be a flat-out conflicting message from the president of the united states. on the one hand, he delivered a speech in warsaw where he called on russia to stop what he called their destabilizing activities in the ukraine and elsewhere. that s the strongest statement in some ways on that subject to date. quite deliberately seemed not to include election meddling as a destabilizing activity. that s a mixed message to say the least. no question one was a scripted speech, the speech itself, and the other, when he s in the press conferences he s speaking off the cuff. i think that might be part of the explanation there. but there is clearly something about election meddling. remember, the president, it took him some time to call out russia for activity in the ukraine and elsewhere. he s gotten to that point. i m sure his advisers have been briefing him on that, pubbi ing him in that direction. on the meddling, we know he s been briefed on that as well. he s seen the same intelligence that d
the president of the united states. on the one hand he delivered a speech in warsaw where he called on russia to stop their destabilizing activities. quite deliberately seemed not to include election meddling as a destabilizing activity. that s a mixed message to say the least. no question one was a scripted speech, the speech itself, and the other, when he s in the press conferences he s speaking off the cuff. i think that might be part of the explanation there. but there is clearly something about election meddling. remember, the president, it took him some time to call out russia for activity in the ukraine and elsewhere. he s gotten to that point. i m sure his advisers have been pushing him in that direction. on the meddling, we know he s been briefed on that as well. he s seen the same intelligence that director clapper and others have seen, but on that issue he has something stopping him from going public and definitive with that. and perhaps that means that it
who are taking the fight to isis in iraq and syria. and the president s deputy national security adviser ben rhodes said president obama feels a very personal connection to the special operations forces community and he wanted to go there and thank them. so he ll be meeting with those troops before delivering the speech later this afternoon. as for the speech itself, as you mentioned, the last major national speech on national security. he ll use it to sum up his administration s record on fighting counterterrorism and make the case for a continuation of the same approach. we expect to hear him talk about why it s important to close the prison at guantanamo bay, cuba. that s a campaign promise he was never able to fulfill. he ll also talk about why he believes the ban on torture should be maintained. he ll make the case for targeted approach to fighting terrorism. so using special operation forces, for instance, rather than carrying out the kind of large ground war we ve seen in
breaking news. that s right. on president obama s speech itself, i want to bring in correspondent jim acosta. what have you learned? anderson, i m told by white house officials and democratic officials that the president will push back on the rhetoric from republican candidates on the campaign trail in his state of the union address tonight, and it won t be hard to figure out who the president is talking about. in a memo on tonight s speech shared by a democratic source with cnn, the president has been struck by the, quote, doom and gloom peddled by republicans. the white house says president obama will instead offer an optimistic vision of the future, if compromise remains a dirty word in washington, we re told the president will say the louder more extreme voices will prevail. judging by what democratic and white house sources are telling us president obama will call on all american toss reject the politics of donald trump. it could be quite dramatic. we ll wait for that, jim.
put into the immigration issue. i m really impressed with your plan. i know it will make a difference and this crowd shows a lot of people agree with that. reporter: sessions even out put on the make america great again hat for a very brief moment while he was on stage. as for trump s speech itself, he did not back away from any of the controversial statements he has made up upon this point. he talked about his term anchor baby and made strong statements about immigration and obamacare and his situation on the campaign trail which has been jobs. you look at baltimore. you look at ferguson. you look at st. louis last night. over the last week. you look at all of the things that are happening. we are sitting on powder kegs. there s no spirit. there s no jobs.