hello. i'm wolf blitster. it's 1:00 p.m. here in new york. whether you're watching from around the world, thanks v much for joining us. france on alert right now an on guard against the threat of terrorism of the wave of attacks that killed 17 people. at least 8,000 people 10,000 soldiers are being deployed across the country. the french minister tells cnn, a cnn affiliate, i'm quoting now, the threat is still very much present. the female suspect who's the focus of an intense manhunt may be in sere yo rating now. hayat bomeddiene arrived in turkey on january 2nd traveled to syria six days later. may not have been in france at the time to have attacks. video has surfaced of

bomeddiene's boyfriend, coulibaly. he carried out the deadly siege at the sushl market. coulibaly was listed in a u.s. terrorism database for a while. the wave in pair tis started at charlie hebdo. that's where 12 people were gunned down brutally. our chief national correspondent jim sciutto is on the scene. they're deploying thousands and thousands of soldier, additional police officers. what are you hearing about the search for other possible accomplices? >> reporter: well wolf the crucial development today is the french prime minister telling our own chrissian am man pour it is lily likely there are other accomplices that are at large. that's in addition to a partner or wife of coulibaly who carried out the attack on the kosher

market who has now left the country and made it all the way to syria. she's effectively disappeared. he made it clear it's not just her that they're talking about. other accomplices that they believe provided money, possibly weapons and other support. that means there are others out there involved in the attack that could still pose a threat. that's why you're seeing this enormous display of manpower 8,000 soldiers thousands of police officers to try to reduce the risk of another attack here. >> do french officials believe that the attacks activated what are being called the sleeper cells, that they now be prepared the carry out more attacks? >> that's what we were told over the weekend, a french police source say tlg was a security meeting on saturday afternoon and the result of the security meeting was a belief that in particular amedy coulibaly when he was in the kosher market

making phone calls, calling contacts in what they believe was a larger group of like-minded terrorists and jihadis, calling them encouraging them urging them to carry out further attacks, particularly on police officers. that's one reason why they believe there may be others who have been activated or encouraged to carry out attacks and that's one reason that you're seeing this tremendous show of police and military force now to try to prevent the attacks. we've talked about this before. some 5,000 suspected jihadis in france. that's an impossible number to keep track of. >> certainly is. that's a lot of the work to try to keep up with all of those potential attackers out jim sciutto, thanks very much. we're learning that the jewish market attacker was on the u.s. watch list. pamela brown is joining us now. amedy coulibaly, he was being watched by the u.s. as well.

is that right? >> that's right. so at some point, wolf french intelligence officials shared information with the u.s. officials, perhaps having to do with amedy coulibaly's arrest back in 2010 i believe. apparently he was arrested convicted of trying to get an al gearian out of prison. he was put on this terror watch list a database of known or international suspected terrorists. and so he was on there, we know that the other two suspects the kouachi brothers were also in that database. but it's still a mystery whether coulibaly's female accomplice was in that database. and it's believe that she is now in syria. sources telling us that she went to turkey last seen at the border of turkey. it's presumed that he made her way into syria. it's going to be very difficult to get to according to officials. >> these terrorists all of them dead now, they were on the tide

watch list. that that basically the same thing as a no fly list. had they tried to board a flight in paris for washington dulles airport, would they have been allowed in on this no visa waiver plan that the united states has with close allies or would they have been stopped at dulles airport? >> they would have been -- we know the kouachi brothers have been on the no fly list for several years, one brother for more than five years. they would not have been allowed to board a flight to kpom to the u.s. as far as coulibaly being in the database, it's not clear whether he was on the no fly list. that is i guess the strictist list there is. people who have a next us known nexus to terrorist would most likely be on the no fly list. he was arrested back in 2010 on

terrorism related charges. so you can presume he was on the nofully list but we have not been able to confirm that. >> pamela brown reporting for us. thank you. the ramifications of this occasion reach far beyond france. the suspects were known to other european and u.s. authorities. and now we're also learning more about the brothers' link direct link to yemen. our senior national correspondent is joining us live from beirut. he's been doing some exclusive reporting for us. what have you found out, nick? >> reporter: well attention really focuses on said kouachi who was in and out of yemen in a protracted period from october of 2009 to mid 2011. but today we've learned interestingly from a senior security official is that his younger brother cherif. he was there in twill of 2011 for three months or so as was

said. while said went to a language school where he studied arabic grammar for a substantial period of time. and for a brief period of time shared a room with a man known as the underwear bomber one of the most notorious failed bombers in the past decade sore so. but they believe cherif in fact may have headed north in another area in yemen and went to a different islamic school there, which they have concerned, this senior security official may have used as a base which he could have traveled a couple or hours or so you need to goat to some of the training camps that al qaeda affiliates have in that area. it is a failed or failing state to get together a coherent picture of these brothers' time in inside the country. increasingly more details coming to light. and they're chill. they're saying these guys should

have been on everyone's radar a lot more. >> nick stand by. i want to go back to pamela brown in washington. pamela it now looks very embarrassing what's going on. the u tune accounts and twitter accounts have been hack snd. >> that's what we're lrng. this is a developing story as we speak. what we've learned is sitcom, twitter youtube have been hacked. one of the tweets there were pentagon documents. of course these could be public documents that look like they're coming from the pen gone. the tweets are meant to look like they've been hacked by isis. some of the tweets saying we won't stop we know everything about your wives, saying that asis is already here we're in pcs and each military base. but as my colleague, barbara starr reported the intel community has been running a cyber program against isis for months. of course this could be someone

unaffiliated with isis who has hacked sitcom make it look like it was coming from isis. we'll bring you the latest as soon as' find out. >> this is really embarrassing cent kom is responsible for u.s. military operations in all of the middle east south asia north africa. they've got a huge area of responsibility. syria, iraq and yemen, that's all sart of centcome right? >> it's a very big deal the fact that they were able to get in there and take over centkom's twitter account. it's unclear if this is unrelated. but you might remember early we reported that isis the big concern is that isis was pulling together information from u.s.

soldiers and their families meshl media accounts to try to figure out where they live. again it's unclear if that's related at all. but it's very concerning no matter how you cut it. >> clearly somebody got the passwords for centkom's twitter and youtube account. we'll continue to stay on top of the story. still ahead, we're waiting for what's liking to be a pretty contentious white house briefing. they're under fire for not attending yesterday's unity march in paris. tough questions coming up for the white house press secretary. also we're going to look at the possible ties between kouachi brothers, isis al qaeda and the arabian peninsula. stay with us. lots going on.

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we're standing by the white house press briefing getting ready to begin. it was scheduled to begin a few moments ago. it will begin soon. serious questions are being raised about the u.s.'s participation in the massive rally in paris. there was several dignitaries in presence. a lot of people are wondering, like president obama wasn't there, at least the secretary of state john kerry. but cnn has been told that sending president obama would have created, quote, pretty substantial risks, presumably security risk to the president op jim acosta is over at the white house briefing room right now. are we expecting the press secretary josh earnest to address this issue? i assume he's going to be

badgers with a ton of questions. >> i think so. he's going to be hammered with a lot of questions on this issue right out of the gate. it's the official real issue to the president's leadership. the president apparently made this decision on his own to not go to paris, presumably potentially with some zbie dance from secret service that maybe it would have been too risky to make the trip. we did get some background information from an anonymous white house official yesterday that this would have been a security challenge. but the official also said that the event in paris was really about the french and not the u.s. that gives you some hint as to what josh earnest will say when he comes out here in a few moments. as you mentioned, secretary of state john kerry could have been diverted from his trip although he was meeting with the india prime minister. the vice president, however, vice presidents they're sort of made for these types of

assignments. the vice president has not public schedule over the weekend. he was in wilmington delaware with nothing on his schedule. this was a decision that was made by this white house not to go and now they're going to have to answer for it. ly tell you, though in just the last several minutes i heard from a senior democrat strategist here in washington said this was a huge mistake. the president could be out there leading the world. he could have gotten other business done with these world leaders in paris. the question will be whether or not this was a missed opportunity. >> stand by. we're going to have live coverage with the q and a with the white house press secretary once it begins. i want to get some perspective now from our senior political come men startmentary commentary jake carney joining us. picking up on what we heard from jim acosta is it okay for a press secretary to at least

acknowledge to the american people the president of the united states may have made a mistake? >> well i don't think you'll hear that from my successor, josh earnest today and i don't think -- the problem with this kind of discussion wolf is that while in retrospect you could say, boy, it would have been better to avoid this very news story by sending a senior official. i think anyone short of the president appearing there should have still resulted in some of the criticism that we're seeing. i think that what the white house is focused and what the president is focused on -- sometimes this is an asset and sometimes a liability in the day to day in on the longer term. his focus is going on on what are we doing to help the french and not whether or not we're making all of the right symbolic moves. i think that what is almost entirely the case in a situation like this is that the story is very washington focused. i'm sure it will be a subject in the briefing today. i'm sure it won't be the most

fun josh has ever had. but i think most americans are going to be focused on the broader issues here in terms of the fear that they might have about a kind of an attack like we saw in paris happening in the united states and also what we're doing to counter it with the french. they're also going to be focused on how is the economy doing, how are jobs coming along. and if there's a missed opportunity here i think it's that the white house will have to spend a day or two talking about this rather than the good economic news that we've seen lately. >> did you ever -- while you were the press secretary in the white house, did you ever acknowledge that a mistake was made? >> you know i think the language you use is always something you have to think very carefully about. you don't want to create something bludgeon you or the president. there are times when you could have said there are things we could have done different lip. the podium is a place you have

to be careful about doing that because it's on camera and can become instant fodder for political ads. but i think there are way to signal you know maybe we could have done something better. i think the president says that a lot. but that's usually a little down the road. when there's a moment like this when there's a bit of a frenzy i think you got to ride it out and focus on what the president has done what we've done substantively as a nation to help the french. >> because the american public they acknowledge, everybody, we're all human beings. and if it was a mistake, it was a mistake, we move on. and because even the attorney general, eric holder he was in paris at the time. he could have gone and represented the united states instead of the top u.s. diplomat there. even eric holder didn't go and a lot of people were wondering why he didn't show up. >> well again, i would suggest

that had he gone that would not have satisfied critics here. they would have said that the united states sent a cabinet level official rather than the president or the vice president. and i think that you know the question here is should the president have gone. there are enormous challenges as you know having covered the white house, to moving a president that are quite different from moving any other leader in the world. there are security issues that we approach differently from any other nation in the world. and also you create huge distraction and disruption when you inject a u.s. president into an event like this. and i'm sure those were all consideration that that the white house undertook. i'm not saying in retrospect they might have thinking just to avoid the story it would have been good to go. but as you know the president didn't often think like this. he thinks long term. sometime that hurts him in the short time. >> i was thinking in my own experience bill clinton was

president of the united states in if 1990s and the prime minister of israel was assassinated and then the funeral was going to take place right away. bill clinton did not hesitate at all. a lot of the secret service guys said it could be dangerous. he flew to jerusalem for the funeral. and even though the secret service was upset and worried about security for the president of the united states in such a hastily organized event, he made a point of going. and you know obviously the secret service is always understandably cautious about these kinds of things. but the president of the united states he's the president of the united states. if he wants to tell the secret service work it out, we're going, this is too important obviously the president can override any of those concerns. >> no question the president could have overrode the secret service. the world is much more different post 9/11 than it was there.

i do believe as you saw with nelson mandela, that president obama would also make the trip. i think that the march that we saw yesterday in the white house's view is one that was focused on french solidarity, the diversity of the crowd, the fact that there were french muz lips out in mass is what the message was. we haven't heard any criticism from the french the french government or from french organizations about the absence of the president at this march. what i think they'll be looking for is substantive assistance and substantive demonstrations of solidarity in the days coming ahead. >> thanks very much for joining us. i'm sure you're not ensee yous of your successor josh earnest and what he's about to go through. thank you. >> thanks wolf. when we come back we're taking a closer look at the hunt for hayat bomeddiene. what was her role in last week's

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the breaking news we're following, sit very, very embarrassing to the united states military. the central command which is in charge of all u.s. military operations in the middle east the twitter feed for the u.s. military appears now to have been hacked. isis activists are taking credit posting what looks like confidential information. joining us now to assess what's going on our terrorist analyst paul crookshack and the former

cia operative bob bear and tom fuentes. i want to point out we're standing by to hear from the white house as well so i may have to interrupt you. on this centcom twiettter feed the cyber caliphate continues, how embarrassing how awkward is this, bob bearaer for theist u.s. military. >> very. if you shout off the gps location people can turn this on with certain software and still find them. this is a huge breech for centcom. >> a lot are saying how could

this possibly happen? we don't know if it's isis, isis sympathizers or attackers pretending to be isis sympathizers. it's so perplexing that the u.s. military's central command has now been hacked. >> it's an example of modern warfare. that's what we have now is a battle of the technical wizards that set up the accounts. they're supposed to be se carcureing them. and the other people around the world are supposed to be attacking the systems. it's an interesting thing. but it's the warfare of the future. >> and it's so awkward, paul crookshack. does this have the fingerprints of isis isis sympathizers or just a bunch of hackers having some fun out there? >> it really could be any of the above. i think it's important to point out that centcom its has not been hacked.

this is youtube and twitter. that's much easier to hack than centcom's mainframe systems. we're talking about a hack into the social media sites. nevertheless it's obviously embarrassing for the u.s. military. we know that isis does have a bunch of cyber guys who operate in rank in syria and also perhaps in mosul, in iraq. but they're not thought to have a huge capability when i comes to this kind of cyberattacks. >> bob baer give us some perspective, how important tral command is to this war on terror. >> it's a key. it's in charge of the middle east. it's the most important command and the best people go there. it's our face in the middle east in the wars in syria and iraq and yemen. but paul is absolutely right.

they cannot get into centcom computers. that would be extraordinary if they could, a miracle in fact. but the fact is these people are capable of carrying on propaganda on the internet as well as recruiting and the rest of it. and we are at war with them in cyberspace. the fact that they did so well on those execution tapes. it was a shock just as it was a shock for the french those attacks in paris. they're getting more sophisticated, not less. >> josh earnest just walked into the briefing room. he's making some preliminary announcements once he starts taking reporter questions i want to listen in. >> over the course of the briefing today. however before we do let me note something else important that happened. house republicans put forward department of education funding

through the end of 2015. they're unveiled plans to muck around the legislation to protect our ports and or borders, bolsters cyber security coordinates with state and local authorities to improve our counter terrorism and yes it enforces the immigration laws. there's never a good time for republican to do this but right now seems like a particularly bad time for them to do so. republicans say they're doing this because u they have an objection to the president's executive action on immigration. the president's plan would bring some badly needed accountability to our immigration system by requiring undocumented immigrants who have been in this country for more than five years to come out of the shadows, get right with the law, submit to a background check and pay taxes. the republican plan would undo all of that and send the count think back in the direction of doing nothing which is amnesty.

so i guess that means there's probably a lot of reasons to think that what republicans are planning on the dhs funding bill is a bad quad. with that jim get it started with questions on that. >> so the president would veto this legislation that the house assembled? >> we've made clear dating back to last nal that the president would oppose any legislative effort to undermine the actions he took to add greater account blts to the immigration system. >> can you tell us anything about this hacking of centcom? do you have any information on it? >> jim, i don't have a lot of information on this. it just occurred you know within the last hour or so. i can tell you this is something we're obviously looking into and something that we take seriously. however a note of caution to folks.

it's a pretty significant difference between what is a large data breach and the hacking of a twitter account. we're exam minuting and investigating the extent of this incident. but i don't have any information beyond that for you. >> on the topic de jour why didn't president obama or vice president biden or eric holder attend the paris solidarity march? >> well jim, i can tell you what was on the television screens of people across this country and i think even across the globe was a remarkable display of unity by the french people in the face of these terrible terror attacks. and the way that that country has come together i do think struck a chord and inspired people all across the world and throughout this country.

it was a remarkable display. there were also a numb for of other world leaders who were there to participate and show their support as well. some have asked whether or not the united states should have sent someone with a higher profile than the ambassador to france. and i think it's fair to say we should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there. that said there is no doubt that the american people and this administration stand four square behind our allies in france as they face down this threat. that was evident throughout last week when you saw that the president's counter terrorism adviser here at the white house was in touch with her french counter part minutes after this reports of this terror attack emerged. you saw later in the day that the president of the united states telephoned phone him to express his concerns and to

pledge any needed cooperation and assistance to conduct the investigation and bring to justice those who were responsible for the terror attacks. i can tell you that that kind of coordination that is the backbone of the strong relationship between the united states and france. it continued throughout the weekend and continues today. the french ambassador to the united states will be here at the white house later today to meet with lisa mon ko, the president's top counterterrorism adviser. >> how much higher profile does the president think should have been there? eric holder was there. should he have been the person representing the u.s.? at what level would the president be satisfied with? >> i can tell you, jim, that has the circumstances been a little different, i think the president himself would have like tofd had the opportunity to be there. well the fact is that this is obviously a march that the

planning for which only began on friday night and 36 hours later it has begun. what's also clear is that the security requirements around a presidential level visitor or even a vice president level visitor are onerous and significant. in a situation like this they have a pretty significant impact on the other citizens who are trying to participate in a large public event like this. we talked about this a lot when it comes to the president attending a basketball game. but the fact of the matter is there were not just thousands of people at the event. there were millions. it wasn't just an arena that needed to be secured but a large outdoor area that poses significant security challenges. i'm confident that the professionals at the secret service could overcome those challenges but it would have been difficult to do so without significantly having impacted the ability of common citizens to participate in this march. after all, what i think was so

impressive about this display is it demonstrated the unity of the french people. and that is something that we are always mindful of in situations like this. of interfering with those who are trying to attend an event, particularly when the purpose of the event is to demonstrate the unity of spirit and purpose of the people who are coming together. >> consideration of perhaps having a more prominent presence there sb is there something that's being considered at the white house today or is it something you considered doing on friday when you first knew -- >> well i'm not going to unpack all of the planning and discussions that went into this. but i think you know suffice it to say, there should not be and is not any doubt in the minds of the people in france or people around the world and certainly not among our enemies about how committed to a strong

relationship that the united states is with france and committed to the the same kinds of values that they are. i think in some ways most importantly. the people who understand this best of all are the french people themselves. the french people are overwell md by the solidarity and grief from all corners of the american people including the high levels of administration. steve. >> did you consider having the president go or was it something that was just developing too late to actually pull together in time? >> well see, as i mentioned to jim, i'm just not going to be in a position to unpack the scheduling planning discussions that we have here. but what i can tell you is that there are some who are suggested that the u.s. presence at the march could have been represented by someone with a higher profile than the am bas

door to france. i guess what i'm saying is we here at the white house agree with somebody with a higher profile should have also included. >> did the french ask you to come? >> see, i'm not aware of all of the conversations that may have occurred between french officials and american officials here. >> there's plenty of criticism about this. is this criticism fair? >> criticism from whom? >> a wide variety of people. >> anybody that comes to mind? >> i can give you -- >> go ahead, steve. it's your turn to ask the question. >> ted cruz jack tapper. >> jack tapper did have some criticism, i saw that too. >> marco rubio. >> there are other republicans, too. >> so steve you're skk? >> is this criticism fair. >> it is certainly a free country and people have the opportunity to subject their elected officials to criticism

and make it clear when they disagree with a decision or an action that's been taken by the administration and i certainly wouldn't quibble that hair right to do so. there are those out there saying that the administration should have sent someone with a higher profile to have participated in the march. i guess what i'm saying we agree we should have sent one with a higher profile. again in addition to the ambassador of france. >> let me ask one more thing related to this. how does this change your strategy toward going of the islamic state? are you noub going to be stronger in partners? >> how do you interpret this? >> there's an important leap made in the construct of the question there. there is still an investigation ongoing to determine exactly what the links were between these individuals who were responsible for these terror attacks in france and their communications and support from

extremists in other locations around the globe. there's some public reporting that indicates that these individuals may have had links to or even traveled to yemen. i know that there is video that's emerged today that we're still reviewing here in which one of the terrorists indicate some sympathy and support from isil. we're reviewing all of this and trying to assist the french as they take the lead on the investigation, as they should about who is responsible, what kind of support they had and what links that has to other extremist groups around the world. laura. >> how did the president follow the demonstration yesterday? what was his -- when he was looking at all of the american channels airing the demonstration for hours? >> well laura, i don't know how much of the march the president watched on television.

but i can tell you that the comments that i have reiterated today about the rather impressive display of unity and solidarity from the french people is something that the president made note of as well. and these are messages that were most importantly sent by the citizens of france but they were echoed by people all across the globe. there are many ways that people can demonstrate that expression of support from a tweet to a speech at the golden globe awards last night. i think that is indicative of the kind of solidarity that the american people feel with our allies in france not just because of the terrible tragedy they've endured but because of the kinds of values that they fight for. these are the same kind of values that we hold dear in this country. that's why the bond between the united states and france is so strong today. >> the demonstration began at 1 clock in the afternoon in paris. the white house sent a message

at 7:00 in the morning by e-mail saying there would be a summit to vie list extremist. what is your point there? what do you expect from this summit? >> let me say a couple of things about this. this effort to counter violent extremism is something we've talked about quite a bit over the years. this has long been a focal point of our planning when it comes to our counter terrorism strategy. the other thing that i would anticipate that we would expect to discuss in the context of the summit is to invite leaders from the private sector and technology community to discuss how extremists are using social media platforms to try to inspire acts of violence. and inspire extremisms compressions of extremism by other people. we want to talk about strategies that we can employ to better

promote inclusion and resilience in communities all across the country. one of the things that woe would expect to talk about in a summit like this would be to highlight the experience of some pilot programs that have been operating in cities like boston los angeles and the minneapolis/st. paul area where local officials have really employed some pioneering techniques to try to work very closely in their communities to again, root out efforts to inspire and recruit extremeists in a way that's not good for the country and certainly not good for the communities where that may be occurring. there are some interesting innovative techniques being employed and we want to share those best practices with others who participate. >> well all forms of violent extremism would certainly be discussed in the context of the

summit. but obviously the threat that we see from you know violent extremism in which individuals invoke the name of islam, an otherwise peaceful religion as they carry out these attacks would certainly be a priority in the discussion here. >> -- we are going to take on violent extreme mist. >> all forms of violent extremism would be discussed. and obviously the most potent and certainly the most you know photographic display that we've seen in recent days again, is motivated by those individuals who seem to invoke the name of islam to carry out the violent attacks. that's something we want to work very hard to counter and mitigate. >> -- according to you of extremist, why isn't the summit on countering islamic extremism.

>> violent extremism is something we want to be focused on. it's not justice lambic violent extremism that we want to -- >> paris, australia, canada isn't the thread throw theme that it's islamic extremism? >> those are individuals who have cited islam as they've care royed carried out acts of violence. >> you said -- >> with the higher profile than the ambassador. that's right. >> question, why didn't you? >> i've sort of tried to describe to you the situation here. we're talking about a march that came together with essentially 36 hours notice. and a march that occurred outdoors with an obviously very large number of people who participated. we are mindful knit the president goes to a public place or the vice president for that

mat are that we don't want to or at least we want to mitigate the impact that the security precautions would have on those for tis path in the event. there's no doubt had the president or the vice president gone to participate in this event that took place outdoors with more than a million people in attendance that it would have significantly impacted the ability of those attending the march. >> the president's safety is of utmost. it's not an issue at all. of course his security is important. how do you explain that the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu made it there. >> i will allow them to discuss what security precautions they had in place. you should talk to them about the security precautions they have in place. you've been to enough events where the president is attending a conference or a summit with other world leaders and i they that you've seen first hand that

the security precautions that have in place for the president of the united states are sometimes more onerous that the precautions that are put in place for other world leaders. >> at the mandela funeral there were doesen osdozens of leaders. how did that come together? >> the difference with president mandela is there had been discussions that had been going on for frankly a number of years about the ceremony that would take place in the event of his death. there is a much clearer plan that was already in place that could be followed for executing that event on a short time frame. there obviously was nothing in place because i don't think anybody contemplated the kind of attack we saw in paris. >> you said the president personally wishes he would have liked to have gone. why did he? what was he doing on sunday? we haven't gotten an accounting of what he did. >> i haven't spoken with the president about what he did. >> you obviously prepared for

this and you've said it was the most transparent administration. what was the president doing. >> i did not prepared on a question based on what the president was actually doing. >> attorney general eric holder was in paris, he had very important meetings. one would assume that the french officials who attended those meetings some of them went to the rally. and the attorney general's office says he had to get back to washington on sunday afternoon. why couldn't the attorney general? he was in that city. security was already in place. how could he not attend? >> i'm not aware of the detail of the attorney general's schedule for yesterday. if you're asking whether or not somebody like the attorney general should attended or should have been asked by the white house to attend what i'm telling you is that yes, we believe somebody with a higher profile should have been asked to attend. >> what about the rally in d.c. a march from the museum to the french embassy.

the president did go to the french embassy last week expressed his solidarity for the french peep. but i understand that the president is not going to go marching through the streets of d.c. the white house chief of staff, how come you didn't have somebody at d.c. at a rally? >> i know there were a number of administration officials that did participate i think a lot of them participated -- would have done so even if they weren't members of the administration. i can tell you that for all of the talk there is no doubt and should be no doubt about the commitment of the administration and american people standing should tore shoulder with allies in france as they deal with the after aftermath and terrible terror attacks for the values we hold so dear on both sides of the atlantic. >> i want to talk about the

antiextremism summit. it was delay aid couple times. can you talk about why that was delayed and didn't happen in october? >> there have been a number of discussions about how exactly, about how this was going to come together and trying to schedule among state and local leaders, leaders in the private sector community leaders from other place across the country is difficult. i guess i can say that what i would say is this is something we've been focused on quite some time. this has been a focal point of our terrorism strategy dating back february 2010 when then assistant to the president for homeland security and current cia director gave a speech at the law association at nyu why they discussed the need to

counter efforts to recruit people in the name of extremism and need to work with local law enforcement and community leaders to try to counter that message. >> so was scheduling incident tal like you were able to corral everyone or was it enabling you to bring everybody in for this next month? >> my guess i would say certainly the tragic events we saw in paris last week are a reminder how important it is for us to be vigilant about this specific issue. and this summit iwill be an important opportunity to talk about strategies we have in place, no mitigate messages in social media to try to recruit people in the name of violent extremism. we certainly also look forward to the opportunity from hearing are from local officials and leaders of communities across the country about how they've worked together in a way to

mitigate those messages and counter them. it should be an opportunity for those kinds of best practices to be shared from local officials all across the country that will participate. >> the president said today he's going to announce legislation tomorrow to encourage collaboration between companies and the government on cyber security practices and information. it sounds a lot like sisbo, the legislation on capitol hill for a couple of years. you voiced concerns about that before. i'm wondering has that changed or are we going to hear a different version of that tomorrow? >> well we'll save tomorrow's news for tomorrow. you have heard me say on a number of occasions we've been pretty disappoint had the congress has not fulfilled their pons responsibility to deal with this issue. you heard the president talk about legislative proposals he's going to send up in the name of

strengthening consumer protections and making sure consumers and students get the kind of protection and insurances they deserve when it comes to their privacy. we would hope that would not be something that would get bogged down in partisan debates. this is something we should all agree on. we'll see. i think the same thing -- same description could apply to cyber legislation the president talks about tomorrow. we'll have more on that for you. >> the senator issued a statement saying the president had gone absent on the cyber security measures. i asked a couple of weeks ago if you were bringing people in for briefings or pushing this type of thing. one of the proposals the president unveiled today is a recast of 2011 proposal. now it's 30 days instead of 60 to trigger on data breach notification. why is it different? what are you going to do different to encourage it to move?

>> i do think certainly in the after math of more recent cyber attacks we've seen that have been carried out against a number of private companies including most recently the sony hopefully that got the attention of people on capitol hill. they need to fulfill their responsibilities to make progress on this issue. the proposal that we have sent up or will send up is one that does have the strong support of consumer groups. they recognize how important it is for companies to fulfill obligations to communicate with consumers and customers to make sure customers take steps to protect their privacy and protect against identity theft. at the same time this is also welcome news to industry. this clarity associated with one specific national standard would make clear to them what sort of obligations they need to fulfill to their customers.

right now there's a hodgepodge of requirements that vary by state. by putting in place a tough national standard it will add some clarity to businesses and make them more effective in their response and more effective in communicating with their customers in a time line that's appropriate and will insure customers keep their privacy safe. okay? john? >> josh will the united states take part -- >> let's break away momentarily. we'll continue to monitor the press secretary josh earnest. it doesn't happen often at all. he acknowledges the white house made a mistake. they aired on not sending a higher representative to that rally yesterday. listen to what the white house press secretary just said. >> some have asked whether or not the united states should have sent someone with a higher

profile than the ambassador to france. i think it's fair to say we should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there. that said there is no doubt that the american people and this administration stand four square behind our allies in france as they face down this threat. >> all right. there you have it. white house acknowledging they made a mistake. jake tapper is joining us from paris now. you've covered the white house. i've covered the white house. you don't hear that often from the press secretary do you? >> reporter: you don't hear it much from politicians at all. in addition to the fact a josh was acknowledging a reality that most people feel like the united states should have had a higher profile representative at the march, josh was doing something smart when it comes to public relations. admit an error, admit it early,

acknowledge it, and move on. it stops the bleeding in terms of crisis like this. look this was something that people obviously, within the white house and in the obama administration were privately expressing agreement with when some people including myself said that we wish there had higher level higher profile person. if the security is too big an issue for the president to attend there's vice president biden, secretary of state john kerry, hagel and others. it is rare in politics to do so but in some cases it's a rather wise thing to do. >> certainly is. you make a mistake, everybody understands that. everybody is human and makes mistakes. you move on. what i didn't hear him explain though is how they made that mistake. they knew friday this major rally was going to take place in paris. they knew world leader wrs come erers

were coming. he didn't tell why they made the decision that it would be the ambassador of france representing the united states. did you hear why they screwed up? >> reporter: no. the term that josh used which other press secretaries have used before him, i'm not going to unpack that for you. i'm not going into the back story. that will be left for, i'm sure some white house core respondrespondents to find out why that happened. it's unclear why the white house didn't send somebody if they thought the france ambassador would be sufficient. no one is saying specifically president obama should have been there. obviously there were heightened security concerns. although you could argue if you have the british prime minister, turkish prime minister president of palestinian authority, king of jordan and on

and on. is there any more security there could be in that half block space when they shot that image of these world leaders marching? i think the point is look, there's a special relationship the united states has with france. i think culturally the united states kind of got away from it during the iraq war debate when france opposed the u.s. going into iraq and there were all sorts of blowback to that including members changing the voice. the bottom line is france is literally the united states oldest ally. the united states and france republics that we know them to be now were born within the same decade. there are thousands of americans buried in the beaches here having come here to fight in world war ii. it is a