paris this week even dragging along singer james taylor as secretary kerry described it to give the nation a hug, he got a little bit too close even by french standards and taylor's rendition of you've got a friend was the perfect soundtrack as french president francois hollande endured an awkward embrace. ♪ you've got a friend ♪ -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com you're in the cnn newsroom. i'm poppy harlow in new york. 6:00 eastern and we are covering all angles of europe's fight against terror. in several european countries police and intelligence agents are finding terror suspects and arresting them and now some movement in the investigation in france. this just in to cnn, a source close to the investigation in

paris says two new people are in focus. their dna was found on the belongings of one of the paris attackers. the man who held hostages in that kosher supermarket where four people were killed. this is developing as we speak and more information on that in a moment. several people are in custody right now in greece. at least one of them may be connected to the terror plot that wasec broen apart in belgium just a few days ago. the belgian government wants one of those suspects extradited back from greece. national security is at the highest level throughout belgium. you can see it playing out in the streets. there are more jihadis in that country per capita than anywhere else in western europe. a big part of the investigation are aimed where extremists have struck this month. analysts are looking at a group of men freshly back from fighting and training alongside isis.

isis leaders may be controlling terrorists in western europe. our senior international correspondent phil black joins us live from brussels. what can you tell us about these two new individuals. i know they're not calling them suspects yet, but these two individuals that are sharply in focus for the authorities in france. >> reporter: this relates to ahmedmedyhmedmedyhmedmedy kuehl bally, in their investigation to determine who could have supported him, who could have supported that attack. the authorities in france are looking for two additional people people whose dna they have discovered on coulibaly's possessions. so not a lot to go on initially, but what they're looking for are people whose dna matches the samples they have found on belongings that were found in

coulibaly's possession to try and determine what if any, role they had in his actions, his attacks in paris over those two days. poppy? >> also phil can you tell us what we may know about those arrests in greece? it happened about this time yesterday and now belgium is asking for one of those two suspects to be extradited. do we know why? do we have any details on that? >> the belgian and greek authorities have been tight-lipped about their cooperation here. they acknowledged somewhat reluctantly that they weren't working together that the belgians had tracked down information that the greeks were tracking down and we know now that the greek police had arrested two people based on the information that was discovered and now belgium believes after examining what the greek authorities have been able to dig up that there is a chance one of these men is connected to the terror plot they disruptsed just late last week.

they believe that's the case. they're still not saying why. they're not saying what role he may have played in that attack what information has led to his discovery, but they're being very disciplined in the information they released because this is very much an ongoing investigation. >> absolutely. phil black joining us live from brussels and thank you for your reporting. we appreciate it. >> joining me to talk more about the cnn contributor and the counterterrorism analyst and in washington this evening former foreign approximately policy adviser. did i pronounce your last name correctly? i don't think he can hear me. so we're going to work on him. can you hear me david? >> yes, i can hear you. can you hear me? >> i said did i pronounce your last name correctly? tafori? >> yes. >> what we just heard from phil black in terms of trying to get one of the suspects who was arrested in greece back do you

think they're going to be able to do that? cooperation between these european nations is key in this. how hard is it going to be to get that suspect extradited? >> in this case it shouldn't be very difficult. we see that greece will be acting in concert with belgium in arresting these alleged conspirators. certainly, if there's evidence that's sufficient to show that they've engaged in illegal activity greece would be very likely to extradite them back to belgium. there would have to be a hearing where that evidence would be presented first. >> so, buck when we talk about what's playing out here in europe and it's moving very very quickly and it's spreading further south now to greece et cetera and those two people are keenly in focus in france connected to possibly connected to the attack in terms of the united states what does it mean for us here in the united states. there is a lot of fear about a potential similar attack here. could that play out here in the united states. what are u.s. authorities, what are they doing coming from a cia

background. >> when you have groups disrupted like this some may feel as though and this is obviously the case in europe that there is an acceleration that has to go on for their attack planning because there are cells that are being broken up it's likely that you might find people who fought alongside them with the islamic state who have infiltrated back into europe and here in america we have the concern. we have the concern that some cells will be activated now because there is a heightened scrutiny and there could be communications with them and there is a sense of what is piling on and given what's happened in france and given the reality of that attack and it seems like they'll have more of an impact. this is a moment for them and that's why the profile is higher. they have capabilities they don't necessarily have. >> can you give us a sense because we heard in arwa damon's reporting talking about how turkey is so key here because of where it is located, the fact that money flows through there and terrorists have been able to flow through there into syria and turkey is saying we're giving all of the information we

have to the west and what more can we do? they're not executing on it. what's your take on that? >> it's not just the raw data of people moving in and out of the country. there would have to be invest gagzs of certain individuals who are trying to make their way or making their way into the islamic state controlled areas of syria or other areas of syria to flight. some individuals don't necessarily trigger the red flags you need to detain and hold them. you can't hold someone on suspicion. >> do you think it's strong enough between a key ally like turkey and europe and the united states that we're getting everything we possibly can. >> i think the turks have approached this with a renewed seriousness. given what happened in france that counter terrorism cooperation is absolutely essential if someone did transit through turkey and they ignored those warning signs whether it was a european country or here at home if we were hit they would be upset about that but it's drinking from a fire hose. there are so many people move in and out of the country at any

given time and there are people moving in and out not necessarily going through checkpoints and it's very difficult to make sure they pick out the one that could be the actual threat or could be the attack. >> david, what is your take on that? given someone who has been an adviser and worked with the administration on sort of the most important allies for the united states right now in this fight. >> certainly, france is a very important ally. it was before this attack. this attack will link the u.s. and france together even more. when france wants to use its military it can be very effective. we see it's very active in north africa. there are countries in north africa that are becoming hot spots of training in potential terrorists and so france is a very important partner especially in africa in stabilizing the countries where terrorists could be trained. >> david, i wish we had more time we'll have you both back later to talk more about this. i have more questions for you. thank you, both. as we continue a key part of

the fight against islamic extremists finding those sleeper cells before they strike. to do that we need allies in these country, but will they trust the police when they ask for help? we'll talk about that straight ahead.

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and save even more after rewards. office depot & officemax. gear up for great. out terror cells of islamist extremist trying to break them up the u.s. fighting this

fight, as well. one group they all need to work with closely is the muslim community. so this is a big question. how do counterterrorism officials convince them to work with the government when doing so could make them a prime target? let's talk about this with zuner amazear, an ireporter who reached out about her concerns that radicals were tarnishing her religion and what she should do as a mother to tell her child and retired marine general former commander of the 4th marine division. why don't you tell our viewers of the predicament that you feel you are in and why you filed this i report why you're speaking out. >> sure. thank you so much poppy, for having me here. i am originally from pakistan living in the united states now, and i have to say as a muslim any time any kind of terror attack happens the whole muslim community is on the edge because these terrorists are a liability to us. i think we have a moral and ethical responsibility at this

point to come out and really say that you know this is not our religion. this does not represent who we are and the community has really taken it upon themselves to say, be onning we are going to speak up. sometimes it is hard to find that on the media because not a lot of voices are being heard, but i am so glad to be a part of this conversation and that's why i filed that i report because i was so frustrated just seeing all of the time these terrorists coming out and representing muslim communities when there are so many faces of islam and, you know they just are expanding on the stereotype that needs to be addressed. >> and you said what do i tell my daughter? how do i explain this to my daughter? >> absolutely. because you know once again, every time something happens, recently one of my nephews said the muslims do something again and that's a very hard thing to hear. so it goes back to saying are we having proper conversations in our communities?

are we having proper conversations online to address these things? so i was able to talk to my daughter by saying look we are a diverse group of individuals just like, you know in any community there are good people and bad people. this is one of the examples where a lot of bad people have come out and said this is who we are and now it's the responsibility even today when i was coming onboard i told her that you know i'm going to cnn to say that this is not how all muslims are. we are a religion that teaches love compassion and tolerance for all. >> so general, to that point, what is your take in terms of building the bridges, building the relationships here in america and in europe between the muslim community and law enforcement. obviously some muslims are part of law enforcement, as well but in terms of being able to fight this fight the best that we can. how important are strengthening those relationships? >> well they're very important. i think she makes a great point

that in all religions you have ideologues whether they're good or bad, but what we should be looking for is the good in every culture and one of the challenges i think for law enforcement is that law enforcement has to go out and reach into the communities. you know the police forces for example they're doing community policing are doing great jobs to get out in the community, find out what's going on because there is a source of intelligence that will help them understand what's going on in that community. sometimes law enforcement may be isolated in that sense and everybody has perceptions of different cultures. so the only way to create trust and understanding and cooperation is getting involved with that culture and understanding it. >> do you think, i mean obviously you have many lessons from war, right?

from fighting war and from leading and from commanding. are there lessons from the war zone that apply to rooting out terrorists here at home? >> well absolutely but i'll tell you my experience. i've been talking to muslims all my life and i talk to them every day and not just here in texas, but all around the world. i have associates in yemen. they keep me up-to-date with what's going on there and throughout europe and so forth, and we have great conversations about what everybody needs to know and sometimes we don't do enough of an effort whether it's on the media or whether it's with the military or with the law enforcement officials to reach out to the community and really understand it. what we have is the conflict between some christians and some right-wing christians believe and some muslims believe and maybe we can't have a dialogue and i think there's a lot of

perceptions about both religions that need to be really understood at a more basic level rather than everybody sort of making up the complaints that they may have but really understanding what is it they need to know? the radicals are one thing, and then you know we have great moderates both in christian religion in hebrew and the jewish religion and also in the muslim world. so we really need to have an understanding about what we really need to understand to prevent the type of terrorist activities that are going on. remember it's the young people right now that feel disenfranchised, and i know you've had many conversations about it and the disenfranchisement especially when you look at europe you have to go back and look at the history of the algerian revolution and that goes back to colonial france and europe.

those are some of the challenges. >> it's a very important point and disenfranchisement and what that has meant. thank you very much general. good to have you on the program. thank you for your i report and coming out and speaking to us on this topic. >> thank you so much for having me here, poppy. >> for all our viewers, you will not want to miss our special 9:00 inside the terrorist a stack and paris and the investigation into what happened. then after that the war within islam. what can be done to calm violent extremists? that all starts at 9:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn monday night. israel strikes hezbollah killing a key figure in that group and the battleground was in syria. we'll tell you what happened straight ahead. you only know in a fire to get out, to escape and now ok you are outside and you are safe but what do you do now

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israeli helicopters operating inside of syria killed the son of a late top hezbollah commander. cnn senior correspondent peyton walsh has the story. >> reporter: what we know is significant. israeli helicopters fired rockets toward whats seems to be a group of hezbollah fighters in their cars just inside syria in the golan heights region. they released a statement saying they have fighters assisting the syrian regime inside syria. these fighters were conducting what they say was a survey in a

town in the quneitr aregeon and six people died as a result of that. we understand from a source close to hezbollah that among those dead is a man called jihad mughniyeh. the son of imad mughniyeh, himself killed in a dom blast in damascus. the fact that his son is now dead at the hand of israeli helicopters shows great symbolism that they have good intelligence unless it was a lucky strike in which top hezbollah commanders are now. the key question how did hezbollah respond. what kind of reaction are they able to give because they are known to be involved in many different -- in the increaseingly sectarian violence enveloping this region and what could it

mean for peace between lebanon and israel? poppy? >> nick peyton walsh. let's get to our guests over what has trance fired. former campaign adviser, and let me ask you first, david, what do you make of this in terms of what we see unfolding in syria, more escalation now. israel getting ensnarled in this. what is your take? >> now we're hearing about another part of the war in syria that we don't hear a lot about which is a critical role of what hezbollah is saying as a friend and supporter of the assad regime and hezbollah has substantially increased the number of fighters that they have in syria and they're very very actively fighting in syria primarily against the islamic state and also against the moderate syrian forces. israel has a stake in that. it hasn't been involved in the war in syria and it does not want hezbollah to go on stronger

and i think we have to look at how and wonder what will hezbollah do in response. hezbollah has its hands full and it doesn't want to open up another front with israel and it can't look weak in response to these attacks. >> so general, given that how involved if at all do you think israel does get in the situation in syria and we've seen this sort of more isolated incident, but do you think there is this other side of the battle? >> well you know obviously there's going to be lots of conversations with our counterparts in israel and, you know the battle with hezbollah is a blood feud with the israelis. you know hezbollah has vowed to destroy israel and israel is obviously not going to let that happen but at the end of the day the israelis have to see what's going on with hezbollah because hezbollah as it gets stronger in lebanon which obviously is the closest front to the israelis you know they have to be really concerned and

obviously syria is another front along the golan heights. they have to protect the citizenry of israel and they're going to do that and they're going to do the things that will disrupt the organization of terrorist activity against them just as we would in the united states. >> gentlemen, thank you both. good to have you on the program. david and general. >> thank you, poppy. >> in two days the president lays out his agenda in the state of the union address. that is tuesday night he will face a congress united but many of them united against him. how should he handle it find common ground or take no prisoners? we'll talk about that coming up. first, maybe you've heard the saying there is nothing new under the sun. when it comes to the state of the union address, take a look at 67 years in 67 seconds. [ applause ]

>> speaker, mr. vice president. >> distinguished members of the united states congress. >> members of the supreme court. >> distinguished guests. >> my fellow americans. >> i can report to you. >> the state of the union. >> is strong. >> think for a minute how far we have come in 200 years. >> we find ourselves challenged by new problems. in this country, at home and abroad. >> they have demanded of us. >> vigilance. >> determination and dedication. >> we must rise -- >> make a nation better than any. >> we have. >> ever known. >> the road has been long hefet and pace urgent. >> this is not going to be easy. >> we have only begun. >> let us have the will and theishence. >> to do. >> this job. >> together. >> we need many kinds of strength. >> military. >> economic. >> political. >> and moral. >> nothing impossible is beyond our reach. >> no glory. >> will ever be too great. >> we are americans. >> part of something larger than ourselveses. >> god bless you. >> and god. >> bless. >> the united states. >> of america. >> thank you very much.

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tuesday night's state of the union address will be a new experience for president obama facing a house and a senate firmly under republican control. how will this impact his agenda? let's bring in our panel matt mclarty former adviser to three u.s. presidents and spent time as president clinton's white house chief of staff. also joining me here in new york cnn political commentator buc sexton and rebecca burg. thank you all for being here. let me begin with you. president clinton had to deal with a gop-controlled congress and a lot of people pointed to him and say the president can follow that lead. do you think the president can and will follow that template? >> i think he'll strike a bit of a different course. it's a different time. i think they'll both extend a

hand and talk about areas where he feels they can cooperate and find common ground with the republican congress but i think he'll also be pretty direct and say these are -- some of these areas i'll move forward in and i hope you'll join me but if i don't i'm still moving forward. i think it will be a combination, poppy. >> you worked with president carter and president bush and president clinton. is that a road to take if you don't walk the middle ground? >> i'm a believer in bipartisanship but it takes two to tango to use the old adage. there perhaps nah tax reform when the president has previewed and certain me in trade. i think there are some areas where he can find common ground with this republican congress and that's what the vast majority of the american people want very much. >> so let's get to this right? because you've got some republicans speaking out already over what we know so far about

the president's tax reform plan. let's take a quick listen to what representative jason chaffetz had to say this morning on cnn. >> it's a non-starter. we're not just one good tax increase away from prosperity in this nation. this nation had its all-time highest, the record number of receipts coming into the treasury. are you going to grow the economy or jobs or are entrepreneurs going to be better off or small businessmen going to be better off with more taxes and more government? no. >> so buck to you, when we talk about this we just heard him say we just heard our first guest say that tax reform is possibly a place where you can have agreement. >> not the kind of reform that the president want clswhich is to raise taxes and the president has essentially acted that there was no recent midterm election and he's gone from already setting up and he said he'll play offense and what he's set

setting up for the state of the union, and essentially trying to browbeat the republicans into submission because there's no effort that's been made so far. >> how would the president have to lay out? >> we all know that the tax reform what has it been since '84 that we've had tax reform? >> comprehensive tax reform? how would we get comprehensive tax reform where the republicans can say we can work with this. >> i would like to do the simplification and not get away with the whole thing. >> there could be changes made and there could be some things that would simplify things there. the real agenda items are the things that he'll focus in the state of the union are things like the immigration policy that's active unilaterally and he's positioned himself as the obstructionist in chief. the congress -- sir, what i said is is it something that the president could say on tax

reform that could republicans more onboard? he can drop rates. >> rebecca, to you, do you think it's an effective strategy who we've seen the white house do over the last week leaking the details of the speech to talk about them endlessly on the news and the people can digest them more before tuesday night? >> absolutely. it's important for the president to create buzz before the state of the union because as we've seen over the past few years, fewer and fewer americans end up tuning into the broadcast. when obama gave his first state of the union in 2009 more than 50 million people tuned in. last month in 2013 it was down to more than 30 million people tuning in and the more buzz that the president can create potentially the more buzz people will tune in to listen to his message and this is the biggest audience he will get uninterrupted this entire year and it's important for him to be able to deliver this message. >> interesting. i was in iowa covering the midterm elections and paid a lot of attention to the candidates and joany ernst will be delivering the republican

response. what do we expect from her, rebecca? >> well the republican response never really makes waves, usually. you're not supposed to make any big mistakes and offer a republican alternative and think back to marco rubio when he made that embarrassing gulp of water and that's what we want to talk about. really you want to make it out alive and avoid the curse that the republicans have had in the past couple of years. >> go ahead. finish your thought. >> and overcome this republican curse and present a, you know positive face for the republican party. >> mack i would like your take on that as someone who has had a lot of experience with presidents with this. it's interesting she's saying people don't pay a lot of attention to the republican response. we were talking about this earlier today that it never really makes waves. should the format of it or how it is delivered be changed off more off-the-cuff than written frankly before likely the president gives his address? >> well there are a number of

ways to try to structure it. i think it's pretty sad for the president to give his address and have the response and the new senator from iowa will get some attention just because of his campaign and the fact that she is a new senator. governor clinton delivered the response to president bush i believe, and he did not get rave reviews that particular night, but he certainly got rave reviews as he went forward. so it's important, but i think there will be a lot of back and forth over and above just with the state of the union response poppy, but i will say this is an important speech for the president because he's going to be putting down his markers for the last two years and it may be in keeping with what buck said he may not get some of this done, but he wants to change the debate and discussion and he's likely to do that with the proposals he's putting forward. we'll be watching very closely to all three of you. mack buck and you, rerebecca, thanks for coming on the program. >> the state of the union address is a tradition and as we were talking about, is it

overdue for a change? is it time to rethink the entire speech? we'll talk about that next. financial noise financial noise financial noise

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president obama spending the next two days putting the finishing touches on his state of the union address. the white house released this photo of the president working on his speech right there with one of his speech writers. on tuesday night he will lay out his agenda. he'll be up against a republican majority in congress a first for this president. some of those republicans are shooting down some of the proposals that have been leaked out by the white house. so is this big speech going to be effective? what are the long-term effects of it? and frankly, should we change this prime time speech that is the state of the union. let's bring back in our panel to discuss. mack as someone who has worked with three different presidents talk to us about the importance of the state of the union and frankly, the best way to approach it and if it should be

the way that it always is when you've got a lot of these plans leaked out sort of dead on arrival with the republican in control of both chambers. >> it's a rich tradition, and i don't think it should be changed nor will it be changed, but i think it has to be supplemented and augmented particularly in this age of such instant communication and i think that's what you're seeing the president do. he's already previewed some of it. he likely will go aggressively on the road after the speech but i still think it's a moment, and i think it gives him an opportunity, a unique opportunity to really frame the narrative of where he is in his administration where the country is and where he's trying to go and i think he's got a lot to talk about and i definitely think the state of the union is strong and we're moving in the right direction and we must catch the you are the moment and i think he's likely to mention gas prices and unemployment rates both of which of course will be in his favor. >> 5.6% unemployment and gas

below $2 in some places. rebecca, do you agree? >> well, i do agree with the speech is an important tradition and for that reason alone it's worth keeping, but when you look at the actual significance of this speech in recent years it has diminished greatly what has become essentially a wish list for the president, but the proposals that he names if he looks at what he named last year and minimum wage proposals, and the tax reform package that he's hopes to pass this year in announcing his state of the union speech and the proposals aren't realistic and there's no suggestion that the republicans will go loofrngalong with any of these proposals and in terms of the actual results we're going to see from this not very much. >> buck? >> i think the president will say the things he plans on doing. i don't think he'll do any real outreach to republicans in the hope that there would be some sort of issue that they can come together on in the next two years. i don't see that happening and the very fact that the president

waited for the executive order on immigration until after the midterm shows that his plan is to use the epa which he's going to do aggressively over the next couple of years and he'll go forward with normalizing relations with cuba if he can if he can get the congress to allow that to happen and i think that's what we'll see, this is what i plan to do over the next few years and i don't think that's where they'll leave it. i don't think there will be an effort to reach across the aisle and i don't think republicans expect him to. >> as a conservative they don't pay response to the democrat response what do you want to hear from joany ernst because she's proven she can stir the pot. >> what the implications are for 2016. i think that's what a lot of people on the policy side and also in terms of the response will be looking at which is where are the parties positioning themselves now? because as we know the race has started and we'll talk about whether it will be romney and a host of other candidates and the

heir-apparent to the nominee, hillary clinton and in the response, which you'd like to see is the articulation of conservative principles and the so-called recovery and we'd be better if we'd done something differently and you talked about tax reform and why did the tax code have to be $ 70,000 pagees. >> haven't you read the whole thing? >> i don't think the people writing it have read the whole thing and even national security. the administration has to be vulnerable to national security. >> i think we'll hear that right out of the gate from the president. >> thank you, guys. go to have you on the program. we'll take a quick break, of course you'll want to watch cnn state of the union coverage. it starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn and be sure to join us for complete coverage of the president's speech to the nation. the white house did something this past week you won't see very often. it admitted that it made a mistake. was that the right move? we're going to discuss that next.

♪ ♪ ♪ you just call out my name ♪ ♪

now to the politics of saying sorry. secretary of state john kerry was in paris friday with a hug for the country's president. also a very famous song "you've got a friend" performed by james taylor. krt criticism for the u.s. not sending someone. >> 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 that we should have centersent someone with a higher profile to be there. >> let's talk about this now with mack mclarty chairman of mclarty associates and he is a former clinton white house chief of staff and worked also with president obama and president carter. mack given your experience with washington in presidents with the administrations and what are your thoughts on john kerry's

trip and the attempts to show complete support for france. >> poppy, i think the larger point here is tragedy in france. france is our longest ally and they stood so strong with us on 9/11 and i think first of all, our hearts go out to the french people and i think that's the context here. i think the white house did the right thing in this case acknowledging that they wished they would have done it differently and we would have had someone there. i think it would have caused a lot of security issues and how we would handle that and i think in fairness in fairness to put this in perspective and the president did call president hollande immediately and he went to the french embassy and secretary kerry was in india and pakistan on terrorism and i think in terms of the relationship i don't see any damage there and there's close cooperation between france and the united states but, yes, i

think in this case it would have been better should we been able or should we sent a high-ranking official for what turned out to be a very meaningful moment. >> it was an incredible sight to see, but we had german chancellor angela merkel there. you had the top presence from israel there. you had david cameron, and we have heard a lot of people say such a security concern for the president of the u.s. to go. why is it any different for him to go thanz those leaders, why would it have made much different securitywise? >> likely the president of the united states has a little bit of a different security standard than most other world leaders. it probably would have complicated things and again, josh ernest spoke in retrospect we wish we'd done this and poppy, if you look back almost every presidency republican or democrat have had a moment where something was not handled quite in the way they would have liked

and i think that's what happened here but we should not lose in pie opinion the larger issue at hand which is the solidarity with the french people and the tragedy and fighting terrorism and cooperating with our allies in that regard that's the center point. >> that's a very important point and the center point and as former president clinton's white house chief of staff. can you give us a sense of who makes these decisions in the white house and how these decisions are made and how we're not going to send the from and we need to send this person and we need to send secretary of state john kerry afterward? >> one of the things in any white house and it's gotten more accelerated over time is just the pace of these decisions and they of course run a large gamut of decisions and normally a decision of this type would have come through some of the security council and the state department and so forth, and i'm sure it was considered. i think, again, hindsight is a great substitute for judgment and i think it's fair to

criticize or to say we should have had someone there and it's fair and the white house has acknowledged that and i think the larger context is very important here and i know that our cooperation with the french the germans and others' own security measures is very robust and very strong. it's a very important point because we did see a high-ranking member of the french government coming out just in the moments after the criticisms started being laid saying the u.s. has been by our side in this all along and i want to get your take on james taylor going with john kerry, playing that song. what do you think? >> i'm a fan of james taylor, so i'm not an objective commentator. >> who isn't a fan of james taylor? >> secretary of state kerry has such a great reputation in france and he's beloved by the french people and his presence there was a poignant moment and james taylor is an international figure and on a more serious note again, the white house is

convening this terror summit that will have leaders from all over the world as well as local officials in the united states. i think that will be a very important meeting. i think as far as james taylor i know he wanted to get that microphone work better in his performance. >> you always have little snafus no matter how big of a star you are. mack mclarty it has been so nice to have you on the program this evening. i hope you come back soon. >> poppy, thank you very much. it's been my pleasure. >> we'll take a break and we'll have fun on the other side and here are two names you don't hear together very often. john baner and pop sensation taylor swift and they were united in one magical moment in a virtual criticism of a white house proposal. we will explain this.elpe ide a lifetime of retirement income. so i can focus on what matters most. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. sheila! you see this ball control? you see this right? it's 80% confidence

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it's been a tough weather weekend coast to coast. we have flood warnings that include philadelphia new york city and miserable weather in new york and we still have freezing rain in new hampshire and maine and many winter weather warnings will not expire until trm and take a look at the

conditions on the road in baker city oregon this weekend and up to 70 vehicles were involved in this pile up. officials blaming black ice for that and also take a look at this guy and this is a miraculous story wedged between two tractor trailers in baker city after his pickup slid into a jack knifed semi. his truck was crushed and believe it or not he was not even injured. you can hear his story of survival and amazeing story. you'll want to hear from him on cnn's "new day" tomorrow morning. house speaker john boehner is reportedly not happy that boehner used online gifts of her to illustrate why president obama's call for free community college is according to boehner a bad idea. rebecca burg political correspondent for the washington examiner joins me now. rebecca, so this is like a bunch of dancing, moving taylor swifts with points about why the

president's idea to have free community college for everyone for two years is a bad idea. what did you make of it? a very different approach. >> a very different approach. not usually the first thing when you think of when you think of taylor swift. speaker boehner doesn't come to my mind when i'm listening to her songs is what this shows is that the target audience for the president's proposal on community colleges is young college-age adults and how do you get through to this target audience? the president after his state of the union speech is going to do interviews with youtube personalities, and i guess this is speaker boehner's way of hoping to get through to this younger audience with gifts. >> how do i do this? thumbs up thumbs down. was it a good move? that's good. >> did you think boehner, was it a good move rebecca? >> i think it worked because just the fact that we're talking about this now shows that it was effective and it got the speaker attention and it got his message

attention and his message, of course that he and the president are never, ever going to reach an agreement of this community college plan. >> very quickly, 30 seconds and the president after the state of the union will be interviewed by these three youtube sensations and i haven't seen anything like that before. what do you make of that? >> it's not something that's a complete surprise coming out of the white house and the president was on his web show in between two ferns and the president has done things like this before and this is brand new. these are youtube personalities who have nothing to do with politics and the political world and one of them is a young woman who does lifestyle videos one is a comedian and so it's very diverse, but he is trying to reach out to a new audience and think, the state of the union doesn't have the audience on television that it used to so this is one way to get more people to hear the president's message. >> and they certainly have a ton of followers. rebecca, great to have you on the program and thank you for coming on tonight. >> stay with cnn and cnn.com for

breaking news any time. >> coming up next a cnn special report the o.j. trial drama of the century. it is fantastic by our kyra phillips. you'll not want to miss that one, and tonight anthony bourdain parts unknown. have a great week. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com the following is a cnn special report. the shocking crime. >> ron and nicole were butchered. >> the riveting car chase. >> 911 reporting. >> o.j. in the car. >> o.j. simpson on trial for murder. >> stop domestic violence! >> this was the perfect soap opera. >> the characters like