and determined it was stolen. that's when they tried to pull the driver over near boulder highway and lamb - but he sped away - traveling all the way to this neighborhood where we are right now. police say he jumped out of the car while it was still moving - causing it to hit another parked car. then the man ran into a nearby back yard and hid inside of a shed. police were able to find him and arrest him. at some point in the chase - the suspect was injured - so he was taken to the hospital. nearby school, culley elementary, was on lockdown during the chase. no word yet on whether that lockdown status has been lifted. reporting live - michael burton - channel 13 action news. we're following the latest developments on the officer involved shooting the

behind bars, but police are searching for possible accomplices. action news reporter elizabeth gadley join us live from the emerald suites...on las vegas boulevard near pebble... where the shooting happened. according to sheriff lombardo, officers had a secure perimeter around this area last night... but some how fox was able to slip out of the area.... the thought is he might have had help. this morning fox is in jail... after police say he shot an officer responding to an unrelated domestic disturbance at the emerald suites. police arrested him about three miles from the where the shooting happened... that's why they think he had help. according to metro, officers were able to track him down with help from witnesses and even social media. but again they are

i don't know if it was assisted by another individual because we had his, what we believed, was his car in custody at the original scene. so he may have been assisted by another person." the officer that was shot is still recovering this morning at umc. the good news is police say doctors believe he will make a full recovery. reporting live from emerald suites, i'm elizabeth gadley channel 13 action news. one of our viewers was in the middle of all the action.... as officers were closing in on the suspect. he gave us this video taken near southern highlands parkway and saint rose... miles away from the actual shooting. he says he didn't realize it was an active shooter situation...until all the guns came out. "we saw dudes looking like gi joe figures with the helmets, full body armor, then you start seeing nothing but machine guns and guys that look like normal people walking around and then you see fbi" after 4 hours... the suspect was taken into

there are still many unknowns to this story. so stay with action news as we learn more about the suspect and the officer injured. now to a breaking news update on-- an early morning fire. one man is in the hospital with burns. and now investigats are working to see if a gas leak is to blame. action news reporter marissa kynaston was able to talk with one of the people living inside the house when the fire broke out-- marissa what did she tell you? when i spoke to her-- she was still very shaken up, almost terrified. she says she heard a loud snap right before the fire started. take a look at this video-- chopper 13 was first on the scene this morning when the fire happened-- you can see from overhead fire crews headed to the back of the house. according to the woman i talked

started. she says she saw flames coming from the back kitchen. she says there were several people living in the home at the time of the fire-- and now theyre all out of a home. it's an annual tradition, he takes questions for about an hour before heading to hawaii for christmas vacation. year, he will stop in california for a private meeting tonight with families of the san bernardino victims. that terror attack in the wake of the isis-directed massacre in paris has put national security and the war against isis right at the top of the country's concerns. and transformed the race to succeed president obama. put him on the defensive as this year comes to a close. margins of americans now disapprove of how he's handling his job, that's dropped five points since the paris attacks. i want to bring in john carl, the president's been on a concerted campaign over the last two weeks to convince the country he's got a strategy and it's working.

public has lost faith in his ability to handle this threat. in fact, george, if you look at our poll this week, barely a third of voters say they approve of his handling of the threat from isis. and today in an interview, former defense secretary chuck hagel said his micromanagement of the pentagon was dangerous, that becomes the third former defense secretary for president obama chosen by president obama, who have come out to question his strategy in dealing with the terror threat. so i expect he will try to be reassuring on that score, he will also of course tout his domestic agenda and his plans for what will be his last year in office as, you know, last year a very tough time to get anything done, especially when dealing with the congress that is controlled by the other party. >> although some word, that more executive actions are brewing on gun control. >> yes. he's working up some time in the next few weeks we are told. he will come out with steps he believes he can take without congress to deal with the gun threat, but ian on that, he faces a problem with the american public.

we saw that majority of voters say they don't approve of the idea of banning assault weapons. really quite extraordinary given the sustained campaign that the white house has done to get more gun control legislation. >> joined by brian roos, ruling now in the wake of this new arrest of the akpom -- excuse me, here comes the president, we'll get to that later. >> good afternoon, everybody. sclaer clearly this is not the most important event today. there is a screening of star wars for families and children coming up. so i'll try to be relatively us is singt. let me say a few words and the the year behind us and the year ahead, and then i'll take a few questions. as i look back on this year, one thing i see is that so much of our steady persistent work over the years is paying off for the

early actions to rescue the economy set the stage for the longest streak of private sector job growth on record with 13.7 million new jobs in that time. the unemployment rate has been cut in half down to 5%. and most importantly, wages grew faster than when the recovery began. over the course of the year, a lot of decisions we made early on have paid off. years of steady implement takes of the affordable care act is for the first time since records were kept on that. health care prices have grown at their lowest level in five decades, 17 million more americans have gained coverage and we now know that 6 million people have signed up through health care.gov for coverage beginning on january 1st, 600,000 on tuesday alone. new customers are up one-third

sign up, the stronger the system becomes. and that's good news for every american who no longer has to worry about being just one illness or accident away from financial hardship. on climate, early investment and clean energy ignited a clean energy industry boom, our actions to help reduce our carbon emissions brought china to the table and last week in paris, nearly 200 nations reached an historic agreement that was only possible because of american leadership. around the world, from reaching the deal to prevent iran from developing a weapon and relations with cuba to concluding a landmark trade agreement that will make sure that american workers and american businesses are operating on a level playing field and that we, rather than china or other countries are setting the rules for global trade. we have shown what is possible

and, after decades of dedicated a vo ka si, marriage equality became a reality in all 50 states. so, i just want to point out, i said at the beginning of this year that interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter, and we are only halfway through. i do want to thank congress for ending the year on a high note. i got to sign an education bill that is going to fix some of the challenges that we had with no child left behind and promises to invest more in high quality early childhood education, we signed a transportation bill that, although not as robust as i think we need, still allows states and local governments to plan and actually get moving, putting people back to work, rebuilding our roads and bridges, we got xm bank back to work supporting american exports and today they passed a bipartisan budget deal.

in it. i'm sure that's true for everybody, but it is a budget that as i insisted, invests in our military and our middle class without ideological provisions that would have weakened wall street reform or rules on big polluters. it's part of an agreement that will permanently extend tax credits to 24 million working families. it includes some long sought wins like strengthening leadership at imf. and because it eliminates the possibility of a shutdown for the first time or for the first nine months of next year. congress and i have a long runway to get some important things done on behalf of the american people. now there's still a lot of work to do. for example, there's still a lot more that congress could do to promote job growth, and increase wages in this country. i still want to work with congress, both democrats and republicans to reform our

and earlier today, i commuted the sentences of 95 women who had served their debt to society, another step forward their fundamental ideals of justice and fairness. and of course the most important job is to keep americans safe. i've had a lot to say about that this week, let me reiterate, the united states continues to lead a global coalition in our mission to destroy isil. isil's already lost about 40% of the populated areas it once controlled in iraq, and it's losing territory in syria. as we keep up the pressure, our air campaign will continue to hit isil harder than ever. taking out their leaders, their commanders, and their forces. we're stepping up our support for partners on the ground as they push isil back. our men and women in uniform are carrying out their mission with a trademark professionalism and courage, and this holiday season, all of us are united in

and we are thankful to their families as well because they serve alongside those who are actually deployed. squeezing isil's heart at its core in syria and iraq will make it harder for them to pump their terror and propaganda to the rest of the world. at the same time, as we know from san bernardino, where i'll visit with families later today, we have to remain vigilant here at home. our counterterrorism, sbenls, homeland sturt and law enforcement communities are working 24/7 to protect our homeland and all of us can do our part by staying vigilant by saying something if we see something that is suspicious, by refusing or it terrorized and by staying united as one american family. in short, for all very real progress america's made over the past seven years, we still have some unfinished business. and i plan on doing everything i can with every minute of every day that i have left as

of the american people. since taking this office, i've never been more optimistic about a year ahead than i am right now. and in 2016, i'm going to leave it out all on the field. with that, let me take some questions, i'll start with reuters. >> mr. president, you're going to california today, and as you said earlier this week, you told the nation that there's no specific or credible threat of a similar attack, but how is it really possible to know -- i mean, aren't similar plots going to be just as hard to detect beforehand? and some lawmakers are saying that your government should review the social media of all people applying for visas to come to this country, what do you think of that idea? should that be mandatory? >> well, roberta, you're absolutely right that it is very difficult for us to detect lone

husband and wife, in case, because despite the incredible individual lance and professionalism of all our law enforcement, homeland security, et cetera, it's not that different from us trying to detect the next mass shooter. you don't always see it, they're not always communicating publicly, and if you're not catching what they say publicly, then it becomes a challenge. we are continuing to work at every level to make sure that there's no slip between information-sharing among agencies. we're continuing to strengthen our information-sharing with foreign countries and because in part of the tragedy in paris, i think you're seeing much greater

partners on these issue ss, but this is a different kind of challenge that be the sort that we had with organization like al qaeda that involved highly trained operatives who were working as cells or as a network. here, essentially, you have isil trying to encourage or induce somebody who may be prey to this kind of propaganda. and it becomes more difficult to see. it does mean that they are less likely to be able to carry out large, complexed attacks, but as we saw in san bernardino, obviously you can still do enormous damage. the issue of reviewing social media for those who are obtaining visas, i think may

because there may be -- it's important to distinguish between posts that are public, social media on a facebook page versus private communications through various social media or apps. and our law enforcement and intelligence professionals are constantly monitoring public posts. and that is part of the visa review process that, that people are investigating what individuals have said publicly and questioned about any statements that they may be made. but if you have a private communications between two individuals, that's harder to disearn by definition.

doing is engaging with the high-tech community to find out how we can, in an appropriate way, do a better job, if we have a lead, to be able to track a suspected terrorist. but we're going to have to recognize that no government is going to have a capacity to read every single person's text or e-mails or social media. if it's not posted publicly, then they're going to be feasibility issues that are, that are probably insurmountable at some level and it raises questions about our values. i mean keep in mind it was only a couple of years ago where we're having a major debate about whether the government was becoming too much like big brother. and overall, i think we've struck the right balance in

making sure that u.s. citizens privacy is preserved and that we are making sure that there's oversight to what our intelligence agencies do. but, you know, we're going to have to continue to balance our needs for security with people's legitimate concerns about privacy. and because the internet is global and communication systems are global, you know, the values that we apply here, oftentimes, are ones that, you know, folks who are trying to come into the country are also benefitting from because they're using the same technologies, but this is precisely why we're working very hard to bring law enforcement intelligence and high-tech companies together. because we're going to have to really review what we can do both technically as well as

values in order to try to discern more rapidly some of the potential threats that may be out there. thank you. david jackson. >> mr. president, a gitmo question, they're not just going to let you transfer prisoners to the united states for trial, but some people think you already have the executive authority to transfer those prisoners and close gitmo itself next year. my question is, do you believe you have that authority and are you going to exercise it to close gitmo? >> first of all, we've been working systematically, another example of persistence, in reducing the population. we have a review pros for those eligible for transfer, we locate in countries that have accepted some of these detainees, they monitor them, and its been determined that they can be transferred. and my expectation is by early,

have reduced that population below 100. and we will continue, continue to steadily chip away at the numbers in guantanamo. there's going to come to a point where we have an ir reducible population. people who pose a significant threat, but for various reasons, it's difficult for us to try them in article 3 court, some of those folks are going through the military commission process, but there's going to be a challenge there. now, at that stage, i'm presenting a plan to congress about how we can close guantanamo. i'm not going to automatically assume that congress says no. you know, i'm not being coy, david, i think it's fair to say that there's going to be significant resistance from some corners to that. but i think we can make a very strong argument that it doesn't

an extra 100, 200, 300, $500 million, billion dollars, to have a secure setting for 50, 60, 70 people, and we will wait until congress has definitively said no, to a well thought out plan with numbers attached to it, before we say anything definitive about my executive authority here. i think it's far preferable if i can get stuff done with congress. david, as i said, and i think you've seen me on a whole bunch of issues like immigration, i'm not going to, i'm not going to be forward leaning on what i can

tested what i can do with congress. and every once in a while they'll surprise you. and this may be one of those places because i think we can make a really strong argument, guantanamo continues to be one of the key magnets for jihadi recruitment. you know, to roberta's question earlier about how do they prop began dice and convince somebody here in the united states who may not have a criminal record or a history of terrorist activity to start shooting, this is part of what they feed. this notion of gross injustice. that america's not living up to it's professed ideals. we know that. we see the internet traffic. we see how guantanamo has been used to create this methodology that america is at war with islam.

our counterstrategy that isported by our military, diplomatic and military teams. so when you combine that with the fact that it's really expensive, that we are essentially at this point detaining a handful of people, and each person is costing several million dollars to detain when there are more efficient ways of doing it, i think we can make a strong argument. but i'll take, i'll take your point that it will be an uphill battle. every battle i've had with congress over the last five years has been uphill, and but we keep on surprising you by actually getting some stuff done. sometimes, sometimes that may prove necessary, but you know, we try not to get out ahead of ourselves on that. julie caser. >> thank you, mr. president. i want to ask you about -- [ inaudible ]

for president have argued that the united states would be safer you hadn't had regime places in places like iraq, libya, and egypt, and having gone through the experience of the arab spring and the aftermath, i wonder what you now see the u.s. role in the middle east in terms of pushing dictators out of power, would you advise future presidents to call for author authoritarian leaders to step down as you did? and in syria, do you think assad's presidency will outlast yours? >> you know, there's been a lot of revisionist history, sometimes by the same people making different arguments depending on the situation. so maybe it's useful just for us to go back over some of these issues. we did not depose hosni mubarak, millions of egyptians did

with the corruption and aauthoritarianism of the regime. we had a working relationship with mubarak. we didn't trigger the arab spring. and the notion that somehow the u.s. was in a position to pull the strings on a country that is the largest in the arab world, i think is mistaken. what is true is that at the point at which the choice becomes mowing down millions of people or trying to find some transition, we believed, and i would still argue that it was more sensible for us to find a peaceful transition to the egyptian situation. with respect to libya, libya is an alternative version of syria in some ways.

coalition interceded in syria, chaos had already broken out. you already have the makings of a civil war, you had a dictator who was threatening, and was in a position to carry out the wholesale slaughter of large numbers of people. and we worked under u.n. mandate with a coalition of folks in order to try to avert a big humanitarian catastrophe that would not have been good for us. those who now argue in retrospect we should have left gaddafi in there, seemed to forget that he had already lost legitimacy and control of this country, and we could have instead of what we have in libya now, we could have had another syria in libya now. the problem with libya was the fact that there was a failure on

international community, and i think that the united states has some accountability for not moving swiftly enough and underestimating the need to rebuild government there quickly. and as a consequence, you now have a very bad situation. and as far as syria goes, i think it is entirely right and proper for the united states of america to speak out on behalf of that. and when you have an aauthoritarian leader that is killing hundreds of thousands of his own people, the notion that we would just stand by and say nothing is contrary to who we are and that does not serve as

because at that point us being in collusion with that kind of governess would make us even more of a target for terrorist activity. >> stop extremist from -- >> but the reason that assad has been a problem in syria is because that is a majority sunni country, and he had lost the space that he had early on to execute an inclusive transition, peaceful transition, he chose instead to slaughter people. and once that happened, the idea that a minority population there could somehow crush tens of millions of people who oppose him is not feasible. it's not plausible.

and hard-hearted about the human toll there, it just wouldn't happen. and as a consequence, our view has been that you cannot bring peace to syria, you cannot get an end to the civil war unless you have a government that, it is recognized as legitimate by a majority of that country. it will not happen. and this is the argument that i have had repeatedly with mr. putin. dating five years, at which time his suggestion, as i'd gather some republicans are now suggestion was, assad's not so bad, let him just be as brutal and o pressive as he can, but at least he'll keep order. but look, the problem is that the history of trying to keep order when a large majority of

you is not good. and five years later, i was right. so we now have an opportunity, and john kerry is meeting as we speak with syria and turkey and iran and the gulf countries and other parties who are interested, we now have an opportunity not to turn back the clock, it's going to be very difficult to completely overcome the devastation that's happened in syria already, but to find a political transition that maintains the syrian state, that recognizes there are a bunch of stake holders inside of syria, and hopefully to initiate a seasfire that won't be perfect, but allows all the parties to turn on what should be our number one focus, and that is

in the region. and that is going to be a difficult process. it's going to be a pain-staking process, but there is no shortcut to that. and that's not based on some idealism on my part, that's a hard-headed calculation about what's going to be required to get the job done. >> do you think assad could potentially renan power a year from now? >> i think that assad is going to have to leave in order for the country to stop the pleading and for all the parties involved to be able to move forward in a non-sectarian way. he has lost legitimacy in the eyes of a large majority of the country. now, is there a way of us constructing a bridge, creating a political transition that allows those who are alied with

iranians to ensure that their equityies are respected, that minorities like the others are not crushed or retribution is not the order o day. i think that's going to be very important as well. and that's what makes this so difficult. you know, sadly, had assad made a decision earlier that he was not more important personally than his entire country, that kind of political transition would have been much easier. it's a lot harder now, but john kerry's been some excellent work in moving that process forward. and i do think that you've seen from the russians, a recognition that after a couple of months, they're not really moving the needle that much, and despite a

and of course that's what i suggested would happen because there's only so much bombing you can do when an entire country is outraged and believes that its ruler doesn't represent them. >> thank you mr. president, i'd like to ask you about congress. specifically, what are your top legitimative priorities for next year? and how has the new speaker, paul ryan, changed the dynamic with you and capitol hill? and can you be more ambitious next year doing things like maybe completing the transatlantic trade partnership or even getting tax reform? >> well first of all, it's important to give some credit where credit is the due. john boehner did a favor to all of us, including now speaker

agree on a topline budget framework. that was the basis foror ble to do that because he was going out the door. and was then given i think a little more room to maneuver than he previously had. having said that, i also want to give speaker ryan credit. i called both him and mitch mcconnell, as well as nancy pelosi and harry reid for the orderly way in which they actually negotiated a budget. the way congress is historically and typically supposed to work. and we've gotten kind of used to last-minute crisises and shutdown threats and so forth, and this is a messy process that doesn't satisfy everybody completely, but it's more typical of american democracy.

until that. in his interactions with me, he has been professional, he has reached out to tell me what he can do and what he cannot do. i think it's a good working relationship. we recognize that we disagree on a whole bunch of other stuff, and have fundamentally different visions for where we want to the move the country, but perhaps because even before he was elected, he had worked on capitol hill, i think he sl respectful of the process, and respectful of how legislation works. so kudos to him as well as all the leaders and others involved in this process. now just i want to repeat because sometimes we take for granted what's happened.

that i wasn't going to sign a budget that, that did not relieve sequester, this artificial austerity that was making it difficult for uses to invest in things like education and our military, and i said i would not accept a lot of ideological writers that were attached to a big budget deal, and we met our goals. and because of some terrific negotiations by the democrats up on capitol hill and i think some pretty good work by our legislative staffs here, we're going to be able to fund environmental protection. we're going to be able to make sure that we're investing in things like early childhood education and making college more affordable. we're going to be able to implement the clean power plant rule. we're going to be able to

energy, spurs on innovation. we're going to be able to make sure that our military gets the equipment and the training that it needs in order to be effective in fighting isil and other threats around the world. so it was a, it was a good win. and there are some things in there that i don't like, but that's the nature of legislation and compromise. and i think the system worked. that gives me some optimism that next year on a narrow set of issues, we can get some more worked up. as dave said, it's an election year, and obviously a lot of legislative process is going to be skewed by people looking over their shoulders worrying about primary, trying to position themselves relative to the presidential candidates.

i think there are going to be a handful of areas where we can make real progress. one of them we already mentioned. transpacific partnership. which now has been out. congress has had a chance to review, and it meets the bar that i set. it is consistent with what i promised, which is the most prolabor, proenvironment, progressive trade deal in history. that eliminates just about every that riff on american manufacturing goods in countries that up until this point have charged a tax, essentially, on anything that american workers, american businesses sell in these areas. brings those taxes down to zero on basically all of american manufactured products. a huge win for agriculture. because now, you know, the people of japan are going to be

american beef and american pork, which up until this point, even though we're much more efficient producers has been tagged with a tax that makes, you know, our products uncompetitive in japanese markets. so this is a big deal. and i think speaker ryan would like to try to get it done. and there are both proponents and opponents of this in both democratic and republican parties, so it's going to be an interesting situation where we're going to have to stitch together the same kind of bipartisan effort in order for us to get it done. a second area that i think is possible is criminal justy reform. there has been sincere, serious negotiations and efforts by democrats and republicans. to create a criminal justice system that is more fair, more

and is smarter about how we reduce crime. and i've really been impressed by the dedication and the core group of democrats and republicans, some of them, the most liberal democrats and the most conservative republicans coming together saying this is the right thing to do. we've got a good bill in the senate that passed with bipartisan support out of committee, my hope is that that gets to the floor. and that we can pair it up with a good bill out of the house. and this is an area where you potentially can see, save money, reduce recidivism, you know, make sure that people who make a mistake on non-violent crimes have to pay the price, have to serve time, but are released in a reasonable fashion that they have more support that they're

criminal system subsequently, and that's an area where i think we may be able to make a big difference. those are just two examples. we'll keep on looking for a number of examples like that. and wherever there's an opportunity, i'm going to take it. okay. phillip crowley. >> thank you, mr. president. you mentioned climate change already, and at the time of the signing of the deal in paris, you said it was potentially turning point for the world. this was a deal that was, that is not legally binding document, and you bypassed congress pretty much completely, are you worried at that point that a republican president who might take over from you until the white house could stop the deal in it's tracks entirely and considering that possibility, are you more interested in campaigning for a democratic nominee, considering that danger? >> i think it's fair, i was going to be campaigning for a

and i am very confident that we're going to have a terrific democratic nominee. and who's phone is that guys, come on now? somebody. you recognize your ring, don't be embarrassed, just turn it off. there you go. okay. can i still hear it? all right. i think it's off now. i think we will have a strong democratic nominee. that i think democratic nominee will win. i think i will have a democratic successor, and i will campaign very hard to make that happen for a variety of reasons. because there are far more likely to share my fundamental vision about where america should go. but, having said that, what i think people should also feel good about is that the agreement struck in paris, although not

the targets that have been set does create this architecture in which all around the world, countries are saying, this is where we're going. we're going to be chasing after this clean energy future. this is how wie goinge're going to meet our goals. double down on solar power, double down on wind power, we're going to invest more heavily in biofuels, battery technologies. and what you saw in this budget, which i think was really significant was an extension of the solar tax credits and wind tax credits that we had helped to really boost early on in my administration, and that it resulted in wind power increasing threefold, solar power increasing by 20 fold.

to be extended for five to seven years and as a consequence, that combination of market signals means that the private sector is going to start investing much more heavily. they know this is coming. and it's not just coming here, it's coming around the world. you now have a global marketplace for clean energy that is stable and accelerating decade. that then creates a different dynamic. that is independent of what congress does, but also helps to shake what congress does. because the more people that are now getting jobs in solar insulation and production, the more that you have companies who are seeing how american innovation can sell products in clean energy all across the asia

africa, suddenly, there is a big monetary incentive to get this right. and that's been the history of environmental progress in this country and now we've exported around the world. every time we've made a decision, you know what, we're going to have clean air. the predictions were, everything would fall apart. and low and behold, turns out that american innovation makes getting clean air a lot less expensive than people expected and it hams a lot faster than people expected. when we made a decision that we were going to double fuel efficiency standards on cars, everybody said, oh, this is going to ruin the american auto industry. the american auto industry has been booming over the last couple of years. acid rain. when george h.w. bush instituted a system to charge for the emissions that were causing acid

business. and it turned out it was smoother, faster, quicker, better, and acid rain, folks were born, i don't know, some of you reporters are getting younger, or i'm getting older, may not remember it, but that was a big deal. most folks don't even remember it anymore because it got solved. and there's no reason why the same won't happen here. now, do i think there's going to be a lot of noise in campaigning next year about how we're going to stop paris in its tracks? there'll probably be a lot of noise like that. do i actually think that two years from now, three years from now, even republican members of congress are going to look at it the and say that's a smart thing to do? i don't think they will. keep in mind that right now, the american republican party is the

think of, in the advanced world that effectively denies climate change. it's an outlier. many of the key signatories to this deal, architects of this deal come from center right governments. even the far right parties in many of these countries, they may not like immigrants for example, but they admit, yeah, the science tells us we have to do something about climate change. so my sense is that this is something that may be an advantage in terms of short term politics and republican primary, it's not something that is going to be a winner for republicans long-term. >> leadership, is it embarrassing to you that the other party denies climate change? >> no, it's because first of all -- first of all, i'm not a member of that party.

from being the key leader in getting this done. i mean, this is something i've been working on now for five, six years. when i went to copenhagen, i, essentially engaged in 24 hours of diplomacy to salvage from a pretty chaotic process, the basic principle that all countries had to participate. we could have a richer division between developed countries and developing countries when it came to solving this problem. that was the initial foundation for us then working with other countries, culminating and the joint announcement with china, bringing in india, bringing in brazil and the other big emerging countries, working with the europeans and getting this done, this would not have happened without american leadership. and by the way, the same is true for the iran nuclear deal, the

transpacific partnership. the same is true for stamping out ebola, something you may recall from last year, which was the potential end of the world. you know, at each juncture, what we have said is, is that american strength, and american exceptionalism is not just a matter of us bombing somebody, more often, it's a matter of us convening, setting the agenda, pointing other nations in a direction that's good for everybody, and good for u.s. interests. engaging in painstaking diplomacy, leading by example, and, you know, sometimes the results don't come overnight,

but, they come. and this year, what you really saw was that steady persistent leadership on many initiatives that i began when i first came into office. all right. i've got april ryan. >> mr. president, i want to ask you something about criminal justice -- [ inaudible ] your administration contends the united states is of the world population, 25% of the world jail population, what legislation are you supporting that significantly cuts massive incarceration in this country? and going back to assad issue, does assad have to go to the crisis? >> well, we're going defeat isis. and we're going to do so by systematically squeezing them, cutting off their supply lines,

taking out their leadership, taking out their forces, taking out their infrastructure, we're going to do so in partnership with forces on the ground that sometimes are spotty, sometimes need capacity building, need our assistance, need our training, but we're seeing steadily progress in many of these areas. and so they're going to be on the run. now, they are going to continue to be dangerous, so let me just be very clear because whenever i say that we have made progress in squeezing the territory that they control or, you know, made real end roads against them, what people will say is well, if something happens around the world, then obviously that must not be true, but in any battle and in any fight, even as you make progress, there's still

and isil's capacity, both to infiltrate western countries, with people who've travelled to syria or travelled to iraq and the savviness of their social media, their ability to recruit diseffected individuals who may be french or british or even u.s. citizens will continue to make them dangerous for quite some time. but, but we will systematically go after them. now, in order for us to stamp them out thoroughly, we have to eliminate lawless areas in which they cannot still roam. so we can, we can disable them, we can dismantle much of their infrastructure, greatly reduce the threat that they pose to the united states, our allies, and

way that al qaeda is pinned down and has much more difficulty carrying out any significant attacks because of how we've systematically dismantled them, they still pose a threat, they're still operatives who are interested in carrying out terrorist attacks because they still operate in areas between pakistan and afghanistan or more prominently right now in yemen that are hard to reach our long-term goal has to be to stabilize the arebs so there's no safe haven. in order for us to do that in syria, there has to be an end to the civil war. and there has to be an actual government than has a police capacity and a structure in these areas that currently aren't governed.

belief of the experts in this administration that so long as assad is there, we cannot achieve that kind of stability inside of syria. and, you know, i think the history over the last several years indicates as much. so, that's going to continue to be a top priority for us. moving greasee inging aggressively on the military track and not letting isil take a breath and pounding away at them with our special forces and our air strikes and the training and advising of partners who can go after them. but, we also have to keep very aggressive on this diplomatic track in order for us to bring countries together. all right. everybody -- oh, criminal justice reform. i answered the question.

and april, what i said was that i strongly support the senate legislation that's already been put forward. i'm hopeful that the house can come up with legislation that follows the same principles, which is to make sure that we're doing sentencing reform, but we're also doing a better job in terms of, you know, reducing recidivism and providing support for ex-offenders, and we if we can get those bills together in a conference. i'm optimist tokyo make a difference. keep in mind, when you use the term mass incarceration, statistically, the overwhelming majority of people who are incarcerated are in state prisons and state facilities for state crimes. we can only focus on federal law and federal crimes.

a large population of individuals who are incarcerated, even for non-violent drug crimes because this is a trend that started in the late '80s and '90s and accelerated at the state levels, but if we can show the federal level that we can be smart on crime, more cost effective, more just, more proportionate, then we can set a trend for other states to follow as well. and that's our hope. this is not going to be something that's reversed overnight. so, just to go back to my general principle, april, it took 20 years for us to get to the point we are now. and it'll be 20 years probably before we reverse, we reverse some of these major trends. okay everybody.

thank you, guys. appreciate you. thank you. >> president obama heading back to star wars screening at the white house wrapping up his final press conference. relaxed president obama saying he's never felt more optimistic about a year ahead saying we are making progress in the fight against isis. and we will defeat them. president's words. also laying out his legislative agenda saying he hopes to make progress on trade and commercial justice among other matters. bring in our chief investigative correspondent, the president reaffirmed this idea that he sees no specific and credible threat to the united states before this christmas holiday. said the same thing before thanksgiving, but the first question he got at the press conference, how do you know? >> exactly, and that's the dwhae perplexes federal authorities given san bernardino. syed farook was planning for four years to carry out an attack, he was never picked up on any fbi or national intelligence radar at all. carried out that deadly attack.

president also optimistic about legitimative agenda despite real opposition, saying he hopes to make progress on criminal justice reform and trade. >> he said he's never been more optimistic about a year ahead than right now. and he said he's going to lee it all on the field. those specific issues, the really tough one is that big transpacific trade deal that has incredible opposition in congress not just from republicans, but democratic leaders, but he expressed optimism because paul ryan supports that idea. and he thinks it'll work with him on that. he also george, it was interest, had positive words to say about both the jouts going former speaker of the house john boehner and paul ryan saying he has a good relationship with paul ryan that he deals with the in a straightforward way and although they disagree on the mass majority of things, feels he's able to work with them. >> on guantanamo, the president saying he hopes congress passes something, but kept options open for doing something on his own.

fail and do it on his own. >> john carl, thanks very much. we're going to return now to regular program for a complete wrap-up of the day's events on world news. and abc news will be on in force for saturday's democratic debate up in new hampshire. david and martha moderate. special coverage starting at 8:00 eastern and special edition of this week's sunday morning live from manchester and guests will include donald trump, chris christie, and bernie sanders.