tunisian in relation to this truck attack, the attack that happened on monday evening in that market behind me. we don't have any information whether this means police believe the man was the driver of that truck that plowed into the christmas market killing 13 people or whether he's just loosely connected in some other way to the attack. this is information we hope to get a little bit later. there are expectations that the police will be holding a press conference that we're waiting to see whether or not they will divulge or announce any important information. meantime, of course, police are working around the clock to try to get more on this investigation. and find the person or persons responsible for this atrocity. an urgent manhunt under way across germany. police warning that the driver who carried out monday's deadly attack may be armed and dangerous, and cautioning that there could be more than one

perpetrator at large. the desperate search intensifying after german authorities acknowledge tuesday that they initially detained the wrong man. leasing the man who they picked up after forensic evidence failed to connect him to the scene. this as isis claims they inspired the attack, calling the driver their soldier. although investigators have yet to uncover any specific links to terrorist group. >> we don't have enough information right now to back up the claims by isis that they inspired or direct order in anyway involved in this. we think it's prudent for the germans to treat this as a plausible terrorist attack. >> reporter: the day of the take the polish driver of the black semitruck was on a planned run from italy to germany delivering steel before losing contact with his employer. authorities believe that the truck was hijacked about four hours before plowing into the christmas market. the driver's body shot at close range found in the passenger

seat. >> people go here to have a good evening. to have -- they drink and eat something and stay here with friends or family. and then they are dead. >> reporter: thousands of mourners including german chancer angela merkel filing into famous kaiser wilheim church to pay respect. her election bid complicated by the assault as she faces growing concerns over her government's generous acceptance of 900,000 asylum seekers in the past year despite fact that initial reports about the driver being a refugee were wrong, far right leaders in europe are already casting blame on the german chancellor for the attack. and a little bit later we're expecting the german foreign minister and his italian counterpart to visit the scene. we under according to reports

that one of the victims was an italian woman whose family is now in berlin and he says they are expecting the worst. let's bring in cnn terrorism analyst and co-author of "agent storm." paul cruickshank and michael weiss. paul, let me start with you. they track a guy down about a mile and a half from where truck stopped. he was a refugee. they say wrong guy because of forensic. how did they get where they are now looking for a tunisian? >> a few minutes ago i was told by german security official they discovered identity papers inside the truck and those identity papers belonged to a tunisian national who was born in 1992. this is now the key suspect behind this attack. they want to find him just as quickly as they possibly can.

somebody considered potentially to be armed and dangerous, somebody who shot and killed the polish truck driver, perhaps, after a struggle inside the cabin of the truck, somebody who ran over 12 people, killing them, and many others who have been injured. so this really now a race against time to apprehend this suspect before they can strike again, coming after isis said that they inspired this attack. so, warring times in the german capital. >> let's talk about that. isis claims that it inspired the attack. how does law enforcement prove that, number one. why is that important? americans, i think, many just think isis. isis attack. why is it important to figure out if it was inspired? if it was directed? if it was some other terror group. >> if it was coordinated or direct this guy had contacts with people, operatives trained

up in syria. that's a new threat level. that means people returning from the battlefield in the middle east and getting back into germany and this is a huge concern for european security forces. 900 people have gone off to join isis. isis has deployed, get this from isis defectors they deployed thousands of sleeper agents all through the continent and now these guys are at a premium because the border has been int intradicted so sending more is impossible. these guys are lining in wait. if this guy was inspired he wasn't an agent of isis. again i keep coming back -- the level of sophistication, not in the methods used. a truck anyone can get. he hijacks a truck. kills the driver. drives four hours into a crowded marketplace. kills a dozen people. now i'm seeing on news reports that there's a security cordon

about 330 miles outside of berlin. so he had 24 hours to get away. he's used two ali as according to the documentation found in the vehicle. this is not your every day lone wolf. not your average inspired by terrorist. i don't know what's going on here. if they catch him alive they can interrogate him. if he has any kind of social media presence they will find out if he pledged allegiance to abu bakr al baghdadi. >> isis is saying inspired. that's unusual for them. in taerms of the ease of this, that truck is a pretty sophisticated piece of equipment. does the ability to drive something like that and potential licensing provide any g rirch st for investigators here? >> well, by all accounts the perpetrator wasn't good at driving this vehicle. sort of messing that up for some

time before the attack and actually during the attack the truck only went about 50 yards or so and you compare that to the nice attack where that truck plowed through about a mile killing more people in that attack. and so whoever was driving this truck wasn't particularly adept at what he was doing, and no. i mean i don't think it's necessarily a sign of a sophisticated operation to drive a truck into people but perhaps more sophisticated to hijack a truck, but, of course, there are trucks that are idling all around the place and if you've already got a gun it's not too complicated to overpower somebody to pressure them to drive somewhere or something like that. so, i'm not seeing this sort of massive sophisticated plot yet. but we'll have to see more details. >> so now, of course, security has been beefed up as it often is. we're reactive after these

things. what is security like in berlin? i understand they don't have as many surveillance cameras like new york does. >> or the uk. >> certainly than london. they've shut down christmas markets now. so, what does it took like in berlin? >> i mean as paul was saying this is a city, a country, germany that hasn't sustained a lethal terror attack since 9/11. in a way we're on unprecedented ground for germans. german security forces have been anticipating something like this because, again, the number of people who have gone off to join isis and come back. remember one of isis' goals is to try and manipulate or to sway democratic electorates. in that respect they are similar to what the russian government is doing. they want to see someone angela merkel, mama merkel as she was known after absorbing refugees, liberal, open, sort of broad minded when it comes to taking in people from the muslim or

arab world they want to see her toppled and see elected or coming in to power far right anti-muslims politicians because in the isis binary there is no democratic integrated west. there's only us versus them. >> just the rumor of being a refugee initially sent them talking. >> tunisian national we don't know what his situation is. afd for germany came out and said these are merkel dead the dozen people who were killed. i'm sure you'll see things from the more virulent anti-muslim group. anybody you talk to in counterterrorism circles or anybody who is following isis, syria is not a containable crisis. this has impacted elections all throughout europe already. had a huge role to play in the brexit vote. arguably also affecting politics

in north america in the reason u.s. presidential elections. people are terrified. isis knows this. isis watches cnn. they read the "new york times". . they want to sovereign w this kind of fear and terror and if angela merkel loses the election in a few months that's the last liberal stalwart in the world, frankly, holding the fortress. who comes next? we don't know. >> paul, michael, thank you very much. we do have some breaking news four. the death toll rising to at least 29 following a series of massive explosion at this fireworks market north of mexico city. the video is incredible. the blasts leaving more than 70 others injured. cnn's ed lavandera has the latest for us from dallas. tell us what happened, ed. >> reporter: good morning. mexican authorities are still trying to figure out what caused this explosion but it was a terrifying scene. mexican authorities are still searching for what exactly set

off this massive fireworks explosion that left dozens dead and even more injured. a horrifying site in the town of tultepec, shooting flares ripping through stadium size marketplace, about 25 miles north of mexico city. this towering gray cloud could be seen for miles. images from above show the chaos showing emergency vehicles arriving on the scene. people running for their lives. many of the injured escaping with severe burns including three minors. >> translator: to tell the truth die not know how i ran out of here. everything was so horrible. >> reporter: after battling the blaze for hours, firefighters on the ground confirm the fires are now contained but the devastation left behind is staggering, vehicles and metal charred. the marketplace was bustling with holiday shoppers now reduced to rubble and ash. this isn't the first time this market known for it's

pyrotechnics have been rocked by tragedy. this marks the third time fires ravaged this location in the last decade. at least 29 dead. that death toll could don't rise. as many people are fighting for their lives with extreme injuries. many burnt. three children as we mentioned brought to the united states hospital in texas to be treated for extreme burns. investigators will continue combing through the area today to try to figure out exactly what cause this devastating explosion. we say fireworks and it gives people a sense of ease about what they are but these are heavy duty explosives. they burn at a very hot temperature. very deadly. >> just looking at that apocalyptic scene amazing anybody survived. we'll check back with ed lavandera. take a quick break. donald trump's family distancing themselves now from an upcoming fundraiser. why? the reports that there was this

plan to offer access to the president-elect for donations. family said they never had anything to do with it. but we're going to tell you what the facts are and a talk about the bigger problem. next hi, we're the hulford quads.

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donald trump's transition

team says the president-elect is closely monitoring the terror attacks in turkey and berlin. this as his children deny involvement with a january fundraiser, that reportedly advertised access to the president in exchange for a million dollars. cnn's jessica schneider has the details. >> reporter: the transition team is pushing back on reports that trump's sons donald jr. and eric have any involvement in a charity fundraiser scheduled for the day after the inauguration that seemed to offer access to them and the president-elect. it's called the opening day event and the foundation behind it is recent lie formed charity legal documents in fact showed eric trump served on the board of directors. but now both of trump's sons have asked to be removed from any mention in that fundraising event and the transition has release this statement. saying the opening day event and details that have been reported are merely initial concepts that have not been approved or pursued by the trump family.

eric and donald trump are outdoor supporters. they are not involved in any capacity. the brothers now saying that they will not attend this event, but questions still linger about paying for access to the trump family. now all that while trump's team refuses to answer repeated questions by cnn about whether donald trump has received his daily intelligence briefing in the wake of those attacks in europe and turkey. trump, over course, tweeted his condemnation of the attacks but the transition only saying now that he was closely monitoring the situation and that he gets his daily briefings from his national security adviser retired lieutenant general michael flynn. that's essentially second hand information. thank you very much for all of that. let's discuss with it our political panel. we want to bring in cnn political commentate or erol lewis and david gregory. so, let's start with mr. trump's reaction to the terror attacks

that we've seen, even if they haven't been categorized as that. the takes pep has called them terror. he hasn't waited for any, you know, all of the information to come out pep says he doesn't have to. sean spicer says things are about to change. he said you'll see mr. trump take a different tact towards these attacks and threats. he says this. >> i think it will be swift and fierce. mr. trump has made it very, very clear he understands the threat that radical islamic terrorism pose to our nation and friends and neighbors around the globe and we have to call it what it is and root it out by the bottom. we cannot be political correct. we got to understand the threat that we face. and attack it straight on. >> so attack it straight on. what does that mean? >> i have no idea. i'm not sure what in allegedly a tunisian gets in a truck in germany causes mayhem in the

middle of berlin. what does the united states then do? it's not going to involve bombs. it's probably not going to involve planes. they have adequate military capacity there. they have adequate presumably intelligence capacity over there. so other than sending observers, other than asking the right question, in my opinion, which would be what does this mean for america, what do we do? the belie ge beligerence of the trail is a stop gap. you can excuse some of it because the personnel are not yet in place but we have a real gap between the belligerence of the campaign trail and the reality of being commander-in-chief. >> we have a gap what the president-elect assumed and what we know. how much of this, david gregory is spin game them trying to justify trump's tough talk in a situation where in germany the u.s. isn't going to get on the

ground in germany and do anything about whoever was planning these takes. they have no right to do that. in turkey we still don't understand what the motivations of this guy were and they may wellpoint to things that aren't about isis or anything like that but a lot of secular and syrian specific concerns about russia's involvement. is this spin game them trying to make the tough talk look good even in the absence of full understanding of the situation. >> look. these are acts of terror however they are ultimately put together. i mean you attack a christmas market, you have an assassination. i think the current administration made that clear with regard to the shooting in turkey you have to stand together against any acts of terror. i do think it becomes less important this idea of calling it what is it. i think this becomes a carry over from the political campaign about who is going to be tougher on acts of terror. the reality is much more complicated and daunting.

michael wooiichael weiss allude earlier. you have a conflict in syria that have brought in isis fighters trying to exploit that territory but resulted in people leaving syria and going into europe to act as sleepers, as operatives. that's a huge challenge for security services in germany, elsewhere in europe and the united states. so when the incoming administration talks about the war on radical islamic terrorism, fine. what is that is going look like in terms of intelligence sharing, in terms of supporting our allies in europe who are going through this, and to protect americans in case of attacks moving forward. that's the kind of strategy that all americans are going to be looking for. the idea that this is a fight between islam and the west is very much what isis wants to do. remember they are targeting germany because germany is welcoming to the stranger. germany is welcoming to the muslim community. that flies in the face of the

apocalyptic vision of isis which no muslims are safe anywhere other than the caliphate. >> let's move to politics back at home here and there was this fundraiser scheduled for january 21st, by something called the opening day foundation they call themselves a conservation foundation. basically their literature, they were saying that donors could pay a million dollars for a meeting with president-elect trump. they could pay half a million dollars to go hunting with eric and don jr., mr. trump's sons. the trumps have said we didn't have anything -- when it came to light the trumps said we don't have anything to do with this. now erol, what are we to make of this, of this promise from this foundation and whether or not can you ever pay for access to the president of the united states? >> sure. look the key phrase is when it came to light mipt not dom light -- look, i think we'll

have to get ready for about four years worth of this kind of clash between traditional sort of commercial morality which is really what the trump organization is all about which is we heard this on the campaign trail catch me if you can. we'll try this. we'll try that. we'll see what market will bear. we'll see what public will put up. we'll see if we can make a fast buck along the way. that runs squarely into public morality which is that we don't want to sell the white house. we don't want to sell access to the president. let's be clear. this is not the first time that at that politician did a fundraiser based on access to a powerful man. all politicians do it. we saw president obama do it and his five predecessors. >> what's the difference? >> there's not even a hint of propr propriety about this. this is a brand new charity that has no record of public accomplishment whatsoever. it's done in such a way donors

could be shielded from the public so we wouldn't know who was doing this. and this was the campaign that used the phrase drain the swamp. this is not draining the swamp. this is doubling down on the swamp. this is kind of putting a surcharge on the price of getting into the swamp. we to expect a lot more of this over the next four years. again, they haven't even arrived in washington yet and already they are trying to figure out how to do this. >> this wasn't just mere talk. there was a draft of an invitation that laid this thing out. that got into the hands of a media site, tmz. there's a document filed with state of texas incorporating this charity that lists both sons as initial directors of the opening day foundation. that's the organization behind the event. so, those are facts that show this was real. this wasn't one guy who said something and it's being blown out of proportion.

>> look, the trump family and the president-elect is going to have to get real about what he campaigned on and the appearance of tawdriness being brought into the presidency and white house. there's a complicating fact swror here and that's the trump brand is just that an international business brand and, therefore, it is complicated how to bring into relief these, both potential conflicts and actual conflicts. but he's going to want to do this not just because of his campaign promises, but because the public is not going to look kindly upon these conflicts and any kind of tawdriness around the oval office and he should be sensitive to that since he hurled those accusations to the clintons. with regard to his children and the business, again, always people who want access. whether it's for business deals or associations or for access to

power. and monitoring hat. figuring out how you become compromised in the space of all that becomes really difficult to manage. >> look, somebody who grew up, there's a paranoia about avoiding people who want to pay for access to power and this is the opposite of that. the idea they came forward afterwards and say there's a new invitation where it's not about paying for trips and the sons will only be honorary chairman they are don't have any vested interest in it that's the fix after it was exposed. the president-elect is setting himself and his kids up for heightened scrutiny. up next we'll update you on the breaking news in germany. what we've learned about this new suspect, and what the officers are doing to track him down next. if you're told you have cancer,

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belligerence. breaking news out of berlin. police telling cnn they are looking for a tunisian national in his earl 20s in connection with the deadly attack at a christmas market that killed 12 people. official says investigators found identification papers in the cabin of that truck that drove into a crowd. police had taken another suspect into custody after the attack but released him when they found no evidence connecting the man to the attack. there's a massive manhunt under way and we'll continue to update this story. four more people now charged in connection with flint, michigan's contaminated water crisis that exposed thousands of children to dangerously high levels of lead. now two of these new people being charged were emergency managers. they reported directly to

governor rick >>schneider. all are accused of misleading the state treasury of getting millions in bonds, misusing the money and forcing the city's drinking water switch to the flint river. the question remains will the accountability here reach to the highest levels of government? total of 13 people now facing charges. lawmakers in north carolina meeting in a special session today to consider repealing the state's controversial bathroom law. house bill 2 has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since its passage back in march. it demands that people use the public rest rooms according to the gender identified on their birth certificate. the bill triggered boycotts and economic backlash throughout north carolina. now to holiday travel headaches. southwest airlines saying its frustrating website and app glitch is now mostly fixed. people were having fits for hours tuesday as they tried to

check in or book flights. southwest says flight delays yesterday had nothing to do with its web problems. in july southwest cancelled more than 1500 flights have computer systems and their back ups both failed. you don't want to hear any back ups failed. >> mostly fixed means not fixed. >> not when people need it around this holidays. >> president obama vowed to take action if the so-called red line in syria was crossed. do you remember that? it is so important to take a look at how we got to where we are today. what was it that kept the u.s. from getting more involved in syria? how is it that we just got boxed out of the latest power meetings of what the future of that country will be. we'll discuss.

all right. here's news. leaders from russia, turkey and

iran met yesterday to begin talks towards a solution to the war in syria. but those groups are largely scene as the aggravating forces. the u.s. didn't get invited nor did any other western powers. how did we get boxed out? this is a time to look at how we got there in syria. if you go back 2012 there was active warring between assad and his people. multiple allegations of him using really heinous weapons of war against his own. it became a threshold of concern. president obama was pushed by members of his own congress to do something about what seemed to be a human atrocity. president obama was slow at first. he wanted to be deliberate about it. he said it was complex. he then said there would be a red line that if syria crossed in the war against his own people there would have to be action. one of his first interviews about that red line parentappars being crossed was with us four

years ago. here's the crucial part of that interview. >> the red line comment that you made was about a year ago this week. >> right. >> we know since then there's things that qualify for crossing that red line. >> chris, i got to say this. when we take action, let's take the example of syria. there are rules of international law. and, you know, if the u.s. goes in and attacks another country without a u.n. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it, do we have the coalition to make it work, and, you know, those are considerations that we have to take into account. we're still spending tens of billions of dollars in afghanistan. i will be ending that war by the end of 2014, but every time i go walter reed and visit wounded

troops and every time i sign a letter for a casualty of that war i'm reminded that there are costs and we have to take those into account and we try to work within an international framework to do everything we can to see assad ousted somebody who lost credibility range store a democratic process and stability inside of egypt. >> interesting contlesht. let's bring in editor of chief of hindu stand times. we included the part about afghanistan because we thought that would be over in 2014. things are more complex. now, so i pushed the president about this. what else do you need to see? how could they not have crossed it. he said we had a to go slow. within 72 hours the president decides to do military strikes. then happens? we have a graphic to put up the steps. he decides to go to congress. okay. because congress at the time had

been saying we want a voice in these actions. they wound up not taking a vote. and that's where everything got mireed down. the u.s. and allies decided not to take military action, created a vacuum of power filled by russia and iran. how do you see it? >> we dealt ourselves out of the stable and shouldn't be surprised that there are other people gathering at the table to have discussions. now as you pointed out at the top of this these are people who are part of the problem. clearly not part of the solution. but we decided, the president decided early on taking his sounding from the mood of the american people and his own sensibilities that this is not a conflict he wanted to get into. >> and congress. persistent problem we had that should be highlighted in syria. you have so many in congress blaming the president. he wanted to take military action. congress said we want a voice. he went to them. they wouldn't vote. they backed out of the situation as much as anybody else. >> i'm more skeptical about

that. if he wanted to take military action there are ways to present an overwhelming amount of evidence. this is kind of the opposite of what happened during the bush administration with colin powell going to the united nations and presenting what we now know to be false evidence. this president didn't go to the united nations to present anything. didn't go to the court of public pinto present anything. no conclusive convincing evidence was presented although evidence existed. the white house did not make a full total attempt to make the case for war. now, we can argue there were good reasons for that but that's what happened. ifts easy to now say well congress didn't want to have a vote. but i don't think the white house -- >> they didn't debate it. >> i don't think the white house pushed very hard. as we know this president can when he's moved by events reach over congress and talk directly to the american people. that's the prerogative of presidents throughout the history of this country.

>> one of the ongoing problems we have and president-elect will have to deal with it now, mr. trump when he takes it over, congress declares war under the constitution. they consist lently wimp out. what happened in syria because of u.s. and allies not being there in a more impressive way. >> as you said there are costs and there are consequences. there are costs to action. there are consequences to inaction. queens to inaction and you can't blame am of this on president obama, but the consequences are half a million syrians are dead. millions of syrians are displaced. isis is more powerful than ever. russia is more powerful and sort of a bigger actor. iran is a bigger actor. all of these are consequences of the united states and western power not the americans alone stepping away from the stable and saying we're out. >> the president-elect and the current president seem to agree on this point of that

president-elect trump does not want to go into syria. does not believe we should be in the regime game and questions assad's legitimacy in a positive way more than obama ever did. >> that's right. obama at least identified assad as the bad guy. with donald trump we're not sure who he regards as the bad guy. we know he thinks isis is the bad guy. he doesn't think of russia being part of the problem. his views on iran are up and down. his view on assad is not entirely clear and i'm not clear whether he has any views on turkey. but president obama, this was part of the problem. he identified assad as the bad guy. he said assad has to go. when the president of the united states announces to the world that a dictator has to go and then doesn't follow through there are consequences to that to how the world begins to perceive american forces. the reason why putin was able to step into this is that he saw that obama was not going to step in. >> appreciate the perspective.

thank you very much. president obama putting pen to paper on a new round of executive orders. will they impact how history remembers his eight years in the white house or will they immediately be overturned? that's next. the data you don't use.y ovr and right now get four lines and 20 gigs for only $40 per line. you'll even get the iphone 7, the samsung galaxy s7, the pixel phone by google, or the motoz droid for only $10 per month. no trade-in required. hurry, these offers end soon. get the best deals and the best network, only on verizon.

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try credit karma. it's free. oh woah. that's different. check out credit karma today. credit karma. give yourself some credit. well it was a celebration of life for long time turner sports broadcaster craig sager. hines ward has more. >> reporter: good morning. the legendary nba sideline reporter lost his battle to cancer last week at the age of 65. memorial service was held near atlanta yesterday where pastor ward one of sager's trademark flashy jackets and tnt's ernie

johnson delivered a touching tribute. >> all the memories we cherish now. we say farewell to our friend and make this humble vow. there's no way to gauge the days we have, no way to know how long, but know this, we'll do our best to live them safe and strong. >> reporter: last night report's across the league dressed in sager inspired outfits. what a great tribute. he'll definitely be missed on the sideline. pro bowl rosters were unveiled and raiders led all teams with seven players led by mvp candidate quarterback derick carr. the falcons topped the nfc teams with six players and the cowboys have five including rookie dak prescott. the pro bowl will be in orlando,

florida this sunday before the big super bowl. normally the pro bowl is held out in hawaii. this year they are doing it in orlando. should be fun. >> absolutely. both fun places. thank you very much. president obama trying to cement his legacy signing a new round of executive orders during his final vacation as president. will donald trump try to reverse these efforts? we'll discuss all that next. heavier to make it stronger,ok has been workin' too long without a hard hat. meet the all-new 2017 ford super duty. they cut weight with a high-strength, military grade, aluminum alloy body and reinvested a big chunk of it to beef up the high-strength steel frame. forging the most capable heavy-duty pickup in america. time to punch work in the face. this is the next level. this is the all-new ford super duty.

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with less than one month to go we're seeing an unprecedented number of calendar-- clemancies, pardon. how are these decisions going to affect his legacy and how many will be undone. here to discuss, erol lewis and david gregory. erol let's skip to the conservation ones the white house saying we're signing these as executive orders but in the statute there's no ability for these to be undone by a

succeeding president. are they playing a game? >> it's far more than an executive order. on the other hand, my understanding is that president trump will be able to try to one do it but result in a court fight. he's making it more difficult for the next administration to undo what he's done and involve breaking with precedent. here again, trump has no problem with breaking with precedent but this is not the way it normally happens. the statute and the past has shown that if a president takes an area of wildlife for offshore area and says this is forever off limits everybody has abided by that but they don't have to. they can put it to a test. end up in court. figure out how it's supposed to court. he might have given a little bit of a gift to trump because if trump doesn't want to get into a fight with the governors up and down the east coast this is an easy way for him to say well my hands are tied. >> it sounds like we can throw out that rule book of precedent as we have throughout this

entire election. david, not just in terms of trying to make rules around offshore drilling of the arctic, president obama is also doing something else today. you know he vowed to closed gitmo. never able to accomplish that. today he's trying to release something like 22, maybe not that many, of the remaining 59 detainees. once they are released there's no way getting them back. that's not something president-elect trump could ever do. >> he'll have to face the very difficult decision of what the future of guantanamo bay should be and what do you with these prisoners. remember when this came up, when there was talk of closing guantanamo bay down, it was a revolt among those in congress who said no, no, we don't want them transferred, we don't want these prisoners transferred to domestic prisons because of potential terrorist danger. that's going to continue. as a problem, what do you do with people who are scooped up off the battlefield who still

presumably pose a threat when you don't want to return the home their countries or to the battlefield in some respects. that will be very difficult. i just want to make a point about the larger issue of executive power because the president was asked this week about whether he has too much power and he's used too much power. his view is he told npr was look it's always better to have congress do this through legislation but where we have not succeeded in that he's used executive powers on the issue of immigration. this very much is seen in the eyes of the behoerld. people will view this as abusive as an executive who is abusing this power to achieve policy ends that he couldn't get through legislation and that's why executive power can so else and in most cases else be overturned. that's why elections matter. this is an ongoing issue of the presidential power and power in the legislature. >> this had a been something that president obama struggled with. we were just talking about how he got here in syria.

and that was an example where the president at first decided the proof is there, i'm going take military action. congress has been carping they don't have enough say in military powers. he goes to them. they get squishy on it and then nothing happens. it's like when he takes action he gets criticized. when he doesn't take action and defers to congress he gets criticized. >> many burdens that lie on the shoulders of president. this president for a minute what he's done with pardons he's getting criticized for that. it's such a small, small percentage of the very large population of prisoners. >> but it's more than we've seen. >> more than before. as i look at the numbers i want throws in stark relief how damaging we have been. when you talk about mass incarceration what he's getting criticized for is a 30 year sentence for an old drug offense being reduced to 20 year. 20 year sentence being reduced

to ten years. anybody who spent five minutes in a federal prison knows this is not a picnic. it is soul crushing. expensive. demeaning. wasteful. for him to say look let's take this person who under sentencing would have gotten a quart let quarter, let's stop destroying families let the guy get off with 20 years instead of 30 years. that's why they have executive power to bring sanity when for a lot of reasons the system has gone insane. >> this is in line with a policy prescription. this is the president take acview of onerous of minimum mandatory sentences particularly for drug crimes saying let me bring remedy in a policy area. this isn't pardoning a rich donor like mark rich as bill clinton did at the end of his term. this is something much more in keeping with policy.

>> gentlemen thank you very much. great to talk to you. we're following a lot of news this morning including the latest in a manhunt in germany for a terrorist. let's get right to it. identity papers inside the truck belong to a tunisian national. >> this is now the key suspect. >> isis now claiming to have inspired the take. >> mr. trump understands the threat that radical islamic terrorism poses. >> this is not the business world. he'll get that call at 3:00 in the morning and have to act. >> we need to fight back hard and not be scared by these cowards. >> the death toll rising following a series of massive explosions. >> columns of smoke. >> mexican authorities are still trying to figure out exactly what cause this devastating explosion. this is "new day". with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning. welcome to your "new day". we do have some breaking news four out of germany. police at this hour searching

for a suspect behind that terror attack that killed 12 people and injured dozens at that christmas market in berlin. >> the search had to resume because forensic tests could not link the initial suspect to the truck. isis then came forward and said it inspired the attack. that's unusual language for them. we'll get into what that means. let's ghin hour with cnn's international hala gorani and about what we learned about be the suspect. a big turn from the refugee to this tunisian man. what do we know now? >> reporter: right. very significant news this morning. security source telling cnn they found i.d. papers of an individual, a tunisian national born in 1992. so 24 or 25 years old. a young man. now it's a race against the clock to hone in on this individual and make sure they neutralize or arrest him before he can do any more damage.