us, and wolf blitzer is fresh off of the debate stage starts his show at the top of the hour. and the man with tin sight right there looking into their eyes is next. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello, i'm wolf blitz er. it is 10:00 a.m. in las vegas and 1:00 p.m. in washington and 9:00 p.m. in moscow, and wherever you are watching from around the world, thank you very much for joining us. >> we start with the final republican presidential debate in the books. 13 candidates sparring over national security issues in two debates. these are the highlights from the prime time portion. >> trump says that we ought to close that internet thing. >> donald is great at the one-liners, but he is a chaos candidate. >> and this is what it looks like to be on the floor of the united states senate. endless debates about how many

angels on the head of a pin from people who have nef made a consequential decision. >> and donald, you cannot insult your way to the presidency. >> it is merciful if you go ahead to finish the job rather than death by 1,000 hits. >> and you are okay with the deaths of thousands of innocent children and civilians -- it is like -- >> so when you ask yourself, whoever you are, you think that you are going to be supporting donald trump, think if you believe in the constitution. >> they can kill us, but we can't kill them. that is what you are saying. >> and if you want something talked about, ask the man. if you want something done, ask a woman. >> if you are in favorite of world war iii, you have the candidate. >> and frankly, it is time to punch the russians in the nose, because they have gotten away with too much in the world. >> and the early part of the debate was trump this, trump that in order the to get ratings, and i have gotten to know him over the last three or four days, and he has a

wonderful temperament. he is just fine. don't worry about it. >> and ted, you are saying that -- >> and for marco to suggest that our record is the same is like suggesting that the fireman and the arsonist have the same record, because they are at the scene of the fire. >> and are you ready to say that you will run as a republican and abide by the decisions of the republicans? >> i really am. >> after our candidates left the stage, we asked donald trump if there was any wiggle room to stay in the republican race? >> i have opinion in the party, and sort of a contributor and now a fair-haired boy and now all of the sudden, i am differently and i have got ten to know a lot of people, including the people on the stage. i have a lot of respect for the people on the stage, and i decided and i didn't know that the question would be asked, but i did not hesitate and i decided to say, yes, i am a republican. i will be a republican. i will not be doing a third party. >> no matter what? >> no, not no matter what?

>> no, not no matter what or no matter what? >> no matter what is what he said. sean spice ser the communications director for the republican national committee, and i can see a nice big smile on your face, and any serious fear inside of the rnc, the republican national committee that trump would run as a third-party candidate? >> no, donald trump signed the pledge early in the year, and he gave his word, a hend a newcomer to the political scene and he wanted to see that he is treated fairly, and i think that he has seen that is how we at the rnc and reince priebus treat all of the candidates and it was good to hear him reaffirm that last night so we can get our eyes on the prize of defeating hillary clinton. >> are you convinced that all of the other republican candidates are going to the support or endorse or vote for him? >> yes. absolutely. look, every single person on the stage is united by one thing at

least which is this, that hillary clinton would move the country in the wrong direction, and she does not have a plan to keep america safe, and every one of the individuals on the stage would do a much better job of providing the solutions to the problem that our country faces, and providing a vision of where we need to go. >> and so, donald trump, and senator ted cruz put the mini feud behind them as you know, and they faced the little criticism respectively, and is it over now? the bromance as it is call between the two republican presidential candidates back on? >> i don't know. i have not been privy to that bromance, but i will tell you that i enjoy watching our candidates focusing on talking about their solutions, their vision, and focusing their attacks on hillary clinton, and if i may, wolf, i would like to say that you and dana and hugh did a phenomenal job last night to keep the debate focused on issues and making sure that the

candidates and the time was allotted properly and didn't run over each other, and real kudos to cnn for handling the debate, because it gave the viewers an opportunity to understand the differences that the candidates have with each other, and the vision they have for taking the country forward >> thank you. thank you very much for that, sean. our goal was a simple goal. we wanted to make sure that the republicans who have to vote and select a nominee are going to be a little bit more knowledgeable about a potential commander in chief after the debate than before the debate. did the differences, the agreements were they crystallized for republicans? >> well shgs, i think that for many of millions of folks watching at home, that they were able to sort of looking at each one of the candidates and hear the tone or the plan or the tactics that they offered and make a decision hopefully as they approached the early primary and caucus states which candidate or candidates best fit where they want to take the country, and so hopefully tonight, last night was one step

closer for a lot of folks in deciding who will best carry the republican banner the general election. >> and going forward in the presidential debates and the are rnc is directly involved in authorizing and sanctions the debates, do you believe still two debates of the undercard as it is called and the prime time debate or just one debate from now on? >> well, that is a great question. i think that we have been evaluating these on the ca case-by-case basis, but what chairman priebus said, but if you look at the interest and we have not seen the numbers yet, but the numbers of the early debate are millions of folks with interest, because we have so many qualifyied candidates ad as we approach each of those, we have done a good job to allow each individual to get on stage to give people their voice and what they want to do. as you can see by the viewership, there is tremendous interest and enthusiasm and

intensity on our side, and frankly as we are heading into the second or the third democ t democratic debate this saturday night are where they are burying the debates so that hillary clinton is not exposed to the view e es you will see much fewer viewers, and much less intensity, because all of the horsepower is on the republican side. >> we just got the numbers by the way, and i am looking at them right now, sean. i don't know if you is seen them. 18 million people watched the primetime debate, and in the early debate 5.7 million people. almost 6 million in the earlier debate, and those are significant numbers and the third highest presidential debate ever after the first two republican presidential debates. 18 million is a big number. >> that is a huge number. t tremendous. congratulations to cnn. to salem radio, but also to the millions of viewers who got the tune in and see how great the candidates and the republican party has in this field. the level of qualified candidates that we are putting forward and the amount of

diversity that our side offers in stark contrast to what you are seeing on the other side and it is a frankly a coronation of the democratic party going through the motions for hillary clinton so that she can say that she had a primary, but again, you won't see anything close to those numbers come saturday night n night for the democrats for frankly nor the rest of the cycle for them. >> yes, 18 million in the primetime and 5.7 in the earlier debate, and 5.7 million, and so maybe you will keep the so-called early second tier debate going. >> >> are you getting like a cut there, wolf? >> i am just a political news junkie like you, sean, and i love to see these debates and i was thrilled to be the mod eratr with dana and hugh. >> well, thank you to you and dana and hugh. >> okay. thank you, sean, and say hello the reince for us. and the battle between the marco rubio and ted cruz sparred on

several topics including surveillance and immigration. this is the exchange of military spending and foreign policy. >> three times he voted against the defense authorization act which is a bill that funds the troops, and also by the way funds the iron domes and other important programs and i assume that if you were in president, you would also veto it. and he also vetoed the containment budget which radically reduces the amount of money we spend on the military, and you can't carpet bomb the military if you take away their funding. >> and the insults tossed this direction, marco, let's be a absolute clear isis and radical islamic radicalism will face no more determined foe than i am utterly going to be in targeting the bad guys. and one of the problems of marco's foreign policy he has far too often supported hillary

clinton and barack obama. >> it is clear that the cuts you are supporting are going to leave with us a smaller army and air force than the one i would make. and the barack obama and hillary clinton strategy is to lead from behind and what he is outlining is to not lead at all. >> and now, we are going to be joined by our political strategists angela rye, and kristin solstice and what did you see kristen? >> well, the most interesting debates are the ones that tease out the differences in the republican tent, and on the issues of immigration and national security, there isle healthy debate. marco rubio and ted cruz scored points on each other, but it is going to be evolvinging beyond iowa and new hampshire to be a

n nop-trump frontrunner. >> and is the challenge, cruz and rubio or is dr. ben carson still a challenger? >> well, i think that chris christie is as well. he had a strong debate, and you can't count out somebody with $50 million in jeb bush either. so we are far are from winnowing the field, but it is a good debate and substantive back and forth and healthy. >> and people got better appreciation of where the candidates stand on anyism pornt issue that the future chief of comma commander has to deal with. and angela, another important exchange, and this one on surveillance. listen. >> i am proud to have joined with conservatives in both the senate and the house to reform how we target bad guys, and what the usa freedom act did. it did two things. number one, it dended the federal government's collection of bulk phone metadata of

information -- >> so is senator cruz wrong? >> yes. it is not the most credible, but we are at a time where we need not less tools, but more tool, and that metadata program was a huge loss. >> i know that marco knows it is not true. >> he can't have it both ways, i am great and strong on the national defense, but he is the weakest of all of the candidates on immigration, and he is for the open border to leave us defenseless. if we want to defend the country, we have to defend against who is coming from, and marco has more of the allegiance to chuck schumer and the elitists and liberals than he does to the republican party. >> and you have three senators going at it. >> and here is the funny thing, to your point, chris christie end ed that exchange and won it. he said, this is what it is like to have a debate on the senate floor, and that we don't understand what they are talking

about and why it is relevant. marco rubio won on foreign policy in the debate, because he continually demonstrates that he has e tremendous foreign policy knowledge and wherewithal and great timing for him, but unfortunately for the country and the world overall is that where he stands on foreign policy is resonating with the gop. he sent out a fund-raising e-mail after this debate saying that the isolationist strategies of rand paul and ted cruz are not good for the country or the world. so he not only won that exchange, but the debate on foreign policy. >> and rand paul's foreign policy is a minority view, and it is clear why he would want to associate ted cruz with that world view. coming off of the heels of the tragic attack in san bernardino, and this is not a time when the americans are thinking of the balance of privacy and security, the pendulum is swinging towards security, and that puts the momentum on the side of marco

rubio. >> and are people more on the side of rubio on the sensitive national issue or ted cruz? >> well, i think that he is closer to marco, i do. and i think that you have two candidates in marco and ted who are both rising in the polls, and you know, ted had the huge b bump in the "des moines register" poll. so you will see them both going after one another, and there are differences that they will sort them out, but we have a great stretch toward iowa going right now, and i think that republicans overall should be happy where we are. >> and i want to play a click by ben carson who had been doing very, very well, but sliding a little bit over the past few weeks, and he had this exchange asked about bombing women and children in syria. >> could you order air strikes that would kill innocent women and children not by the scores but hundreds of thousands and could you wage war as commander in chief? >> well, interestingly enough,

you should see the eyes of some of those children when i say to the them, we are going to have to open up your head and take out this tumor. they are not happy about it, believe me, and they don't like me very much at that the point, but later on, they love me. >> angela, how is he doing right now? >> if it is based on that one exchange, i would say that he is not listening. he is not listening to his foreign policy advisers and i don't even understand what that analogy had to do with the question. i think that overall ben carson struggled in the debate and he has demonstrated exactly why his numbers continue to drop. he is not sharp on foreign policy, and his analogies are just, they seem to be out of touch. all of the exchange on twitter last night had everything to do with what planet is he on? is he awake and paying attention to the questions? from what one example that is the biggest example of that. >> and kristin? >> well, he has strong favorables and people like him, but over the last few weeks as the tenor of the debate has shift and can he be commander in

chief is a question he is falling short. so he does reasonably well in the polls, because people like him and he is a good guy, but in the moment where people are concerned about the place in the world and national security, it is not an environment that favors ben carson. >> rick? >> on the end of the day, the issues are organized on the ground. you can't count out ben carson because of missteps on the debate stage, because in iowa and ther places, he has strong performances there, and we have a long way to go >> and we have a long way to go on this show as well. don't go too far away. and coming up, determined to take on donald trump jeb bush had the best debate showing yet, and that is what a lot of analysts are suggesting, but was it enough? too little too late? and plus, the fbi says that he has no doubt that a mass shooting in tennessee was no doubt inspired by terrorist

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hillary clinton and president obama were pop ular subjects last night in the last republican presidential debate of the year, and often used by the gop candidates to attack each other. joining us from capitol hill is the congresswoman debbie wassermann schultz who is the chairman of the democratic national convention, and thank you very much for join g ing us. i assume you watched it? >> yes, every single painful bit of it. >> and every toom tham mentioned hillary clinton, theys assume that she is the presidential nominee, and the president has taken a lot of heat over his strategy to fight isis, and do

you know where hillary clinton would differ with the president's current strategy? >> you know, wolf, what i was struck by last night was in thinking that if i had been watching and listening to this debate with my eyes closed, you would not have known that these were candidates for the presidents is si of the united states of america. it was more like a debate about the presidency of some authoritarian regime, because each and every one of the ka candidates has taken donald trump's playbook and tried to make off with it, and do everything they can to emulate and worship his agenda and his proposals and make sure that they can earn the support of his supporters anticipating probably incorrectly that the eventually he is going to nose-dive. you know, wolf, as chair of the

democratic national committee, i am neutral in the primaries and when it comes to the candidats,s all three of them, and any one of them would make sure that we continued to focus on defeating isil, and building the coalition of nation partners that president obama has successfully put together, and more than 60 nations now in that coalition, and engaged in the air strikes that we are engaging in, and the special operations force on the ground. and by the way -- none of them posed anything differently last night. >> and let me interrupt. where does hillary clinton dif from the president's strategy as you outlined it? >> as i said, i'm the chair of the dnc and so it is not fair for me to be outlining one of the candidates' positions. all three of the candidates like all of the republican candidates by the way last night none of them articulated the difference of the way they would prosecute defeating isil. they all talked or many of them talked about building a

coalition and making sure, and none of them, mind you, said that we will send out the ground troops and do things really any differently than barack obama. what they did say -- >> i don't want to get into that, but a few of them do support a no-fly zone over se syria, and the president oppose it, and you heard lindsey graham, the republican candidate say he wants 10,000 troops in syria, and 10,000 in iraq, and the president opposes that -- and we are talking about the undercard now. >> and now i want to get a sense when the republicans attack hillary clinton who is the front-runner for democratic committee, and if you like the strategy of isis, elect hillary clinton, because you will get more of that, right or wrong? >> because all of them virtually last night, no one carved out a significant difference of the president's proposals and policies on how he is proposing to defeat isil, all of the candidates line up similar ly,

but the bottom line where our candidates differ is not suggesting that we ban all muslims from entering the country like donald trump has said and all of the republican candidates still have pledged to support him if he is the no, ma'am knee, and ben carson for example does not seem to realize that where isil actually is, where the capital is, and that they are not out on the desert in an island somewhere alone and ready to be carpet bombed, and ted cruz, the same thing. so i mean, you listen to all of those republican candidates, and they doubled down on the extremism, on un-american policies that would take us back to the mccarthy era, and our candidates when they debate saturday night will talk about the national security, economic security and making sure that we can continue to move the country forward and sustain american values in the process >> i i don't know if you heard my interview at the top of the hour with sean spicer, the communications director for the

national republican committee. >> no, i didn't. >> he keeps saying that you as the chair of the dnc and he said not you by name, but you try to bury the presidential debates on a saturday night when people are not home watching television, because they don't want hillary clinton to have much of a challenge. what is your response to that assertion? >> i will point out that the rnc has all of the broadcast network debates on a saturday night as well. so, you nknow, the bottom line s that these network debates, we have our cnn debate and all of the other debates are on the broadcast networks. those schedules are less flexible, and through our candidate forums and the debates, we are garnering large audiences and the candidates are also out on the campaign trail making sure that we can spread our message, and draw the contrast between democrats who want to help americans build the cornerstones of american life,

and the republicans all of whom want to take it away and take us back to policies that got us into the worst economic cries is since the great depression, and roll up the ability for anyone to come to the country, shut the united states down as a refuge that we have been traditionally to people fleeing persecution. and the xenophobia and the un-american policies that have come out of the republican field, i am sure will continue, and as a result in large part from their extremism, the democratic nominee will eventually be the president of the united states >> we are out of time, but are you going to be adding any more presidential democratic presidential debates or the number that you have set in concretes? >> we have a number of candidate forums and we are adding the six debates that are scheduled. >> so more debates, but candidate forums where the individuals are interviewed one-on-one, but no debate between the candidates, and you

will stick to that format? >> we are giving them a number of opportunities so they can be up and out on the campaign trail to get up close and personal with the voters. >> thank you. >> thank you, wolf. >> and coming up, jeb bush calling donald trump the chaos candidate. and how trump hit back. that is coming up.

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x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. the former florida governor jeb bush brought the a-game to the last night's republican presidential debate and took on the rival donald trump in a way we have not seen before. >> do you think that this is tough and you are not being treated fairly, imagine what is it like to deal with putin or president xi or the islamic t terrorism that exists. >> oh, yeah. >> this is a tough business -- >> and you are a tough guy, jeb, i know. >> and we need a leader that is tough. >> real tough. >> and you will not be president of the united states by insulting your way to the presidency. >> well, so far i'm at 40% and you are at 3. and join g ing us is an gel

rye, and kristen anderson, and kristen, this is a moment that jeb bush needed to take on donald trump, and right from the very beginnings, you could see that he was more anxious to do so. >> and he is wanting to bring the fight to trump, and so many of the folks have tried to take it to trump, and it has not worked and when jeb has taken hits to him, it is apologize to my wife or he is too extreme, and now he is going after donald trump's ability to be commander in chief, and ability to govern, and that is riper, and he was getting more energized than usual when he deployed it. >> he was on newsday earlier today, and listen to this exchange. >> it is not a debate, but it is a performance, and you have to have to take the moment to be able to say what you want to say rather than answer the question. i was brought nupup in a familyf you are asked a question, you have to answer it, and be

respectful of the question, but get to the point that you want to make, and in the case of donald trump, he is a bully. look, i mean, you guys interview him all of the time. he has his way. and to push up, and you nknow, post up against him and pushback, you will get a sense of, you nknow, he is not quite all in command. >> taking on trump for jeb bush right now, angela, a good strategy? >> it is the only strategy he has left, wolf. i was looking at the poll yesterday that has trump at 38% and jeb bush at 5% contrary to wh what he said on the debate stage last night by donald trump. but he has knotting the lose. and $50 million along with other ad money spent, and he has to do everything to be recognized and as you said earlier, it is too a little too late, but he does not have anything else to lose at this point. >> and jeb bush, in the polls, he does not do well in iowa and b

better in new hampshire, and he has to do a lot better in new hampshire if the campaign is going to survive, right? >> well, last night you saw a different jeb bush on the stage, and he took the fight to trump and had a great line, saturday morning or sunday morning where he gets his information, and he couldn't tell. and frankly, trump has been attacking him for months so, and it was good to see the gloves come off for a little bit. >> is this good strategy for the other candidates to stop criticizing donald trump, and ted cruz did in a private fund-raiser, but he walked away from it a little bit and last night marco rubio did not criticize him, and is that smart? >> well, look aing at the peopl in the race who have tried to make a frontal assault, it has not worked out well. rick perry, out of the race. bobby gin dashlgsjindal, and he the race, and is so a marco rubio and ted cruz may not see

the advantage of taking him on frontal, but they may want to wait to see how iowa and new hampshire shake out before they switch the strategy. >> and one thing is that is interesting is that it is not an all-out attack, but in the debate they did not say mr. t m trump, but they said donald or th that, and we are going to be bringing down the respectability factor a a little bit. you are one of your tears sfwlcht and donald trump is larger than life, a nd he has brought something to the race that nobody ever thought would come to the race. so you have to pick the opportunities to go after him. at some point, you know, when he continues to lead by double-digits in the early states you have the take him on and you are running out of time. >> and can any of the republicans catch up to him? >> well, anything is possible at this point, because we have a long ways to go, and people have been talking about donald trump's demise since the john

mccain segment in july in iowa and we are in the middle of december, and so anything is possible. >> and the national numbers are going up and not down, so is we will see, and 47 days, but who is counting until the iowa caucuses. guys, thank you very much. >> yes. >> and in a few minutes, we are expecting to hear from the federal reserve about the interest rates and how that is affecting the markets and how it can affect you. plus, the jury is about to continue deliberating the trial of a baltimore police officer charged in con nnection with freddie gray's death. right before lunch, the judge had a live question for the jury, and we will update you in baltimore of what is going on.

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>> in 20 minutes from now, we are expect iing to the hear an important announcement from the federal reserve in washington. it is believed they will be raising interest rates for the first time since 2006. the move has been expected for months and that is one reason that the strong market is

staying strong right now. and we will have much more on the developing story at the top of the hour. stay tuned for that. moments ago, the white house announced that the president is headed to san bernardino, and he will be out there friday to meet privately with some of the victims of the shooting there. 14 people were killed in that terror attack, and the president is making the stop on the way to a family holiday vacation in hawaii. just ahead, we'll hear from the director of the fbi who now says that the shooting at a military facility in tennessee months ago was a terror-inspired attack. and also, new details on how the terror attackers in san bernardino communicated online. ? mr. mucus: to work, with you. it's taco tuesday. man: you're not coming. i took mucinex to help get rid of my mucusy congestion. i'm good all day. [announcer:] mucinex keeps working. not 4, not 6, but 12 hours. let's end this when a moment turns romantic why pause to take a pill? or stop to find a bathroom? cialis for daily use is approved to treat

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today, director of the fbi revealed new and disturbing information about two terror attacks here in the united states, and joining us now is cnn justice reporter evan perez, and you were there inside of the fbi when director james comey made the announcement about the san bernardino shooters. >> we concede that in late 2014 before there is a physical meeting of the two people and resulting in the engagement, and the journey no the united states, they are communicating online, showing sign s s in the communication of their joint commitment to jihad and to martyrdom, and those communications are direct

private messages. so far in the investigation, we have found no evidence of posting on social media by either of them at that period of time and thereafter. >> now, evan, what else did the fbi director say about the shootings in san bernardino? >> well, wolf, he says that so far there's been no evidence that has been uncovered yet by t the fbi, that indicates that these two killers were in district communication with foreign terrorist organizations, which is something that is obviously very much at the top of the list to figure out whether it was directed by isis or some other terrorist group, but really by putting a fine ir point on those communications, the fbi is really trying to bring home the point that really there was nothing that they could have done to try to discover what tashfeen malik was up to when she applied for the u.s. fiance visa sor her husband for that matter when he sponsored the visa for her to

come to the united states, and then a year later after her immigration into the country carrying out this devastating terrorist attack. they say that communications were something that really they were obl able to get after the fact, after the terrorist attack, and after they were able to get a warrant from a court in order to get the content of the messages of those messages. in other words, there was nothing publicly available, wolf. >> and he provided new details about the shooting earlier in the year at the naval reserve facility in tennessee, and what did we learn? >> that is right. mohammad abdulaziz carried out the attack killing five people at a military recruitment center where he attacked, and one of the things that the fbi has been working on is what drove him to do this. we know from talking to the source, wolf, he was inspired partly by anwar al awlaki, the yemeni cleric who was killed in a drone strike a few years ago, but the fbi director says that now they have concluded that he

was definitely acting inspired by a foreign terrorist propaganda, and so he did not describe fully what that inspiration was, but one of the other things that is really interesting about that investigation as well as some others is that he says that there are indications that someone should have seen something, because there were changes in his behavior if someone had noticed something and called the fbi, perhaps the tragedy would have been averted, wolf. >> and it is similar to the tragedy of nadal hassan who killed all of those people at fort hood was inspired by ap war al awlaki, as well. thank you, evan. >> and meanwhile, there is another day of deliberations in the trial of william porter in baltimore. the jury said they were deadlocked, but the judge told them to continue deliberating. we go the mar k-- blt baltimore

>> no, the transcripts that the jury requested were denied by the judge. they have just gone back into the deliberations after an ho hour-long deliberation, and so we are into hour 14 or so, and i saw them going back out to lunch and not as stony faced an unhappy as they were yesterday when they came out to say they were deadlocked, but they weren't exactly looking relieved oo either, so it is not clear that we are any closer to a verdict than we were before. the one big question is that we don't know if they were deadlocked on one, two, three, or all four of the charges that officer porter faces. >> thank you, miguel. >> and now, last night, the republican presidential candidates sparred on the national security issues as well

as vladimir putin and the strategies of defeating isis. we want the ask our panelists who is going to have a plan that would work, and whose plan is falling short? the white house is weighing in, also.

let's get back to fallout from last night's republican presidential debate in las ray gas. our senior white house correspondent jim acosta asked

josh earnest about the debate during the white house briefing a few moments ago and listen to this. >> there is no deny manage the context of the debate that we heard a lot of bluster, but not a lot of good ideas to keep the country safe. and, look, in the context of the presidential election, you would anticipate that there would be a robust and vigorous debate about our priorities, even when it come t comes to the foreign policy and national security. last night's republican debate featured a wide variety of questions and answers on national security, terrorism, and with us are our senior law enforcement analyst, and former fbi assistant tom fuentes, and also, former foreign affairs

adviser for previous presidents. >> and now, according to the candidates, they had widely different views of how the handle putin as well as establishing and establishing a no-fly zone to protect civilian s there, and let's listen in. >> the president of the united states now is not the time to talk reagan walked away at rake avic. there is a time and a place for everything. there is a time and a place for talk and there is a time and place for action. >> i would not talk at that vladimir putin. i would say, listen, mr. president, there is no fly zone in syria. you fly in, and it applies to you and yes we would shoot down the planes of russian pilots if they were stupid enough to think this president is the same feckless weakling as the current president. >> if you're in favor of world war iii you have your candidate. if we announce a no fly zone and others have said this hillary clinton is also for it, it is a recipe for disaster. this it's a recipe for world war

iii. we need to confront russia from a position of strength, but we don't need to confront russia from a point of recklessness that would lead to war. >> general, should the u.s. talk leader to leader with putin at this critical moment? >> i think because it's a critical moment we need to be talking to them. we're inside of syria. they're inside of syria. we need to be working together, make it a common area. we should be talking. >> should the u.s. impose a no fly zone over parts of syria? >> i think we have a moral responsibility. look what we did in iraq after the first gulf war. operation southern watt to protect the shia. there's no reason why we can't protect the thousands and thousands of refugees that need to be protected on a daily basis from the barrel bombing and the depp pra daigss of president al assad. >> what did you make, tom, of

the exchange between marco rubio, ted cruz over surveillance, wiretapping eavesdropping if you will on conversations. rand paul was very much involved obviously as well. where do you come down on this? >> i come down on the met at that date da issue rand paul doesn't know what he's talking about. marco rubio seems to be much more reasonable. it's not eavesdropping or listening to conversations. it's not looking at the content of e-mails an texts. it's merely warehousing the phone bills from all the phone companies in the united states and creating a one-stop shopping for the government to issue a subpoena to nsa and say, tell us on this number all the other numbers, give us the bills, all the other numbers that that phone called or received calls from or text messages back and forth. that's all it is. >> general kimmette, you've worked in intelligence your whole ayear. what do you think? >> i think that that's right. i think we need enough information to provide for the security of this country but not

so much information we're invading the privacy of the individual citizen. >> is there any progression in iraq right now? i know you were recently there. there's a lot of concern that the iraqi military is simply failing to show up, take the offensive, retake mosul, the second largest city this the country from isis. any progress at all over there/. >> they are making progress. clearly what's happening in rama ramadi, one of the specific iconic battlefields that lost so many lives, we are seeing them take the fight to the enemy. it will be some time before they can go up to mosul and take over that city. they're seeing success in ram i ramadi, which means they'll see success in fallujah. >> do you think the iraqi shia and sunni can work together? there's been this bitter battle as you know. >> there are still too many shia militias operating inside the sunni provinces. that's not helpful. they are beyond the control of the military.

but at this point there don't seem to be fights breaking out between the two organizations so i can only hope that they continue to work together, especially as they retake ramadi and then head to mosul. >> i listened to james comey's speech today, the director of the fbi. he says the war against isis represents a whole new threat to the united states as opposed to the old war against al qaeda because of the encrypted communications that isis is now use to go ahead and inspire potential terrori isists out th as we've seen in recent weeks. you saw his analysis. concerned are uf? >> very concerned. what he's saying is only the tip of the iceberg, the encryption issue. al qaeda did not put out 40,000 tweets a day telling the whole world, if you believe in us and believe in having a caliphate, go kill. you don't even have to come here. drive your car, run somebody over, mack a bomb, buy a gun. whatever it might be chblt a hatchet. a knife. just go kill. we didn't have that with

al qaeda. he also talked about, which is true, many terrorist philosophies over the years, hezboll hezbollah, hamas were death by a thousand cuts. al qaeda always wanted the big bang. after they did 9/11 and killed 3,000-plus people, they couldn't duplicate it. by that time, many of the methods that they used to put that together were taken from them by u.s. and the operations that we conducted. so they never adopted that, well, let's just do something. but isis is happen happy to do anything. kill anybody. >> james comey, the fbi director, he was pretty alarming if you listen to his speech today. i know if you didn't listen to it, it's worth listening to what he has to say because he paints a very, very dire scenario out there right now. gentlemen, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. that's it for me. i'll be back later today 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." up next, a 98 jurmajor announcen washington. the federal reserve will have

that announcement, could have a huge impact here in the united states indeed around the world. stand by for cnn's live coverage for international viewers. a special edition of "quest means business" is next. for our viewers in north america, "newsroom with brooke baldwin" starts right now. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. here we go, top of the hour. thank you so much for being with me here on cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. you just saw the animation roll, breaking news. news that impacts virtually every single one of you. the near-certain hike of interest rates that the federal reserve is expected to announce at any moment. any moment now we'll get news from the fed. think about it. the last time the fed raised the rates, the iphone had not come out yet. that's just a little perspective for all of us. june 26, 2006, was the last hike. the iphone was released one year three days later. but while the iphone has