San Bernardino County employees hold up photos of the San Bernardino shooting victims during a candlelight vigil on Monday, Dec. 7, 2015, in San Bernardino, Calif. The husband and wife who opened fire on a social services center last week had been radicalized "for quite some time" and had taken target practice at area gun ranges, in one instance just days before the attack that left 14 people dead, the FBI said Monday. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
We have new details this morning on the terrorists who killed 14 Americans and wounded another 21 in San Bernardino, CA in the worst terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
In a news conference yesterday, investigators confirmed , Syed Rizwan Farook, a 28-year-old county health inspector, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, had been radicalized. It’s unclear if it was by someone they knew, or on their own. Both had been training at gun ranges including as recently as several days before the attack. They were inspired, but not directed by ISIS according to the FBI. More than 300 interviews have already taken place in the investigation including family and friends of the couple.
Missy Ryan, Adam Goldman, and Abby Phillip writing today in the Washington Post, “The FBI was working Monday to confirm reports that Malik, who was born in Pakistan, had ties to Islamabad's Red Mosque, which is notorious for its connections to Islamic fundamentalism, an FBI official said. Mosque officials have denied any association with her.”
Dan Balz argues in the Washington Post today that terror is now the number one issue of the 2016 race, “Republicans see the president as a weak leader pursuing a failing strategy and who stubbornly refuses to call the enemy "radical Islamic terrorists." The president sees his Republican critics as purveyors of cheap bellicosity who lack effective alternatives to his policies and who are playing into the hands of jihadist recruiters by seeming to attack all Muslims. The president's speech Sunday night was one he was required to deliver and one that was likely to change few minds. His public remarks ever since the terrorist attacks in Paris last month have been off-key and lacking in persuasion.”
Donald Trump has ignited yet another major controversy with his comments that all Muslims should be forbidden from entering the United States. Trump saying he wanted a, "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on."
Trump’s comments denounced by Democrats and fellow Republicans. Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley saying Trump is "a fascist demagogue."
Jeb Bush said Trump is, “unhinged.”
Several campaign events we’re watching this morning including from Fiorina, Santorum, Cruz, Kasich, Bush and Sanders.
New polling suggests some momentum for Ted Cruz. He’s now leading in Iowa.. and Marco Rubio now targeting the fellow Cuban-American.
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