by the way, one of the only two americans before this particular case to ever contract ebola, nancy writebol, is going to be live with anderson cooper tonight on his program at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. be sure you tune in then. in the meantime, thanks for staying with us for this special hour of "legal view." "wolf" starts right now. hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 6:00 p.m. in london. 8:00 p.m. in jerusalem. 9:00 p.m. in moscow. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we begin with the first ebola case diagnosed right here in the united states. and the questions and the very deep concerns it's raising, what's being done to prevent the disease from spreading? what about the people who came into contact with the ebola patient and how worried should americans and others be right now? the patient is in intensive care and under isolation at this

dallas, texas, hospital. the texas governor, rick perry, is scheduled to hold a news conference any moment now. we'll bring that to you live and we'll get the latest developments from our correspondents and our experts here in the united states and around the world. by the way, you can send them your questions on twitter using #ebolaqanda. health officials are tight-lipped about the ebola patient. but here's what we know right now. the man traveled from liberia and arrived in dallas on september 20th. according to reuters, he traveled to the u.s. via brussels, belgium. he says he started feeling sick about four days later. he went to the hospital on september 26th, but an official familiar with the case tells cnn, he did not mention his travel history and hospital officials didn't ask him about that travel history. the man later returned to the hospital two days later and was isolated. a team from the centers for disease control and prevention in atlanta, georgia, has now

arrived in dallas to help identify people the man came into contact with. those contacts will be monitored for 21 days. the director of the cdc says that kind of protocol helps keep the disease from spreading. >> this is a tried-and-true, reliable public health strategy. we go from the moment he could have been infectious, which is probably around the 24th, last wednesday, and we retrace every step, every contact where he might have had direct physical contact with somebody. and for each one of those contacts, we will monitor them for 21 days after exposure in conjunction with the local and state health department and the hospital to see if they develop symptoms. that's how you stop an ebola outbreak. that's what we will do in this case. there is no doubt in my mind that we can stop it in its tracks here. >> our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta joins us live from the cdc center in atlanta. also joining us, our senior

medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen on the phone from dallas. and joining us from geneva, switzerland, the assistant director general for the world health organization. sanjay, should people feel reassured by what the cdc director, dr. thomas frieden, just said about stopping ebola in its tracks here in the united states? >> yeah, i think they should be reassured by that. he had strong convictions about that. he was not hedging. i think it's based on a public health infrastructure in the united states that is far stronger, far more robust than some of the images you've been seeing out of west africa. so while what we're talking about today is historic, it has never happened before, no one has ever been diagnosed in this country or anywhere outside of africa, for that matter, with ebola. despite that, it obviously raises some concerns. but here at the cdc, dr. frieden feels strongly about being able to contain this.

i will point out, and you mentioned this, this idea that this patient went to the hospital a couple of days after getting sick, on the 26th of september, went to the hospital, had concerns, had symptoms and was sent away, travel history was not obtained, that's concerning. that's sort of the easy stuff in all this, in trying to control an outbreak. that, we can do easily. but it was missed. and as a result, there are two more days before the guy went hospital. that means two more days of contacts he may have had that now have to be found. they have to be traced. they have to be monitored. if one of them gets sick, all of their contacts subsequently have to be traced an monitored. it's not easy. it's laborious work. but it can much more easily done effectively here in the united states versus many of these countries in west africa. >> what you're saying is that the patient never volunteered the information, he had just arrived in dallas on a flight from liberia, and no one in the

hospital emergency room asked him about his travel history? is that right? >> that's what it sounds like, wolf. and that's a mistake. i don't know any other way of putting it. someone dropped the ball on that, fell down on the job. i was here at the cdc a couple of months ago saying, we can almost bank on the fact that a patient is going to show up in the united states with ebola and be diagnosed in this country. what are we doing about it? they said, we are contacting all the primary care sort of doctors, emergency rooms and letting them know that if patients come in, they have a travel history that's concerning, coming from west africa, and they have these symptoms, high fever, nausea, diarrhea, things like that, then they are considered higher risk. it doesn't necessarily mean that they have ebola. chances are they still don't. but more investigation should have been done. and that wasn't done here. the person was sent out with antibiotics, is my understanding. i'm not sure how that made any sense whatsoever.

two days later, this person comes in by ambulance now and that prompts a further investigation testing. and it was two days later that the test was confirmed here at the cdc. >> sounds like a major blunder. we'll hear more about this presumably coming up in the next few minutes. standing by for that news conference, the governor of texas, rick perry, joined by david lakey. maybe they'll be able to clarify what precisely happened. let me bring the doctor from the w.h.o. into this conversation. what needs to be done to screen people traveling to and from that so-called ebola hot zone in western africa? because are watching us all over the world right now, they're clearly concerned that someone's going to get on a plane from liberia or one of the other countries, guinea, sierra leone and fly to their neighborhood and potentially infect people. what needs to be done?

>> there's a a lot of basic recommendations that w.h.o. has made. the first one is that we have recommended that all countries be prepared for the possibility that they could have a case of ebola. so to get their surveillance systems ready and so on. for those country that is do have ebola going on right now, who we have recommended is there should be exit screening so that people or travelers who have fever should not travel. and in addition, we have specifically recommended that anyone who has ebola infection or who has been a contact of someone with ebola during the 21-day incubation period should not travel. >> reuters says this patient stopped off on the way from liberia toin brussels. should people in brussels be concerned about this?

>> everybody should be aware that there are always patients there are sick. looking for patients who are ill but also giving information to patients who are ill to seek medical care, these are basic recommendations that we would give for any ill patients. i think they are very useful in the current situation. >> let me bring elizabeth cohen into this conversation. elizabeth, you're there in dallas watching what's going on. you just came back from liberia yourself covering this huge, huge story for our viewers. hold on a second, elizabeth. i want to hear what governor perry is about to say. he's getting ready to make a statement. we've got live coverage coming up. he's surrounded by top officials including dr. lakey. >> good afternoon. thank you for being here today. congressman, thank you for your presence. over the past 24 hours, i've

been in very close contact with the director of the cdc, dr. tom frieden, as well as all the appropriate texas state health officials. we're working very closely with the local, both the city and the county health officials as well in this very serious case as we partner. as you know, a patient was admitted to this hospital on september 28th. subsequently tested positive for ebola. today we learned that some school-aged children have been identified as having had contact with the patient and are now being monitored at home for any signs of the disease. i know that parents are being extremely concerned about that development. but let me assure, these children have been identified and they are being monitored and the disease cannot be

transmitted before having any symptoms. i have full confidence in the medical professionals, in superintendent miles and our local, our state and our federal partners in keeping this contained. this is a disease that is not airborne and is substantially more difficult to contract than the common cold. we have experts here with us today who will be talking to you in a minute about the precautions that you may want to take. the medical community of north texas, along with officials from the state and federal government have been working together to take every step available and necessary to care for this patient's health and to ensure the safety and welfare of our citizens. there are few places in the

world better equipped to meet the challenge that is posed in this case. texas is one of only 13 states certified by the cdc to conduct diagnostic ebola testing. and we have the health care professionals and the institutions that are second to none. the public should have every confidence that the highly trained professionals involved here will succeed in this very important mission. public health investigators from dallas county and from the texas department of state health services are working to identify, to locate and monitor the health of all those who have come into close contact with the patient. the highly qualified men and women of texas health presbyterian are doing everything in their power to deliver the very best care for

this patient. they have been and they will continue to be in close contact with federal, state and local officials to ensure the public's safety. this case is serious. rest assured that our system is working as it should. professionals on every level of the chain of command know what to do to minimize this potential risk to the people of texas and of this country, for that matter. i'd like to ask dr. david lakey, the head of our state health services to come and share with you the efforts that are ongoing as we address this issue. david? >> good morning, everyone. my name is david lakey, commissioner of the texas department state health services. i want to echo several of the comments that were made by the governor. first, our thoughts and prayers

are really with the family. they were notified about their loved one having ebola yesterday. obviously it's a scary diagnosis. so our thoughts and prayers are with them right now. and also with the treatment team, those individuals that are caring for the individual right now. since the outbreak of ebola in west africa, texas has been taking steps to make sure that we are prepared for an event like this. a lot of education has taken place. a lot of protocols have been put in place. we've developed the ability to test for this virus since august and to be able to do that in our laboratory. and our preparedness is not just taking place at the state level, preparedness was taking place at the local level in this hospital. they took it really seriously. they've been educating their staff. they've been putting their own protocols in place so that they were ready to care for an individual that this individual

and any individual that showed up with ebola. we've basketball on the lookout for this. i had the opportunity today to spend time with the team and to talk to the management team and hear how they have been preparing for a long time for this event. and then i had the opportunity to talk to the infectious control practitioners and actually go onto the ward and see firsthand the work that they're doing. and i want you to know they're doing a great job. they're providing compassionate care. they have a committed staff that are providing top-notch care and are doing that in a safe environment. they have a whole ward that's dedicated to the care of this individual. they have a whole team of professionals that are very competent caring for this individual and are doing it in a very safe and compassionate environment, providing excellent

care. now, obviously this disease is scary to a large number of individuals. but i think some of the points that dr. frieden emphasized yesterday need to be restated. one of those statements that he said -- and i want to reiterate -- is that people cannot transmit this disease until they have symptoms. so individuals that do not have symptoms are not going to transmit this disease to individuals. the chance of them transmitting it is zero. this virus is not transmitted by the air. it's not transmitted by the water. it is transmitted by direct contact with an individual, with their skin. or contact with blood or secretions or other bodily fluids, or if there's a contaminated needle, you can transmit this. but it's not transmitted through the air, through casual contact with other individuals. i also want to make the case

that this is not west africa. this is a very sophisticated city, a very sophisticated hospital. and the dynamics are so significantly different than they are in east africa -- excuse me, in west africa, that the chances of it being spread are very, very small. and, again, unless somebody has symptoms, it's not going to be spread to another individual. our laboratory has been developing the ability to do this test. since august, we've done the proficiency tests and have that ability to do that diagnostic test in our laboratory. and that ability is available to support the state of texas. we do a rapid diagnostic test, chain reaction and the test yesterday, the controls worked as they were appropriately supposed to work and the test was obviously positive.

we take great care in our lab to inactivate the virus and to make sure that our laboratory folks are safe and it was done in a very safe manner. we have a bio threat team trained to handle these high-risk specimens. a lot of work is taking place right now. a lot of investigation is taking place identifying individuals, the family's been identified. contact has been made. messages have been conveyed to them about how we need to approach the situation. and we will continue to work very closely with our federal partners at the cdc, our local partners with the dallas county health department, with this hospital, with the dallas city government, mayor and judge, thank you for being here today. and with the full support of the state of texas to make sure that we protect texans and that we provide the care that needs to

be provided. thank you. >> david, thank you. let me add to that, mayor rawlings and to judge jenkins, thank you. this is all hands on deck. we understand that. and we have great local partners and everyone has their marching orders and understand the importance of that good collaboration, that good partnering from the state right through our federal partners with the cdc. with that, we'll open it up to those of you in the media for any questions and individuals on the podium here with respond. i beg your pardon? >> [ inaudible question ]. >> we're categorizing his condition as serious but stable.

>> [ inaudible question ]. >> a checklist was in place for ebola in this hospital for several weeks. and dr. ed goodman, to my right, had led the implementation of that. that checklist was utilized by the nurse who did ask that question. that nurse was part of a care team. and it was a complex care team taking care of him in the emergency department. regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team. and as a result, the full import of that information wasn't factored into the clinical decision-making. the overall clinical presentation was not typical at that time yet for ebola. so as the team assessed him, they felt clinically it was a

low-grade common viral disease. that was the presentation. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> he volunteered that he had traveled from africa in response to the nurse operating the checklist and asking that question. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> i can't answer that question because that's one piece of information that would be factored into the entire clinical picture. the clinicians did not factor it in. so it was not part of their decision-making. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> that's a question that's really not in my domain.

>> [ inaudible question ]. >> we are carefully assessing that now. and that is being investigated. so we are investigating it. i can't give you specific information. we will look very carefully at that. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> i would call that not factoring all the information among the team that was present so that all the information wasn't present as they made their clinical decision. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> that information was not obtained when the patient was in the emergency room. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> oh, i'm dr. mark lester.

and i'm an executive vice president with texas health resources. i'm the zone clinical leader for the southeast zone in texas health resources. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> remember, it's unprotected exposure to the bodily fluids that constitutes an exposure. so very carefully and together with the cdc, we're investigating how many people that might be and how they might be monitored if that's so. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> as i said, we're investigating that right now. >> all right. we're going to continue to monitor this news conference in dallas, texas. but we did get some pretty startling information from dr. mark lester who just told us that a nurse did ask this ebola

patient if he had traveled recently. and the ebola patient did volunteer he just flew into texas from west africa, specifically from liberia. but unfortunately, unfortunately that information was not passed on to the others -- the other medical professionals who were dealing with this patient who determined he just had a low-grade fever and released him and let him go out there for two days. dr. sanjay gupta is with us. this sounds like there was a basic, major problem in communication between the nurse and others who were treating this specific patient. >> yeah, wolf, i don't know any other better way to put that. somebody messed up here. i will tell you that typically emergency rooms are very busy. you've heard that a lot over the last day or so in terms of what was going on there. but there is somebody usually in charge, somebody usually signs off on the final decision regarding the patient.

the discharge papers. let me review everything again, put it all together, make sure we're doing the right thing. i don't want to pile on here at this point. they messed up. i think there's almost no question. the question was asked, now we're hearing. first we heard they didn't even ask about travel history. now we're hearing they did ask about this patient's travel history but didn't convey that to the team. what's one to make of that, wolf? that shouldn't happen. when we talk about stopping outbreaks, there are so many complicated parts of this. the contact tracing, possibly the vaccine at some point in the future. asking about travel history? that's easy. and acting on it, that's easy. that wasn't done here. >> let me bring in dr. keiji fukuda from the w.h.o. in geneva, switzerland. dr. fukuda, people are watching all over the world, health care professionals are watching all over the world, tell them what they need to know to make sure that a blunder that occurred in

dallas when this patient was checked out and allowed to go home and be in contact that we just heard governor rick perry of texas say that school-aged children are now being monitored because he was in contact with school-aged children -- tell health care professionals and others around the world, dr. fukuda, what they need to learn from what happened in dallas, texas. >> thanks, wolf. i think there are some basic lessons here. one of them is that everybody, all health care professionals especially need to be aware that in this world where people get on airplanes and can travel anywhere around the world that it's possible to see a case of ebola infection. it's not so surprising to see a case appear somewhere in a traveler. knowing that, there are basic things you want to do and as has been emphasized in the story, ask questions, ask about the

travel history of the person. and then you want to make sure that you understand the symptoms and the illnesses of things like ebola. and then once you have some kinds of suspicions that that's what you may be dealing with, then you want to be sure that that traveler is handled in the right way, to make sure that they're handled in a way which is safe for the person but also which is going to minimize the chances of spreading infection to others. and then you want to communicate that information as was done in this case. so now we have a public health investigation going on. we do have the patient in good treatment and in isolation. and so i think that all things considered, this situation appears to be handled quite well. >> except for the fact that the nurse who learned that this patient just arrived in dallas, texas, a couple of days earlier from liberia, that information was not passed on to some of the other health care professionals who eventually released that

individual and allowed him to go on. a quick follow-up to you, sanjay. when we heard the governor of texas say school-aged children are being monitored for 21 days, what does that say to you? >> that's obviously frightening. being a father myself, you hear these types of things and it doesn't sit well you. i will tell you the odds are very much on these children's side. the odds are they are not infected and that they are doing to do just fine. if they were exposed during this other two-day period after the patient had gone to the hospital and was released and not tested for ebola and then subsequently had contact with these children, all i can say, again, i don't want to pile on here, but all i can say is that didn't need to happen. the number of contacts that this person should have had after the 26th of september, zero. that's the number of contacts the person needed to have. and here he may have had more

contacts. we don't know at what point he had contact with these school-aged children. but that's the concern. >> a deep concern indeed. we'll stay on top of this story has worldwide ramifications. dr. fukuda, we'll stay in close touch with you in geneva, switzerland. thanks for joining us. sanjay, we'll be staying in touch with you throughout the day. we'll get back to this story. other major news we're following here in washington, d.c., the man arrested after actually getting into the white house armed with a knife is about to face a judge. this as new questions surface about the competence of the u.s. secret service. and president obama goes on the offensive to address major security and health threats around the world. but does his strategy go far enough? we'll discuss that and more with the democratic party chair, congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz will join us this hour. create things that help people.

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some lawmakers are now calling for the secret service director to resign because of the serious lapses in security. the director julia pierson was grilled for more than three hours during a hearing yesterday. members of the panel were not satisfied with her answers. democratic congressman elijah cummings is the ranking member of the committee that held the hearing. he joins us from baltimore. you want the secret service director to go, is that right? >> i want her to go if she cannot restore trust in the agency and if she cannot get the culture back in order. i think she would agree that she

has to go. and i told her that she's got a tall order there. but it's going to be very difficult. >> i want you to listen to nancy pelosi, the democratic leader in the house, what she said today. listen to this. >> i understand that she's the top person, the buck stops here and there are those who are calling for her to step aside. whether she does or not, i think we need an independent investigation, her leaving doesn't end the need for us to know a lot more about what is happening. but, again, i would accept the recommendation of my ranking member on the committee. >> she's talking about you because she had heard that you were actually calling for pierson to step down. you want to respond to that? >> yeah, first of all, i agree with everything that ms. pelosi said. what i was saying was that we've got a cultural problem there.

you've got secret service agents who would rather be whistle-blowers and talk to members of the committee as opposed to talking to their higher-ups in the secret service. and basically you have a culture of distrust within the agency itself. i don't see how ms. pierson, the director, can make the kinds of changes that she said she wants to make if she can't even get proper information from her own people. and that's a problem. so she's got -- what i've said is that if she cannot restore this trust among her agents, if she cannot put them in a position where they feel comfortable in telling her and her higher-ups things that are going wrong with the agency or problems with various investigations and whatever and if she cannot address the issue

at the same time of training and protocol and at the same time keep the president safe, i think she should go and i think she would agree with me because i believe that she has served faithfully our country for 30 years. i think she's given a lot. but i also believe that her number one priority is the protection of the president of the united states of america and his family and the other people that the secret service is duty-bound to protect. >> yeah, that's absolutely true. what's worse in your opinion? i know you've studied it closely. what's worse, some guy jumps over the fence, not only gets into the white house armed with a knife but gets into the east room or back in 2011, somebody fires seven shots at the white house and bullets actually hit the window of the residence area upstairs but no one notices that until the housekeeper four days later finds out about it or when the president was recently at the cdc headquarters in atlanta, some guy armed with a gun is

allowed inside the elevator with the president of the united states? what's worse? >> all of them are horrible. and all of them do not symbolize what i have always thought of the secret service as being, the number one protective agency in the world protecting the most powerful person in the world and guarding the most guarded house in the world. there's something wrong with this picture. wolf, we have one situation where the secret service had a reputation -- if you thought about even reaching for a pen around the president, people were very reluctant to do that because they were afraid of the secret service. but that now is being whittled away. every day we seem to get more and more information about the kinds of things that you just talked about. so they've got to restore their reputation. but at the same time, and just as important, they've got to do

things with regard to training, culture, protocol, making sure that the agency is all that we've always thought it to be. right now, the thing that's hurting them, too, is the reputation is getting diminished. the mere fact that you and i are talking about this right now, talking about the secret service right now is diminishing their image. and that image, that reputation, wolf, is extremely important because that reputation is largely a big reason why there is so much deterrence with regard to anybody trying to go after the president or the vice president and others. >> i know there's enormous fear out there by u.s. law enforcement, by others, people who protect the president. this sends an awful message to terrorists out there who think maybe they can get close to the president. you're worried about that, too, right? >> wolf, i am very worried about that. when i think about this fellow, gonzalez, the one that jumped

over the fence and the idea -- suppose that guy came over that fence with a machine gun or suppose there were five or six of them at the same time. i am not convinced that the secret service had everything in place to address an issue like that. and that's -- as they're watching us right now, people are saying, wow, maybe this is something i ought to try. i don't want them even to imagine, imagine, imagine, imagine imagining that they can pierce the shield of the secret service to do harm to our president and others. i don't want them -- >> elijah cummings, we have to wrap it up. thanks very much for joining us. an important discussion and i hope lessons are learned because priority number one for the secret service, to protect the president and the first family. thanks very much, elijah cummings. we'll be right back. more of the breaking news right after this. (male announcer) it's happening.

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there's a call now for the hong kong chief executive to resign and now one of the main protest organizing groups is threatening to escalate the operation if he doesn't step down. >> translator: if he doesn't step down by tonight or tomorrow night, we will announce to escalate the operation. this means to occupy different important government buildings. >> the student movement has said they are open to direct discussions with the hong kong or chinese government. it's a very tense situation. we'll see what develops. turning to the battle against isis, there are several types of isis targets being hit in iraq and syria. air strikes are hitting command and control sites, heavy weaponry helping to finance the terror group. air strikeses which started in august have now cost the united states, we're told, around $1 billion. joining us now is david cohn. mr. secretary, thanks very much for coming in.

>> good to be here. >> they have a lot of money, isis or as you call it, isil. they have hundreds of millions of dollars basically that they've stolen from banks in mosul, other major cities. >> well, isil does have substantial resources in terms of funds that they have. the precise amount of money, i don't think we should overestimate how well-funded they are. but they are undoubtedly a well-funded terrorist organization. but that doesn't mean we don't have tools to address how isil raises its money, moves its money -- >> what are the u.s. treasury department and others doing? when they took over mosul the second largest city in iraq, almost 2 million people, they ransacked all the banked there, all the gold bullion, all that cash, took it out. the estimates i've heard, they have hundreds of millions of dollars. you have lower numbers? >> i don't have a precise figure to give you. and there's no question that isis has substantial financial

resources. but the question really is, will they be able to continue to replenish those resources, will they be able to use those resources and what can we do to undermine their financial strength. >> what are you doing? >> a couple of things. one of the areas where there's been a lot of attention paid is isil has assess to some oil and are trying to sell oil on the black market and are -- >> supposedly up to $3 million a day they're getting? >> the precise figures aren't the issue. what's important is we work with our partners within the u.s. government and internationally so that we disrupt isis's ability to sell oil -- >> is that because of the air strikes or bombing those oil facilities or because you've got some other sanctions or something else in the works that's stopping them from selling the oil on the black market? >> i think it's a multiphased approach. from the treasury department's perspective, what we are doing is working to identify who is involved in the chain of transactions.

at some point, there is someone who is purchasing this oil that they're going to refine and try and sell. those people have relationships with the banking sector. those are people who we're identifying. we can apply sanctions against them but we can also message those people and make clear to them the danger that they're putting themselves in if they handle this type of -- >> we have a limited amount of time. but are wealthy supporters of isis whether in qatar or other countries still able to send cash to these terrorists? >> one of the ways in which isil is funded is through external donations. it's not the most important way but it is a mechanism where they have raised funds in the past. one of the things that we're dedicated to doing is ensuring that isil is not able to tap into external financing that -- >> has that happened yet? >> we have designated a number of isil fund-raisers in the gulf and we're continuing to look at those fund-raising networks to ensure that isil doesn't look to external donations as a way to

continue to fund themselves. >> good luck. it's a tough mission. we're counting on you and your team over there to stop it. although i expect it's going to take a long, long time. it's not going to be resolved in a week or two. it could go on months and even years. >> we'll be working hard on it for a long period of time. >> secretary, thanks very much. coming up, the fight against isis, we'll hear from the man coordinating the coalition against isis in syria. this is an exclusive. this is cnn. stay with us. f like you sometimes, grandpa. well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe. it can be hard to get air out, which can make it hard to get air in. so i talked to my doctor. she said... doctor: symbicort could help you breathe better, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. symbicort helps provide significant improvement of your lung function. symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort contains formoterol.

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john allen is the former commander in afghanistan chosen by president obama to coordinate the coalition attacks against isis. general allen sat down for an exclusive interview with elise labott. what did he say? >> reporter: it was a wide ranging interview. the first interview general allen has done since taking the post. he's leaving for the region. he'll try to co-coordinate this coalition effort and a lot of that is training up the syrian opposition making sure that they can be what he calls the boots on the ground to take advantage of those u.s. air strikes. we talked about the formidable challenge that the u.s. and its partners have ahead in making the syrian free army a credible force. take a listen to him. president obama said a few months ago it was a fantasy to expect that you could train

these free syrian army guys to combat assad. now you have this brutal isis army that you also want them to tackle. how are they going to do that in the short-term? >> in the short-term we'll continue to support them in their ongoing operations. over the long-term the intend is to build credible forces. >> it's going to take a while. >> it is, yes. we've been saying that all along. it could take years actually. so we have to manage our expectations. but the process of getting that unfolded is occurring right now with the idea of locating training camps and beginning to accumulate the syrian elements that will go into those training camps and ensuring that we have the right combination of trainers who can provide the substance that they're going to need to be credible and capable fighters on the ground as time goes on. >> reporter: wolf, remember, this was the man who led the sunni awakening in iraq in 2007

getting sunni tribes to turn away from al qaeda. he says that he thinks he can get that done again, get those sunni tribes to turn away from isis. he said as sure as the sun shines, he says that the sunni tribes will be turning away from isis and the u.s. is also working to train up those iraqi forces to be those boots on the ground in iraq, wolf. >> good work. thanks very much. to our viewers, a lot more of the exclusive interview coming up later today in "the situation room" 5:00 p.m. eastern. isis isn't the only battle president obama is now facing. he's also working to contain this new ebola threat here in the united states. the first diagnosed case in the united states confirmed just yesterday. we'll discuss that and a lot more when we come back. this is the first power plant in the country to combine solar and natural gas at the same location. during the day, we generate as much electricity as we can using solar. at night and when it's cloudy, we use more natural gas.

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president obama facing multiple crises all at the same time. concerns over competence of u.s. secrete service. we have chair of the democratic national committee, deborah wasserman-schultz. you have given up a couple political questions. democrats will not be the majority in the house of representatives, right? >> we'll have an election in which we pick up seats in the house of representatives and i think that we'll hold the senate and i know there's a lot of pundits who predict otherwise but i think there will be a lot of surprise. we're focused on getting out the vote. that's the most important thing

right now. resources are invested all across the country. this is an election that will depend on turnout. >> i assume the republicans -- everyone assumes republicans will be majority in the house. what are you doing to make sure that democrats don't lose the majority in the senate? >> we're investing all across the country. we have a vote from dnc perspective we have a voter expansion program that we launched and hired voter expansion directors focused with working with state partners. we think we're going to out organize and out mobilize republicans like we have in other elections. >> i want to give you a chance to respond to critics who have been going after you for saying republican governor of wisconsin in your words are giving women the back of his hand. and there have been a lot of criticism of you for using that kind of language. was it a mistake? >> i already said that i chose the wrong words. that shouldn't distract from the fact that scott walker's policies are terrible for women.

this is a guy who actually signed a bill that repealed protection that women have in wisconsin for equal pay for equal work. what i'm focused on is making sure we do everything we can to draw contrast between republican extremism and democratic candidates who are focused on getting the economy turned around. >> the phrase of giving women the back of the hand, you used it a couple other times or one other times. no more. you won't say that anymore? >> like i said, my goal there was to highlight the fact that scott walker and rick scott for that matter -- >> the governor of florida. >> they have terrible policies that affect women and voters need to know that. that's what i'll highlight over the next 34 hours. >> when the president took office, 800,000 jobs a month were going away. jobs have been created. >> the deficit was cut in half. >> the dow jones has gone from 7,000 to 17,000.

he doesn't get much credit for that. why? >> this is a president who inherited more problems at once than any president since fdr and continued to keep his head down and focus on what's important without cooperation from the republicans. before we adjourned for the recess, their important priority was suing the president for doing his job when they couldn't do their job and one year ago today they voted to shut the government down in the name of denying people access to quality healthcare. children were turned away from nih programs in which they could get life saving treatment. head start programs were shuttered and children couldn't go to those programs. we're facing an election in which republicans like mitch mcconnell and marco rubio threaten if in charge they'll do that yet again. use those tactics if they don't get their way and shut the government down and really throw this economy into chaos. >> you have less than five weeks

to go before these midterm elections. a third of the senate, the entire house of representatives, a bunch of races and we'll have extensive coverage here on cnn. >> look forward to celebrating on election day. >> thanks very much for joining us. that's it for me. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern on "the situation room." for our international viewers, christiane amanpour is next after a quick break and for voters in north america, brooke baldwin and "newsroom" start after a quick break.

i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me today. we'll begin with a brand new concern. just raised about this first case of ebola in the united states. here's what we have just learned. we know the infected man was around children, school aged children to be precise. this is what we hear from the texas governor before being hospitalized in dallas. that announcement moments ago from texas governor rick perry. >> today we learned that some school aged children have been identified as having had contact with the pie