Pentagon where they are holding a News Conference live from on the to give an update operations there in the fight against isis. This morning live from the pentagon, waiting for the briefing to begin with Stephen Norton on the work of the combined joint has force Operation Inherent result. Expected to start shortly. The hill reporting u. S. Military is drafting a new emeritus for isis war. Kristina wong reporting u. S. Military seeking to craft a new narrative for the work and see Islamic State in iraq and syria in part to push back on the growing perception that president obama does not have a strategy. Also on the dods website, the u. S. Department of defense writing them instructing isis targets in syria and iraq through this operation, inherent resolve u. S. Coalition military forces continuing to attack Islamic State, including five drone strikes in syria and 12 fighter strikes in iraq recently coordinated with the government there. Good morning and happy holidays, everybody. Morning. Can you hear us . I can hear you loud and clear. Without further a do, over to you, sir. Thank you very much. Good morning. It is great to see you all again. I hope you had a nice holiday weekend. A lot of us you were able to talk to our families and some even got to see the new star wars movie. Ive had a lot of news for you this morning and i like to talk about ramadi briefly before giving it overview of the rest of the battlefield. Mapsume we have our opening up, number one. As you saw yesterday, the Iraqi Security forces have achieved inseparable success in ramadi. Considerable success in ramadi. They have raised the flag in the downtown area. The clearance of the Government Center is a significant milestone and as a result of many months of hard work. The coalition conducted more than 630 airstrikes and july with more than 150 occurring in the last months alone. We trained several of the iraqi army brigades, c. T. S. Units and police units who fought there, provided specialized Engineering Equipment to clear ieds, a floating bridge to help get, power into downtown ramadi, and partnered with the iraqis to get advice and assistance at multiple iraqi army headquarters. I would like to show you our video of the c. T. S. Raising the flag, the iraqi flag, over the anbar provincial government headquarters yesterday. Please, rolled a video. Roll that video. Do we have the video . Ok, looks like we dont have the video so i will keep pressing. The video is coming up. This falls into the awkward silence category. Ok, tom, if you could bring up the ramadi map next. The ramadi map, our heirs the isf have cleared, the unshaded areas have not yet been cleared. Now we go back to the opening map. We have several close fights ongoing that i will highlight for you today. In sinjar, star number three on your opening map, we continue to keep relentless pressure on isil. When i file lost sinjar last month, they also lost the ability to use highway 47. They were forced in are much slower secondary roads through the desert south of sinjar. On december 25 and 26th, we conducted a series of strikes on the secondary roads in order to further degrade isils ability to move fighters and supplies the between iraq and syria. Lets take a look at one of the airstrike videos so you can see what im talking about. Lets try the second video. Go ahead and roll the second video. To syria, in tashrin, star number eight to the north successfully captured the dam late saturday evening post up lets take a quick look at that area. Pull up the map. This is the first time you have seen this map, so let me quickly orient you to it. Aleppo is to the left, one. Two is at the center of the pocket that we sometimes have spoken about. The tashreen dam is number three and raqqa is in the far righthand lower of your screen. The dam is a hydro electric them that sits about 56 miles east of aleppo. Enabled by nearly 26 airstrikes over the last several days, rapidly advanced to seize the dam, which isil had held since november 2012. Losing this dam is significant because it denies isil an important majestics route between the manage pocket and raqqa. During the fourday offensive to capture the dam, they liberated more than 10 villages and 235 square kilometers. While coordinating strikes that killed over 100 enemy combatants. As i have briefly highlighted, this has been a busy week. As i mentioned before, in addition to our tactical operation, we are also striking at the head of the snake by hunting down and killing isil leaders. Over the past month, we have killed 10 leadership figures with targeted airstrikes, including several external attack planners, some of whom are linked to the paris attacks and others had designs on further attacking the west. This is a long list that i will quickly run through. Tahir,mber 7, we killed and external operations facilitator that was killed near with, syra, associated command and control as well as the handling of transferring of money and equipment. Alweis. Ecember 7, cookbookemir of province listrkuk. Iedecember 8, and isil facilitator was killed. His death will disrupt their ability to conduct ied attacks near kirkuk. December 9, the coalition killed abu jadat. Mols deputy finance emir in sul, and his death will burden them to find a replacement. December 9 also, the coalition emir insils deputy kirkuk. It disrupts their ability to train, command, and maintain fighters in the province. Syrianbasedthe been with as she does bangladeshi was killed. He was an external operations is educated as a Computer Systems engineer in the United Kingdom and he supported isils hacking efforts, their antisurveillance technology, and the weapons development. Now that he is said, isil has lost a key link between the networks. Sayid feris mohamed was in isil commander and executioner, killed near his base of operations. ,ecember 26 him a abdul hakeem another isil external operations facilitator was killed in mosu l, a veteran fighter and forgery specialist and had links to the paris attack network. He was part of isils external Operations Group who enabled attacks against western targets. His death removes an important facilitator with many connections in europe. 27, another external operations facilitator was killed near mosul. And last but not least, this is in was adline, muda syrianbased isonumber with a abaaoud. Nk to he was killed december 24 and was actively planning additional attacks against we will continue to hunt isil leaders inspireworking to attacks against the United States of america and our allies. That said, i will take your questions. Whoevers manning the shop for the associate a press, we will start with you. Thank you for doing this, steve. Can you give us a few more details on tuesday . One, do you have any Additional Details on the death of this isaiah leader who had a direct isil leader who had a direct link to the paris attackers, the one killed on the 24th . And just on ramadi, can you give onsome better granularity any casualties, the number of casualties that the iraqis suffered from any casualties on the enemy side and how many you believe may still remain in and around ramadi as they move to clear it out . Not too many Additional Details to present. He was killed in airstrike in syria, and that is really as far as we are going to go on him for now. Hopefully, as time goes on, we are able to develop some other things and will be up to get some more information out. On ramadi, tom or jeff, pull up that map. I will get it here in front of me so i can speak of it. Casualty counts are generally low. We dont have exact numbers of casualties for the Iraqi Security forces. They keep those numbers. But generally speaking, our sense is the numbers have been low, in the low double digits if that. 10, 20. But i dont have a good i dont have a good account of that. The numbers remaining. They are small. We dont have a good head count of the enemy in ramadi. But we do believe is the capability is reduced. We think less about numbers and more about what they can do. We dont think the remaining push the the oomph to Iraqi Security forces off of their positions. That said, there were several counterattacks today, small, generally take the form of baby with heavy machine gun or maybe with a heavy machine gun or rpg. We have not seen this enemy able to mass any type of combat, any type of real combat power in any ape of effort to conduct counterattack. It doesnt mean it is impossible, just means we havent seen yet. We believe the majority of the enemy has been dispersed in a smaller pockets. Many of move north and east in fact, you can see on the map this area we refer to as the euphratesn, where the river goes north and entrance quickly south. Were seeing a lot of them flow that way. Loading up families into their cars. We dont know if it was their family their own families or others. We think it was their families. They will load them up and the cars and move them into the sharks fin area. We will eventually get them rooted out of there as well. As far as downtown ramadi area, we have not seen significant combat power. I hope you will provide us with the list that you read from because i did not get all of these spellings, the names that you pronounced. Two questions about that, you mention one of the leaders was killed in an airstrike. Were any of these isil leaders will direct action on the ground i the u. S. Or other forces . Two, the broader question, every time we hear about leadership being killed, whether it is isil or the taliban or al qaeda, it is always unclear what actual effect that has on the ability of the group to operate. You know, you mention all of these killings and mentioned they were important for whatever reason, that can you quantify at all this continued erosion of the isil leadership . What will affect is that having on the ground in terms of defeating isil . Question. So all of the 10 names i read were all killed by airstrikes. I dont have the listing of what platform conducted each strike. Many of these are conducted with predators or other unmanned vehicles, but not exclusively. So i dont have the breakout, but they were all done from the air. How do these leadership strikes affect the enemy. In several them ways. First and foremost, i think any organization that sees its middle and upper management degraded in this way is going to lose some of their synergy. It is difficult to command and control and organization without a command control personnel. That leader is to facilitate the ability to your conduct activities goes down. And i think weve seen some of that on the battlefield, right . The seen the string successes begin to pile up, right . We saw takrit and sinjar, the kurdish flag pushed toward kirkuk significantly through the fall and now ramadi across the border of syria, strikes in the syria,der area of iraq, and jordan. Were seeing now the dam. Part of those successes is a charitable to the fact attri butable to they are losing their leadership. We are striking at the head of the snake. We have not severed behead of the snake yet, and it still has fangs. We have to be clear about that. Theres much more fighting to do. Theour ability to dismantle facilitation networks, our ability to dismantle the command ground and control, our ability to take away some of their enforcers, executioners, and extortionist that eats away and instills fear is away at their ability to extort money from the population, which of course, reduces their funding. So all of these various factors add up to a key militant effect. I think weve seen that affect with our successes. If i could go on for a moment, the other piece, several of these strikes were external attack planners. These are individuals who are specifically working to strike the west. They want to strike in europe. They want to strike in our very own homeland. It is important that people understand that as long as those external attack planners are operating, the United States military will hunt them and we will kill them. Steve, i wonder if you can give an estimate when ramadi will be completely cleared. The army chief was over there last week. He was told by iraqi general they expected it to be completely cleared by midjanuary. I wonder if you agree with that assessment . And also, talk a bit about the importance of u. S. Airstrikes are in ramadi. There was an iraqi officer quoted as saying 80 of the effort in ramadi was due to american airstrikes. Well, i would agree probably a to percent of the effort i would agree with that iraqi officer who said that 80 of the effort in ramadi was due to Coalition Airstrikes. I think that is a fair assessment. We dont kind of keep those numbers. It is more just instinct and feel. But i would not argue with that. The airstrikes of insignificant. We believe over the last six strikesin the over 600 which translates to over 2500 different targets that destroyed, you know, 70 truck bombs, almost 300 other enemy structures,arly 800 400 various types of weapons. This is significant. This is what really facilitated toenabled the Iraqi Forces Move in. And this is how modern warfare is, by the way. This is no different than any army should fight. Using that air power. How long will it take them to clear the rest of ramadi . Too soon to tell, tom. There are still some really there are two steps. Number one, eliminate the remaining enemy. Number two, reduce the obstacles, these ieds, the boobytraps, the entire house is that had been rigged to blow. This will take a while because any house could be rigged to blow. So as the iraqi forces are trying to dismantle these various boobytraps, they still have to be on the lookout for the remaining bands of isil fighters. It will be a process. Im not one to put a timehonored, tom, because it will be wrong. And it will take some time, i will tell you that much. [indiscernible] the u. S. Landed forces in the area of kirkuk. To confirm or deny . These reports are fantasies. I dont know where they come from, presumably, they come from individuals who want to try to drive a wedge between the u. S. Coalition and the government of iraq. It is ludicrous. If were going to put some forces somewhere, if were going to conduct a raid summer, were going to do that and complete coordination with the iraqi government. Period. My name is john heinz. Thank you, steve, for the information. I was wondering if you could comment on the willingness of the soldiers just an incorporation with a golden brigade and the iaea a little bit. I think the iraqi army is willing to fight is pretty well displayed in this ramadi map. Having seized the cap and cleared the neighborhood, having seized the Palatine Bridge and the anbar operation center, and now downtown ramadi. I think their actions because in any words that i could produce. But keep in mind, all of this is done in conjunction with this devastating air power able to deliver across this battlefield. Iraqi forces work well together. The Counterterrorist Service has been in the lead, in fact, most of these sites. The 10th Iraqi Division as the northern sector of their by the anbar. That was the 10th division. The rest was a mix of Counterterrorism Service and iraqi army conventional forces. Of there has been no issues these forces working together. On the strikes did the french, did they have any direct involvement in the strike that killed the paris facilitator . And then i have a ramadi followup. Tony, im not going to get into that little detail. The french certainly speak for themselves. I will tell you theres a Coalition Effort in everything that we do here. And i will leave it at that. What is the role of the sunni militia what has been the role . Have they been attacking or basically Holding Ground . And can you give a sense of how american training is played out in terms of what you and the army would call combined arms operation in this offensive . Important question. Theres been a lot of discussion ive seen in the news about the sunni fighters. I will take a little bit about that. We have enrolled about 8000 sunni tribal fighters in the program. Of those, we are about 5000 of them. Works, theytraining come into a training location for Iraqi Security forces provided direct training. There are overseen by american forces. Providingn forces guidance, advice, and assistance to iraqi Army Trainers who are training sunni tribal fighters. The training consists of some training in a garrison environment. The sunni tribal fighters then move over to the front line, if you will, where they cycle through the battlefield. Usually one to two weeks. They then come off the front line, returned back to the training site to finalize their what is, figure out going on on the front line. And now we have a train sunni tribal fighter who will be used holdingy as part of the stabilization forces. Theyre beginning to cycle through where there really at the planning phase now, getting these trouble fighters cycled into downtown ramadi where they ofl form sort of the bedrock the holding force in ramadi. Does that answer your question . A number of commentators have said sunni trouble fighters have gone in to basically the fight. You get a lot of commentators saying that. That is not what i get from you. Theyre basically going in after the iraqis have taken the Iraqi Military has taken the territory. Right. The sunni tribal fighters, as they cycle through small groups for short series of time, they were not a significant player in a frankly, and the seizure of ramadi. They will be Significant Players in the stabilization and the holding of ramadi, but up until now, their presence, while every man counts, every rifle matters, they have not had a large enough presence to make much of a difference. Combined arms aspect . How do you view training . Thank you for that. I think it is been very important. What weve seen, i believe, thathing of a validation training works. Some say the army l a time, and we of seen it once again on the ground. Remember, the iraqi army that we left in 2011 was an army that had been trained for counterinsurgency. That means checkpoint operations, ied reduction, that type of work. What the iraqi army that was ased in 2014 counterinsurgency. They were not prepared and they were not trained and they were not ready for a conventional fight, conventional assault that and brought to mosul beyond. The last year has been a process every constructing, rebuilding, and refitting the iraqi army. So now, they are outfitted with modern american equipment,odern conventional training and of course, supported by this devastating air power. What are some exact examples. Number one, probably the most crossing. The train theto iraq to iraqi bridging battalion of how to do bridging operations. This is complex. This is grownup work. This is advanced warfare. I dont know that we have seen a bridging operation in the middle east conducted by middle east armies since the 1970s. So this is advanced warfare, advanced technique at any rate. They use those techniques to bridge the canal, a canal off the Euphrates River, gain a foothold in southern ramadi, and pushed into the center of town. Additionally, we have seen some good work in the combined arms breaching set. The iraqis in an effort to breach the ied minefields that isil has set up along the southern approaches into downtown ramadi. Again, this is advanced work. This is using the principles of secure, obscure, reduce obstacles. All of this has come with the plan. The last piece is probably the integration of air and ground. The iraqis now have functioning f16orce, which includes possible step we assume the iraqis able to integrate their air with their ground. Integration of Coalition Air underground, which is really we have much larger role in that. So all of these pieces, the bridging, obstacle reduction, training, increment has all come together here in ramadi. But again, i think it is really important to keep in mind that we still have a fight ahead of us. Osul is a big, big city and it is when you take a lot of effort. It will take more training, more equipment and it will take patience. Two of ramadi. On the attack phase, remus a patch is used . I know they been used for the ramadi campaign. Any commanders or u. S. Ground forces assisting the attack on ramadi . Describe the state of ramadi right now, cannot function as a city, infrastructure, water, sewer . As the sunnis moved in, will they be mostly in a policing role . Will that be a ring around that to ensure that isis doesnt end up moving back into ramadi after the fact . So there were no u. S. Ground forces involved in any way, shape, or form in the fight for ramadi. There were no apache helicopters, no attack helicopters of any type. The only coalition, the only u. S. Involvement in the fight for ramadi has been the delivery of air power and the training of iraqi soldiers and advising and assisting the Iraqi Security forces from their headquarters in off the top. Thats it. , stilltus of ramadi now a little early to tell. Theres been significant damage done to that city, i will say right now. That is just the natural result of modern combat. There is significant damage to the city. And it will take time to rebuild it. The we do know that both United States of america and the coalition have pledged millions of dollars for the reconstruction, the rebuilding ramadi. ,e expect we will begin to see was the security situation is stabilized enough, the International Community come in with humanitarian relief efforts. This is all part of the stabilization and reconstruction plan the government of and bar is now working very closely with the iraqi Central Government to finalize and coordinate with the United Nations and other aid agencies so the moment that city is secure, get the needed help, get the money flowing, and get the reconstruction going. Just a followup on where the sunni will be sunni forces be inside the interior of the city and a policing role and still and a protective ring to prevent isis returning . So it will be the sunni tribal fighters along with the police, the federal and local police who will provide the security and stabilization for ramadi. It is up to the iraqi secured he forces how they will flirt her deployed further deploy and further use their forces. Right now we envision the Iraqi Security forces moving to other battlefields. Hi, steve. Sorry, i kind of have a cold. On the u. S. And ramadi, are there any advisers in there now in any place are they anywhere closer to helping the Security Forces . Does were some ports reports yesterday of isis leaving ramadi as the iraqi secured he forces started moving into the Government Center. s in arean the shark or whatever to the river, but are they actually leaving the city and going to other cities like solutia or moving west or do you have any insight into that . Ive one question after that. There are no u. S. Forces located anywhere other than no u. S. Ground forces located anywhere other than takatum. That is where the Ground Forces were that were advising and assisting iraqi forces as they conducted this fight. The enemy so, i think the few that remain alive, and i think those numbers are relatively small, are moving mostly into the sharks fin area north and used. Onesies and twosies slip through. The rest are dead. There is still no u. S. Anywhere outside of takatum your ramadi at this point . Even today . U. S. Forces are only in takatum. The one about the guy killed on the 24th in the airstrike, you said he was actively planning attacks against the west. Did any of those occlude include attacks against the u. S. Homeland or with a broader against europe . I dont have that level of detail for release. Were just going to say the west. It is important to note that all of these terrorists had eventual designs on attacking the United States. Lets be clear about that. That is what they want to do. Attackas the stages of planning, were not going to get into those details yet because we want to preserve some of our options to continue striking these terrorists. Thank you. There are some reports that 400 people are in the ramadi government conflict with the iraqi forces. Do you have any information on that . And in the lead up to this assault, he talked about civilians within the city, where are they now . Are they secure . Have they fled . Where have they gone . Are 400 civilian citizens that have come to the Ramadi City Center to seek shelter. Iraqi Security Forces have received them and are doing the right things as far as settling them down and in ministering to them. You broke up on the second part of your question. In the lead up to this assault, you talked a lot about the civilians inside the city. Where are they now . You are talking about presumably more than 400. Had they fled . Are they so more secure . Where are they now that the city has been mostly taken back by isf . It is too soon to tell. Presumably, some left and others went into hiding. Again, keep in mind, you see on your ramadi map, there is still bits of ramadi that the Iraqi Security forces have not yet had a chance to clear. That is the area not shaded. The point there south of the anbar center in and moving east. So this area all has to be still cleared as the Iraqi Security forces move into these neighborhoods, they will likely be some resistance. And the like. S, as theyre doing that, they will be looking for civilians who are andiding or are being held administered to their needs as well. We dont really have a good count at this point of how many remain in the city. [indiscernible] isf are running into or the ieds and rigged houses and then, second question, the video of the flag being raised, do you think that will be released today . I think youre trying to show that to us earlier. Can reset it and we can close that with the flag being raised. Yeah, it will all be posted on the website. The boobytraps that we see, the isil forces setting, home and explosives so home and explosives. They get their hands on fertilizer and other chemicals that can be combined into make expose of charge. Some are with captured military equipment they have captured over the years, whether it is in will ormosul, and they fashion us military quitman into improvised explosive devices, we call them ieds. They will use these in various ways, tripwire, sometimes pressure points. They will use these devices so theuried underGround Forces cant see them as their approach, often inside of the house, and they will either be a tripwire or a pressure plate somewhere in the vicinity of that house, which when triggered will cause the entire house to detonate. Kind are some of the of what were seeing here in ramadi. Kernel, at their peak, how many isis fighters occupied ramadi . Difficult to know. We think at points of probably was as high as 800 to 1000. As any force does, they will when theo as of Iraqi Security forces crossed to enter southern ramadi, we believe at that point there was maybe 250 to 350 left in a center of town. Since then, we have killed at least 100 of them from the air. So the numbers continue to reduce. You are going to continue to see that as the iraqis learn how to conduct offensive operations, what happens is, as offensive operations place pressure on an enemy, they will cause that enemy to have to move. As soon as they move, they then make themselves a target for american and Coalition Air power. Whereput isil in the spot it can stay where it is and get shot, or get up and move and be bombed which is a tough choice to make, but always ends up with the same result. Did any shia militias take part in any of this operation to clear ramadi . There were no shia militias forlved in this operation ramadi. Primarily, we see the shia militia operate more in the tigris river valley. Some in the Euphrates River valley as well. Primarily, and the tigers tigris river valley. In ramadi come exclusively and iraqi army and c. T. S. Fight. In fallujah, primarily iraqi army primarily. The vast majority is iraqi army. Ut maybe not completely it is in the tigris river valley the pmf operating. Steve, im wondering if you could tell me if you see or have heard reports of any type of follow on insurgency Style Campaign from isis and its sympathizers in the gray shaded areas the ia has cleared . Are you seeing evidence of that or do you have any expectation or concerns about that, or do you think this is going to be a and willear win clearlys guys out entirely . Clear these guys out entirely . It is a little early to tell right now. We can certainly we have to and should expect to see some type of guerrilla insurgency operations. Frankly, there arent many left even to conduct those operations. You have to remember, the approach we have taken here has really put isil in a tough spot. It is operationalizing in the battlefield. So as we have pressured ramadi, as we have rooted out the entrenched enemy there, there isultaneously pressure being put against this enemy everywhere. So for them to be able to move forces around and conduct these operations, it becomes more difficult. It is like a fighter. The way you win a fight is through commendation punches, right . You throw multiple punches. That is what you are seeing us do against this enemy to whether hall, sinjar, al ramadi, bombs and mosu, whether it isl striking the leadership targets or taking away their ability to make money through operation tidal wave, it is this smothering pressure that is beginning to build on this enemy that causes them is causing them real trouble. Givingi dont want to be a bad impression. This is a big enemy. We still have capability. He is still spread throughout theseperating area, but combination punches we are throwing our beginning to take effect. Colonel, he said the iraqi consul dues were in low double digits. You said the iraqi casualties were low double digits. Ad they put up the type fight expected . You talk about the leadership, but overall, what has the u. S. ,ir campaign, including isis the searing Ground Forces, done since the overall strength of the Islamic State fighting force . Yeah, so, you know, the overall strength of the fighting force, we still estimate someone to be between 20000 and 30,000. So this is something we have to deal with. I forgot the first part of your question. In ramadi is so you said the casualties for the iraqi army was low double digits. Did the Islamic State militants inside ramadi not put up the type of ferocious fight you had been expecting. It was tough finding. There was tough fighting, particularly in the last week when the Iraqi Security forces crossed the bridge and moved north into the city center. Hard we saw real hard fighting, but it was ineffective, right . The Iraqi Security forces had the unparalleled ability to place pressure on this enemy and suppressed them. Case, theyres becoming much more well trained and are experienced now, so they know how to fight. Wasreally, this overmatched. They couldnt withstand the pressure. Hi, david smith. No, he is talking. Sinjar we had overwhelming combat power amongst the peshmerga in the mountains, pushed south off that mountain into sinjar, we sell the same thing in effect. You asked me the same exact question. Tall. Re not 10 feet these guys are not that tough. Theyre not any tougher than any other fighter out there. Iraqi securityn forces or any other forces are able to use final middles of warfare to bring pressure to bear on this enemy, they will crack and they will collapse. So next question. David smith of the guardian. Are there any estimates of civilian casualties in the battle of ramadi . Prisoners taken and you have a number for that and do we know what will happen to them . And one last question, this goes back to your list of isil people who have been killed. You mentioned one man who is from bangladesh, educated in the u. K. Do you have any more details of him, particularly, his age or long all good questions. An force like, im going to disappoint you. We do not have an estimate on civilian casualties yet. I have not received a report on isil prisoners. That is a fair question. I have not seen much reporting of isil, prisoners being taken. Some surrendered earlier on and kind of cross the lines as they got scared, relies the inevitable was coming they would frankly desert or quit. They moved into Iraqi Security force control and were processed accordingly. One highvalue target who in theled, educated u. K. , i dont have any more info on him. Other than what i put out. This guy was a hacker. She lets them of their hacking programs. He also facilitated development of weapons and some of their surveillance techniques. You talked about some of the specialized equipment that was used by the iraqis, trained by the u. S. Could you talk about that as it was used to try to get out at the ieds . And was at the same u. S. Unit that helps them with that bridge across the canal . Also, colonel, or you running the complexes that happened evident in other locations . Lastly, part of the specialized equipment, did they have use of line charges to get rid of some of the ieds . The specialized equipment, to her most notable, number one, the line charges. The Iraqi Security forces did line charge as they try to reach the southern defensive belt that isil has set up. Successful execution of it. The other notable piece of mutual agreement, armored bulldozers. Within about 21 forward after the Iraqi Security forces they use these armored bulldozers to do two things. One, to try to push minefields or ladies out of the way. Most important, they will use them for rapidly built up berms on the side of an advancing unit. This enemy likes to try to bring truck bombs or we call them vbids, around and into the flanks of attacking forces. Combine arms tnakser, using mobility, will provide tanks will provide security. They will shoot down at anything that moves down the street while the armored bulldozers built up berms on either side of the road which will prevent these truck bombs from coming in and striking flanks. They will advance that way with tanks, m1s, others bringing protection and the armored bulldozers providing the mobility in this case, counter mobility, by erecting berms on either side of the road them from being attacked on the flanks. ,e destroyed many tunnels used not significant effect, obviously, because the iraqis seesable to come in and the government complex. The tunnel that seem to be a problem is iraqis will go through the process of patrolling and clearing these neighborhoods. They will have to be on the lookout for these tunnels. These are areas where the enemy can hide. This is where the enemy can move around and reposition if there is a small firefight. So the titles continue to be something that the iraqis need to keep their eye on. Our pilots and travelers have learned a lot about tunnels and how to identify them from the air. We strike them whenever we see them as well. You had about seven questions. Was anything else . The unit, the u. S. Engineering unit that helped with this . 814th out of louisiana trained the battalion on how to employ and construct what we bridge. Improved ribbon i have a video of that bridge on my twitter feed, so check it out. Again, the iraqis used that to good effect and allow them to move combat power from the south to the north, gain a foothold in the southern portion of the city, and eventually move forward into the city. Thank you. There is a lot of talk, especially from the iraqis, that retaking mosul. Im wondering if the iss will first tackle fallujah, and in the isolation phase in fallujah. Im wondering if you could expand what that means . Second, how many sunni forces actually participated in ramadi and whether there are enough in this fight to retake foley show or anbar or other sunni areas in iraq . Anbar or fallujah or other sunni areas interact . Good questions. A most important thing to keep in mind some of the fight for mosul started a year ago. We began shaping fires, and is continue. The fight for mosul continues. As we attacks out from sinjar and seized sinjar mountain, that country david does contribute it of mosul. Zure it further isolates mosul. It further restricts this enemys ability to resupply themselves. So the fight for mosul is ongoing. Right now we are in the shaping phase. We continue to cut out various supply lines and capabilities. The fight for fallujah is ongoing. The Iraqi Security forces are approaching it from three directions. There are the isolation phase of that operation, which if you recall, we were in the isolation phase of ramadi for several months. We are the isolation phase. That is where the attacking forces positions itself all the way around the city adverse locations along the primary avenues in and out of the city. They build a fire and essentially they encircled the city come almost like a boa constrictor, and they will then squeeze in closer and closer into that city until eventually they are able to finally clear the same tactics that applied to ramadi apply in falluja. We do not have a timeline yet. The enemy does get a vote, so we have to see how the fight goes. Does that answer all your questions . Any tribal forces . There are like 90,000, so im wondering if there are enough to enoughal if there are tribal forces now to be effective . Col. Warren there has been enough to be effective in ramadi. As Success Builds on itself, i suspect we will see more of these tribal forces begin to come together. We think there is enough combat power out there to get the job done. Here. Uick speed round we are about out of time. There have been a number of photographs released in recent providing medical support for iraqi casualties as they are coming back from ramadi. Can you provide any kind of clarity on what kind of support they are providing. I guess more broadly as the casualties add up like this. Two things before i answer that, it turns out we have the flag waving a video cued up. Before we close out, we will play that. There is a Forward Surgical Team that provides level one stabilization care, the golden hour before casualties are evacuated. Question about northern syria. There seemed to have been a significant number of strikes there in the last couple of days and i wonder if you could expand on the strategy there. Are the strikes there designed to further mp isis and their move into turkey . Have any of the u. S. Special forces been involved in the operations there . Most of these strikes you are reading about are in support of the dam operation. I mention the strikes killing over 100 enemies as the Syrian Democratic forces were able to seize the dam. Have you seen any number but how many isis fighters may have melted back into the population . Are there any numbers at all on that . Unfortunately, we dont have good numbers on that. It is something we are keeping an eye on. As this enemy begins to feel pressure, it stands to reason they may adopt guerrilla tactics. I do not have good numbers on that. We have had a very significant effectiveness of our air power as we really killed a lot of bad guys here. But that does not mean we wont see some sort of insurgent Cell Development cell developed. The sunni tribal fighters are the best offense the competent locals who understand the neighborhoods in town and are much more able to counter these types of insurgent campaigns. Lets roll the video. Col. Warren there you have the first iraqi flag to fly on the Government Center building since may. That was a proud day for the iraqis and we are proud of them for their efforts and we will continue on with this partnership. With that, i will see everyone next week. By thethat video taken u. S. . Col. Warren that was taken by an american drone. Thank you, everybody. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] warren,ning to colonel saying that airstrikes have killed and isis leader who had ties to the leader of the attacks in paris. You can find all the remarks in our Video Library at cspan. Org. Our road to the white house continues with Hillary Clinton holding a 10 all meeting in New Hampshire talking about Economic Issues and her record on behalf of working families. Hallry clintons town meeting is scheduled to begin at 1 00 eastern time. We will take your calls afterwards. Q a on heroday, the only family internment camp during world war ii, examining a camp that housed japanese, italian, and german detainees. And a look at the entertainment figures including lgbt rights and religion in america. Here is a look. When ie was a time thought it would be impossible to be out. 18 months ago, with the help of your love and support, i shared my story. And everything changed for me. Im still feeling the effects of that moment today. I know how lucky i am to be in this position. I acutely remember the pain i was in before i was out. I have been able to experience a lot of things for the first time in the last year and a half. [applause] arms wrapped around my girlfriend, samantha, while we walked down the street. [applause] holding her hand on the red carpet, kissing her in the ocean while he served. Serve,e has taught me to and getting to say in public that i am in love. Just some of the of vents. Ith ellen page thats tonight at 8 00 eastern time. More from the campaign trail with a donald trump rally in hilton head, south carolina. We will have live coverage here on cspan. Three days of feature programming here on cspan Law Enforcement officials, activist and journalist examine the prison system and its impact on minority communities. The first and primary reason we have prisons is to punish people for antisocial behavior and to remove that threat from society. To keep us safe whether they are deter future crime. The primary purpose of the prison system is for people who are not interested, to keep society say from the threat imposed by those folks. That saturday night, a Race Relations townhall meetings. Begins. Is where it they get the job saying i am protecting the public. Public is of the those who gave their marching orders and that is us. Andalk about transparency we need to look at the rules and start using to engage in our community. A and sunday evening, discussion on Media Coverage of muslims and how they can join the conversation. Then young people from across the United Kingdom gather in the house of commons to discuss issues that are important to them. It leaves young people feeling disdained and the solution. As a child, i cannot wait to experience the train journey. Seenwe grow up, we have trains lose their smiley faces and we forget to notice the swishing and the honking and worry whether we can afford the bus to school tomorrow. For our complete schedule, go to cspan. Org. Berniecratic candidate sanders held a campaign yesterday in north las vegas. He addressed a wide range of issues, including the economy, Climate Change and health care. He criticized donald trump and others for dividing the nation. [applause] sanders las vegas, thank you very much. This is a fantastic turnout and i think you all for being here tonight. Let me think you for those very generous introductions. Let me tell you a little bit about what this campaign is about. Reno and metwas in a woman in her early 30s. She is a single mom. She makes 10 and . 45 an hour is paying off student debt. In my state, i have talked to Senior Citizens who art trying to survive on 13,000 the year and are cutting their Prescription Drug pills in half. I have talked to young kids who graduated high school who want to stand up on their own two feet and are unable to find a job at any way to. And i have talked to College Graduates who are finding it impossible to find work commensurate with their education. Meanwhile, while the middle class of this country disappears, while millions and millions of people are working longer hours for lower wages while single moms are trying to figure out how they can bring in , almost all of the wealth created in America Today is going to the top 1 . With this campaign is about is playing loudly and clearly, enough is enough. [applause] ours andt country of our government have got to represent all of the people and not just a handful of years. Before i get into the rest of my remarks, i want to say a few words about our campaign, which is a very different type of can pain than other campaigns, republicans or democrats, are running. When i began this campaign eight months ago, it is fair to say we were at about 3 in the polls. Political organization. We had no money and much of the media considered our campaign a fringe candidate. Bernie sanders, he combs his hair nicely and is a welldressed candidate [laughter] but is not going to go far in this campaign. Experts said the something which i think has a lot of truth to it. Run a are going to National Campaign in todays world, you need to raise tens and tens of millions of dollars. The only way they said you can raise that money is to have a super pac and go to the millionaires and billionaires and beg for money. That is what they said. Its the only way. [applause] what they said is the way modern politics is run, and it is true. People do not do meetings like this. They spend their lives going to mention zone by millionaires, sitting down was very wealthy house andaving the putting ads on tv. Thats a modern campaign. We decided to do something very different. The interestesent of the billionaire class for Corporate America. [applause] i do not want their money, and we decided to do it a very different way. We said to the working families of this country that we need a Political Revolution in this country, and you will have to help us make that happen. Really amazing and something i would not have dreamed i would have been able to tell you eight months after this campaign. Months, over eight 2. 3 million individual contributions have come into our campaign. [applause] 2. 3 million. Thats more individual contributions than any campaign in the history of the United States. [applause] so what we have shown the you can run a, Winning Campaign without baking millionaires for money. [applause] proud that wey have hundreds of thousands of volunteers, including thousands here in nevada. I want to thank all of you who are helping out on the campaign. [applause] what this campaign is about is understanding some very important points that are not often discussed that is right now, no president , not Bernie Sanders, not anybody else will be able to transform our country to do the things the middle class and working families need unless we have a political unless millions of people get involved in the political process and away we have never seen before. [applause] the reason for that is that wall street and Corporate America and the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson and all of these really wealthy guys, they are so powerful in controlling the economic and political life of cannotuntry that we defeat them unless millions of people stand together. [applause] there are people standing out there, donald trump and others who are attempting to do what demagogues have always done. That is instead of bringing people together to address and solve the real problems that we face, what they tried to do is tap the anger and frustration people are feeling and divide us up. So we have a message to trump and all the others out there who want to divide us up. We are not going to hate latinos, were not going to hate muslims, we are to stand against it. [applause] we are going to stand together and address and solve the real issues facing this country. [applause] when we talk about the real issues, i have two caution you in this respect. Tv often, people turn on the and say that is the issue. What i hope you appreciate is the only people who determine what the real issues are are you. Tv, not what some producer believes. Degree, forcant obvious reasons, Corporate Media chooses not to focus on the real issues impacting working people. What we are doing in this campaign and the reason we are weing so much success is have spoken to over 400,000 people who have come to our rallies. [applause] is people for that want to be treated as intelligent human beings. They want to hear a real discussion of real issues and how we can go forward in transforming our country. When i talk about the real issues facing america, is not what youre going to see on tv tomorrow, but heres one of the issues at the top of my list. The United States today has more income and wealth inequality than at any time since 1928 and it is worse here than almost any major country on earth. This. You to hear youre not going to see it on tv. You may as well here it here. The top 1 10 of 1 in America Today now own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 . Not the top 1 , the top 1 10 of 1 . The 20n america, wealthiest people own more wealth than the bottom half of the american people. Family, america, one the Walton Family of walmart owns more wealth than the bottom 40 of the american people. In nevada, in vermont and all over this country, in order to , in order to bring in enough money or get some health insurance, people are working incredibly long hours. Workedhe United States the longest hours of any people in the industrialized world. The japanese are very hardworking people. We now work longer hours than the japanese. Despite the sweat, toil and stress millions of families are living under because they are working so hard, husbands dont see wives, mothers dont see their kids, because everyone is out working. At the end of the day, 58 of all new income generated is going to the top 1 . Bottom line is we have an economy that is rigged. Richer, get much corporations enjoy recordbreaking profits, and the middle class continues to disappear. Do together is create an economy that works for working families, not just billionaires. [applause] when we talk about our economy, income inequality and wealth. Once a month, the federal government publishes and unemployment report. Official unemployment nationally is about 5 . There is another report people are giving up looking for work and working parttime when they want to work fulltime. That number is close to 10 . Heres Something Else that is never discussed. I asked some economists to do a study for me and asked them to tell me what real youth unemployment was in this country for young people who graduated from high school. White kids between 17 and 20, real unemployment and underemployment was 33 . For latino kids, 36 . 51 . Fricanamerican kids, if there is anybody in this room who does not see a connection between this high rate of youth unemployment and the fact that more peoplee have in jail than any other country on earth, and you are missing a significant point. [applause] tell you what i think we have to do. Invest in jobs and education for our young people, not more jails and incarceration. [applause] here is my first promise to you. President irst term as , we will end the disgrace of having more people in jail than any other country on earth. [applause] we are going to put our kids into decent jobs and back into and, bynot into jails reform, we are going to a very broken criminal Justice System. [applause] , we are going to and institutional racism in this country. [applause] together, we are going to bring about real Police Department reform in this country. I was a mayor of the largest city in vermont and worked closely with the Police Department. Policet majority of officers in this country are honest and work hard at a very difficult job. But when a police officer, like any other public official breaks the law, that officer must be held accountable. We need to make Police Departments look like the diversity of the community they are serving. Militarize Police Departments so they do not look like invading armies. [applause] weve need to take a hard look ,t the socalled war on drugs which has ruined many lives in this country. [applause] right now, at the federal controlled substance act, marijuana is treated the same way as heroine. We can argue, and there is a lot of debate about the pluses and minuses of marijuana. But no sensible person thinks marijuana is equivalent to heroine. Introduced i have legislation to take marijuana out of the federal controlled substance list. [applause] the reason i have introduced that legislation is not to encourage anybody to smoke marijuana. You are laughing, but thats the truth. I smoked marijuana twice and all i did was coughed my guts out. It did not work for me. But i do understand other people have had different experiences. [laughter] point, and this is the serious point. Over the last many decades, millions of people have been arrested for possessing marijuana. Most of those people do not go to jail. But all of them get a Police Record and if you have a Police Record and you go out and try to get a job, it becomes more difficult. And the racial component of this, it turns out the black community and White Community do marijuana at about equal levels, but blacks are more likely to be arrested than whites. Done in is a lot to be reforming a very broken criminal Justice System. Our job is to provide opportunities for people so they do not get arrested. We have to make sure that people who are arrested doing nonviolent crimes do not spend time in jail. We have to make sure people who are arrested and are in jail, when they are released, have the education and job an opportunity to make it in civil society. [applause] there is a lot of work that has to be done. I just want to give you some aspect of criminal Justice Reform that needs to happen. Thatheres one simple fact everyone knows about but we do not talk about it. Thats the reason people are working incredibly long hours is wages in this country are too dam low. [applause] the federal minimum wage of seven dollars and . 25 an hour is a starvation wage. [applause] to raise the minimum wage to a living wage 15 an hour over the next few years. [applause] when we talk about fair wages, i hope every man in this room will stand with the women and fight for pay equity for women workers. [applause] there is no rational economic reason women are making . 79 on the dollar. That is oldfashioned sexism and we are going to change it. [applause] in nevada, you are going to see a lot of politicians running through your state because your state plays a very Important Role in the primary and caucus process. You are going to hear a lot of republicans talking about family values. They just love families. Meanou all know what they by family values. What they mean is that no woman in nevada or in america should have the right to control her own body. I disagree. [applause] what they mean by family values is the federal government should defund planned parenthood. I disagree. Family values by is that our gay brothers and sisters should not have the right to marry. I disagree. [applause] i have been married 27 years. Ive four grandkids got four kids and seven beautiful grandchildren. My wife and i believe very much in strengthening family life in america. But when i talk about family values, i talk about ending the International Disgrace of the United States being the only major country on earth that does not guarantee paid family and medical leave. [applause] it is not a family value i want you to think about this when a working class or low income woman has a baby today, she will be forced to separate herself from her baby after a week or two weeks because she has to go back to work to earn enough money to take care of her family. Value. Not a family thats the opposite of a family value. That is why together, we are going to establish three months of family and medical leave. [applause] there is Enormous Economic anxiety out there. People are so worried about whether they will have the job tomorrow or be able to find a job. 10 , youthoyment is unemployment is a lot higher than that. We need to create millions of decent paying jobs. Instead of firing teachers, we should be hiring teachers. [applause] we need to hire hundreds of thousands of people to go into childcare to provide our little kids with the best three k education in the world. When our infrastructure, car wastewater plants, airports and rail are deteriorating, we can create 13 million good paying jobs through a trillion dollar investment and i intend to do just that. [applause] it is not only a question of creating millions of decent ofing jobs, it is a question preventing the loss of decent paying jobs through disastrous trade policies. Right now, we have a set of , all of these trade policies were written by Corporate America in order for them to get the cheapest labor possible on this planet. Our message to Corporate America is the time is finished when you are going to shut down plants in america and move to china. You are going to reinvest in this country. [applause] when we talk about the economy, there is an elephant in the room that must be discussed and dissected. Greed ands that the recklessness and illegal behavior of wall street has done intelligible harm to the people of nevada and the people of america. [applause] i find it interesting and very telling about the nature of American Society and our criminal Justice System that you have young people who are caught possessing marijuana, they get a Police Record. And yet the ceos of wall street firms who have destroyed the lives of millions of people get away scott free. [applause] not only do we have a situation where we have banks that are too big to fail, we have bankers that are too big to jail. We are going to change that. [applause] are you ready for a really radical idea . Are a ceo of a large wall street firm, you are going to have to obey the law. [applause] the truth is after we bailed out wall street because the banks were too big to fail, three out of the four largest banks in america are bigger today than they were when we bailed them out because they were too big to fail. The largest six Financial Institutions issue two thirds of the credit cards and one third of the mortgages in this country. When you have a small group of people at Financial Institutions who have so much economic and , the time is now to break them up. [applause] when we talk about the major issues facing our country, there is one issue which is unique in that it impacts every other issue. , as a result of this Disastrous Supreme Court statesn, the United Campaign finance system has become corrupt and american democracy is being undermined. America, most of the campaigns, most of the candidates are receiving more support from super pacs funded by millionaires and billionaires than they are from their own fundraising efforts. , they say of iowa have the first caucus in the country. They are wrong. The first caucus was held here in nevada by Sheldon Adelson. Invite ahe did was number of republicans to tell him. Hat they will do for and if they say the right words, they get tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions. The Koch Brothers and a few of their friends, multi billionaires are per are prepared to spend 900 million on this campaign. Noters and sisters, this is democracy. This is a look our key and we are not going to allow that to continue. [applause] oligarchy and we are not going to allow that to continue. [applause] here is what we are going to do. What we are going to do is make it very clear that any Supreme Court nominee of mine will be loud and clear in telling this country that one of their first orders of business on the to vote tort will be overturn citizens united. [applause] way, when we talk society, wecratic are going to end the kind of Voter Suppression we are seeing from republican governors and legislatures all over this country. My message is to republican governors and legislatures, if you dont have the guts to participate in a free and fair election, get another job. [applause] in one way or another, either by a constitutional amendment or legislature, we are going to pass law that says in america, if you are 18 years of age or older, you are registered to vote, and of discussion. [applause] when we talk about what is going on in our country, i know every person in this room understands that we live in a very, very competitive global economy. And if our economy is going to do well today and in the future, we need the best educated workforce in the world. Within that context, it is beyond comprehension that in our country today, there are hundreds of thousands of wonderful and bright young people who have done well in school but cannot go to college. Or one reason and that reason is their families lack the funds. That is grossly unfair to those young people and it is absurd for the future of our country if we want to tap the best intellectual capabilities are people have. [applause] why i have introduced legislation in the senate and will make happen as president legislation that does two things. Publicit says every college and university will be tuition for a. Will be tuition free. [applause] that is obviously important for young people who are thinking of going to college. But it is much more important than that. Never up in a family that had a lot of money and my parents did not go to college. The people my Family Associated with did not go to college and thats the way life is. You have millions of kids today in the sixth and seventh grade whose parents never went to college, who dont know anybody who went to college and dont believe they will ever go to college. And i want these kids teachers and parents to know is that if they study hard and take school seriously, regardless of the income of their families, they will be able to go to college. [applause] but, not every kid wants to go to college. There are kids you want to do things with her hands, they want to be electricians, plumbers, carpenters. Deserve to learn those skills to go out and make it. And then, in terms of higher education, we have another absurdity we have millions of people and some in this room who are struggling with outrageously high student debt. [applause] raise your hand if you are dealing with student debt. 1000 month the young lady right here talking about paying a thousand dollars a month. 1000 a month. People all over this country just a few stories about how absurd and dangerous the situation is. I had a meeting in vermont on this issue. A young woman comes to the meeting and says i want to to medical school and i did. I wanted to practice primary care with low income people, which is exactly what we need. Pay,aid the price i had to the penalty i had to pay for being a doctor treating poor people is that i am 300,000 in debt. Of monthsowa a couple ago and said that and at the end of the meeting, woman comes up to me and says 300,000 in debt. Dental schooled was 400,000 in debt. Country, people are leaving college in debt, paying Interest Rates of 6 , 8 , 10 . In my view, if you can refinance your home today for 2 or 3 , why are we paying 8 or 10 on student debt . [applause] our legislation will allow people with student debt to refinance at the lowest Interest Rates they can find and not be stuck forever with high Interest Rates. I have been criticized by some freeay thats a nice idea, Public College and lowering student debt is expensive. Thats about 70 billion for year. Do you know how were going to pay for that . We going to pay for it with tax on wall street speculation. [applause] when wall streets greed and illegal behavior helped destroy this economy, the taxpayers of country bailed them out. Now it is their turn to help the middle class of this country. [applause] when we talk about our responsibilities as adults, there is nothing more important than leaving this planet to our in a waygrandchildren that is healthy and habitable. [applause] i am on both the Senate Environmental committee and energy committee. I have talked to scientists all over the world. The debate is over. Climate change is real. [applause] it is caused by human activity, and it is already causing devastating problems through out the world. View, pope francis is right when he said we are moving in a suicidal direction in terms of climate and the planet. Have a moral responsibility to lead the world and work with china, russia, india and other countries and transforming our Energy System away from fossil fuel to Energy Efficiency and sustainable energy. [applause] i have been told that here in nevada, your public utility is making it harder for people to install solar. Thats about the dumbest thing ive ever heard. [applause] easier andto make it toe affordable for people move to solar, wind and other sustainable energy. [applause] that, we cano weate millions of jobs as transform our Energy System. Let me connect the dots. I mentioned a moment ago about how corrupt our Campaign Finance system is and how it impacts every aspect of our lives. Let me give you one very clear example of that. Have a Republican Party today that with few exceptions refuses to even acknowledge the reality of Climate Change, let alone trying to transform our Energy System. The reason for that is very clear. The reason is one fundamental thing. If any republican candidate stood up and said Climate Change isael Climate Change real. On that day, that candidate would lose their funding from the Koch Brothers and the fossil fuel industry. [applause] that is the reality. I say to my republican colleagues, i understand that is a tough issue for you. But you have to be looking at the planet you are leaving your kids and your grandchildren. Have the guts to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and do the right thing. [applause] what this campaign is about and what i mean by a Political Revolution is not just involving millions of people in the political process, but it is also thinking big. Are the wealthiest country in the history of the world, but very few people know that because almost all of the wealth and new income is going to the people on top. Because we are the wealthiest country in the history of the world, if we get our priorities right, theres nothing we cannot accomplish. [applause] right now, there is one major country on earth, one industrialized country that does not guarantee health care to andy man, woman and child you are living in that country. View, the Affordable Care act has done some important things. Insurancevided health to some 17 Million People who otherwise would not have had it3. [applause] it has ended the obscenity called preexisting conditions. And it has done some other good things. But, at the end of the day, in America Today, 29 Million People have zero health insurance. Millions more, including many in this room, are underinsured with high deductibles and high copayments. Got millions of people dockable. 0 the they cannot afford to go to the doctor because they dont have enough money to do it. Meanwhile, we end up spending far more per capita on health care then do the people of any other nation. We spend almost three times per person what the british do, who guarantee health care to all of their people. Thane spending 50 more ingt the french do guarantee health care to all their people. I think maybe it is time to say loudly and clearly that in this country, we are going to guarantee health care to every man, woman and child. [applause] Bernie Sanders by the way. When we do that, were going to end the absurdity of the people in the u. S. Paying the highest prices for Prescription Drugs of any people on earth. [applause] when we talks about America Today, it is important to understand, especially now in the holiday season, when families are coming together, that there are 11 Million People in this country who are undocumented. And many of those people are living in fear, many of those people are worried about being deported. Many kids are worried about seeing their parents being deported. In my view, this country and our Congress Must pass comprehensive immigration reform. [applause] Bernie Sanders