of relationship they wanted to have with police. they didn't have a relationship with police beyond either glass on a patrol car or plexiglass as they're being arrested or charged with something and they wanted the police officers to come into their community and get to know them. i would love to sit down with you and some police officers and some of the youth in the community and talk about exactly what you talked about over there. i think that's very important. >> i figure that would be good. maybe we can work on that. i got home last night and that happened to be on the news. my wife taped it and she played that back. and so i think she got something

out of that -- a message out of that conversation because when i got home, that was the one. she actually has been taping different things, but she said, i want you to see something. she showed me that one. i think that one had an impact, a big issue that has gone on within our community that we need to fix. >> very important. thank you, captain johnson. appreciate you joining us again tonight. as we have been discussing here, governor jay nixon ordered the national guard to begin drawing down from ferguson, it seems look a hopeful sign tonight. here's more of what the governor told me about that decision. listen. >> they had a limited mission coming in. their mission at the night that the -- that a couple hundred folks tried to overtake the command center, that wasn't good. that's why that night, after getting the report, i made the decision to get them out there, to provide that perimeter. >> to the command center. you're not yanking them out. it is going to be -- >> we're going to have a systematic drawdown. we're working with the commanders to do that.

we'll make sure we keep safety there. i think that original mission sort of has been accomplished. and as we see the folks getting calmer, fewer arrests, fewer problems here, that that mission, we're going to draw down, we don't need the same strength. >> was that your decision, eric holder -- >> 100% my decision, the state of missouri. i've declared a state of emergency. while i listen to folks, make no mistake, those were decisions that i am responsible for and while i listen to folks' advice about them, i'm making them. >> did they give you any advice about the -- >> no, general holder was focused more on what he's doing. and when i talked to the president about it, we talked about the kind of -- the rules of engagement. >> do they know about, because initially they said that the white house didn't know about it, there was some concern about

that. >> i haved no me ed nnot made a picking up the phone at 3:00 in the morning and calling the president. i did not instantaneously as i did that call him and we did try to communicate earlier that evening that there was some challenges, that looked like they were coming. but, no, we talked to him after that, after that decision was made. >> you said 100%. did anyone advise you against sending in the guard? >> i won't go through, you know -- all i'm saying, this job, when you look into it -- to -- in seeing your team there and see them come back from the night of very hard work, gunshot over their heads, molotov cocktails, and picking a number to take over the headquarters and they're still in their flak jackets in their command center, and they ask you for additional resources, there was not a --

i'm not a -- it was a clear decision. >> i want to read something to you, because yesterday the only black governor in america, massachusetts governor, deval patrick emotionally weighed in. he said, i am sick of it. i am sick of unarmed black men being shot by police. and he went on to say, while we made great deal of progress on race relations, there is still much more to be done. is he right? >> there is clearly more to be done. absolutely. when you see the issues of race and poverty and education and police and you see some of the relationships break down, across the country, and i think my good friend deval is probably frustrated not only about watching this, but seeing it in other parts, i won't speak to his state, but we all know that the issues and actions that happened here, unfortunately, have happened in other cities. we just hope that this moment in which we kind of have apparently been chosen to be the centerpiece of attention, that we here in missouri use our

ears, not just our mouth, that we kind of come through the sharp discussion, the political back and forth that seems so easy for americans to fall in right now, and get a level of trust that we can talk about the issues in a better with a. >> i bob mccullough, the prosecutor, we hear it over and over in the community, he has to go, he has to go, he can't be objective. are you going to lead him on this case? >> i think you have to trust the pillars of democracy. you like the prosecutor in this area, you have a separate investigation going on by the attorney general, no, i'm not going to -- not going to do that. i'm focused on what i need to get done and i asked everybody to do their -- to do their piece of their responsibilities also. >> he's going to stay? >> i have no intent or desire to do that. my focus is on making sure we get the security issues here, and that both of those dual investigations have the resources and ability to get to truth and justice.

>> you feel that he can be objective? >> i -- he's had a long history, the people of this community have elected him time after time after time. and as i said before, when -- i made a pretty big decision already. i've never done before, which is to in essence come in and supersede local law enforcement on the security side of and i think it has been something we were focused, on what we were trying to do, we made progress, clearly are making progress in that regard. so my folk ous is on a different thing. there is a great deal of emotion on other things. we're trying to allow that to occur. but my focus is not to remove people from their responsibilities, but ask that all of us live up to our responsibilities. >> and we have got a whole lot more live here from ferguson, missouri, coming up. the family of michael brown, haunted by what happened in the last moments, i'll talk to the cousin. plus, even the eyewitnesses to

the shooting don't agree about what happened. will we ever know for sure? going to ask new york's former top cop and our very own dr. drew. and larry elder, why he says not even an o.j. jury would convict officer wilson. i'll talk to him tonight. that's right. it's just that i'm worried about you know "hidden things..." ok, why's that? no hidden fees, from the bank where no branches equals great rates. [ male announcer ] since we began, mercedes-benz has pioneered many breakthroughs. ♪ breakthroughs in design... breakthroughs in safety... in engineering... and technology. and now our latest creation breaks one more barrier. presenting the cla. starting at $29,900. ♪ starting at $29,900.

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back now live in ferguson. a funeral for michael brown will be held on monday morning. but this past sunday at a church rally in his honor, browns' cousin ty pruett had this to say. >> michael brown was not just some young black boy. he was a human being. he was a younger cousin. he was a son! he was an uncle, a nephew. he was not a suspect. he was not an object. he was not an animal.

but that's how he was killed. >> so ty pruett joins me now. a very moving speech on sunday. let me tell you how sorry i am for your loss and through all of this. you say your heart is broken twice. explain that to me if you will. >> absolutely. first, the first time i saw my baby cousin again he was laying in a pool of his own blood on facebook. that split my heart in two and then the fact that after that situation i looked on the news and my city was burning down. that broke my heart. >> you, like so many, are seeking justice. what happens if after all this -- all the investigating, local, state, federal, this officer is not indicted. where does your family go from

here and as you said, your community? >> i've been, honestly, don, i've been looking at -- i've been watching cnn for days on end, just days on end. i've been listening to all the experts and i just really think some of the people need to kind of step back and think about what they're saying. for instance, i was listening to just earlier today, i was listening to some of these police experts and basically what they're saying is that they tell their policemen to shoot to kill. shoot until the threat is gone. doesn't matter if they're armed. so what that's telling me is, honestly, you're trying to start a war. and this is the part -- this is

the part i don't understand. what happened to the police training? what happened to -- i keep hearing all these rumors about tis officer had his eye socket knocked out or, you know, he had a black eye or something like that. my question is, do police not go through defensive training? hand to hand combat? see, we're talking about an 18-year-old boy, versus a grown man. i don't care -- you can look into young mike's background all you want. at the end of the day, when we come to that moment, that second that he was killed, he was not a criminal. he didn't have any weapons on him. the cigarellos they say he

stole, we saw on camera he paid for. so my question is why was he attacked? let's go ahead and slip back for a minute, why was he attacked? see, we keep talking about why this officer was attacked. why was the -- >> i think that's a very good question. i want to talk about something that you said, because you said he was 18 years old. you said he was a boy, not a man. he was -- anywhere between 6'3" and 6'4" and some are asking, is he an adult, is he a teenager. i say at 18, he's still a teenager and stature doesn't matter at this point. >> absolutely. he's a teenager. he's, like, every other teenager. every other teenager. let me just ask -- just the public this question, because i saw a lot of things on facebook

today. i've been -- my head's been spinning so many places because you got things on the news, things on facebook, you know. i'm reading all these comments on facebook about, you know, the young black kids, just criminals, and this officer shouldn't face anything and he's a hero now. let's just take color away from it for a second, don. let's take color out of the picture. okay? let's say this officer goes to trial or what not. let's say this grand jury decides that, okay, he did nothing wrong. let's give him his gun back, let's give him whatever he needs and put him back out on the street. but, let's think about that afo a second. now, you know what, this officer might be in danger. let's take him out of ferguson, and let's put him in chesterfield or put him in kreefcore. there is a lot of you -- i'm

just going to say, there is a lot of you -- a lot of caucasian people through the wout there w teenage sons and daughters in college, right? let's say there say fraternity party that gets a little outrageous. we all know guys get a little liquor in them -- >> i have to run. >> they get pretty rowdy. >> if you can wrap it up, it would be great. i have to get to break. i don't want to be rude and cut you off. you said it doesn't matter it is about -- you said it is not about race, that it is about teenager and an officer who you believe does not have the proper training because anyone of any ethnicity can get out of control. i understand what you're saying. >> do you want this officer showing up? >> ty, thank you. we appreciate youming on cnn. we'll have you back. we're thinking about your family as well. good to see you. up next, they say that seeing is believing, but what should we make of the differing

eyewitness accounts of michael brown's shooting and how do investigators find the truth? we're going to talk about that next right here on cnn. we don't jump at the sound of the opening bell, because we're trying to make the school bell. corner booth beats corner office any day. we make the most out of our time... and our money. the chevrolet malibu. j.d. power's highest ranked midsize car in initial quality. the car for the richest guys on earth. caman: thanks, captain obvious. wouldn't stay here tonight. captain obvious: i'd get a deal for tonight with deals for tonight from hotels.com. and you might want to get that pipe fixed. so factors like diet can negatively impact good bacteria? even if you're healthy and active. phillips digestive health support is a duo-probiotic that helps supplement good bacteria found in two parts of your digestive tract. i'm doubly impressed!

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welcome back. we're live tonight in ferguson, missouri. and 12 days since michael brown was shot dead, many eyewitnesss have come forward and their stories differ on some very key points. listen. >> as he runs, police get out of his vehicle and he follows behind him, shooting. and the kid body jerked as if he was hit from behind. he turns around and puts his hands up like this and the cop continued to fire until he dropped down to the ground. >> just like he was running for his life and just got shot and turned around, still didn't try to reach for anything, put his hands into the air, being compliant and still got shot down like a dog. >> i see the officer proceeding, after my friend big mike with his gun drawn and fired a second shot and that struck my friend big mike and at that time he turned around with his hands up, beginning to tell the officers he was unarmed and to tell them

to stop shooting. at that time, the officer was firing several more shots into my friend. >> when he gets out of the car, i see first shot as -- in the middle of the street, running with his back turned. when i get outside, he's already turned around, facing the offic offic officer. he has his arms under his stomach and he was, like, halfway down, like he was going down. and the officer lets out about three or four shots at him. >> arms up, arms down under his stomach. see what we're talking about? i'm joined by dr. drew pinsky, host of "dr. drew on call," internist and expert on addiction. and bernard kerik, ceo of the kerik group. good evening, gentlemen. dr. drew, you first. a jury will hear multiple eyewitness accounts of the day that michael brown was shot. and they have key differences. how reliable are people's

memories of an event like this? >> they're not reliable. there is entire discipline dedicated to studying why humans are so bad at this, particularly under stress. we have extreme difficulty. we get tunnel vision. and then our perceptive system is imperfect. consider the guy you saw in the interview with anderson, how many hundreds of yards away from the shooting, hears the shooting at a certain point that he is seeing something, and puts those two things together. well, it might have taken time for that sound to travel to his ears, we don't know. then forget the perceptive system, there is the whole issue of memory, the decay of memory, how we are altered in our memory by other people and other people's accounts. so it is a very nefarious topic, eyewitness accounts. that's why people don't rely on eyewitness accounts to make convictions. >> we put a lot of stock in that. commissioner, dorian johnson who was with michael brown that day, we have learned he was arrested in 2011 for theft and making a false report. we have breaking news that i

want to share with you and our viewers. his lawyer has just responded. says no one has contacted or questioned dorian johnson about the situation. has challenged his credibility. dorian johnson's past transgressions do not change the facts, nor do they justify officer wilson's -- so, commissioner, does this shed doubt on his eyewitness account? will it come up in court? >> you know, i think it will come up in court, on your station alone, i've heard two different sides -- two different sources of dorian johnson. he'll have a credibility problem. his past is also going to come up in court as well when you talk about credibility. the one thing that i will -- i will agree with his attorney on

and that is we should stay focused on michael brown, this investigation, the brown family, and the realization of justice. everybody is calling for justice. no justice, no peace. well, let justice act out. let justice take due course. we're not doing that. you have senators and congressmen, the people that write the laws of this country, calling, basically, for a lynching of this officer. that's outrageous. they, more than anyone, should know that we have to follow the law of the land, the constitution, that they helped write. it is appalling -- >> but dr. drew, there is fear and anger. there so much fear, anger and emotion here. how can people step back, though, from this, and let justice play out. that's maybe a lot to ask. >> yeah. you're asking for something i'm not sure i'm equipped to answer,

which is something i've been asking on my hln program every night, is what is it going to take to stop all this. how are we going to have the patience to let the system play out? and what if the system doesn't give you the results you want. that is still justice. what happens then? i think, don, behind all this is a bigger conversation. the president used an interesting term the other night, he said we have a history. he slipped right past that. and i think it is our history as a country that we need to come together, rather than splinter apart, come together and give an unvarnished, honest look at this history we share, rather than allowing events like this to tear us apart. >> and commissioner, key difference in these witness accounts is whether michael brown was running away, when he was shot, or whether he was facing the officer, his hands were up, some people -- one witness said that it was down. so is there any indication that, you know, the police officer left the car? so everyone said that he left the police car, so then what is

the difference here? why not show more restraint? why shoot to kill at that point? >> well, you're asking a question based on, you know, assumptions, based on witnesses that have conflicting stories. you know, dr. drew brought up a good point and i'll stress this. you can have ten people standing in the middle of a bank when the bank gets robbed and you could have ten different descriptions of what happened and they are physically there. they are in that same room with a bank robbery took place. you're going to have conflicting stories, but you have state, local and federal investigators sifting through the evidence, sifting through the statements, going through cell phones, going through videos. and looking at the forensics. i'm sure they at some point will come to a conclusion on what really happened, they'll take that evidence to the grand jury, the grand jury makes a decision. >> don, can i ask a quick

question? >> quickly. >> the town where i'm from, there is a lot of k-9 units, slow pursuit, rubber bullets, not a lot of guns. why aren't other police organizations adopting similar sorts of policies? >> yeah. that's a good question that you're asking me. maybe, listen, i don't know. maybe police officers in some cities are up against things we have no idea about. but it is definitely a good question to ponder. thank you, gentlemen. we appreciate it. president barack obama facing two crisis, the tension in ferguson and the beheading of an american journalist by isis. should he be on vacation or back in the oval office? we'll talk about that next. [ woman ] the cadillac summer collection is here.

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welcome back, everyone. we're live on the streets of ferguson. protesters are still out this evening. but this isn't the only crisis on president barack obama's agenda. there is also the growing threat of isis. the terrorist group sent a chilling e-mail last week to the family of their captive american journalist, james foley. and it reads in part like this, today our swords are unsheathed

towards you. government, and citizens alike, and we will not stop until the quench we thirst for your blood. you do not spare our weak, elderly women or children so we will not spare yours. you and your citizens will pay the price of your bombings. the first of which being the blood of the american citizen james foley. he will be executed as a direct result of your transgressions towards us. that's a statement. so foley was beheaded on a video posted to youtube several days later. and today, defense secretary chuck hagel called the threat from isis beyond anything that we have seen. joining us to talk about this is tara sethmire, co-host of real news on the blaze. and van jones co-host of cnn's "cross fire" here on cnn. chuck hagel said isis is beyond anything we have seen. and we must prepare for everything. how seriously was the administration taking this?

>> they have been preparing for this for a while. this is why they asked for that $500 billion counterterrorism partnership fund, with $5 billion of that going specifically to counter the islamic state and groups like it inside syria. that was before this crisis broke out. when they described the islamic state, they say it has got not just a smart leadership that understands how to terrorize populations, but that leadership is also brought on board, baathist military commanders who know how to command an army. that's why you're seeing them effectively take and hold territory. the question is, will they overreach and if they overreach and try to conquer too much territory on too many fronts that could create an opening for the u.s. through iraq to push back. >> and, tara, you know, not only does the president have ferguson to deal with now, but he has his own secretary of defense is

sounding a major warning today. do you think president obama should be on the gulf course and enjoying his vacation now? >> no. i mean, i made that quite clear last night that i felt as though the world events going on should not interfere with the president's tea time. and that when you -- it seems as though he's not taking this seriously and he's not engaged. then made the point that, well, the president can do his job from anywhere. that's true. these are not just simple events. these are major events. we had an american journalist we be he beheaded brutally for the world to see. and you have officials from the administration like the secretary of defense now saying that isis is nor more menacing than al qaeda. and two weeks ago you had someone from the president's administration saying that they were no direct threat to the united states. which is it? when you have our european allies doing one thing, united states doing another, we're not on the same page. it seems as though we're

disengaged. when the president yucking it up in martha's vineyard, it does not send a great message that strong leadership is going on here and america is in charge. >> if i could interject -- >> go ahead, kimberly. go ahead. >> i was going to say that one of the messages that the white house does want to send to the terrorist group is that the president will maintain his current schedule and, yes, he'll respond to them verbally, but he's not going to go rushing back to the white house because of them. that's part of the strategic messaging. young people i spoke to are even concerned that he made a statement in response to them, they thought that was giving them too much respect. >> i got to get the gentleman in here. van, i think i know how you feel unless your stance has changed over the last 24 hours. before you respond, i want to show you the daily news cover today, which isn't a conservative paper and here is what the daily news says. it says bam's golf war. should the white house be

concerned about this looks to the public? >> some people are concerned about optics. i'm not concerned about how things look. i'm concerned about reality and how things actually are. things are bad. and this president is actually being briefed on a regular basis and he's moving forward. part of the thing we have to deal with here is that if this president does overreact in the way that some people on the right want him to, that also builds up the credibility of our enemies overseas. this president made a very strong statement, but he also did not change his schedule, that is the way of -- in some way of sending a message of disrespect in some ways, saying, listen, i'm not going to stop what i'm doing for you. let me tell you something, i think democrats and progressives and liberals have to start to be a little bit concerned here. we have a knee jerk now reaction that said we don't want to be involved in anything happening in the middle east because george bush took us to war under, you know, false circumstances. this is a different thing. this is not a phantom idea of weapons of mass destruction. al qaeda and those kind of

groups were not over there before. isis is there now. i think we have to be more serious and focused but stop taking any opportunity we can to attack the president under these circumstances. >> it is not necessarily attack. criticism is not necessarily an attack. it is what it is. it is criticizing, but you say -- you said i'm not concerned with optics. i'm not concerned with optics, you're concerned with reality. it looks bad, even if you don't think it is bad? >> i think it would look worse for the president to have his strings jerked by terrorist groups whenever they want to move. here is one thing that is disturbing to a lot of people. there is nothing bad that can happen to america that the right wing won't use an excuse to attack the president. we have a serious threat now. we have people being beheaded now and the family of this man who was murdered, they're not complaining about the president. they're proud of this president. they're proud this president tried to save this man's life and right wingers are using even this as an opportunity to attack --

>> now that van has gone on the left wing liberal rant about what allegedly right wingers have to say, that is such a red herring. first of all, what is going on in the middle east and happening with isis is partially because this president did not act when he was warned that isis was congregating and building up two years ago in syria. so that created a vacuum and now we have what we have. now we're supposed to -- we're not expecting the president to -- that isis is pulling his strings. we're expecting the president to show up in the white house and do his job. >> okay. tara, kimberly, van, hold that thought. we'll talk about the defense secretary, what he says, we need to get ready. get ready for what? we're going to discuss that next. hey. i'm ted and this is rudy.

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cells, possibly with orders, in the west. europe, maybe the united states. they wouldn't quite go that far in briefings to reporters. but these people are out there, they have had training. and they had the intent to attack western or u.s. targets. that's part of what chuck hagel was getting at when he said get ready. in terms of how you get ready, you raise your defenses back here in the states and overseas. we could see they sent out small teams of special operations folks. they will likely plus up their intelligence operators on the ground to start waging a long war, like the kind we see in yemen or pakistan against his adversa adversary. >> yeah. and, van, president barack obama compared militants in iraq and syria to junior varsity basketball players. you know about that. you heard downplaying the threat as small league. they had to clarify this a number of times. did he drop the ball on dealing

with this threat sooner? >> i tell you what, that comment now is going to haunt him for the rest of his presidency. that turned out to be a terrible comment. but you got to remember, it lined up with the assessments not just of the united states but everybody around the world. nobody really believed they had the leadership to put this kind of threat together. i will say this, now that it has happened, everybody has to take a big step back and reset. there has been a -- almost a civil war are in this country over george w. bush's handling of the iraq war. we now have to look at a new threat and i would hope the country would come together now. we're talking about beheading americans, talking about killing more americans than they have already killed, and they're still gaining momentum, this should be republicans and democrats coming together, not taking cheap shots at each other. >> not taking cheap shots. not taking cheap shots but yet -- >> go ahead, i'm sorry. >> maybe you and i disagree. i think george w. bush took us

to war with bad evidence, but i don't think that should keep us from looking at the new evidence we have now and asking appropriately. you disagree with that? >> we won't reprosecute the iraq war. if this is on president obama's watch now, his inactions has allowed isis to become what it has become. it is not just a terrorist organization. it is an army. and it is absolutely not true that no one anticipated that it is would become this powerful. but intelligence community and the defense people in the defense department absolutely did warn him. he wasn't listening. maybe if he showed up for his presidential briefing, maybe he would have realized -- >> that's completely -- that is not true. i used to work in the white house. the president gets briefed every day. you say that kind of stuff, it doesn't make any sense. >> kimberly dozhier. >> there is probably bipartisan support for what tara was saying on the hill in terms of i've heard from republicans and

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welcome back, everybody. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. we're live on the streets of ferguson. calmer now, 12 days after the shooting death of michael brown. make no mistake about it, people here are angry. and they want answers. so what will it take to keep the peace here? iyana van zandt has a plan. what happens if the officer never goes to trial? we'll get into all of that tonight. but we begin with the very latest here in ferguson. first, let's go to cnn's jake tapper life down on