Ben Rhodes: Obama Will ‘Reassure’ Americans We Are ‘Relentless’ in Going After ISIS

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
MITCHELL: "I want to bring in Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser. Ben, thank you very much. I know you have been working around the clock on the state of the union but let’s talk about this attack and how the president will frame the threat of terror tonight."
RHODES: "Well, first of all, of course our hearts go out to the people affected by this attack. We will provide whatever assistance is requested by the Turkish government. They are working very closely with us, both hosting some of our infrastructure that is dedicated to the fight against ISIL in Syria. They are working with us to seal their border so that ISIL fighters cannot move back and forth across that Turkish border. I think what the president will be doing tonight, of course, is stepping back and laying out once again the strategy that we have in place to push back against ISIL safe havens, to take out ISIL fighters, weapons and oil infrastructure and to put this organization on a path to defeat."
MITCHELL: "The president has said to newspaper columnists and other visitors that ISIS is not an existential threat to America. That is the reality. But that’s not the way Americans feel. Americans are now putting terrorism and the threat of terrorism and the fear that they or someone in their families will be the subject of a terror attack at the top of their list above the economy. This after San Bernardino and Paris, perhaps not surprising, but how does he frame that in a state of the union address that is optimistic and uplifting and looking forward?"
RHODES: "Well, first of all, it’s at the top of our national security priority list. Every morning I’m in the presidential daily intelligence briefing with President Obama getting the latest news on the effort against ISIL. We recognize that this is the greatest danger that we face as a nation. Terrorist organizations like ISIL, like Al Qaeda, that seek to attack the American people and our allies. I think what he will reassure the American people of is that just as we were relentless in going after Al Qaeda and taking out their leadership and disrupting their plotting, and dismantling that network, we are doing the same thing with ISIL today. We have seen ISIL pushed out of safe havens recently. In Ramadi they lost a major population center in Iraq. We have an air campaign in place. We have forces we are supporting on the ground. I think what he will convey is that the American people are up to this challenge and that we will be able to defeat the threat posed by ISIL and other terrorist organizations."