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White House Addresses School Threat; News Conference On Threat To L.A. Schools; ATF Helping With School Threat Investigation; Threat Closes L.A. School System; Huckabee Arrives for Debate; Final GOP Debate. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 15, 2015 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JOSH EARNEST, U.S. WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: -- encourage local law enforcement and state officials to be vigilant as they go about their basic business of protecting the American people.

At the same time, the president is resolute in his refusal to allow this country and our citizens to be terrorized. And there are several things the president is doing about it. You know, obviously, the first is, you know, we have engaged this aggressive campaign to counter ISIL to degrade and to ultimately destroy that organization. That's an indication and should be an indication to you and to the American public that the president and the federal government are cognizant of the risks and are taking the appropriate steps to protect the American people. This is, after all, the president's top priority.

And I think that as go about their business and go about the kind of holiday routines that many people rightly look forward to that people can have confidence that our law enforcement professionals that are on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week are actually doing the work that's necessary to keep us safe. And they will remain vigilant and they continue the use every element of the power and authority of the greatest country in the world to protect our citizens. And that is part of what should give people confidence that they can go about their holiday routine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And one other topic. I wanted to get your reaction to this new Saudi-led coalition that is going to be working against the Islamic state. Can you describe how that's going to work, overlapping significantly with the U.S.-led coalition? And do you just have any concerns about having Saudi Arabia heading that operation, fueling the kind of Sunni-Shia tensions that we have seen at play in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East?

EARNEST: Well, Josh (ph), the first thing that's important for people to understand is that this coalition that was announced by the Saudis was not solely directed at ISIL, but rather to extremist and terrorist threats that are threatening all of the members of that coalition. So, it's certainly broader than ISIL.

I think the second thing is you have heard me say a number of occasions, as recently as yesterday, that we believe that there are additional steps and greater investments that can be made by members of our anti-ISIL coalition to fighting terrorism and speaking out, particularly when it comes to countering ISIL's online radicalization efforts. And I understand, based on the way that this was described by the Saudis yesterday that that is a central part of this particular coalition's activities.

I would -- finally, I would point out that I think the Saudis went to great lengths to also make it clear that this is not a substitute or a replacement for the 65-member anti-ISIL coalition that was built and is being led by the United States of America. That Saudi Arabia has made important contributions to that coalition effort and we anticipate that they will continue to do so.

OK, Julia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry, Christina (ph), go on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- sanctions monitors (ph) issued a report today that said that the October --

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you are watching the White House press briefing. As we've just heard that President Obama has been made aware, has been briefed on what's going on in Los Angeles.

I'm Brianna Keilar live for you from the Venetian here in Los Vegas ahead of the Republican debate tonight.

But we have our eyes focused on Los Angeles where a bomb threat at the L.A. Unified School District, one of the biggest school districts in the country. Has students there, obviously not at school today as the school district takes precautions.

This is breaking news that we are following that really goes to the heart of what tonight's debate is all about, and that is national security. All of public schools across Los Angeles, not just the city but the county, are closed today after this district received an unspecified but obviously very concerning electronic threat.

The superintendent says that the threat involved backpacks and other packages and that L.A. is the second largest school system in the country. It has more than 660,000 students. Police in the largest school district, New York, say that they received an e-mail with a similar threat but they dismissed it as a hoax. There is a press conference now out of L.A., out of the school district there. Let's listen in.

RAMON CORTINES, SUPERINTENDENT, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT (live): I want to welcome you. I want you to know that I made the decision to close the schools. That was after talking to the chief deputy superintendent, the chief of police of the school police, and after they've reviewed with me the information that had been shared with them. Based on past circumstances, I could not take the chance as it relates to one student or our staff that serve our students.

[13:05:11] It is important that in the last four hours, this city, this community has come together on behalf of our students, our students that are in the regular schools, our students that are in the charter schools that are authorized by this school board. We are taking all sorts of precautions. Our plant managers are walking the campus with law enforcement people. Our plant managers and principals with law enforcement are looking at all of our schools, both small, large schools, et cetera.

We have made sure that our parents are notified through ConnectED messages, and we have repeated that time and time again. Those students that walk to school, especially young children, neighborhood children, we have had the principals meet and administrators meet them at the gate of the school, and they were not dismissed until parents came to pick them up, a guardian, et cetera.

We are doing everything possible to make sure that children are safe but that also students and parents understand that the precautions that we are taking are done in a calming way, are done in a way that is in the best interest of everybody in this particular city.

Not only is it the city of L.A., as you know, the school district represents many independent cities, and we have reached out to them also. There are unincorporated areas in this school district that we have reached out to. I have reached out to the board of supervisors. I have reached out to the city council. I have notified the state superintendent of schools. I have notified the secretary of education. Mainly because there are no secrets.

Somebody has sent information that leads us to pause and make sure that we are safe, that our children and our staff are safe. Nobody could be more interested in this city than our mayor -- our mayor and his staff. His staff has joined us early this morning. And our mayor is here now. I'd like to turn it over to him.

ERIC GARCETTI, MAYOR, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Thank you very much, Mr. Superintendent. Good morning, everybody. The decision to close the schools is not mine to make, but it is mine to support as mayor of the city of Los Angeles. Since San Bernardino, we have seen whether it was our colleagues there who asked for the help of the Los Angeles Police Department as that shooting unfolded or this morning when L.A. USD reached out to Los Angeles Police Department and the city of L.A. for assistance.

We are here because our first job is to ensure that people are safe in this city. It is very easy for people to jump to conclusions. And I've been around long enough to know that usually what people think, in the first few hours, is not necessarily how it plays out in later hours. We see investigations unfold sometimes for a series of days, but decisions need to be made in a matter of minutes.

I have been immediately on the phone when we learned of this with Phil Washington, the CEO of MTA, to ensure that students could travel free on our buses and our rail lines today to ensure they can get home safely, to make sure that they are able to get through this city without having to worry, because we know a lot of parents still have to continue to get to work and can't even afford the miss one day.

But we are here, Chief Beck and I, with local law enforcement here through LAPD's extensive and experienced training and leadership that connected some of the dots nationally on this. It was -- we, of course, reached out and the school district reached out immediately to our federal law enforcement officials who have been extra taxed in recent weeks since San Bernardino but to bring them into this investigation. But also, it was -- in talking to our counterparts in New York and learning of other places, we're now -- we realize this was not the only city to face that threat.

We will continue to hope that this is nothing and that our children can be back at school tomorrow. But as a parent, and as a mayor, certainly, I'm here to support this school district as it seeks our help to ensure that we can look at each one of these campuses and make sure that they are safe for all of the children.

[13:10:04] And an abundance of caution is something that I think all of us who have children appreciate. So, we will be here, continue to be here. We have also activated the city's emergency operation center at level one, which is our lowest level but constant staffing, to make sure that we can follow this, continue to share any intelligence, work with our federal law enforcement officials and do whatever the school district asks of us.

My number one priority is keeping this city safe and I will continue to do that. No matter who reaches out to us, we have incredibly well- trained police force.

And one last thing I would say to the people of L.A. Whether this pans out as something that could have happened or not, and we may not be able to conclude that definitively, I do not want people to say, because sometimes things don't result in a shooting or don't result in a foiled plot, to not speak up and to not speak out. We need to continue to have people, if you see something, say something. Visit iwatchla.com and learn how you can be more vigilant as we continue to live our lives here in the city of Los Angeles and the values that we hold of freedom, of our liberty, we want to make sure also that we are safe.

(INAUDIBLE.)

Thank you, all, very much.

CORTINES: Thank you. Chief Beck, I'd like to call on you next.

CHARLIE BECK, CHIEF OF POLICE, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: Thank you, Superintendent. Very late last night, the Los Angeles Police Department was contacted by L.A. Unified School police, Chief Zipperman, about a very specific threat that had been delivered via e- mail to a number of the people on this school board. After reviewing that threat, we became very concerned, contacted the FBI and began to work jointly through our joint terrorism task force to try to vet that threat and to be able to give the school board and the superintendent our best advice on moving forward.

We were able to do that. The superintendent made a decision. We support his decision as does the mayor. I would say this to people that are critical. It is very easy, in hindsight, to criticize a decision based on results that the decider could have never known. It is also very easy to criticize a decision when you have no responsibility for the outcome of that decision.

The school district safeguards three quarters of a million lives every day. When they make a decision, they have to take into account the safety of the children of Los Angeles. And I think it's irresponsible, based on facts that have yet to be determined, to criticize that decision at this point. All of us make tough choices. All of us have the same goal in mind. We want to keep our kids safe. These are tough times. These communities, our communities, southern California has been through a lot in the recent weeks. Should we risk putting our children through the same?

I'm also joined by my partner in law enforcement here, the other half of what keeps the region safe, Sheriff Jim McDonald. And if it's OK with Ray, I'd like to have Jim say a few words.

JIM MCDONALD, SHERIFF, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Thank you, Charlie.

CORTINES: Welcome, sir.

MCDONALD: Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Just here to be able to I guess add a note of reassurance that we are working very closely together. Once we became aware of this issue, we immediately became in contact. We have co-located our representatives in the emergency operations center. And we, then, strategically from there start vetting the information that's available to us, working with all of our partners at the federal, state and local levels.

We are blessed that, in this region, we have great relationships And when we -- when we have the need, we come together in a way that I think you would all be very proud of, although we don't and can't really talk about it. A lot of work is being done to be able to run this to ground. And we're working together to ensure that the 700,000 young people who go to L.A. Unified are safe, and that we continue to move forward with that common goal in mind. So, I thank you for your understanding and for working with us as we deal with this very difficult issue. Thank you.

CORTINES: Thank you. I want you to meet the chief of school police, Mr. Zipperman. And then, I will turn it over to the board president to introduce the board.

[13:15:07]

STEVE ZIPPERMAN, POLICE CHIEF, LOS ANGELES SCHOOLS: Good afternoon.

I just want to say again to all of my law enforcement colleagues, Sheriff McDonald, Chief Beck, honorable mayor.

As indicated before, sometimes we have to make tough decisions, as already been stated. I assure you that our number one priority is the safety and security of not only our students, but our staff as well. We go based on the information that we have, and we collaborate with our other law enforcement partners, and the LAPD now has taken the lead on this as a result of the threat as normal protocol.

I assure you, as the chief of police of this school district, that while our campuses are being -- having a walk through as we speak. That none of our schools will be reopened until not only I feel that we have been given the information through those folks that are out there in the field right now checking each location, but the information that I will receive based on LAPD's continued investigation, based on the collaboration and communication with Sheriff McDonald, Chief Beck, and certainly our federal partners and then finally the briefing and concurrence with the superintendent and the board of education at that time is when we will make a decision to open up our schools. And we will not do that until we are completely satisfied that we have taken every measure possible to ensure the safety of our students.

Thank you.

CORTINES: Board president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: I am Brianna Keilar, and you are watching a news conference coming to us from Los Angeles, where a number of L.A. officials, including the head of the school district there, the head of the Los Angeles Police Department and the school police department there -- are there updating us on the situation involving this threat.

I do want to bring in "Legal View" anchor Ashleigh Banfield, as well as Mike Rogers. He's an analyst for CNN. He's also a former congressman and former chair of the House -- or of the Permanent Select Intel Committee.

And I want to sort of zero in on something that I think was new from this press conference. Because New York received a similar threat and decided it was a hoax and did not respond to it, there seems to be this sensitivity on the part of L.A. officials that perhaps they overreacted. And when you're dealing with, as they put it, almost 700,000 students, that's something certainly the local officials could catch a lot of flak for, but they said that they really just wanted to err on the side of caution and they still, at this point, haven't ascertained whether this is a hoax.

MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: Right. And I think you -- it's pretty hard to go back and be that Monday morning quarterback.

KEILAR: Sure.

ROGERS: They're dealing with San Bernardino. It's still the impacts of that. And, remember, the information they had on those individuals was none. So they're going into the situation, they get it late at night, they have to make a call, you've got 750,000 people heading to that spot in the morning, you have a window to make that decision. It's pretty hard now to go back and say that.

Now, when you -- you hear the contents of the e-mail. That certainly sounded suspicious to me as a former FBI guy. It didn't -- it wasn't right for the jihadist intent. First of all, they tend not to give you a head's up in the first place. KEILAR: Yes.

ROGERS: They do it in a very surreptitious way. And so there was some problems with the e-mail, but I just don't think they had the luxury of time to go through all that, including calling New York City to see what they would do. So I would be cautious about going after these folks for a pretty difficult decision. They know it impacts 750,000 people, not just from the terrorist threat, but from all the impact of having parents scramble around to get their kids. But imagine if they had waited and decided later that it did have some credibility and you have to get kids out of the building.

KEILAR: You really would not have been able to do it. It would have been impossible, actually.

And you spoke, Ashleigh, to Congressman Brad Sherman. And even when you say this isn't normally the way that a threat would go down if it were a terrorist threat, I think there's this feeling that all bets are off. You don't really know what -- what the M.O. is. Maybe there isn't an M.O. anymore. I think that's part of the feeling that certainly they're definitely feeling in southern California. But what the congressman told you was -- I mean pretty alarming from what he saw of this letter.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, "LEGAL VIEW": Yes. Yes, because -- I mean, look, everyone will tell you that a school -- every school district gets prang e-mails. They try to get out of midterm exams. There's all sorts of stuffs that flies into the e-mail boxes of school officials. This one was different. It caused this action. And now we're learning why, because Congressman Sherman actually got a look at the e-mail. And let me just list out for you all of the alarming things that he told me about the -- were, you know, were inside this e-mail.

Number one, the person who wrote the e-mail claimed to been an extremist Muslim jihadist. Number two, what was odd to the congressman, and obviously other officials, was that it had a reference to -- one pornographic reference to a body part which would not correlate with someone who was extremist and Muslim. The text also didn't indicate an understanding of Islam. There was a misspelling in the name "Allah." It did not have a capital letter for "a," which is odd.

[13:20:11] But then specifically with regard to the actions that were being threatened. There was a threat that there were 32 accomplices that would help to carry out various different actions. And those various actions, Brianna, were going to include bombs in backpacks, as well as nerve agent, that there would be terrible actions today, that's the words actually of Congressman Sherman, there would be terrible actions today. The signature was an Islamic Arabic name according to Congressman Sherman. And there was a reference to the -- to the L.A. Unified School District as well, apparently that went into those similar generic e-mails that went out. So those are some of the things that were specific enough that gave this district enough pause to say, this is different. KEILAR: And it's so -- you cannot really -- I'm from southern

California. You can't underestimate how much they're feeling the effects of what happened in San Bernardino. This is pretty much a neighboring community. This is an hour and a half drive from Los Angeles. I think it's probably something that's really permeating their consciousness and that their -- it's -- it's hit them very close to home as they make these decisions as well.

Ashleigh, Mike, thank you so much.

I know that we are now going to go to Jeff Zeleny. I -- Christina, can you tell me where we're headed? All right. OK. We are -- we're going to Jeff Zeleny. He is our senior Washington correspondent. And he just spoke to Mike Huckabee. Obviously, a Republican presidential candidate who is going to be here tonight for the CNN debate, for the undercard debate.

Jeff, what did you learn?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I think it will be an interesting evening to be sure.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: How's your -- how's your leg doing?

HUCKABEE: It's doing really well. I mean, you know, just wears out a little quicker than it will eventually, but I'm making great progress.

ZELENY: Are you going to be up there with the cane or will you --

HUCKABEE: No, I'll -- I need it when I'm making long walks, but I'll be fine.

ZELENY: OK. Good luck tonight.

HUCKABEE: Thanks so much, Jeff.

ZELENY: Good luck. You bet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Yes.

All right, I want to bring Jeff Zeleny in. He just spoke to Mike Huckabee there.

Jeff, give us the latest.

ZELENY: Hey, Brianna. That was governor Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who just arrived for the debate. He's had a bit of leg surgery in recent weeks, so is walking with a cane. So we asked him about that. He said he's in good spirits for tonight.

Of course, he is one of the four candidates participating in the so- called undercard debate, the first debate that will begin, followed by the main stage, the nine candidate debate. So this afternoon, throughout the course of the afternoon here, all the candidates will be coming through for a bit of a walk through, though this stage, just to get the lay of the land here.

But, you know, this is a critical time for all of these candidates. Governor Huckabee, of course, included. He has been on the main stage for some of the debates, but this time is -- he did not make the cut because of polling. So a critical moment for Governor Huckabee and all of the candidates tonight, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Jeff Zeleny for us there inside of the Venetian, where we are gearing up and we are ready for this CNN debate tonight, the final debate of -- final Republican debate of 2015.

I do want to look now at these live pictures that we're getting. This is Mike Huckabee, who Jeff Zeleny just spoke with, former Arkansas governor. Someone who actually just lost his communications director, which has left a lot of speculation ongoing about really what that means for the future of the campaign, especially as he is going to be participating in the undercard debate and he struggled to really -- to get himself to the main stage.

I want to go now to Sara Murray. She's there inside of the -- she's there inside of the auditorium there in the Venetian where these walk- throughs, these candidates are having a chance of get a little bit of the lay of the land for what is a huge night for them.

Sara, what are you seeing?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right, Brianna, you can see Mike Huckabee, who is in here right now. And, look, this is a very stressful night for these candidates. They're coming up here. There's going to be an audience. It's a big platform and they know that. So you don't want to take any chances. So they go over everything from, you know, reconfirming how the debate rules work, to talking a look at the light to warn you when, you know, your speaking time is almost up. Even to, you know, where the bathrooms are and where you can read the questions that we might get from FaceBook contributors.

And if -- depending on the candidate, depending on the campaign, they place different levels of importance on this. Some candidates want to be really involved. They want to find -- you know, go over this with a fine tooth comb. We saw Marco Rubio in here a little bit ago and he was up here for quite a while asking questions. For other candidates, it's more important to get to the debate site at the last possible moment. Maybe even to skip the walkthrough all together because you don't want to psyche yourself up ahead of a big moment like this. So it just really depends.

But as you can see here, you know, Mike Huckabee going over lots of different things with our staff here in the debate -- in the debate hall.

KEILAR: Yes, and part of it, right, they're sort of learning the cues that they get for when time is going to run out so they can sort of make sure that they fluidly are able to deliver their answers. But also talk to us about Mike Huckabee, Sara, because he's someone who I think people are wondering, are we going to be seeing him for much longer? Will we see him in debates ahead of this final one of 2015?

MURRAY: You know, and that's a reasonable question. When you talk to his staff, they say he is in it. He has no reason to drop out, especially before Iowa. That's a state that he was able to win in 2008. But it is a big loss that he lost his communications director. She was a key part of this campaign. I think if you're -- if you're Mike Huckabee, I don't see a reason to get out before Iowa, especially given how much we've seen the polls change just in the last week or so.

There is a lot of jostling that happens in the last couple weeks leading up to this. And if you're someone like Mike Huckabee or even, you know, a Rick Santorum, you're someone who's won this state before, you might say, hey, look, this could break for me at the end. If people decide to abandon Trump, for instance, and if Carson keeps slipping, maybe that is ultimately something that could benefit me. And I have to imagine if you are Mike Huckabee, that's kind of what's going through your head, that your core evangelical base might still show up and, you know, surprise at the last minute.

KEILAR: All right, Sara Murray there in the debate hall for us. Standby, we will be coming back to you.

I do want to bring Jeff Zeleny back in and also show some of the pictures that we have from just a moment ago of Senator Marco Rubio doing his walkthrough there in the auditorium here at the Venetian in Las Vegas.

Jeff, talk a little bit about Marco Rubio and really what is at stake for him tonight? He's really trying to draw some contrast between himself and Ted Cruz, who's been surging in polls. He's trying to draw some contrast on national security.

ZELENY: He sure is, Brianna. I mean this is a -- a key moment for Marco Rubio as well. Senator Rubio has had very good debates throughout the course of the fall. He's, you know, been one of the strongest performers, consistent performers. But tonight the stakes are definitely higher for him and he has been drawing contrast with Ted Cruz specifically on his Senate voting record, on national security, on the NSA surveillance program. So I think of any of the sparring tonight, we talk a lot about Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the -- the two people I'm watching more than that is Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

You know, they're of the same age, of the same generation. They're both freshmen senators. And they're occupying a bit of the same space here. The rise of Ted Cruz in Iowa and across the country nationally in polls has taken a bit of thunder from Marco Rubio. So tonight is the night for Senator Rubio to try and gain some of that back, to try and gain some of that credibility.

Marco Rubio occupies himself in several lanes. Sort of the establishment lane, but also he's trying to tell voters that he's also in the outsider lane here. So I think Marco Rubio tonight, you know, is preparing to again show that he's ready to be president, I'm told his advisors say, but also draw some distinctions with Senator Cruz.

Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Jeff, stand by there for us.

I do want to bring in Athena Jones. She is also following this pre- debate drama as these candidates are coming in to the Venetian.

You are outside where they have been driving up. What have you seen, Athena?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brianna.

Well, so far we've seen Marco Rubio arrive. Also some Bush staffers who came to do, we believe, the walk-through in place of them. I asked Senator Rubio how he's feeling as he went into that walkthrough and he said he was good. I'm good is all he said very quick there.

Coming back out I asked, how important is it for him to do well in this debate. As you heard Jeff mention, he's performed strongly in all of the past debates. His aide have told me that, you know, they feel like going into tonight, why try to fix something that's not broken. So certainly they're hoping for another strong night.

I asked the senator himself, how important is it to do well. And he said, I'm looking forward to it and (ph) tonight will be great. So he seems to be feeling confident. But as you heard from both Jeff and Sara, this is a huge night. It's certainly stressful. It's why it's so important for these candidates to come in, get a look at the lay of the land. We know that Rubio will be standing between Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson. And just get a sense for how things are going to go tonight. So we're waiting to see who else arrives via this route.

Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Athena. Obviously, we have all angles covered here as the candidates are coming into the Venetian.

We are, at this point, about four and a half hours out from the CNN Republican presidential debate, the last of 2015, on national security. Very -- coming very much at a pivotal moment in the wake of two terrorist attacks, including one here in the U.S.

[13:29:44] We are going to have much more as we watch the candidates get their bearings here in the auditorium at the Venetian ahead of the debate. We'll be back in a moment.

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