In a rather action packed interview during CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning, host Jake Tapper grilled Secretary of State John Kerry about the extent of the ISIS threat and the government’s response. “They are shrinking … they are on the run,” Kerry claimed. But in a show of force Tapper countered hard, “Well, with all due respect, sir, I'm not sure that it looks that way to the public, that ISIS is on the run.”
When asked about the threat ISIS posed to the free world following the attack in Nice, France Kerry was adamant that what the Obama administration was doing was working:
They are not growing in their ability to do things. They are shrinking. We have taken back 40 percent, 45 percent of the territory they held in Iraq. We're squeezing town after town. We have liberated communities. We're making progress now advancing on Mosul. In Syria, likewise, they're not able to attack and hold towns. They are on the run.
In spite of Kerry’s claim that, “They are not growing in their ability to do things,” Tapper drew attention to what ISIS has been able to do. “In just the last few weeks, we have seen a series of ISIS-inspired attacks, 49 killed in Orlando, 45 killed in Istanbul at the airport, more than 200 killed in Baghdad, 84 in Nice.”
Kerry conceded that ISIS has plenty of operatives out in the world that will do what they can to harm people, but he tried to keep the focus on the battlefield in the Middle East. “But the core of ISIS is in Al-Raqqa, and it's in Manbij. It's in Syria. It's in Iraq. And we are doing everything in our power to put additional pressure them. And I believe their days are numbered,” Kerry argued.
But Tapper wouldn’t let the secretary off the hook:
You are doing everything you can do? I mean, I think there are a lot of people in the United States, in the Pentagon, in the national security apparatus who have a number of suggestions as to what more could be done to put pressure and to eliminate the threat of ISIS.
The secretary also seemed to be echoing MSNBC pundit Malcom Nance who argued on Friday that Orlando attack was not linked to ISIS. “We don't know that the guy in Orlando was fundamentally ISIS, nor even told what to do by ISIS,” Kerry said.
Partial Transcript below:
CNN
State of the Union
July 17, 2016
9:08:13 AM Eastern…
JOHN KERRY: So, we are working with the French to try to put the pieces together, but, you know, this is one of those things, Jake, it's worse than the needle in a haystack. If you have no indications of somebody, and you don't have any track record of radicalization, and, all of a sudden, over a week or in some period, somebody with apparent mental problems anyway decides to go do great harm to people, it is not hard to do that.
And governments and law enforcement have to be able to get this right every hour, every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. If you're a terrorist, and particularly of -- of, you know, one or two days' vintage, you can just go out and do something very easily.
What we believe this indicates, however, is that Da'esh, ISIL, in Syria and Iraq is under great, great pressure. And people are acting out in various places. But they are not growing in their ability to do things. They are shrinking.
We have taken back 40 percent, 45 percent of the territory they held in Iraq. We're squeezing town after town. We have liberated communities. We're making progress now advancing on Mosul. In Syria, likewise, they're not able to attack and hold towns. They are on the run.
And I believe what we're seeing are the desperate actions of an entity that sees the noose closing around it.
JAKE TAPPER: Well, with all due respect, sir, I'm not sure that it looks that way to the public, that ISIS is on the run. In just the last few weeks, we have seen...
KERRY: Well, obviously.
TAPPER: ... a series of ISIS-inspired attacks, 49 killed in Orlando, 45 killed in Istanbul at the airport, more than 200 killed in Baghdad, 84 in Nice.
This is just the last five weeks. I don't think ISIS is on the run. They might be expanding. (CROSSTALK)
KERRY: Well, Jake, it depends on where you mean ISIS.
I don't know if this guy was actually ISIS, and nor do you. And we don't know that the guy in Orlando was fundamentally ISIS, nor even told what to do by ISIS.
If people are inspired, they're inspired. But ISIL, which is based in Iraq and Syria, is under huge pressure. And that is just a fact. Now, there are thousands of fighters, some of whom left the area of the fighting years ago. And they are sitting in some community somewhere in the world.
And if you're saying that one person standing up one day and killing people is a reflection of ISIS moving in Iraq and Syria, I think you're dead wrong.
Now, are -- is it capable for people to be inspired by them and go out and do great harm to people? I said that. I acknowledge that. Yes, there is that danger. But the core of ISIS is in Al-Raqqa, and it's in Manbij. It's in Syria. It's in Iraq. And we are doing everything in our power to put additional pressure them. And I believe their days are numbered.
TAPPER: You are doing everything you can do?
I mean, I think there are a lot of people in the United States, in the Pentagon, in the national security apparatus who have a number of suggestions as to what more could be done to put pressure and to eliminate the threat of ISIS.
KERRY: Correct. And we -- a lot of people have talked about American troops going in, et cetera.
Congress displayed absolutely zero willingness to vote to do that. And if people have a willingness to show that now that has changed, the administration will listen to any legitimate plan, any legitimate way to do more.
But I believe that the pressure is mounting on a steady basis, with more and more being done on a consistent basis. And we welcome additional thoughts from members of Congress, from anybody in the intel community, in the defense community who knows or suggests. President Obama is open to any legitimate ways of moving faster that meets the test of our security needs and of what the Congress is willing to support.
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