i'll be the moderator when the candidates face off december 9th in las vegas. remember, you can always follow me on twitter @wolfblitzer. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, breaking news. the state department issuing a rare worldwide travel warning to all americans on one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. plus, investigators find an abandoned suicide vest just outside of paris as the manhunt for the missing attacker shuts down a major european city. and donald trump claims he saw thousands and thousands of celebrating after the 9/11 attacks. where's the proof? let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, a new and disturbing warning to all americans ahead of the busiest travel day of the year.

the state department alerting americans of, quote, possible risks of travel due to increased terrorist threats. authorities say they believe groups like isis are planning to strike using both conventional and nonconventional weapons. this news comes after a shocking discovery that could be a major break in the international manhunt for the missing suspected paris attacker. an item that appears to be some sort of suicide vest was found in a trash can in a paris suburb. now, that suburb, according to reports, if you look at this map, is in the same area where the fugitives, salah abdeslam's cell phone was tracked, right on the same subway line. he could have gotten on, gone a few stops and gotten off and it would match up. the manhunt is at a fever pitch in belgium and there are new terror raids under way. i want to begin with martin savidge "outfront" live in paris. what are you learning about this crucial, possible break in this

manhunt, this suicide vest? >> reporter: well, there are a number of things, erin. the all clear has been given in the montrogue area. you pointed out correctly that abdeslam was traced in the same area where the vest was found. you can't consider that coincidence. there has to be a connection. and then there was tatp that the terrorists used on the night of the attack. all of this suggested something but what exactly does it mean? the answers to that have two countries on edge tonight. city under siege, not since world war ii has brussels seen so many security forces on it is streets. despite nearly two dozen raids in the last 24 hours, there's no sign of europe's most wanted man. salah abdeslam is not among the persons arrested during the

searches. abdeslam was in the hands of french police just 12 hours after the blood bath in paris headed towards the belgian border. they let him go since there was no warning for him at the time. police arrested the two men that he was with, charging them with complicity. the two men say hours after the attacks they received a phone call from salah abdeslam. he sounded very upset, saying that his car had broken down and he needed a ride back to belgium. the two friends came to paris here and picked him up. the attorney stresses they had no idea that he was involved in the attacks. but the attorney also says the men noticed he was carrying something. "a big jacket and other things, maybe like an explosive belt or something like that." so was abdeslam planning a paris-like attack in belgium or was it something else?

isis may provide a clue in its statement claiming responsibility for the paris killings. it praised the eighth brothers who attacked, quote, precisely chosen targets in paris's 8th, 11th and 18th districts. but there was no attack in the 18th district. the only thing found there was this abandoned rental car which sources say was rented by 26-year-old salah beabdeslam. did abdeslam fail to carry out the attack he planned to do? his family says he should turn himself in, speaking exclusively with erin burnett last week. >> what do you say to him about what you wanted him to do and about what he has done? >> translator: i would tell him to surrender. >> reporter: that hasn't

happened. so there's no way to know if salah abdeslam is the terror suspect who got away. or, as his family says, the accomplice who changed his mind and ran away. and the family would firmly believe that even stronger now, erin, because with the discovery of this explosive vest, it's believed to be connected to him, they would say, well, see, he did abandon it. he did leave it behind. authorities aren't so sure because they say if he did that, why hasn't he turned himself in? they know that hasn't happened either. >> that's right. despite his brother's pleas to do so. grew griffin, thank you. now, in belgium, the manhunt is shutting down the entire city. no schools, government buildings all closed, transportation. they warn of a serious and imminent threat. drew griffin is "outfront" live in brussels.

drew, the city is paralyzed. does it seem like authorities are any closer to finding salah abdeslam? >> reporter: truthfully, the answer to that is no. and keep in mind, there are two separate investigations going on here, erin. one, the hunt for salah abdeslam, the eighth and missing paris attacker. but this threat that they believe has led them to shut this entire city down is separate and above that. they have made it a point to say that the two are not connected, that this threat that they are calling serious and imminent and a paris-style attack would be carried out by somebody other than salah abdeslam, other people that they are chasing. but again, they continue to make these raids night after night. in the morning, they let most of the people go. last night, they did arrest and hold one man who they believe is involved some way in the paris attack. but right now, they've extended this state of emergency, this level threat 4, as they call it,

until next monday. so it doesn't appear that they are any closer to resolving this situation. >> drew, also, they don't seem to know who is possibly involved. they think there's an imminent threat of a paris-style attack but they are not able to find out who is behind it is pretty terrifying. >> reporter: they have been extremely tight-lipped. but in the past, when police know who they are looking for, they certainly share that with the public and ask for their help, especially after a week of this has gone on and they can't find the person. they have not even given us a brief description of the people they are looking for or what kind of things the people should look for so they basically panicked the entire city, tell them there's an immediate and serious threat and told them absolutely nothing about what it is. >> pretty shocking. drew griffin, thank you very much, "outfront" live in brussels. phil mud is mudd, paul

cruickshank. paul, let me start with you. let's just tart with what drew is reporting. it is pretty shocking that you see an entire city shut down, no schools, no public transportation because they say there's an imminent threat of a paris-style attack and yet they say nothing about who they are looking for. do they not know? >> well, there could be reasons as to why they are not telling the public about that. there appear to be some specific information that came in on friday, that there was potentially another attack team out there. but clearly they don't know who necessarily is involved, what direction it's coming from, what the target is going to be. and so on and so forth. that they knew all of those things, they wouldn't have had to issue such an unprecedented alert. i mean, we saw that cell they broke up in eastern belgium in january. they didn't put out any alert because they were monitoring these people 24/7. they had a good handle on that plot. they clearly don't have a good

handle on this one. in light of what happened in paris, they cannot take any chances. >> right. now, phil, let me ask you, authorities found what appears to be a suicide vest on the exact subway land where abdeslam's phone was tracked. it appears he got on one, got on the metro, got rid of the other. could he really have gone home to brussels? we know then he was stopped by police briefly at the border and continued on his way later on that same evening. it's pretty amazing that he would have gone home to brussels. it's a small city. it's a small neighborhood that is known for people going to join isis, syria. do you think he just really went there? >> i think there's a chance early on he did. in the chaos of the early investigation, hours in when he's crossing the border. i don't think it's surprising that the officials would not know who to look for. the surprise is, over time, with these number of people being brought in, detainees, raids going on through the night and today, acquiring phone numbers

and communications among this cell, for him to go to ground for that period of time, potentially in contact or protected by people not identified in this investigation is remarkable. somebody here has got to know where he went and when. >> with i is which is shocking, se seth, because nobody has come forward. if this was a suicide vest that was found in paris, do you think he has a different plan? do you think it's possible he really did decide that he didn't want to go ahead with the attack? >> well, erin, i think it's possible. we've seen suicide bombers or individuals involved in suicide-type attacks in palestinian territory, in iraq and afghanistan, get cold feet at the last minute and decide that they don't want to go forward. in fact, that's why we've got, in a few cases in palestinian territory, an ability to remote control detonate a vest just in

case someone gets cold feet, that the challenge he's in now is he's got a no-win situation. >> phil, the other question here -- and you point out all of the people that might be helping him now or, as paul is talking about, another possible attack and they don't maybe know everybody who is involved with it, during the major raid in saint-denis, where that house is barely even standing -- you know, i saw it. it's barely standing with all of the shots, that they shot everyone out there, the people that they took into custody, seven of the eight of them have now been released. seven of the eight people, seven of them were in that apartment with abaaoud. they knew he was there and there was a manhunt for him and they said nothing. they have all been released. that's pretty scary. >> it is. i think what you're seeing here, though, is whether you're talking about brussels or paris, i don't view that necessarily as people who want to cooperate with terrorists. i view that as a cultural issue and i've lived in paris where people might be saying we don't like the authorities. we're not trustworthy of giving

the authorities a call. so, to my mind, before we draw conclusions, let's not draw the conclusion that people want to harbor murders. i think the best conclusion is that we can't trust the police enough to give them a call. >> paul, let me ask you about another guy who has been charged with accessory but nothing stronger than that. this is a guy who when the whole world knew there was an attack in paris gets a call from salah abdeslam and says, come pick me up. he goes and picks him up. he desperately wants to get across the belgian border. he says nothing. >> there were two of these friends that drove through the night from molenbeek and picked up salah abdeslam about 5:00 in the morning from paris and then brought him all the way back to belgium, possibly all the way back to brussels. they are clearly talking to investigators right now but they've been charged with helping salah abdeslam in connection with the terrorist attacks and there have been

more -- >> how long will they be convicted? >> clearly with an accessory to this, they are looking at a relatively significant jail sentence. the sentences are no longer near as they are in the united states. what we're seeing are some of these people committed of terrorist offenses getting out of jail now. >> which is terrifying that they can get out and plan it again. thanks to all three of you. the conversation continues because next, several of the paris attackers lived in a small neighborhood in brussels that we visited and they are far from alone. sending scores of young men to the isis front lines. a special report on the terror breeding ground. and u.s. special forces heading to syria tonight. boots on the ground could literally be this hour. plus, the mastermind of the paris attacks. this 15-year-old brother spotted in syria. carrying machine guns with isis fighters. this is not a halloween costume. is he planning the next attack?

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liberty mutual insurance. tonight, brussels is on lockdown. authorities are on the hunt for suspected terrorist salah abdeslam. for days, authorities have been making arrests in a city known to be home to jihadists. it's where the mastermind of the attacks all met. nima elbagir reports. >> translator: it's a nightmare. as a mother you feel, did i not give him enough love? maybe i did not give him enough love. [ crying ] >> reporter: we promised this belgian mother not to show her face. just her voice. her son is an isis fighter. he's threatened to kill her if she speaks publicly. >> translator: truly it's terrible. i feel so guilty. >> reporter: and she's not alone.

hundreds of young belgians are now fighting in syria alongside her son. market days at the molenbeek town square, a sign behind glass reads, "together against hate." the paris attack brothers grew up on these streets with the architect of the french capital's horror, abdelhamid abaaoud. >> translator: these are guys who met on a regular basis here in my neighborhood. i can tell you that there were no signs in the radicalization. that is the most intriguing. we have no ways of anticipating any kind of behavior like this and this worries us even more. >> reporter: salah abdeslam's brother mohamed agrees, telling erin burnett that in most cases they are able to slip out of belgium undetected.

>> translator: i know it from the appearance, from their brothers, or from the media. it's important to know that some people have indeed been able to go there. >> reporter: often, though, the travel would initially at least be [ inaudible ]. [ gunfire ] molenbeek is now almost synonymous with the horrors of that night in paris but this is a national nightmare. belgium per capita contributes the highest number of isis fighters. their mosques and communities are fighting back. >> translator: they get in contact with someone who is thousands of kilometers away and then pay for the flights and tickets. >> reporter: all under the nose of belgian authorities. high security alerts, government raids and a nation faced with tough questions and the ee norm

mit tea of the attack ahead. the pictures are extraordinarily organized apparatus. you get a sense that they know t the demographic that they are going after. the word that we are often hearing is groomed from a very young age and they start leaving at 16, 17, 18. many of them will be with the mainstream, they will be criminals, they will come from families that have a lot of domestic issues. but all of that, said, and a lot of people talk about this almost like the brainwashing of a cult, all of that being said, so many that we spoke to in the community said fundamentally, despite all of this, it rests with the young men themselves and the choices they have made. >> certainly does. of course, young men like mohamed, salah's brother, they are not going to turn their young friends in.

back with paul cruickshank and former fbi for the criminal investigative decision. paul, per capita, belgium contributes the highest numbers of fighters to isis. when you go to molenbeek, you know, as a an american, it seems to be very idealic, little cobblestone streets. it's not big. why are so many going to join isis? >> in brussels and molenbeek and it's a very anti-western world view and can make youngsters resr receptive to the ideology. there is gangsterism and jihadism on the other side. in prison, there's a large prison muslim population and they are getting radicalized in jail. and early in the sear ren war and jihad, you saw youngsters go from belgium and when they got to syria, they encouraged their

friends to come and join them over there in syria. so you saw it more and more and more, so a snowballing effect of these youngsters. probably a problem to be in the city areas of brussels and a certain amount of frustration, alienation for mainstream. you've got to remember that abdelhamid abaaoud went to an elite catholic school. he had every chance in this world. so what nima was saying there, some of these young men, it's just their personal responsibility. >> in his case, it wasn't like he lacked economic opportunity or hadn't been integrated or any of those things. his family desperately tried to integrate him. his father's lawyer told me how hard they tried to integrate into society. belgium is a small country and limited resources when it comes to intelligence. perhaps part of a borderless europe. this is going to be a place of wealth and progress.

how does a country like belgium track terrorists, terrorists now threatening innocent civilians when it takes 25 people to monitor one person? >> right. it's almost impossible to keep track of the number of potential terrorists that they have in that country and then it's pretty much across the eu. i mean, it takes -- as you mentioned, it takes a lot of people to conduct surveillance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. it just can't be done. so they have to prioritize what they do that he takes a lot of time and effort. >> paul, what about the arms market? you're talking about the overlap between gangsterism and jihad. be belgium has a huge arms market. how significant is it? >> there's been concern about niece weapons coming in. with these gangster kids getting involved in jihad, they have all of the connections to people who can get them every weapon under the sun. they have been in jail, many of

them. and so not difficult for them to get very powerful weapons, kalashnikovs. we saw that in the coulibaly attacks. not hard for these individuals to get weapons. >> paul, chris, thank you very much. "outfront" next, more on our top breaking news story tonight. the american warning, telling americans to be on high alert for terror attacks. all you need to know on that move from the state department. plus, donald trump says bring back waterboarding, claiming it's peanuts compared to what terrorists do to americans. that story ahead. the holidays bring many challenges to the feet.

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braking news, the u.s. just issuing a worldwide travel warning to all americans in the last week along isis threatening to attack new york city and washington. "outfront" tonight, pentagon correspondent barbara starr. what more can you tell us about this warning? >> well, this is coming from the state department as one of their regular alerts that we've seen over the years but this time, as we approach the holiday season, it's causing a lot of concern, erin. a warning to all americans

traveling, to be careful if you're going to be in public places, take public transportation, if you're traveling to europe, africa, anywhere in the world. be careful. be aware of your surroundings. be aware of the local security situation where you are. part of this is because of the isis threat, the anxiety of what happens in paris, what we're seeing unfold in belgium but this alert goes further. it talks about africa. so the attack in mali that we just saw, lone wolves and going into a holiday season where many have gotten used to these alerts and warnings from the u.s. government but that does not mean that this is a good deal of anxiety in this holiday season. >> you've been talking to your intelligent sources about what the united states is going to do

about this. the game has changed in terms of paris and fighting isis. what did they tell you? >> i think tomorrow will be a significant day here in washington. the french president coming to meet with president obama and the french minister of defense coming to the pentagon to meet with the u.s. defense secretary. expect the two men, the two military leaders to sit down and talk about what they may do. what we are hearing is the u.s. would like to see both france and great britain put more special operations forces into the fight, specifically to join some of those 50 u.s. troops that are headed towards northern syria. the big effort there is to help local kurdish fighters open up some routes to get them to be able to challenge isis in its strong hold of raqqah. all of this really now putting more focus on syria and more focus inside syria to boot isis out of raqqah if they can make it happen. it's a very tall order. isis has seen raqqah as its

de-facto capital, as its center of power for its leaders but there is an effort now really to focus some serious fire power on that problem. erin? >> barbara starr, thank you very much from the pentagon tonight. and now, our national security analyst, former assistant secretary juliette kayyen is injoing me, along with intelligence lieutenant colonel rick francona. lieutenant, let me start with you. this is a very sobering warning. it's broad based and based on the metro jet attack and off of the attacks in paris. a pretty frightening thing for americans to hear. >> yeah, i think so. and what we're seeing is that many of these terrorist groups being emboldened by what they are seeing as success on the part of isis. they watched isis' four operations and they said they are on roll and operated against western targets.

i think the mali attack was symptomatic of that. it was quick planning and guys with automatic rifles yielding a great effect. so i think that we may be in for a really tough season ahead as we see the lone wolves possibly in the united states and, of course, the ability and we've heard this from our homeland security people, the ability to detect these people is very, very difficult, especially if they are clean. if they got no involvement with law enforcement. >> juliette, in the past week, isis threatened to attack new york city in washington and intended that to be a threat of planned attacks but to the point that colonel francona is raising, that you have people who could be inspired by or motivated called to action because of those sorts of threats, what could they do? how could they know that something was coming in washington? >> the truth is, they may not know and i think that's why there is advisories to get people engaged with their own

safety and security. this is very different than post- 9/11 when the government was like, we got this, we'll take care of this. i think given the nature of the threat now, there is a great focus on engaging and communicating with citizens of all these different countries because it's not just that you're going to have the lone wolf or copycat, which are serious, but the difference now, as rick was saying, is that the runway was so short with these attacks. if you look at what happened in france, at least with some of the terrorists, it looks like they were contacted, trained, planned the attack and then did the attack in two or three short weeks. that's very hard -- that runway makes it almost impossible to disrupt. >> which is frightening. colonel, you also have the possibility, you know, that you have obviously people in the united states inspired by this. you also have this issue now that is well raised. you have people in european passports that come off as clean and come in to the united states

on a tourist visa, just come in through customs and you're here for 30, 60, 90 days. how likely is it that isis has not already done that? >> we don't know. everybody is worried about the refugee entry, using the refugee program as some sort of way to enter isis into the country. i don't really see that as the big threat. the big threat are these clean passports. americans and europeans. and, you know, as we've seen, the europeans are very angry about the schengen agreement where you can carry weapons and barely see a border officer. >> right. >> the united states also looking at this with this visa waiver program. i think we'll have to look at that in the future, do we want all of these europeans showing. >> juliette, people are afraid to fly, they look at the bomb that isis shows what brought down metrojet.

certainly the system is much better than what would have happened in the sharm el-sheikh security but it's far from fallible. >> i think that's right. and i think that the range of hypotheticals or the range of vulnerabilities in a nation like ours is someone infinite. first of all, tellingly, the department of homeland security has not followed up with the state department global threat. so there is a difference between this sort of obvious nature of what the state department is telling everyone today, which is be very careful. there is an increased threat environment and what we're hearing from the department. but i do also think that we can sort of all live in anxiousness because of our vulnerabilities. but our own vulnerabilities are actually things that we like. we like mass transit that works on time. we like traveling. the movement of people and goods and i think we're at a stage where we have to accept those vulnerabilities. we're never going to close them all off. not given the copycat nature and

lone wolf. also, it would be impossible to make every soft target hard. >> thank you both very much. pretty sobering there. "outfront" next, the mastermind of the paris attacks, his younger brother, i mean really younger, barely a teenager, spotted in syria. is he on a mission to avenge his brother's death. and the candidate under fire over his talking about the 9/11 attacks and the community reacting. >> they were cheering as the world trade center came down. huddling with their man after the game is nice too. the thing is, about half of men over 40 have some degree of erectile dysfunction. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension.

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tonight, france launching air strikes against isis and syria from the charles de gaulle carrier. abdeslam's brother has been spotted with isis fighters and his family has not heard from him in almost two years. could he be planning to avenge his brother's death? deborah feyerick reports on one of the youngest jihadists. >> reporter: brothers joined not

only by blood but now it appears by isis' violent ideology. paris attack ringleader abdelhamid abaaoud and his baby-faced brother eunice. he was just 13 when his older brother bought him to syria to join isis. >> he called his father on the next day just to tell him, i took your son and i'm going to give him a good education, a muslim education, a man education. >> reporter: the family's lawyer telling erin burnett the abaaouds are convinced eunice was kidnapped. >> the last news that the father had concerning eunice was this horrible photograph taken in february 2014 where you could see the little eunice with a big

kalashnikov, even bigger than he, because he was really looking like a child. it's the last image that his father has from his son alive. >> reporter: the father traveled to syria to find his younger son but was unsuccessful, except for these photos gathered by a belgian journalist. the family has received no word whether eunice is still aleve. terror experts say teenagers like eunice are extremely vulnerable to brainwashing and radicalization, especially from an older brother. >> particularly when the message is coming from someone that you look up to and admire. >> reporter: eunice's father said that the teen never showed signs of religious extremism. but with his older brother, abdelhamid now dead after last week's gun battle with police in a paris suburb, it's unclear whether the teen will try to make his way home or become even

more committed to isis. >> if an individual looks at what they see on those videos, they see children who are more empowered to defend is islam. >> reporter: children like eunice are unlikely to comprehend. >> we're talking about a child, 13 years old. his family now says he's 15. 13 years old when he was taken. how could anyone see that coming? >> nobody can see that coming. that's what is so scary. there are signs usually when someone is becoming radicalized. a 13-year-old doesn't even know nouf about themselves. it's a quest for identity. his older brother making the decision for him and that's why his family really calls it a kidnapping. but once this young man, if he ever comes back, he could potentially be very lethal and moreover, now that his brother is a martyr, that could prevent him from ever wanting to come back.

so it's very dangerous. it's a big consideration. >> a big consideration. and certainly stunning when you think about it. now you're looking at a child, 13 years old. deborah feyerick, thank you very much. "outfront" next, donald trump speaking in ohio tonight as his claims about the 9/11 attacks in lower manhattan are being widely disputed. >> there were people that were cheering on the other side of new jersey where you have large arab populations. >> does the truth matter when it comes to trump? plus, competing terror groups claiming responsibility for the deadly terror attack in mali. are isis and al qaeda in a deadly race to kill the most? th? they are. do i look smarter? yeah, a little. you're making money now, are you investing? well, i've been doing some research. let me introduce you to our broker. how much does he charge? i don't know. okay. uh, do you get your fees back if you're not happy? (dad laughs) wow, you're laughing. that's not the way the world works. well, the world's changing.

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you're looking at live pictures out of columbus, ohio, donald trump holding a campaign rally as he finds himself at the center of a controversy. the republican front-runner under fire for claiming thousands of arabs cheered after the 9/11 attacks. sara murray is "outfront." >> reporter: in the wake of the paris attacks, donald trump is sharpening his anti-terror rhetoric and now coming under intense scrutiny. trump contends he saw thousands of people celebrating in new jersey celebrating after the 9/11 attacks. >> i watched in jersey city, new jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. >> reporter: standing by his claim even as news organizations

and government leaders called it false. >> you know, the police say that didn't happen. >> people were cheering on the other side of new jersey where you have large arab populations. they were cheering as the world trade center came down. >> reporter: and tonight, trump is not backing down, pointing to this sentence in a washington post story published a week after the 9/11 attacks as proof of his claims. the paper said law enforcement had detained people allegedly seen cheering on rooftops in jersey city. today, that city's mayor said the reports were unfounded. cnn has found no evidence of arrests or video showing muslims cheering. still, despite that lack of evidence, today, trump's main rival, dr. ben carson, said he saw the same thing. >> did you see that happening, though, on 9/11? >> i saw the film of it. >> in new jersey? >> yeah. >> reporter: trump also talking tougher when it comes to the treatment of suspected terrorists. >> they don't use waterboarding over there. they use chopping off people's

heads. >> reporter: calling reinstating waterboarding as a good tactic. >> i think it's peanuts compared to what they do to us. >> reporter: this afternoon, ben carson backed away from his previous comments and said that he did not believe muslims were protesting in new jersey but he saw a video of a protest in the middle east and saw that as disturbing. as for donald trump, no sign that he's backing down. he said he does support waterboarding. erin? >> sara, thank you very much. you behi behind sarah. "outfront" now, advisor to nixon, ford, regan and clinton. david, he's been accused of exaggerating here. he wrote in "art of the deal," his best seller and wrote i call it truthful hyperbole. a very effective form of promotion. is he right? is that what is happening here?

>> yeah, it's a form of promotion, not an innocent form of promotion and something very, very different about exaggerating claims or making a deal versus trying to run for president of the united states. when you go before the public and play to their worst fears, especially about others, about muslims, about blacks as you did over the last couple days with the tweet that was outrageous. when you do that and exaggerate, that's the essence of a demagogue and if he wants to play demagoguery, he may get votes. ultimately it will come back and hurt him seriously. people won't trust him. we're seeing on the democratic side with hillary clinton how much this distrust matters to her campaign. she's trying to get over it and moving hard. he's got to do the same thing. he's got to contain himself and act like a president. >> he is as we speak, your face is on our screen, david, as is donald trump. donald trump is deefending what

he said. people claimed donald trump can't last. he can't last. those people had been proven wrong again and again and again. controversy after controversy after controversy. the first votes are cast in ten weeks in iowa. he has been at the top of the national polls for 20 weeks. isn't it now becoming a very realistic scenario that donald trump will be the republican nominee? i think it is becoming a very realistic scenario he could be the republican nominee. when he first started, a lot of people said he couldn't make it. it's clear but an ordinary campaign, the time between tg and the holidays coming up at the end of the december, things will be sort of frozen in place. the candidate would move and that's probably what will happen here. what we've seen in donald trump is he's capable of saying things that can cause huge controversies and just as ben carson, we saw ben carson went down fast when he said things and said he was over foreign policy. these things can shove quickly. donald trump is not a safe

candidate. he is definitely the front runner and definitely going to be hard to beat. somebody has to get their campaign going as long as cruz and rubio are using punching bags, it will be hard, either one of them to get in front of trump. >> thank you very much to david garrigan. more details in the mali attack and two groups claiming responsibility. you pay your car insurance

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new details on the deadly attack, two to three gunmen killing at least 20 people. two groups claimed responsibility. david mckenzie is "outfront"

tonight and two competing terror groups claiming responsibility? >> reporter: well, that's right. two groups that have cooperated and have competed, one linked to al qaeda. they are saying they planned this. they had two gunmen that killed 20 people as you described, so fear here in mali. >> and david, you know, a few years ago, we hosted "outfront" from the northern mali border. at that time militia was in control. president obama said al qaeda was on the run and at the time, we said it sure didn't feel that way where i was standing at that mo moment. how deep is the foothold now? >> reporter: well, the foothold is deep but the situation changed. the french sent 4,000 troops in here, erin, to push back the jihadi groups that were threatening to take the capital. they pushed them back and managed to secure the mountains in the region but these groups

have been able to organize, strike at a western asset, kill americans and others and the fear is by being cornered, they could become more dangerous and it really filters into that state department threat that came out recently. erin. >> and david, what is the mood on the streets there? how much fear is there? >> there is fear. there is also resilience but we were out with patrol last night with the u.n. and mali enforcers. so unusual to see big armored personnel carriers the capital of mali. we're used to seeing that out in the land where the jihadis operate more effectively and in the vast deserts of northwest africa but they are here, these patrols, patrolling the streets, keeping the peace, checking for vehicles of any terrorists might becoming through into the town but it's very difficult in these circumstances to check everyone so the terror threat remains, certainly, erin.

>> david mcmckenzie, thank you very much live from mali tonight. thanks for joining us. set your dvr to record the show. "ac 360" starts tonight with john berman. >> good evening. john berman in for anderson. we have new developments tonight in paris, brussels and late today here at home. something that really hits hard this week when so many people plan to travel. the state department issuing what they call a worldwide caution, warning travelers that isis and others continue to plantpla plan terrorists attacks and sealed off streets when investigators found what appears to be a possible suicide vest in a garbage can. clarissa ward joins me from paris with more on that. clarisa, this vest, what's the latest on what was found? >> reporter: that's right, john. this vest was found in a suburb of paris