it is about the life and times of david axelrod.f and say this is truly -- a memoir about the politics of our time, but it is also about your life. we are combining two great things. this is your life and an obstacle course. two great things. david: which my life has been. what do you call this? mark: this is a typewriter. load up the paper. do you know how to work one of these? i will show you what we will do. mark: this is an obstacle course, so we will have to go fast. i will give you a situation and i want you to write a lead. david ok. : wait a second -- mark: i will read it, too. the cubs are about to play in game seven of the world series. gary woods is a starting pitcher. there are accusations of rigging the game in the white sox clubhouse. what is the leadoff? mark: ok. david: ok. mark: you are a hunt and pecker. all done? accusations of cheating has once again -- have once again marred the game of baseball. donald trump has bought the willis tower. it is getting renamed, but no one knows what it is. david: i have to say, t

david axelrod, how unusual is an apology like that given the feud that had developed? basically, these two campaigns were accusing each other of who knows what. well, i think the apology was smart. the fact is, bernie sanders' folks did do something wrong. it wasn't consistent with the nature of his campaign and he needed to do something defin it right at the top to state that and i think apologizing to his supporters, as well, was smart. but i also think hillary clinton was smart to handle it the way she did. i think her campaign got a little overheated yesterday in the exchanges and she has nothing to gain from an ongoing dispute with bernie sanders. she's got bigger things in mind. >> she accepted that apology pretty quickly. >> and remember, this is not your conventional debater, bernie sanders. remember what he said at our debate. enough with your [ expletive ] e-mails. that was not politically smart for him to do, but he did it anyway. i think it was bernie being bernie. >> there were some significant difference weapo differences. hillary clinton says there shoul

gloria borger, cnn chief national correspondent, john king and cnn senior political commentator david axelrod. david, let me start with you. you went through so many of these when you were adviser to then-senator barack obama. >> pleasure to be an observer. >> much more pleasant. and barack obama had a mixed record in debates. pretty good but hillary clinton probably bested him a few times. >> i think so. >> what would you tell the front-runner here, donald trump, if you were advising him? you have a good relationship with him. he's given money to the foundation that you work for, that you've started. what would your advice to him be? >> well, other than -- i think a difficult candidate to prepare for a debate. i'd suspect he goes with his instincts. the truth is, he hasn't done particularly well in the debates, he hasn't gained from the debates. but i don't think he's a guy who's going to change things up. you know, i think my main instruction would be, don't go after people gratuitously, don't shoot behind you, and just make points that have gotten you a boost in the polls, go after, you kn

case in point, david axelrod. and left to become a political consultant and ultimately the message made in for barack obama. now he has returned to the media. to put that in perspective, when he came on the show earlier this year we put together an obstacle course for him. we combined the key elements of his life as an iconic chicagoan, which ruby -- would be titanic a deli sandwiches. about axers,r david axelrod is here to promote his new book, it is called believer, my 40 years in politics. book one will put this the shelf and say this is truly -- a memoir about the politics of our time, but it is also about your life be a are combining to great things. this is your life and an obstacle course. two great things. >> which my life has been. what do you call this? >> this is a typewriter. i will show you what we will do. do you know how to work one of these? an obstacles course, so we will have to go fast. i will give you a situation and i want you to write a lead. >> ok. wait a second -- mark: i will read it too.

joining me now is david axelrod. thank you for joining us. the mayor announce d he's going to cut his trip short in cuba. should he have come back sooner? >> i think he came back, as i understand it, as quickly as i could. there's no doubt he's doing the right thing by coming back. there were some big issues that have to be confronted here and those have been accelerated by the events of the weekend >> he is taking a lot of heat. a lot of people are asking him to step down. do you think that he should step down? >> i don't, don. i don't think it's really productive. he was just re-elected. and my focus, as a chicagoan, you know, 42 years ago, i wrote my first newspaper column. i know as boyish as i look that's hard to believe. but 42 years ago, i wrote my first newspaper column. and the summit was then mare richard daley, the congressman on the south side clashing over this very issue and metcalf's demand for a more intensive investigation of police shootinges and police complaints. this has been something that's been with us for generations.

joining me is david axelrod, former senior adviser to president obama. also here with me in studio lieutenant general michael flynn, former head of the defense intelligence agency under president obama. general flynn, let me start with you. the president said in an off the record meeting with columnists reported out by "new york times" that he didn't initially realize how anxious americans are about the threat of isis and terrorist attacks here in the homeland. he says he didn't realize that because he doesn't watch cable tv. polls however have shown that this is an issue on the top of americans' fear since last year. >> yeah. and i think that one of the indicators, strong indicators, was the day before the thanksgiving holiday season where i think there was the largest number of guns sold in this country. it was like 185,000 in a day. i think that the president underestimated the real fear and the real sense of insecurity in the american psyche. and it was not only the tragedy that, you know, of san bernardino, but the subsequent false alarms in new yor

democratic strategist and cnn political commentator david axelrod. chief correspondent of the "washington post," dan balz, atlantic's national correspondent, jeffrey goldberg. welcome to all of you we have two debates this week on both sides. let's start with the republican debate. now dan we have two debates within the republican debate. let's start with cruz-rubio. what is that about? >> two things, john. one i think each of them and each of their campaigns believes that they are going to be in a final showdown with the other. and so they have been preparing for this, they have done all the opposition research on one another. it's now coming out. the second is, that cruz's strategy to consolidate a broader piece of the conservative part of the republican party. most conservative part than anybody's ever been able to do. rubio is trying to crowd into some of that territory. so rubio is trying to suggest that cruz is not as conservative say on immigration as he claims. and cruz is trying to hold the line and put down a firmer conservative position th

let's bring back former senior adviser to president obama, david axelrod.m for them is this. you can go after donald trump but you cannot invalidate the fear that motivates his base an as alisyn brilliantly pointed out with her voter pan, that's how they see anything you say about trump. how do you get around it? >> i think it's a very awkward two-step they're trying to perform. jeb bush is calling him unhinged. you have the chairman of the party saying it's unamerican what he's saying, then they ask would you support him? of course. they don't want to alienate the base of vote her support him, sort of theç old base. >> they hear you saying they're wrong to be afraid. >> i think fear is not just limited to them. i've said to my own party and to others that you can't go after fear mongers if you're not going after the fear. you have to address the fear. and i think that's good advice for both parties. but you know, the irony of what he said, i heard senator king on your air earlier and christie whitman just said it here. he may not be the president but he i

. >> reporter: lou, we've heard from the president's former chief strategist david axelrod, joining the chorus line of those criticizing the commander in chief who felt the president was tone deaf following the shootings in paris, and late tonight we heard from house speaker paul ryan. he issued a statement that criticize the president for saying the notion that the american people simply aren't getting the proper messaging is the wrong message to send right now. lou? lou: kevin, thank you so much, kevin corke with the magical scenery behind him. yes, hawaii. >>> tragedy in afghanistan today where the taliban killed six of our servicemembers in a suicide attack. our troops were on a security routine patrol when an attacker rode up on a motorcycle and detonated his suicide bomb. two other americans and interpreter were wounded in the attack. the taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing which is the first major attack on a nato force since late august. >>> radical islamist terrorism a feature of the little watched democratic presidential debate saturday night. hillary clinton who's

i agree with david axelrod that says, the dnc actually put their thumbs and tipped the scale. that is what is outrageous. i want to take it a step further. really the dnc attacked democratic voters. think about the voter file itself. you would deny the sanders campaign access to its own voters. you are denying voters the opportunity to interact with senator sanders. >> a new poll out of monmouth university. it found this week that 59% of bernie sanders supporters would be okay with it if hillary clinton beat sanders and won the nomination. how do you turn those folks into die-hards? >> well, we're working. it's what we do right now. touching people. door by door. going to the grassroots. i will tell you, poppy, here in new hampshire i have had an opportunity to talk to some people who went outdoor knocking today. they are excited about telling senator sanders's story. he is standing up for the working poor. his case in college. how he wants to eradicate institutional racism. people are excited. there is no magic wand to any of this. hard, grassroots, door gnawing, phone callin

but a good showing tomorrow night would send the signal that he's in it to win. >> jeff leny, david axelrodger, thank you very much. the final republican debate of the year is 24 hours away and the candidates face off tomorrow night with our own wolf blitzer moderating. if you have questions for the candidates, i'm sure you have a tons, send them to us at facebook.com/cnn and comment on the top post. now, coming up, we have much more from las vegas and the venetian hotel on this eve. new information in the san bernardino terror information and a terror arrest just outside of washington, all as president obama reviews his strategy to fight isis. ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. i absolutely love my new but the rent is outrageous. good thing geico offers affordable renters insurance. with great coverage it protects my personal belongings should they get damaged, stolen or destroyed. [doorbell] uh, excuse me. delivery. hey. lo mein, szechwan chicken, chopsticks, soy sauce and you got some fortune cookies.

. >> thank you very much, and we have jake tapper and cnn political reporter, and top adviser david axelrod, and cnn political commentator, amanda carpenter, former communications director for ted cruz. jake, i want to play for our viewers something that donald trump said. it is very interesting, all along these two have been very polite to each other, and supportive publicly. that has obviously started to change as the poll numbers changed in iowa. here is what trump said yesterday. >> i don't think he is qualified to be president. >> why not? >> because i don't think he has the right temperament. i don't think he has the right judgment. >> what is wrong with his temperament. >> when you see how he deals with the senate, like a maniac, you never get things done that way. >> and then cruz responded with the song from flashdance, maniac. >> i don't see ted cruz going against donald trump, his strategy has been not to criticize any of his republican rivals and that has worked for him. to be frank, he is now in a great position. you don't want to overstate the importance of iowa, just because

. >> david axelrod is saying that the dnc is putting the thumb on the scale for hillary, but there'smething uls going on that's weird. why are these debates an saturday night? they got 23 million republicans watching. 8 million democrats. are they tried to hide something? trying to keep hillary under wraps? this is what ted cruz said about this. it's hilarious. >> it's an amazing thing, they keep scheduled the democratic debates at like 2:00 a.m. on a saturday on alaska pbs. it's almost like they don't actually want anyone to see their candidates for president. which you can understand why. >> well, it is saturday night, for goodness sakes, susan. why not monday? >> i once scheduled a debate in boston on the night that the red sox were playing the seventh game of the world series. we considered it an incredible triumph of scheduling. not even people at the debate were watching the debate. hillary clinton doesn't need to debate sanders on national television. i can promise you the general election debates won't be on saturday. >> doing something like that, we'll be watching the debate

but go back to 2008, forgive me david axelrod but donald trump is hillary clinton and ted cruz is barack obama in the sense that he's ascendant in iowa. look at national polls in 2008, everybody says clinton, clinton, clinton, obama was coming, he made his move in iowa not quite the way cruz has. but what happens to donald trump's brand if he starts losing? he's all about winning. >> psyche is the question. >> can he handle that. >> what does he do. >> the proof is in the pudding. we see how he does tonight. if anybody wants to talk about 2008, it's ax, that's for sure. right now, we use a lot of prizefight analogies because it is like that for the men and women who have to get up on stage. they're thinking about how do i get ready, what are my points, what do i do? that's what's going on right now. we have two debates tonight. first one's coming up at 6:00. we'll have four people on that one. then 8:30, that's the main event tonight. we'll give you a look into the strategies on both sides when "the situation room" continues. if you think there's no solution to think again.crisis, in ame

once again the crowd loves the point by david axelrod, they're getting ready obviously to do the debate here. very interesting. donald trump will defend his ban on muslims, he will can interest allege rated. i wonder if he points to the fact that he with just had news of 34 muslim countries joining in what they're now making a pro and ad hoc coalition. you see what my talk did, it brought the muslims -- >> all right. the first round of the cnn facebook republican presidential debate starts right now. >>> we're live in las vegas for the final republican presidential debate of 2015. >> right now the road to the white house leads straight through las vegas. and it's taking a critical turn. ted cruz front and center. >> we are at war with terrorists and we will win. if you join isis, you're signing your death warrant. >> i'm going to bomb the [ bleep ] out of them. >> tonight the republican candidates in back to back debates in a campaign jolted by the attacks in san bernardino and paris. >> isis has raised its ugly head again. >> donald trump still on top going to new lengths to show he wo

. >>> meantime, former white house adviser david axelrod is also weighing in. he tweeted today, without evidence, that his hierarchy knew about data poaching, a harsh penalty versus bernie sanders, looks like the dnc is putting finger on scale. moments later, he backed off a bit, tweeting this, "final on filegate. poaching by bernie sanders was indefensible. initial columny dnc handling gave them pr out. messy all around." the democratic presidential candidates will face off tonight in new hampshire and cnn's wolf blitzer will give you special coverage of that debate and that begins right here on cnn tonight at 10:30 eastern, right here. all right. let's turn now to the investigation into the terror attack in san bernardino, california. where a federal affidavit is revealing disturbing new details about two terror attacks one of the killers planned with a friend, but never carried out. that friend, enrique marquez, bought two of the guns, the husband and wife terror team used to kill 14 people early this month. john berman has more. >> reporter: new documents d

joining us is cnn's senior political commentator and former senior adviser to president obama, david axelrod you guys. >> a prime time sunday night address from the oval office suggests a momentous announcement of some kind. the president's critics say that it was more of the same. did he go far enough? >> look, i thought it was a solid, well written explication of where we are and where we're going. you're right. the test of the state of the union -- i'm sorry, the test of an oval office speech is generally an event so momentous that the country is anticipating it or one where you're announcing a major change of policy. that's not what it was. it's met with mixed commentary as a as a result. i thought he offer ed -- why hes offering reassurance to a country that needed reassurance. >> help us make sense of this. it seems like the president's move responsibly and politically should be if you think we should do something more, go debate it. der;páe the use of military fore instead of throwing it in my lap. debate whether or not to declare war. why is he not going that? because i'm not getting

i want to read a tweet from david axelrod. "without evidence that his hierarchy knew about data poaching, harsh penalty for bernie sanders, looks like dnc is putting finger on scale." do you have a response to that? >> we do have evidence that his campaign inappropriately accessed proprietary information. the analogy i would use is it's as if you found a house with an unlocked front door and instead of locking it and notifying authorities you went in and you took things, ransacked the house and took things that didn't belong to you. and then you expect to continue to have access to the house. i mean, that makes no sense. the owner of the house certainly shouldn't allow them -- the perpetrator to have access to the house until there is a full accounting of what was taken, who took it, and we make sure that they can't do it again. that's the process we're going through. it's an entirely reasonable response. and it could be resolved very quickly. we're two days now, we're two days into -- since we've asked for this information. a

jim, as of tonight, security around the property has been increased. >> axelrod: david, thank you. president obama will address the nation about the san bernardino attacks and on the broader fight against terrorism. cbs will carry the address live in a special report. scott pelley will anchor our coverage from washington tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. the horror of this latest mass shooting has reignited the familiar debate over gun control. for the first time in nearly 100 years today, the "new york times" ran an editorial addressing the issue on its front page. julianna goldman has the points and the counter-points. >> reporter: in its page one editorial, the "new york times" writes, "it is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency." and that certain weapons like the slightly modified combat rifles used in the san bernardino attacks "must be outlaud for civilian ownership." it was immediately dismissed by republicans. >> it's typical liberal clap-trap from the "ne

jim, all of those victims died in their vehicles. >> axelrod: david begnaud with the heartbreaking story. thank you, david. now to ethan coach, the so-called affluenza kid. violating probation in texas after beating prison time in a fatal drunk driving crash with a defense that left many people shaking their heads. after a three-week manhunt, omar villafranca reports couch has been arrested in mexico. >> reporter: ethan coach's newly dyed black hair didn't fool mexican authorities who caught the texas teenager on monday despite looking very different than he did two years ago when he was first charged in the deadly drunk driving accident. anderson: >> we worked a tremendous amount of leads and learned through some interviews that they had planned to disappear, that they even had something that was almost akin to a going away party. >> reporter: investigators say couch and his mother, tonya, drove a pickup truck into mexico and ended up more than 1200 miles from north texas in the coastal resort town of puerto vallarta. they fled shortly after this video surfaced that appears to alcohol,

also with me, chief national correspondent john king, also senior political commentator, david axelrod. and gloria borger. there is so much to digest. but let's just start with a key moment. >> jeb bush saying that donald trump is not going to -- i think that jeb bush turned in a strong performance. there were a number of strong performances on the stage. jeb had a good night. >> i think it may be wishful thinking but a lot of republican strategists think he will be at the top of the polls now but when iowa votes the race will change and a lot of republicans think it's going to come down to a cruz-rubio race. if it does and even if it doesn't we saw the beginning of some deep-seeded animosity between them. rubio scored points for his votes to curtail surveillance and cruz put rubio on his heels on the immigration debate. and he tried to explain it's different now. you can't sell what he tried to sell then to the republican base where rubio was on immigration was a bad place. the bad blood between those two bubbled up tonight. >> they are anticipating a showdown between the two of them.

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trailer parked right in front of their house ready to go if the water forces them to evacuate. >> axelrod: david begnaud in the middle of it in sherwood, oregon. eric fisher, chief meteorologist at our cbs boston station wbz, is tracking the storms. eric, what are you seeing? >> well, we're taking a look at the latest storm to move into the northwest here, and more heavy rainfall. it's the wettest start to december ever recorded in seattle and portland but this storm is a little bit different, it has more cold air to work with. we're expecting over a foot of snow on top of that rain, around the cascades, the sierras and the bitterroot, so much more widespread snow and winter storm now out ahead of it, the storm system in the plains, producing severe weather tonight. so we're watching texas into oklahoma, damaging wind gusts, heavy rainfall, many areas here on track for their wettest year on record and then it's the heat. everywhere in the east, unbelievable record highs in many cities today, dozens of them. we're expecting more heading into sunday. so, essentially, mississippi east, these are al

they have the thumb on the scale to quote david axelrod on the vote for hillary. >> do you see ta theertain are hidden the campaigns in the bushel, a a ndu don't have many of them, and you even had democratic members of congress complaining that there are not enough debates por people to look at the good alternative campaigns, and bernie sanders is not a democrat, and if the democratic committee preferred as an existential plan that the democratic committee would be be more supportive of a democratic candidate, but as senator ryeback said, you will hope to get an equal boost from the dnc, but whether or not they are, the per isception, the perception is they they are ingrained to clinton. >> and what are you seeing there? >> well, the dnc has a perception problem, and in politics, it is all about perception, and hillary clinton is doing very well, as joy said, and she is the like lie winner on the democratic side, but she going to be needing bernie sa sanders' supporters and those millennials who are so excited about him. so this flap is the worst thing that could have happened. when

i want to redo a tweet that david axelrod did that reflects what people are saying. he says without evidence his hierarchy knew about data poaching, the harsh penalty. if the error was by the vendor, why such a draconian punishment against the sanders campaign? >> well, you know, this is extremely important. when you go into a campaign office these days, obviously what you see are people combing over computers, volunteers. all of that is the most important element of the campaign. you have to be careful with this. if you're a campaign and you felt the information you had was now in the hands of somebody else, you'd take it very seriously. this was a complex issue. >> really quickly. a lot of people -- what a lot of people are saying is the dnc is on hillary clinton's side, favors the clinton campaign and is not a neutral arbiter between the two. how do you respond to that? >> i understand that. that's a concern. that's why all of us vice chairs representing various parts of party came together with the chair yesterday morning, talked those issues through. it's really