laura haim your reaction to his comments? >> yeah, he wants to, again, emphasize french is at war. what was interesting is the speed of the way that trying to communicate to the nation a message. we're at war, but we're resilient. . the french prime minister advise him to know that he's trying to obtain a lot of details about investigation, how did this happen, is it a very organized group or is it a that got into it. and then the entire minister was a little bit equivalent, of the secretary of -- the mayor has the -- urge the people to stay at home after the attack. and they want -- in the middle of the night, because, again, it's 4:22 now in paris in the middle of the night. they want to show to the nation that we're here. we're acting. we're walking. trust us. don't panic, france is at war, but we need. >> your reaction to this report indicating that this is a french tanesian, we don't know whether it's citizen decent, being one of the biggest streams of recruits for the islamic state. >> it fits the profile of the previous attackers that we've seen in the theater attack, some o

again, nice, tonight, was a very, very difficult scene to observe. >> laura haim, white house correspondent for canal plus, laura, thank you for being with us. i'm sure we'll be back with you later this evening. thank you. at this hour, we don't know the motivation behind tonight's truck attack in nice. but i should mention that there have been other incidents worldwide, and indeed in france, in which weapons -- that particulars have been made into weapons. we were speaking earlier with rukmini callimachi about an attack last year in canada, which preceded the attack on the canadian parliament, in which a different attacker used his vehicle to deliberately attack canadian security services, two members of the canadian security services. he wounded one, killed another. he was confronted by law enforcement. they shot him dead. that was a vehicle used as a weapon in what appeared to be a terrorist motivated attack in canada last year. twice in 2014 vehicles were used to target pedestrians in france. in the french city of dijon, about a dozen pedestrians were hit by a car when the driver appare

. >> joining me now, laura haim, the white house correspondent for canal plus. what are your sources telling you, what is french media telling you about the latest from nice? >> the latest is that the french president, the french prime minister, and the minister of interior are together, gathering information about who did that. they don't have any clue for the moment about what happened. they just know that it was only one person, but i don't know if this person acted by itself, if it was a lone wolf, or if the person had accomplices. at this moment, what we know, it's almost 2:00 in the morning in paris. there's again the french situation, like in washington, d.c., when there's a big crisis, you have in the white house the situation room. that's what is happening at this moment in france. not at the palace of elysee, but with the minister of the interi interior, the prime minister, who is leading this meeting. the minister of the interior is the equivalent of the homeland security person here. is on its way to nice. and the french president, who this afternoon

. >> laura haim, thank you. all of this brings us to ambassador jim woolsey, former cia director under president bill clint on. ambassad ambassador, where to begin? laura compare today to multiple wounds against the french democra democracy, as if it was a bull, an animal. another friend of mine texted me tonight, any chance we can crank the manhattan project back up again. people are angry, and they're raw, and wounded, and i want to hear you out on what we're facing. >> and i think they're scared, and it's -- there's disjunction between the threat we face, and our response. they are at war with us. isis is a theaccuratataric, and to be a bigger caliphate, in areas such as the places it used to completely control, such as spain, and part of france. and it is just totally in favor of destroying us in every way that it can. and it -- one thing that happens with these terrorist attacks is it increases their recruiting because as bin laden once said, people see a strong horse and weak horse, they like the strong ho

back to laura haim we go, white house correspondent for the french television network, canal plus. she had been helping us out with our coverage of the terrorist attack in nice, france. she has conveniently pivoted along with us and has helped gather what she can on the coup in turkey. laura, what can you add? >> i can tell you that it is unfolding live on social media at this moment, and you hear a lot of things through people who are trying to report on twitter, facebook and also periscope what's happening. there's a journalist, we knew her well, she's from a very important tv station in turkey, and apparently, she said on twitter that she was just asked to leave work by about 40 or 50 armed soldiers that took her phone and she was just about to send this message. you have also a lot of people who are trying to say we are fighting at this moment. there are report on gunshots on the bridge in istanbul. and when was also extremely interesting, as you pointed it out, was to listen and to translate the statement made by president erdogan at 11:52 local time on facetime. erdogan calle

laura haim with canal plus is also with us. and while you were standing by with us to talk about the terrorist attack in nice, i also understand you have seen a transcript from what erdogan said on facetime? >> yes, absolutely. he calls on the turkish people to take to the streets, gather in front of airports and resist the coup. and also erdogan is apparent apparently -- the uprise of the minority inside the army. he said that this is a minority inside the army which is doing this coup at this moment. but, clearly, erdogan on facetime is calling the people terrorists. >> chuck todd, this is not about the united states race for president, but by close of business tonight, this will be a part of the race for president. and this is where serious people have to emerge, and a lot of things can be said in haste and in error. >> well, that's right. and, you know, already before this, when you think of the wait of the last month that's been hitting the american psyche for potential for terrorism incidents in nice, in orlando, the raci

laura haim, thank you very much for that. to cal perry we go. he's in the newsroom behind us here in new york. cal? >> so we have seen that photo which was sort of what i was referring to when we talk about the potential death toll that we could be looking at. there it is again. the president of france has gone into an emergency meeting with the interior minister and fine line that ayman was walking earlier. so far this is an attack. they are not using the word terrorism. they are not there yet. they are not ready to. but it's so very clearly an incident that was one that was carried out on purpose. this was a purposeful attack. french officials are now saying that french tv is now saying that. the french emergency national police have declared this now an emergency operation under way, not just now in nice, but across the country. so the country has now basically gone on what the equivalent would be of high alert for us. >> yes, i can imagine so. ayman mohyeldin is with us in the studio. i'm giving folks who perhaps don't have a layout of franc

let's return to laura haim with canal plus, the french network. laura covers the white house in this country for them but has been in touch with her sources back home in france. laura, what can you add? >> again, the emotional aspect, brian, and also the political one. in terms of the emotional aspect, it was absolutely horrible. people in nice are in shock by what happened, and they're all telling you that the truck really wanted to kill a lot of people. it's like to be in the united states, to watch the fireworks on july 4th, and suddenly you have a white truck, which is spinning, zagging, going to your family, which is running on the bodies, that's what people told me, and you don't know what to do. i spoke with the owner of a restaurant, and he saw some people who are trying with their hands, with their simple hands, to stop the truck, but the truck was too quick, and there were unable to stop this truck. >> a lot of people are also talking about the families who went into the water to hide because they were afraid of what could happen. it was