for all binge watchers. movie geeks. sports freaks. x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. this is cnn breaking news. >> good evening, i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. we begin with breaking news. president obama's oval office address on terror. you're looking live at the white house where right now where president obama will speak in just about an hour at 8:00 p.m. eastern. the lectern already set up inside the oval office. a rare backdrop. he's only used for speeches twice before.

the president's remanrks come a day after he huddled with his national security team inside the white house situation room. his advisers updating i'm hn evidence suggesting the killers in this week's san bernardino shooting massacre were radicalized before they gunned down and killed 14 people. today the father of one of the shoot es syed rizwan farook admitted to an italian newspaper his son shared the ideology of the ason j leader al baghdadi. can the president reassure he has a plan to restrdestroy isis keep us safe? an uphill battle for the president. only 38% of americans right now approve of how the president is handling terrorism. that down six points from our poll back in february. we're covering the historic address like no other network can. our team of correspondents, analysts and guests from acrosses ka croscross the country and around the world are standing by. let's begin our coverage with

our chief washington correspondent, jake tapper. the president has a huge mission tonight to reassure the american people there is a strategy to destroy isis. >> yeah, you cited the number, the disapproval number of people when it comes to president obama's handling of terrorism. fighting terrorism. it's even worse when they're asked about how he's handling isis. 33% approve. 64% disapprove. when americans are asked what is a serious threat to the united states, isis is rated by more americans as a serious threat than any other issue, iran or any other group, 89% say it's a serious issue. so the president and his administration know this is something that the american people are really concerned about, really worried about, and i think there is in this address this evening almost an implicit acknowledgement that the remarks the president has made so far, whether after the paris attacks or whether after the attacks in san bernardino this week, all of which are terrorist attacks,

have been inadequate, that his response has been off the cuff to a small audience in terms of people watching, the pool sprays, his events day to day but there needs to be an event, a serious event, a serious moment. this is only the third time he'll be speaking addressing the nation from the oval office and in these remarks, there will be, one assumes, none of the calls that he's made for the american people to have some perspective, insistence that isis doesn't pose an existential threat to the united states. the president, his staffers needs to appear resolute, determined to defeat isis, determined to call upon moderate muslims to drown autotout the v of extremism. >> he has to move away from this notion that isis has been contained in iraq and syria. >> well, look, president obama and the rest of individuals who look at the statistics can say, yes, you know, actually fatty foods pose a greater threat to the health and wellbeing of the american people than isis does

but that's not what the american people want to hear. the american people want to hear that this threat will be defeated and that everything is being done to combat it and remember, wolf, after the attacks in paris, the president and his national security team and the intelligence community said they knew of no credible threats against the united states, and literally days later, two individuals from california, one of them originally from pakistan, radicalized, pledging allegiance to isis, carried out the worst massacre in the united states since newtown. >> let's bring in our chief national correspondent john king and chief political analyst gloria borger. the road blocks for the president, though, given some of the criticism he has received and it's been enormous, are pretty significant tonight. >> sure. i think he's got a skeptical public right now. i mean, as our poll shows -- by the way, our poll was taken before the events in san bernardino. i think if you looked at our poll today, it would be worse for the president i would presume. but 68% say we're not -- the u.s. military response to isis has not been aggressive enough.

and i think the problem for the president is that, perhaps, his national security team did not know of any credible threats and that frightens people more because if they didn't know, the question is, why didn't they know, and what can you do about this do-it-yourself jihadis that we're seeing right now who are inspired by what they read on the internet or something far, far away who are living currently in this country? people don't see it, and that's the question, that's the question the american people want answered from the president, which is how can you change your strategy to fight this kind of terror to keep us safer? >> it's interesting the setting for tonight's address from the oval office, john. he's only done it twice before, in august of 2010 when he announced the end of combat operations in iraq, and in june of 2010 when the gulf of mexico oil spill o cared. it's going to be a little different tonight. not only is it going it be from

the oval office but they have a lectern set up in there. he's not going to sit behind the desk in the oval office. he's going to be standing and speaking from behind the lectern. the white house released this picture earlier today to underscore what the president is going to do. >> you have the presidential seal brought into the oval office. the oval office, the majesty and powercypresidency. the president needs a page-turning moment. it's a major policy conversation the president has to have with his own administration within the administration and then with the united states congress and you cannot -- you cannot ignore the politics of the moment because of where we are on the calendar. he's in the final year of his presidency. personal approval numbers, job performance numbers are down. he's trying to tell the american people you can have confidence in me at a time especially when it comes to isis but even on his overall job performance the american people don't have a great deal of confidence in him at the moment and he's trying to do this at a time we have a presidential campaign that is quite vocal and quite loud and most is on the republican side where they say this president doesn't have a clue.

that's the republican argue ms, that from the moment he said isis was the jv, he has underestimated them and not rallied either the american people or the resources of the united states government or they would argue the resources of the global community to deal with this problem. so the president very much needs a page-turning moment from a policy perspective, can tell you tonight, again, we done want to overemphasize this because this is a serious issue. when you talk to democrats privately, they're nervous about the current political mood in the country and the impact on them. that's secondary but you cannot ignore it. >> a young member of the house of representatives on my show on friday, somebody from the san francisco area. not somebody inclined to disagree with the president. and he distanced himself from the president on tv about the issue of whether or not the president takes seriously enough the threat of homegrown terrorists. that is a liberal democrat from the san francisco area. so the fear the democrats are feeling as john mentioned is very real. >> hillary clinton did it again today. she's been very careful. she's tried to be supportive of

the president. again today she says we need a more aggressive policy which is to say the one we have isn't aggressive enough. >> it's the democrats who went to the white house and said we think we need a presidential moment here, we think we need an address. this came from pressure within the democratic party to the president saying, you know, you've been a little offhanded about this, you've been a little defensive about this, you need to kind of set the stage and tell the american people -- >> all right, guys. stay with us. we're not going anywhere. much more of cnn's special coverage right after a quick break. some cash back cards love to overcomplicate things. like limiting where you earn bonus cash back. why put up with that? but the quicksilver card from capital one likes to keep it simple. real simple. i'm talking easy like-a- walk-in-the-park,

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you're watching cnn's special live coverage of president obama's address to the nation. that's coming up at the top of the hour. 8:00 p.m. eastern. you're going to get much more analysis, much more reporting on

what's going on, but first let's take a look back at a moment to a now rather awkward interview from january 2014 when president obama compared isis to a jv sports team. saying, and i'm quoting him "the analogy we use around here sometimes and i think it is accurate is if a jv team puts on a lakers uniform, that doesn't make them kobe bryant." here's how the president's response has evolved since then. >> as i've said, rooting out a cancer like isil will not be quick, or easy, but i'm confident that we can and we will. we will degrade and ultimately destroy isil. in iraq, in syria, american leadership, including our military power is stopping isil's advance. and we have contained them. they have not gained ground in iraq, and in syria, it -- they'll come in, they'll leave. destroying isil is not only a

realistic goal, we're going to get it done. russia's going to recognize the threat that isil poses to its country, to its people, is the most significant and that they need to align themselves with those of us who are fighting isil. isil is not going to pose an existential threat to us. they are a dangerous organization like al qaeda was, but we have hardened our defenses, our homeland has never been more protected. >> let's bring in our senior white house correspondent jim acos acosta. jim, what are you hearing from sources over at the white house about what we can expect to hear from the president? >> reporter: wolf, we don't expect president to unveil any big policy proposals or announce a major strip in strategy for the war on isis. this rare primetime address in the oval office is about reassuring the american people the president is doing what it

takes to destroy this terrorist army and the public is worried about the events in france and california. he'll pledge to use every tool at his disposal to keep the american people safe. i think we'll also hear what the white house knows about the recent terror attack in san bernardino and the connection, if any, between the two killers in that assault and isis commanders overseas. the president will also talk about the steps he's taken since the paris attacks. the intensified air campaign, plus the recent addition of the british to the air strikes on isis in syria. but, wolf, you know, i've been talking to senior administration officials for weeks about this isis problem. they believe the public is not fully aware of all of the sublg ses successes they've had in the u.s.-led coalition. we'll hear the president talk about that and renew his call for gun control laws. you've heard about the democratic proposal in recent days to bar the people on the no-fly list from buying firearms. i think the president will talk about that again and discuss how this nation must come together in the words of one senior

administration official and uphold u.s. values and the translation to that, wolf, that means treating muslim-americans just like any other american. they feel very strongly that the rhetoric coming out of the republican race for the white house right now is very counterproductive when it comes to bringing muslim-americans on board, that community on board to take the fight against isis and quite frankly to inform law enforcement officials when necessary if a threat develops here in the homeland. wolf, the stakes are very high for this president as you were discussing earlier with john, jake, and gloria. not only are republicans downing his policy. earlier today hillary clinton said the u.s. is not winning. that cannot go over well over here at the whouite house, wolf >> she's trying to distance herself from the policy statements on war against isis, if you will. thanks very much, jim accost to. jake, if the policy is not going to make a major policy announcement tomorrow but reiterate what he's been saying, is it worth the primetime address to the nation from the

oval office? >> they obviously feel that it is. i mean, i think a couple things. one is most of the american people obviously do not follow the day in, day out remarks of president obama. thinks he's said to "the new yorker" two years ago, et cetera. the way that we do. and the way that maybe many viewers of cnn do. and so the opportunity to speak to an audience that is sitting down to watch "the simpsons," sitting down to watch sunday night football, that is an opportunity, that is a bigger audience than he has had in recent weeks and months to talk about this issue. second of all, as jim just reiterated, there are a lot of remarks being made that are filling the air that are getting to the american people that have president obama very, very concerned especially when it comes to the way that the muslim-american community is being addressed. now, i'm told president obama will talk about the need for moderate muslim voices to drown out these voices of extremism, but he is also very, very concerned about the fact it's not just bigotry and it's not

just immoral to cast dispersions on the 6 million to 8 million american muslims, it's also stupid, it's also bad law enforcement policy. you want to have american muslims, you want to have everybody in this country on the program, on board with if you see something, say something. sharing information, sharing intelligence about individuals who might come into a mosque and be saying something you find troubling. and that the idea of demonizing so many americans who have nothing to do with terrorism is immoral and dumb. >> yeah. that's well said, indeed. let's bring in some of our experts, joining us right now, dan pfeiffer, cnn political commentator. a former white house senior adviser to president obama. walk us through a decision-making process, dan, how the president decides that tonight only the third time in his presidency he's going to speak in primetime from the oval office of the white house to the american people, indeed, to the world? >> well, wolf, this is obviously the primetime national address is the most powerful

communications tool available to the president outside of the state of the union, and you do this very rarely. you don't want to overuse it. you need to do it at a time when you know the american people want to hear what you have to say, where they are interested in paying attention. i think using the oval office for just as you mentioned the third time is a sign that they really want to make sure that this speech is seen and heard and consumed as jake mentioned not people who follow the use every day, read the "new yorker" and watch cnn every day but the broader american public hearing bits and pieces of what's happening around the world in terms of isil and speak to them in the new context of post-san bernardino and post-paris. >> van jones, you're a former adviser to president obama, you're a cnn political commentator. why is he doing so poorly with the american public in the new cnn poll, how is president obama handling isis? only 33% approve. 64% disapprove. where has he gone wrong? >> tonight he's got to make up some ground. he has both a heart challenge and a head challenge.

the head challenge is he's got to connect better emotionally. i think in trying to conceptualize this saying this is not the soviet union, it's not hitler, this is a death cult, he sometimes seems tone deaf. he's almost like emotionally removed. he's got to stop doing that. he's got to connect better emotionally. that's the heart challenge. he can do that tonight. he also has a head challenge. exactly what jake was saying, there's a smart way to deal with this and there's a dumb way to deal with this. to call this horrible death cult radical islamic group is to pay them a compliment. you don't walk a -- you don't associate a death cult with one of the great religions. you want to say these are just extremists and terrible people. don't say you're going to round up all the muslims and suspect all the muslims. nose are the kinds of things he's got to say, listen, i get this emotionally but i'm being smart in how i'm approaching this. in he can do both of those, he's going to have a great night tonight. >> mike rogers is former chairman of the house intelligence committee, he's a cnn national security commentator. what do you want to hear tonight, mike, from the

president? >> i think he's got to lay out a better plan than we've heard. if you recall, he stumbled a while on, well, we don't really have a strategy and never quite fully recovered from that. and we hear fits and starts. he talks about we're going to ramp up air strikes and then you hear that 80% of the planes that leave come back with their munitions becaus they don't have targets to engage in because of rules of engagement and bad intelligence on the ground. and so i think he really needs to finally say i'm going to lay out a strategy on how i'm going to go after isis using our arab league partners and others. right now it is just a hodgepodge of press releases about certain things he's going to do or not do, and then they candidly get off, wolf, on this cra crazy -- this is all about political distraction. this guns -- getting -- the no-fly list, you can't go buy a gun. that has nothing to do with what happened in california. we're talking about a radicalized extremist group that has a worldwide infrastructure and we don't really have a good

plan to put pressure on it, and that includes diplomacy, military, intelligence. none of that is weaved together. if he goes up tonight, the president of the united states, and lays out that plan and says, this is why we're going to do this, how we're going to do it, and we can maintain american values in the process, i think he could do a lot of good in the fight. if he says this is one of those to-be-clear speeches, you don't exactly understand what i've been doing, i think it's going to be a complete failure. >> david gergen, you're our senior political analyst. you advised four american presidents. what advice would you have given him going into this important speech tonight? >> he needs a clear, credible plan of action of new action. it goes beyond words. one of the reasons, wolf, i believe that he has such a low approval rating in this area is there's a contradiction between what he's saying and what people are hearing from him and what people are actually seeing with their own eyes. you know, he said, as you noted

earlier, that isis has been contained. there are no real credible threats. we're making progress. and here people hear from hillary clinton, his old secretary of state saying, no, no, we're not winning. they see paris, they see california. what are people expected to come out of that? they believe what they see happening and the fear level in the country now, i think, is returning to the levels we haven't seen since 9/11. and so from my perspective, for a president to go on television on a sunday night in primetime, he sends a signal of seriousness and sets a high bar for himself. in my judgment, words, alone, will not be enough, reassurances alone are not enough. needs a strategy, concrete credible plan of action. >> mark hertling, retired colonel. military personnel, generals and others always want clarity of the mission. will the president from your

perspective offer that kind of strategic military clarity tonight on how the united states militarily is going to destroy isis? >> i hope so, wolf. and i think he has been attempting to do that, but some of the words have gotten in the way. you said it before, the con tra constrained words, existential threat. those things are well understood in the military community but the general american public does not really understand those who and what it means. so what i hope to see happen tonight is first of all he's got to reassure the country that we are okay, that things aren't on fire everywhere you look, that there was an unfortunate occurrence with an act of terror this week in california, but that doesn't mean we can't still go after this strategy that he has outlined. what i would like to see, truthfully, is a review of that strategy. there is one. everyone keeps saying there isn't a strategy. the president and his national security team does have a strategy. i'd like to see him tick it off, review each element of it and

say where we're doing well and where we're not doing so well. the transparency of saying, we've got to revise some things, we've got to maybe do some things differently not just in the military arena but some of the other arenas. i'll jump on what van jones said earlier, too. he's got to separate what is good and what is the right thing to do versus what a lot of people are saying we should do which frankly are a lot of dumb things that are counterproductive in this fight and will cause more problems as we go against this enemy that has an unbelievably bizarre ideology that we have to eliminate. >> michael weiss is joining us as well, cnn distribut contribu expert on isis. i heard other experts say to me what the president is doing tonight could inadvertently aid isis in its propaganda, elevating isis right now and help them in their recruiting. do you buy that? >> yeah, i don't think he in terms of his rhetoric is going

to do anything to do what isis wants the united states to do which is drive a wedge between the muslimss who live in the west and this awful terrorist organization. as i speak, wolf, the fascistic far right party in france just swept regional elections there. they took 30%. they're the first party among all political parties. this is coming right off the back of paris. i'm already seeing isis say this is wonderful, it will show the muslims of france they have two choices, the fascists or isis. so the president does have to be careful, but just one final point here. he has tried to divorce, wron y ly in my view, domestic policy from foreign policy. say we must empower moderate republicans to stand up and denounce isis, this is a religion of peace, this is all and good. when muslims are being gassed and bombed and the united states is acquiescing to this, the president said we're just fighting isis, the syrian people, the syrian opposition is fighting russia, iran and the

assad regime. exactly. that's the problem. the united states has not taken up on their behalf. this is a radicalizing agent like no other on this. >> michael weiss, everybody else, stand by. a little more than a half hour or so from now the president will be in the oval office making an address outlining his plan to destroy isis. we'll take a quick break. we'll be right back. ♪ every insurance policy has a number. but not every insurance company understands the life behind it. for those who've served and the families who've supported them, we offer our best service in return. ♪ usaa. we know what it means to serve. get an insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life.

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as president obama prepares to outline his isis strategy, we have new developments from the investigations into the san bernardino massacre which may have been inspired by the terror group. as you know, a violent husband and wife team stormed into a holiday celebration and gunned down and killed 14 people. until now, we've heard that syed farook's wife was responsible for radicalizing him, but now there's new information he was also a follower of isis ideology. our law enforcement sources are telling cnn that farook was in touch with people being investigated by the fbi for international terrorism, reaching out by phone and on social media. cnn's kyung lah is joining us from san bernardino in california where she spoke to syed farook's father and is

attending a vigil out there. our justice correspondent pamela brown is in washington. first to you, kyung, what did the father tell you? >> reporter: the father is speaking to reporters on and off throughout the day beginning last night. he spoke to some reporters today saying basically he had much more liberal view, his policies were liberal. his son increasingly conservative, especially as he got older. he gave a very detailed interview to an italian newspaper and there we certainly got a very big clue about what he thought of his son. he said that his son's ideology was -- they shared the ideology of al baghdadi and that he believed that there should be an islamic state and he was fixated on israel. now, pakistani family, family in pakistan that he has said that they were increasingly concerned about the change, a shift in his character. so certainly, wolf, we're hearing now as time goes on, especially from the father, is that it may not have all been the wife, that this slow change

may have also come from his son, wolf. >> pamela, what are your law enforcement sources telling you about ways to prevent attacks like the one in san bernardino, especially when this couple left behind such a relatively small footprint, at least as far as we know right now leading up to their attack? >> aye been asking that question to law enforcement officials, wolf. the bottom line, many say, look, you can't eliminate risk, you can mitigate it and in this case law enforcement officials say this is a situation where you really need the help of those that knew them, tsd family members. perhaps a mom who lived with them and we know, wolf, that in this case there was a cache of weapons including bombs. a question is being raised, well, didn't anyone see this and why didn't anyone come forward to the authorities? at this point i'm told there are no indications that anyone did before this terrorist attack. officials i've been speaking with says this case highlights the importance of those who are close to people who may be

radicalized to speak up and tell raurm law enforcement. you mentioned he had been in touch with terrorism subject s under investigation. i'm learning syed farook attempted to make contact with terrorist groups oversea, so another indication there that he was radicalized. wolf? >> is suspect that footprint is going it get bigger and bigger in the coming days for him and his life, late wife tashfeen malik. much more of cnn's special coverage leading up to president obama's oval office address right at the top of the hour. we'll be right back. it takes technology,

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live pictures from the white house. the president will be addressing the nation, indeed the world at the top of the hour an the war against isis. leaders all over the world no doubt will be watching as well. our senior international correspondent clarissa is joining us. i assume there's interest especially in the uk where you are now where the government just approved air strikes going against isis targets in syria. >> that's right, wolf. and we've seen since the parliament, the british parliament approved those air strikes, british forces have been hitting isis pretty hard in since those air strikes began. they've been really focusing primarily, wolf, on oil wells. trying to drill down on isis' primary source of revenue. we know that the selling of oils taken from those oil fields is one of their primary sources of income, and so that's been the primary strategy. for british forces going ahead.

but certainly that doesn't really speak to what to do about this larger problem that we've seen in the u.s. in san bernardino about what they're calling a diy jihad. people who are becoming self-radicalized as a result of propaganda doonline, going out, buying guns and launching attacks and whatever the attacks the brits or the coalition may be launching against isis inside syria and iraq, that's going to do very little, unfortunately, to counteract the problem that we're seeing of these so-called lonewolf attacks or self-radicalized diy jihad. >> clarissa, stand by. i'm going to get back to you in a moment. jake tapper is with us. jake, you had a fascinating interview michael flynn, former head of the intelligence agency, part of the defense department. he was pretty candid with you about his criticisms and thoughts about what's happening in this war against isis.

>> when the history of this isis is written, there will be a lot of people to blame and a lot of people won't look great in retrospekt. one of the criticisms coming from people like michael flynn is they warned about the potential for isis to rise. in fact, in 2012 the defense intelligence agency issued a report warning just that, that because of this chasm of unlawful lands and ungoverned societies and the rise of the islamic state, isis, it could grow and it could expand its reach. i asked him, just a few days ago, why me thought his report that was issued in 2012 before president obama called them the jv team, why it was ignored. here's what he had to say. >> i think that they did not meet a particular narrative that the white house needed, and i'll be very candid with you. i have said, and i believe that the people that were around the president, his sort of inner circle that were advising him i think advised him incorrectly.

>> the idea was in 2012, the narrative as president obama ran for re-election was terrorists are on the run, we are winning this war, and that mindset, according to general flynn and some others in the intelligence community, took hold and the problem was not taken as seriously as perhaps it should have been there retrospect. >> the criticism, gloria, in was 2012 the president was up for re-election and he wanted to show the u.s. was winning in this war. >> right. >> against terrorism. >> and the narrative for the president was that he ended wars and that he didn't start wars. and if you look at, say, leon panet panetta's memoir, he had the same complaint about the president which is certain things didn't fit into the narrative and either -- and decisions didn't get made that should have been made. and there's also questions that we've been reading about, and about whether intelligence was overlooked, or cooked or shoved to the side, and i think, you know, that's something that's going to have to be examined now in light of what's going on with this. >> john king, there is currently

an inspector general's investigation under way at the department of defense on whether some of the intelligence that was presented was sort of cherry picked or changed in order to suit what officials in the white house may have wanted to hear. >> and the president says he hopes that didn't happen. what you have is some rank-and-file people at the lower level of the intelligence community saying we were sending up these warnings, sending up more serious reports and by the time they got to the policymakers, they had been made more optimistic. as jake said, there will be a lot of parties to blame in 10, 15, 20 years when we know more about this and go back and look at it. you can say pretty clearly even democrats and people inside the white house will concede this that the president especially in his public comments skbur underestimated isis and has not talked publicly. the president is not going to go there, but by saying jv, by saying other things that have minimized the threat, the question is can he turn the page? we're going to hear from the president in 20 minutes. and can the president turn the

page and convince the american people i get it, i have a plan, i'm going to keep you safe? and i think to david gergen's point, can he say something new? because if he says the same things, the problem is you guys talked about the poll numbers earlier, lts american people have lost faith in his plans. if he says the same things, can he inspire new confidence. >> the reason the white house gives, the same reason the bush white house gave that they don't pinpoint this, label this terrorism as islamic or islam-o-fascist or whatever in general is because there's a strong feeling from intelligence experts and military experts that if you do that, you are helping isis with the narrative and that is a war between the west and islam. >> we're only about 17 minutes away from the president's oval office address on his strategy to destroy isis. more of our special coverage right after a quick break.

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in about 15 minutes, president obama will try to reassure a jittery nation after what may have been the first isis-inspired terror attack by people living here in the united states. joining us now, the former obama senior adviser, dan pfeiffer. got a lot of other analysts joining us as well, but dan, i'm told the president personally pushed hard to deliver this primetime address tonight. he began discussing it with his senior aides friday night. now he's going ahead with this speech. it's not an easy decision for a president to do this. it underscores his desire to convince the american people he knows what he's doing. >> i think it -- you're right. this is not an easy decision. this is as i said earlier the most important communications tool the president has and doing the oval raises the stakes s m. i've talked to folks in the white house, is try to reset the conversation in country. he knows people are concerned post-paris and post-san

bernardino. there's a lot of very inflammatory dangerous political rhetoric out there. i think he wants to speak the country and not folks who follow us day-to-day but the casual news viewers about his very specific plan, what he's been doing, what we need to do going forward and help people understand the threat. i think that he thought the best way to do this was do it in the biggest fashion possible which is an oval office address on a sunday night. >> van jones, if the president, however, doesn't make news in the sense he doesn't offer any new policy nisinitiatives, offe new strategies, everything until now, he'll be criticized, right? >> i think he has to acknowledge something which is we are in a different situation. up until now he could say, i've kept you safe. now it's been predicted you'd have lone wolf threats. we we've been talking about it for months. it's materialized not just in paris but here. he has to come before the american people and explain what it is we're going to be doing differently and what we have

been doing to keep this to a minimum. i thought david gergen said something very interesting. he said he feels we may be back at a 9/11 level of fear. now, remember, 9/11 was 3,000 people. it was icons going down. this was a few dozen casualties taken. and yet with this new wired world, the social media world, isis can spend much less money in a crowd-source way and still put the nation at fear. the president has to speak to the country. whether or not he has a new plan or not, there's a new level of concern he must address tonight and he will. >> david gergen, should the president declare this a war and seek congressional authorization for the use of military force? >> i don't think that's necessary at this point, wolf. i think what he does have to do is take action. i can't emphasize enough, words of reassurance are not enough. the country is not looking for a father-in-chief tonight. what they're looking for is a

ma commander in chief who is tough, decisive and wants to win. and committed to that emotionally and mentally. they're not quite sure he's there yet. >> what do you think, mike rogers? does the president need new congressional authorization to launch this war against isis in raqqah, their so-called caliphate capital in syria? >> well, you and i have talked about this before wolf when i was the chairman of the house intelligence committee, i believe he needed it several years ago. i think congress needs to step in a real and meaningful way and give the president authorization for military force. we already have forces engaged in that region. this is through our elected representatives telling america that they, we have their back. i think that's critical, but he's the other part of this. we need to be very careful not to minimize what happened in california. this is a pattern. isis is now in almost 30 different states. it's operating on serious levels both logistically, it's marrying up with former other organizations, al shabaab being one of them, al qaeda

affiliates, almost half of them have pledged support to the mission of isis. we have a big and growing problem, and i think the longer the president decides he doesn't want to deal with this head on, the more problem we're having, and as david said, americans understand this. they saw when the russian plane went down. they saw the bombing in lebanon. they saw the attack in paris. they saw the attack in california. they're hearing about reports of the beheading plots disrupted right here in the united states. in australia, in canada. you can't not understand the weight of what is happening in reality and have a more political nothing to see here move along. i think this is a very important speech for the president and really for america if we really want to finally get americans together, this speech needs to help push americans together on defeating isis. if there'sny division in this i'm going to be highly disappointed in the president.

>> general her,tling, every analyst agrees you're not going to destroy isis with airpower alone even if other countries are involved together with the united states, you need ground forces. 50 u.s. special operations force, maybe another 200 based in iraq going in occasionally to kill isis commanders is not necessarily going to get the job done, either. how many ground troops from the united states realistically are needed in the next year or two to destroy isis? >> you know my o ppinion on thi wolf. the united states should not be leading the way on this. we cannot go in. this is one of thoese kind of things where isis wants exactly that, western forces coming into their caliphate that proves to others on the ground that see, we told you so, it's the west against islam. so it can't be us leading, but it certainly -- we have to do more than just this coalition of the willing. you know, the coalition of the willing is neither a coalition or willing individuals right now. it's a bunch of nations who

claim to want to be a part of this but are not doing much especially the middle eastern nations. we've got to get those countries involved. it's happening to a greater degree in iraq right now. syria needs a diplomatic solution. no matter how many military forces you put on the ground there, it is not going to solve this problem. everything will rise up again against it. and it's just difficult to put a number on forces. that's the easeiest thing to do and that's what many of our politicians and especially those running for office are saying, they're throwing numbers out there. get this many forces and it will solve the problem. that's going back to what van said earlier, that's one of the dumb things people are talking about. it's more than just military force on the ground. >> all right, guys. everyone, stand by. we're only minutes away from the president of the united states delivering an important address from the oval office. only the third time over the past seven years the president has used the oval office address for a primetime address to the nation. ♪

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i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we're standing by for the president of the united states. he's getting ready to address

the nation, indeed the world, from the oval office right at the top of the hour. the president set to take the lectern in a rare address from the oval office, only the third time he's done an oval office primetime address. jake, this decision that the president made to do it on a sunday night in primetime underscoring his desire to reassure the american people he's on top of this crisis with isis and he's going to fulfill that promise to destroy it. >> yeah, to reassure as many americans as he can with the widest possible audience reaching into every home watching television on a sunday night which is a big night for television, and also to convey with a script what he wants to and and not speak extemporaneously, not speak off the cuff, convey the fact this is is not going to be a threat to the united states in any major way, that isis will be defeated and i have to say one other thing we're going to be listening for tonight is how much does he differentiate

between the terrorist threat, terrorists coming from from al qaeda abroad, and the homegrown terrorist threat because that's really what's frightening, what's extra frightening about what happened in san bernardino. >> our poll tonight shows that 81% of the people in this country believe isis has terrorists in the united states, whether homegrown or not, wasn't specified. what the president has to do tonight is tell the american public not only reassure them -- i agree with david gergen -- not only reassure them but tell the american people how he's going to fortify homeland security in this country to protect americans who believe isis is here in overwhelming numbers. >> it's the first night of hanukkah. we're 19 days from christmas. the american people have watched people mowed down at a holiday party. they're nervous. some of them are outright frightened about their own personal safety, about the growth of this organization. and if you look at the polling numbers about 2/3 of them do not think their president has a plan to adequately deal with it. so they lack confidence about

their security and at the moment lack confidence in their president. that's a pretty steep challenge. >> jake, the president we're told will mention gun control in his address. he's been criticized in the aftermath of what happened in san bernardino for talking about gun control but he's going to still stick to that we're told tonight. >> there is a component of what the president is going to say that the white house believes is a winning issue which is the idea of trying to keep guns out of the hands of individuals who are on terrorist watch lists or on no-fly lists. that was defeated in the senate by republicans last thursday and i don't think it would have affected what happened in san bernardino in any way. but it is one of many items president obama is said to be pushing. >> we're told the president personally has worked all weekend on this speech together with his top advisers. every word has gone through not only his approval, but a whole team effort over there to make sure that it's precise and delivers the message to the

american people that this war on isis will succeed. the president's remarks getting -- the president getting ready now to deliver those remarks, indeed, the next hour of cnn's special coverage of the president's oval office address to the nation begins right now. this is cnn breaking news. >> good evening. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. we begin with the breaking news, president obama's oval office address to the nation on terror. there's a live look at the white house right now where president obama will speak at any moment addressing the nation from behind a lectern set up inside the oval office. he won't be sitting behind the desk. he'll be standing. that backdrop particularly rare for this president. he's only made national speeches in primetime from the oval office twice before. these comments follow news that thele