story. shouldn't be his last. he was actually working on several this winter. but it is because he died in a car accident on wednesday night. he produced the story with his daughter tanya. bob was the best writer in television news. so instead of words, we end here with silence. terror hits denmark. isis threatens u.s. troops in iraq. and a former defense secretary says president obama made mistakes in the fight against terror. this is "state of the union." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. and good morning from washington. i'm jim accosta. following breaking news from denmark which is reeling from a terror attack. a gunman opened fire saturday at a cafe near a synagogue in copenhagen leaving two people dead. the gunman may have been inspired by the paris attacks. let's go to cnn's nic robertson who is in copenhagen. nic, are police confident these

two attacks are connected? >> reporter: they are. they have surveillance camera footage that shows the gunman coming back to this apartment between the attacks. they waited for him. that's when he returned home at about 4:50 in the morning. they challenged him. he shot back at them. they shot at him killing him. what they say they've discovered is when they shot him he had pistols on him. what they know about the first attack was that it was an attack with an automatic weapon, possibly a machine pistol or a small machine gun. when they went into his apartment today they discovered that longer weapon that may be consistent with the weapon that was used in the first part of the attack. they've also discovered clothing in his apartment consistent with what they believe the first gunman was wearing. so there's a much higher degree of confidence from the police here now. the deputy prime minister has also said the same thing. they believe they've got the man who was behind both these

attacks. what they're concerned about now and why security remains high is because they don't know if there is -- if there are other perpetrators out there, other actors who are ready to sort of do copycat type attacks or do something being inspired by this. >> nic, i know it's early in the investigation and it's not certain whether he acted alone. do they know at this point whether he traveled to join us with isis in syria, iraq, or elsewhere? >> reporter: you know, the police aren't putting a name out yet. this is a community here where he lived that is quite a high immigrant community. i've spoken with a politician here today who's told me this is her constituency, that the people here are worried because they feel like so many other people that this perhaps had and as the police have said islamist leanings an islamist type of attack. a lot of muslims live here so people are concerned.

what connections he might have had to isis or other groups remains for the police on their investigations, but so far that's the direction the police seem to be looking by saying that this perhaps was inspired by the attack in paris on the cartoonists and on the kosher deli there as well. so this is the direction the police are looking in at the moment, jim. >> nic robertson, thank you. joining me now, leon panetta, former secretary of defense and cia director for president obama. secretary panetta, thanks for joining us on "state of the union." >> nice to be with you, jim. >> let's jump into it. as you probably saw in recent days there was this pretty alarming attack on the al asad base in iraq. some isis insurgents attacked that base. they were repelled by iraqi security forces. it was alarming in the fact that there are u.s. military personnel in that base involved with the training exercises with the iraqis. i'm curious.

you said in your book the isis offensive in 2014 greatly increases the risk that iraq will become al qaeda's next safe haven. is this what you were afraid of? >> what i see happening is that isis is -- truly represents kind of a whole new face in the war on terrorism. we're dealing with an enemy that is well funded. we're dealing with an enemy that has strong command and control and we're dealing with an enemy that is well armed. and as a result of that, i think that they can conduct the kind of offensive operations that can be very effective and that have to be met tooth and nail with everything we've got. that's the reality. isis is a whole new chapter in terms of the terrorist threat to

that area and to our country. >> the president as he was laying out this authorization for use of military force earlier this week made a pretty bold statement. >> our coalition is on the offensive. isil is on the defensive and isil is going to lose. >> in your view, is the u.s. and its coalition winning right now? >> i think the president has the right pieces in place to try to confront isis, and obviously we've made some important gains in trying to stop their effort to try to gain additional territory in iraq. the key elements are obviously developing strong intelligence so we know what they're up to, developing our counterterrorism operations with special forces using our air capability, using other technologies, building the kind of alliances that can help us developing the capacities of iraq and other countries to be able to confront them, and ultimately dealing with the root causes of terrorism. all of that needs to be part of

the strategy that is involved here. i think the problem i see is that that strategy has to be bolstered in a strong way. we've got to be able to ensure that we are committed every day of the week towards making sure that this strategy works, that we disrupt, dismantle and ultimately defeat isis. >> before we talk more about the aumf, let's talk about the battle against isis. and since leaving the white house you have said publicly that the u.s. should have armed those moderate rebels in syria a couple of years ago when that civil war was unfolding there. i'm just curious, you know, do you think that would have made a difference at this point in this fight against isis? >> well, you know, there's no question in my mind that some mistakes were made here. presidents make mistakes, but they also learn from those mistakes. i think the president has learned from those mistakes. it's going to take time.

i'm more hopeful about the effort in iraq. i think ultimately we'll have a pretty good chance of being able to push isis back out of iraq. the big question mark in my mind is syria and just exactly how long is it going to take us to be able to confront isis in syria because if they had a safe haven there, they may continue to be in trouble for some time. >> one thing i've heard from people at the white house, this was obviously the big debate when bashar al assad, syria's president, crossed president obama's red line and the president had a decision to make whether he was going to bomb assad's forces in syria. and he didn't do that, he didn't enforce that red line. what white house officials will say now privately is had we done that, isis would be in control of damascus right now. do you buy that argument? >> no, not at all. i think had we gone in and made very clear that once assad made

use of chemical weapons and crossed the line that the president of the united states established, that we stand by our word and go after them. you know, we are now conducting air attacks in syria. we're going after isis. we're going after those that represent the worst of terrorism in terms of their ability to strike, not only there but in other places as well. i don't -- i think it's important to understand that this is not an enemy that you can kind of stand aside and not confront. if we stand aside, if we don't get involved, if we don't provide leadership, unfortunately, nobody else will. that's why it's important for us to take a leadership position here, both in syria as well as in iraq as well as elsewhere in confronting terrorism. >> as you know, mr. secretary,

the president is -- has intended to get involved in a big ground war type operation in iraq or even in syria and it is sort of built into or baked into that authorization of the use of military force against isis that the president proposed earlier this week or last week. he said that there would only be a three limit -- a three-year limit on that authorization. are you comfortable with putting an end date, an expiration date on that authorization? do you think he has the flexibility that he needs to take on isis? >> you know, i think it's important that the president has asked the congress to give him this authorization for military force. probably should have been done six months ago but i'm glad that the president has sent this up. it's very important for the congress hopefully to unite both democrats and republicans and support this authorization. look, i understand there will be some limits here.

i think the president has struck actually a pretty good balance. he has a lot of flexibility built into this authorization which i think is important. the president as commander in chief needs a great deal of flexibility in order to protect this country. at the same time it's obvious that nobody, nobody wants a large ground war similar to what we did in iraq and afghanistan. limiting these kinds of enduring combat operations as part of this authorization probably makes some sense. >> what does that phrase mean to you with be mr. secretary, "enduring combat operations." some of your fellow democrats who say, we don't know what that means. >> well, i think -- i think the bottom line here is that we are not going to go to war with 100,000, 150,000 troops the way we did in airaq and afghanistan. that's certainly what i envision in terms of the limits of our operation. >> i know you've been critical of the president's ability to

rally congress to his cause, and one thing that you say in your book, he does, however, lack fire sometimes. too often in my view the president relies on the logic of a law professor rather than the passion of a leader. if that is the case, does he have what it takes to rally this congress to pass this authorization? >> i don't -- i don't think there's any question that the president could get this done, but it's going to -- it's going to take a continuing commitment. look, you want to know what the biggest national security threat is to this country right now? it's the total dysfunction in washington. the fact that so little can be done by the congress. they can't even resolve the issue of homeland security. they can't deal with budgets. they can't deal with immigration reform. they can't deal with infrastructure. they can't deal with other issues. if they wind up not being able to deal with this war

authorization, that sends a terrible message to the world. >> as you know, the president is going to need a pentagon that will carry out this policy. you served as defense secretary, and as you know you've probably been watching this week pretty smooth confirmation process for ash carter whoas the next defense secretary. but you complained and i know your predecessor bob gates complained that the white house sometimes is too controlling when it comes to for policy. the president might rather listen to his national security team inside the white house rather than the view at the pentagon. what would be your advice to incoming secretary carter? >> i think ash carter is going to be a great leader at the pentagon. he was my deputy when i was there. i had tremendous confidence in him. he's very bright. knows the defense department inside and out. knows the capabilities of the defense department. i think the president would not

have nominated him to be secretary of defense if he wasn't willing to listen to ash carter and the advice that he provides in the national security council. i think the role of secretary of defense and for that matter secretary of state is to present your most honest views of your department to the president of the united states to make sure that he understands what the best guidance and the best recommendations are. in the end it's the president who has to ultimately decide. >> and when we come back, leon panetta on that spat between president obama and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, plus what he expects for hillary clinton in 2016. tomorrow is possibility. and the power to unlock it resides in a box behold the biscuit. nutrients packed in a dense bundle of farm-grown grain and capped with pure deliciousness.

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they are -- they are an important ally in a very difficult part of the world. i think we need to maintain a relationship of trust and confidence in each other, and i'm just afraid that what's going to happen here with, you know, what netanyahu will do is to make this a partisan divide between democrats and republicans, and that -- that makes it a very dangerous trend. >> should democrats boycott that speech, do you think? >> look, i'll leave that up to democrats to decide what they should do, but i really do think that hopefully they could find some way to be able to listen to netanyahu's views without having it be used in this fashion to kind of set up what is clearly a kind of partisan presentation. we need to get back to presidents and congresses who

can work together -- together -- to try and confront the challenges we face. otherwise, it is going to damage this country for the future. >> as you know another big issue that came up this past week was ukraine. you know, the russians, the ukrainians, the germans and the french all agreed to the cease-fire deal but almost immediately after that cease-fire deal was announced, the state department was complaining that the russians were supplying antiaircraft weaponry to those pro-russian rebels in eastern ukraine. i'm curious, as former cia director former defense secretary, you might have some insights into vladimir putin's mind. i don't know if you have a sense of his soul as president bush once famously said, but what do you think vladimir putin is after in the end here? i've got to ask the question here, do you think he's playing with a full deck? >> look, he -- vladimir putin is not a mystery. we've seen him operate before.

the intelligence community has nailed down pretty well what putin is all about, and putin is all about russia and expanding the influence of russia. he's about dividing the east from the west. he's about doing everything he can to regain influence over the former states of the soviet union, and he is somebody who will take advantage of other countries and weakness if he sees that. frankly, we've got to take a tougher stand against him because we're engaged in a whole new chapter of the cold war. the only thing he understands is power. >> the president has not been tough enough with vladimir putin? >> no. i think the west needs to be much tougher. the west combined with the united states needs to be much tougher in drawing the line on vladimir putin. i think we ought to be providing military aid to the ukrainians. i think we ought to be bolstering nato.

i think we ought to be doing everything we can to provide other energy supplies so that russia isn't the only country that provides energy to those countries in that part of the world. i think we've got to take a number of steps here to make very clear to putin that he cannot simply use military power to be able to invade and take over another country. that simply cannot be allowed to happen. >> that includes weapons to ukraine. >> absolutely. >> on yemen, let me ask you about this because as you saw the u.s. embassy in sanaa closed this past week as well as other foreign embassies. the president, the obama administration has held up yemen as something of a success story in recent years. is it still a success story, do you think? >> i'm afraid yemen has turned into another failed state in the middle east. you know, i mean, we've seen a number of failed states throughout the middle east. the problem is in yemen with the

houthis having taken over supported by iran, by the way, that what we have now is chaos. and what it's doing is it's giving al qaeda a free hand to do what it wants to do in yemen. and i have to tell you that when you look at terrorist threats around the world, the one you have to worry about the most is al qaeda in yemen, aqap, because they have the bomb-making capability and they have the other capabilities to basically do what they have to do to attack this country. they are a real danger. that's why we have operations there. that's why we're going after al qaeda there. and as a result of what's happened in yemen, i think it's going to impact on our capability to defend ourselves. >> i want to jump to politics if we can with the time that we have left. as you know, hillary clinton is reportedly weighing a run for the presidency. you may have heard this in the

news, secretary panetta. >> yes, i have. >> yes. you've worked in the cnn white house before working in the obama white house. what do you make of this it seems to be almost sort of an internal debate in the pre-hillary clinton campaign as to when they should launch this campaign. what's taking them so long? >> well, you know, i really don't know the ins and outs of what they're operating with and their plans. i do know that she would make an outstanding candidate. i think she would be great for the democrats in terms of running for president, and i'm sure that at some point that will happen, but, you know, we're a long way from the presidential election and there's going to be a lot of puts and takes with a lot of candidates in the interim. so i think in the end there's no question in my mind that she will be a nominee for the

democratic party. >> you've been critical at times of president obama, and i shouldn't let you go without raising something that's come up in recent weeks. as you probably saw, valerie jarrett made some comments recently where she almost took a swipe at you, i think, and maybe bob gates in saying, she said, quote, i would not serve in an administration and then be critical of that administration. you are well known in washington, secretary panetta, as being a party loyalist. do you regret some of the critical comments that you've made of president obama? >> no, i think, look, you know, i think, you know in evaluating the president, and in evaluating any president, you look at their strong points and you look at the mistakes that are made. i think, you know, history is going to be the ultimate judge as to each president and what they've done for the country. >> let me ask you this. are you done with politics in government, secretary panetta?

is there any job that might bring you back to washington? maybe hillary clinton's running mate in 2016? >> you know, i've -- i've mentioned this before. i've got -- i'm back on a walnut ranch that my father helped plant and, you know, i am glad to be back home working with a different set of nuts. it's much more fun to be working back on the farm in caramel valley. that's where i'm going to stay for a while. >> a slightly different nut farm out in california. secretary leon panetta, we really appreciate your time this morning. thanks for joining us. good talking to you, sir. >> thanks very much, jim. and can the war against isis be won without american combat boots on the ground? a retired navy s.e.a.l. now serving in congress and the former house intelligence committee chairman are here next. but first, we have a very special guest. come on out, flo! [house band playing]

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welcome back. while many of president obama's fellow democrats see an endless war in the making, republicans say the plan does not go far enough. joining me, congressman ryan zinke, iraq war veteran and former commander at navy s.e.a.l. team 6 and mike rogers, former house intelligence committee chairman. gentleman, thanks for joining me this morning on "state of the union." mike, start with you. the situation in copenhagen is

obviously unfolding. from what we understand, one man responsible for two shooting attacks yesterday. your thoughts? >> well, they'll do the forensics to find out if they were tied to any isis recruiter. or any aspirational encouragement. unfortunately, with what you see with isis they are looking for that aspirational encouragement everywhere. denmark, united states, canada. australia. you're seeing them take action. one place they can get credibility, is any blasphemous talk about the prophet mohammed, that's just currency for them to encourage these folks who might be on the edge of radicalization to bring them over because then it is more mobile if you will, in the eyes of those folks. >> and i want to go back to that interview that we just had with leon panetta, congressman zinke. you just got to congress. you're a retired navy s.e.a.l. one of the things that leon panetta said is the greatest national security threat to the united states is not isis, not al qaeda, it's washington.

what do you think so far? >> three days in, a lot of what he says is truthful. we're too bureaucratic, polarized and i think the authorization is probably, you know, a good look at that. what does the authorization mean? we're going to have hearings in congress. i think the president was right to ask congress, but at the end of the day, what does it mean? i think americans want the truth. when you embed troops in air operations alone is not going to degrade or destroy isis. that's clear. but when you embed special operations troops you're not going to sprinkle and it is not going to be over the rice. they're going to be up front. that means you have to make sure you have the right equipment, right training, right rules of engagement to win decisively on the field of battle. you can't embed one or two folks and selected units, that package will require medivac. what if our guys get injured? what if we need a quick reaction force? >> right. >> the footprint will be larger than i think the administration

can see. >> congressman, you have an op ed in the "washington times." it says, i look at president obama's proposal and all i see is an outline of what our troops are not allowed to do. congress should not be asked to put restrictions on the military. when the u.s. does go to war, we go to war to win. it is time the president stops listening to political pollsters and finally develop a plan to win. i want to take this to chairman rogers here. the president said last week that we don't want an endless war and he tried to bake that into this authorization for use of military force. does he have a point? >> well, first of all, this is a monumental failure of leadership. if you would have approached congress before, met with members, i know this sounds crazy, met with members of both parties, you could have had a product that he asked for that would have passed in a week on capitol hill. >> why didn't that happen? >> this is, i think, the hallmark of this presidency. he refuses to believe he needs

to engage members of congress of either party, and on something as serious as this. i mean, if you recall, i was calling last year for an aumf back in august and september because if you're going to ask these men and women to go and serve in this pretty tough neighborhood, you have for give them all the full faith and confidence of the united states and american people. he didn't do it then. he keeps putting it off. he keeps talking about the things he won't do. he did that last year. he's drawing it into this year. this to me was the most from us frustratesing thing to watch. we have a growing problem. you see isis nodes around the middle east. what's so frustrating is they're getting bigger. they're expanding their operations. they're looking for new safe havens. in the meantime, we're going to have hearings on something he should have been working on in the last six months. >> but mike one thing that democrats do say is that isis is laying a trap.

what they do want is they want the united states and its coalition to invest a huge ground force presence in iraq and potentially in syria and get caught in another quagmire that lasts another ten years. what about that? >> this is the president's straw man argument. if you're not what i'm for, you're for 100,000 troops and the 82nd airborne division marching on to raqqa in syria. no one is calling for that. the problem was we got into this semantic argument 3 and the congressman touched on that a moment ago, we believe if you embed some soldiers, there is a footprint there, we got into a semantic political argument, what is a boot on the ground? is it one? is it 50? is it 200? a ridiculous argument. if you want to leverage up the ability for our friends and allies, you need special forces capabilities and intelligence capabilities down range. >> that is nebulous in this aumf. we don't know what these ground forces might be doing down the road.

we have a light footprint now. all the president is trying to ban in this aumf is enduring combat operations. leaves a lot of room in the middle. a lot of wiggle room. congressman, how are your fellow republicans going to respond to this? are they going to give the president the authorization he needs? >> he has the authorization now. there is no doubt that he'll have a robust capability. because you can't fight war in a half-punch fashion. it will take ground troops. we're going to ask for a plan. i think our troops deserve that. the military, when we -- this is from a perspective of not only a commander, but a father. my daughter is a former navy diver, i've been to a lot of funerals. i know the consequences of war, but when you go to war, you go to war to win decisively. that means you make sure that our troops have what they need to win the battlefield. >> is the president going to war to win right now? >> no. in my estimation not. you can't fight from a distance. it will take coalition. look, this is a battle as much

between or within islam as it is east and west. and what we have to do is separate the terrorist organizations within islam from mainstream. and it will take resolve. it will take commitment. it will take coalition. and i do agree with king abdullah of jordan that it is an islamic battle to fight, but we need to provide logistics, make sure the intelligence is correct. if they use our air, which is critical, we have to make sure our guys on the ground are directing it in the right places. that means you need to embed special forces and other groups. when you do that, you've got to protect them on the field of battle. we've seen what happens when they capture. i don't think we ever want to have one of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marine in the same position as the jordanian pilot. >> tweel's have to leave it there. thanks both very much for being with us this morning. when we come back, all the president's media. what's behind the white house's end run around the traditional press?

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♪ ♪ the deadline for signing up -- the deadline for signing up for health insurance is february -- febru -- that's not right. thanks, obama. >> now we've seen everything, right? the presidential selfie stick in that parody video promoting the government's health care site. the video was a buzz feed production starring a buzz feed films actor. the news and entertainment website scored an interview with

the president. for the most part presidents often turn to the traditional news conference to get their messages out. >> a country without -- >> an issue of war and peace. >> we shall fight the battle against aggression in vietnam. >> four out of five central american countries now have democratic governments. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman. >> congress will pass some bills i cannot sign. i'm pretty sure i'll take some actions that some in congress will not like. >> but they've also used nontraditional media to connect with the public. >> sock it to me? >> number 7, make sure the white house library has lots of books with big print and pictures. >> seriously? what's it like for this to be the last time you ever talk to a president?

>> all right. joining me now, matthew eglasias executive editor at vox news. v-o-x. he interviewed proresident obama a couple of weeks. ben labolt, the press secretary for the 2012 campaign and john stanton, washington bureau chief at buzz feed news. john, i'm going to put you on the spot right away. how does that work, you wink and stick your tongue out? >> the winkie emoji, i had no idea. when i saw the president doing it. i had to look it up. >> i had to ask about what it was. like just making faces in the mirror or -- >> what was that all about? >> you know, i think -- i don't know a whole lot about how they come up with these crazy ideas for these videos. that's something they do -- >> you work there, right? >> yeah. yeah. and -- but, you know, i think it's hilarious, right. it was funny. showed a human side of the president. people really liked it. i thought it was funny. >> and, matthew, over at vox, you guys had this interview with

the president and it was also sort of in a nontraditional format in that you took the interview, you guys went back, you edited it together, you added some new media flair to the presentation. why did you take that approach in your interview? >> well, we wanted to try to do something a little bit different. i think people have seen interviews with the president before. it's a great -- you know, it's an honor. it's a big deal if you're a journalist doing one. to the audience, it may get a little bit stale. we wanted to produce something that looked different and that meant taking a slightly different approach in terms of the questions that we ask so our team had the time to go and do the animations. >> ben, let me ask you this. you know the question i ask which is -- you've heard this beef before from people like me before in the white house press corps. it feels like the white house is more and more choosing non-traditional media outlets. buzz feed now does have a news operation and vox is obviously a website that does a lot of great

journalism as well. but it is sort of going around the folks in the briefing room. around the networks, around the newspapers to get the message out. why is that? why is the white house doing this? >> well, the ultimate goal is to reach the american people. i'm not sure that there's one bully pulpit anymore when the president walks out in the briefing room, that no longer guarantees he'll reach his target audience. this week february 15th there was a health care enrollment deadline. he's trying to reach younger people who are uninsured trying to get hem health care coverage. the fact is 71% of people under the age of 30 get their news online as the primary source of information now. he had to go to nontraditional 5ud audiences to reach those folks. >> is he trying to get away from not answering the hard questions? is that what he's up to? is that what he's up to? >> just a few months ago he was criticized for doing "60 minutes" too often. if you watch these interviews, sure, there were some things that were different and some things that were a little bit fun. it was a broad discussion of politics, domestic policy and

foreign policy. we've just gotten past the time when it was three networks or so that had a monopoly on a national audience. the president and the white house worked to identify the audience he was trying to reach, then go to venues to meet the audience where they are. >> john, your editor ben smith asked some hard questions in that interview with the president but then, you know, a day later it comes out and we're seeing some youtube video of when the president sat down with youtube. but, you know, the next day you come out with this video with the president with the selfie stick and so forth. does that kind of take away from the seriousness of, you know, the interview that you had with the president earlier this week? >> no, i don't think so. i think, look, a, there are sort of two parts of the company that did it. it's not like ben was doing selfies taking pictures with the president. which would be hilarious. >> it's a bit like saying abc news should be worried about marvel doing something with the president, right?

no, i don't think that's a problem. i think this is an issue that we in the media definitely talk a whole lot about and presidents talk a whole lot about. i don't think they have a problem with chewing gum and walking at the same time. they can see the difference between the two things and accept them for what they are. >> matthew, i mean, one thing that you heard obviously in the criticism that came after your interview with the president was that it was -- it was sort of a way to -- you were trying to explain his answers with the graphics and so forth in almost a supporting role is what some conservative commentators said after that interview. what is your response to that? >> it's not a surprise that conservatives don't love an interview with the president. they don't like the president, they don't agree with what he's saying. i thought it was a good way to illustrate some of his points. when people are able to speak freely they sometimes speak a little bit imprecisely. i asked him a question about foreign aid. he said it was something like 1%

to 2% of the budget. it was actually something like 1.6%. >> there was part of the interview where he sort of misspoke and described the terror attack at the paris deli as being random when obviously it wasn't random. there were anti-semitic motivations there. we tried to ask the white house press secretary about that josh earnest. he sort of fumbled the answer to that question as well. in these interviews, all presidential interviews make news no matter what the questions are. sometimes letting the president speak he'll make news. >> that's true. that was an interesting moment. i don't think the president meant to deny there was an anti-semitic motivation there. he has said it before. his administration has said it before. what he said in the interview was random. members of his staff i think sort of fumbled follow-up questions. it became a story for a day or two. i don't think from my point of view that was not like the most interesting thing that happened in that interview, but it goes to show whenever you get the president on camera something can happen. >> ben, i have to ask you this.

what makes you cringe the most, the president sitting down with a buzz feed or a vox or "60 minutes" or cnn? which is the one that has you bracing for impact the most? >> i think matthew hit on a good point. when you prepare for a sunday show interview, when you prepare the president for that he spends hours in preparation thinking through everything he's said in the past and detail questions that could come in. sometimes it's the interviews in a relaxed setting that are the most dangerous. it's a free flowing conversation. it's harder to predict the questions. those are the sorts of times when it's easiest for the president or any elected official to go off message. >> i'll wrap this up here by taking a quick selfie of all of us here on set. i don't know if i can get us all in here but i'll try. >> you need a selfie stick. >> thanks for your time. we appreciate it. up next, real news, fake news and our own moment of zen to ponder.

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now for a moment of zen. jon stewart announced he was leaving this week as host of "the daily show" after 16 years. after a decade and a half stewart became the master of skewing politics. >> welcome to "the daily show," on assignment in kuala lumpur. i'm jon stewart. to lead off coverage, the story that really puts babies in wells everywhere to shame. >> i was not elected to serve one party. >> you were not elected. boom! >> do you like commuting to work, or do you like a home office? >> i've spent so many years commuting, i kind of prefer a home office.

>> do you have a favorite shape for that home office? >> china is the new goal. why do you there's so many maoists hanging arrange the white house. >> so genius. doesn't make any sense whatsoever. >> what i'm saying -- >> less supportive of them. >> you settle down. >> is there a sense that you don't want this? you may look at the country and think, when i thought i was going to get this, it was a relatively new car, now look at it. please welcome back to the program, president barack obama. >> how many times a week does biden show up in a wet bathing suit to a meeting? just ballpark figure. >> i've got to say, though, he looks pretty good. >> even though you may have heard certain things about the koch brothers, how bad could they be? if they were evil, would a baby agree to appear in one of their advertisements? >> i think i know why you're here. let me deflate the tension right off the bat, apology accepted.

we will gather on the national mall in washington, d.c. a clarion call for rationality. here it is your moment of zen. >> shut err down'er down. >> i don't want to shut the government down, i'm making a point. >> who was that reporter? on a serious point, this week drudge report two headlines on broadcast news in america. one about nbc brian williams read, the end of real news. while the headline for stewart said, the end of fake news. then we learned about the death of bob simon, legendary "60 minutes" correspondent who didn't fake the news or his exploits in covering the news. i used to work for cbs news, i looked up to bob. he just delivered the news. he's gone, his passing, he reminds us all the news, pursuit of news, real news, is very much alive.

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thanks for watching "state of the union." i'm jim acosta. fareed zakaria starts right now. this is "gps," global public square. welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria. we have a terrific show for you today. first up, a tale of murder and intrigue involving a familiar villain. then i know you've heard this before, but europe is facing a major crisis. no, really. within a couple of weeks, the money runs out for greece.