Just we have a chronic neurological condition that treatment is available and recovery is 100 possible. Dr. Sanjay gupta, cnn, manchester, new hampshire. All right, top of the hour, im poppy harlow in new york. 4 00 p. M. Eastern, thank you for being with us. Several European Countries on heightened alert right now after officials in vienna warned of possible terror attacks in the coming days. They included the names of the possible attackers. There is still no concrete evidence, though, of a specific planned attack or location, but the threat still raises questions about the ongoing war on terror. Lets turn now to cnn Global Affairs analyst kimberly dozier, retired Lieutenant General mark hertling. Again, this is coming to us from authorities in vienna. They are not specifically naming the countries that are in focus or where the potential attack could take place, but general, to you first, you were commander of all u. S. Army troops in europe not long ago. You dealt with situations like this as recently as 2011. When you got these nonspecific terror, potential Terror Threats, how did you handle them . Its tough, poppy. What you have to do is really drive for more information. You always have to fight for more intel, because you can watch people that indicators are theres a couple of individuals involved, but just watching people if they are not doing anything, you can harass them. That might turn a potential attack off. And it might happen later on, so you have to do some very good intelligence work and police work in terms of surveillance. Youre always looking for more details on who, what, why, when, where, and how its going to be conducted. Unless you have some specifics on that, it really blows the situation if you try and pull someone aside that you think might be about to conduct an attack if they are not really going to do it. So thats all part of the equation. Kimberly, when you look at just intelligence sharing right here in the United States in the wake of 9 11, information sharing between u. S. Gott agencies, got a lot better, it became a top priority no question, and when you look at the recent terror attack in paris, that highlighted major deficiencies in intelligence sharing between European Countries. You saw the attackers move between belgium and france, no red flags. In this case, officials in vienna were warned about several european cities. How difficult is it to get all of those European Countries onboard and share all the necessary information . Well, they are probably about a decade behind the u. S. In terms of tearing down the walls between their different intelligence agencies. You have to look at historically some of these countries have been allies with, say, russia. If youre britain, for instance, you dont want to share everything youve got, because youre afraid its going to get passed on to an adversary. Some of the other things that happen is intelligence agencies even within countries dont want to share all the details of how they got something, because they are competing with other agencies. Thats human nature, it happens everywhere. That could explain why this warning is so vague, because whoevers sharing it doesnt want to tip their hand as to what networks they are watching. Thats a scary thought. Kimberly dozier, general mark hertling, stay with me. Much more later in the hour. I want to get to politics, though, Bernie Sanders facing a long climb to catch up to the frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Heres the latest cnn poll, clinton is 14 Percentage Points ahead of sanders among democrats asked to name their choice at this point for the 2016 nominee. Clinton 50 , sanders 34 , omalley at 3 . Simone sanders back with me here to talk about their plans and much more. Appreciate you coming on the program again, thank you. Thank you for having me, poppy, im glad to be here. All right. Lets talk about the fact you look at a Bernie Sanders and for his supporters he represents the heart and the soul of the left, but he loses to Hillary Clinton by every measure in this cnn orc poll, including those democratic voters who they trust to handle the economy. Lets put Everything Else aside, simone, for a moment. This is what he launched his campaign on, the economy, the economy, the economy, income inequality, and fairness. What are you going to do to get his 39 on the economy up past clintons 47 . Well, poppy, we are going to continue to take our message across america and meet these voters where they are. Id like to note that, yes, secretary clinton is at 50 , but that is an eightpoint drop from when this poll was last conducted a month ago. Meanwhile, senator sanders has almost cut secretary clintons lead in half, so were feeling good about this poll. This is showing momentum, and voters out there know that senator sanders has built his life, his career, on advocating for hard working families, and hes the only candidate out there to take on the rigged economy thats kept in place by a system of corrupt campaign finance. What were going to do is continue to take that message across america and, you know, weve still got time. Polls go up and down, and were confident that were going to see those numbers change. All right. Lets talk about overall electability, right, and viability in a general election. If he makes it to the general, he definitely, his supporters would say embodies the fervor of the left. There also seems to be, simone, when you look at some of these numbers, a bit of hesitation about his overall electability. Do you think hes failed in any way to make the case to democrats that want to love him that he is viable in terms of being elected in a general election when so much focus right now, as you know, is on the Terror Threat . You know, poppy, no, i dont think so at all. Look, when you match up senator sanders with any of the republicans on the other side, he does better than secretary clinton against all of them. Take donald trump, for instance. In the quinnipiac poll that was released last tuesday, i do believe, senator sanders beats donald trump by 13 points. If that margin is held going into the general election, i think there was a reporter at the hill newspaper that said this will not only, you know, help elect senator sanders and help the democrats keep the white house, it can help the democrats take back the senate and potentially the house of representatives, as well. So in all of these, if you look at any poll, these general election matchups, senator sanders does better. He is beating these republicans. Let me let me mention one poll from the cnn poll this week, unfavorability. You have among all voters, you have a 47 favorability rating for sanders, among democrats a 74 favorability rating. Obviously, focus needs to be bringing up the all voters part of it. Simone, you joined this campaign after being very active in the black lives matter movement, and you joined the Campaign Months ago. I know this is an area for you and the campaign, galvanizing the africanamerican vote behind sanders. If you look at the most recent Washington Post abc polls, they show that sanders trails clinton among africanamerican voters 71 to 19 . What are you doing to change that . Well, poppy, we are going out and were meeting people where they are, in the africanamerican community, we are in the barber shops, beauty shops, and bible studies, actively Holding Conference calls. Senator sanders name i. D. Is lower in africanamerican and latino communities. He was not as well known as secretary clinton, so we have to do some voter education, and were actively doing that. If you look closer at the cnn orc poll, youll see in the same poll conducted in april, senator sanders was polling at 1 with nonwhite voters. This poll hes now polling at 32 . Thats a significant jump for someone whose name i. D. Was particularly low, and were looking to see the numbers climb. I think its really important that we can connect our message to africanamerican and latino voters. Yes, africanamerican voters that care about criminal justice reform, they care about ending the disgrace that is the mass incarceration of africanamericans, but they also care about economic inequality. You know, they want to know how youre going to help put more money in their pockets. How are we going to help close the wealth gap . They want to know, you know, what are we going to do, are we raising the minimum wage . And these are all things senator sanders is very strong on. 54 of africanamericans stand to get a wage increase under senator sanders plan to raise the minimum wage to 15. On the latino voter front, same deal. Latino voters care about immigration, but also about economic inequality and education. We saw 14 states in 2015 raise their minimum wage to 15 an hour. To have it happen on a federal level, though, it is a big, big battle in congress. Well talk about that in the next hour. Before i let you go, lets talk about the money. Your Campaign Came out this week and sanders touted the fact he says the campaign has received 2. 3 million individual contributions. He says thats more than president obama had at the same time in the 2008, 2012 campaigns. I should note cnn cant independently confirm that until the reports come out, and those are going to come out not too long, a few weeks. But given that, you look at the number, 2. 3 million individual donors, its a big number. 2. 3 contributions, donor numbers are that high. 2. 3 million contributions, thank you for the correction. Total amount raised, 40 million for sanders and 77 for clinton. Are you arguing that the number of contributions is more important fundamentally than the overall total number . I mean, poppy, i think the number of contributions goes to how many people think enough of a candidate to pull their hard earned money out of their pocket and put it towards his campaign. We dont have a super pac, we dont want one. Our average contribution is 23, and i think were doing well. Over 2. 3 million contributions to our campaign mean that americans all across the country have decided to dig into their pockets and help fund the Political Revolution. Only i think the number is less than 170 of our donors have maxed out, so we still have a long way to go with folks that can continue giving to our campaign, and this is going to help us be strong all the way through the convention. So i do think its important the number of contributions to a campaign, because this is a movement. This is individual these are people standing up and saying, enough is enough, i want to join the Political Revolution and donate my money to the sanders campaign. Were very excited about our contributions, very excited that we are galvanizing support all across the country, and were going to continue to do the work necessary to reach out to voters all across the country. All right, we will be watching. As you know, following every step of all of the campaign. Simone sanders, happy holidays and thank you for being with me. Happy holidays, poppy, talk to you soon. Talk to you soon. We just spoke about it, that brand new cnn orc poll shows Hillary ClintonStill Holding a commanding lead in the days after the last democratic debate, but when you compare her to some of her potential republican rivals, it is a very different story. Well show you how the numbers match up next. Every insurance policy has a number. But not every Insurance Company understands the life behind it. For those whove served and the families whove supported them, we offer our best service in return. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. Get an insurance quote and see why 92 of our members plan to stay for life. Made with hydrogenated oil. But real joyful moments are shared over the real cream in reddiwip. Reddiwip. flourish spray noise share the joy. Share the joy. You know what that music means, time for politics and the 2016 election. You can expect a fresh round of political theater and a new cast of characters in the coming year. 34 senate seats will be up for grabs on election day, all 435 seats in the house of representatives will be on the line, and in the race for the white house, less than 40 days remain before the first voters speak out in the allimportant iowa caucuses. Cnn senior political analyst david gergen with me now, served as president ial adviser to four president s. And as we head into the new year, i would love your take, david, on what you think, what role you think, president obama will play in the 2016 campaign. Do you think he serves as an easy gop target, or does he help Hillary Clinton if she makes it to the general . Good to see you again, poppy. If you look at the overall numbers, you have to say that president obama currently would be a drag on Hillary Clinton. Normally when a party holds a white house and theres somebody fresh from that Party Running from the office, you need the incumbent to be about 50 or higher to give you any help, and president obama has been mired in the mid 40s for a long time now. You know, his disapproval rate is 8 points higher than his approval rate, so overall, poppy, hes a drag, but the obama team is very smart in how they use him. They will be able to take him into certain states where he can rally the faithful because there is a question of whether theres going to be this Enthusiasm Gap for Hillary Clinton. Well, she had people coming out and vote. He can rally people, he can rally the young and minorities and help get those numbers up. He is a superb fundraiser, as we all know, and he has so much at stake in this election personally. His whole legacy is on the line, so you have to believe hes going to throw his heart and soul into this, because if she loses, obamacare is in trouble, the iran agreement is in trouble, the climate efforts are in trouble. You can look down the line, there are a lot of things that would change. Thats what republicans want to do, thats what they are pledging to do. He has a lot at stake and i think hell throw himself into this. Do you think there is, david, a lesson to be learned from . You worked in the Clinton White house, a la sort of gore of separating himself from president clinton amid the scandal, et cetera, and criticism afterwards that actually hurt him, is there a lesson in that for Hillary Clinton . There is certainly a lesson about being supporting the president on those areas which are popular to have support beyond the democratic party. Back in 2000 when al gore ran, and he ran away from bill clintons record, been his Vice President , but essentially didnt play up the economic dynamism of the clinton years, i think he lost the election because of that in part, significant part. I think Hillary Clinton has to separate herself out on those issues where she feels hes gotten in trouble, especially on foreign policy. Because trump if he is the nominee is going to run as a strong person in the race whos going to defend america, and she has to be seen as stronger and tougher, which i think she is in her heart, in her own belief system, that president obama, and at the same time president obamas people have to give her room to separate out. And they are sophisticated people, i think theyll do that. Look, she points out, i told the president to honor the Syrian Rebels long ago, opted not to, so she has differentiated herself. Lets look at these numbers. I think they are so telling from the poll that came out this week. What it shows is how Hillary Clinton fairs in a hypothetical general election matchup, really, against the three gop frontrunners. She is 49 to 47 versus trump. 46 to 48 versus cruz. And rubio she is at 49 . So shes actually not ahead of rubio or ahead of cruz. Thats true. You must find this, poppy, as i do, when you talk to people, the socalled chattering glasses up and down the east coast, you run into very few people who say they know anybody whos going to vote for trump, and i think that really illustrates how much there is a gap between the forces between trump. I dont think we understand them as well as we should, were not connected to them as americans as well as we should be, so within the chattering clashes theres a given, shell walk all over trump. She would walk all over rubio and cruz. Not in those numbers. And you look at those numbers and you say wait a minute, guys, this is a lot closer than it looks at this stage. Dont count her in. Just as you shooin in 2008, didnt quite work out that way, did it . Dont count your blessings here too early. Sage advice from someone whos given it to a lot of former president s. David gergen, thank you. David will be with us more later this hour. Coming up next, though, the desperate fight against the fire in california. Crews struggling to put out huge flames, shutting down major highways forcing mandatory evacuations on christmas day. The extra challenge now being posed by Mother Nature next. There is no rest in sight for firefighters right now in california. They are struggling to contain a wildfire that has already torched 1,200 acres and has shut down parts of two major highways, making matters worse, high winds fuelling the flames. Not looking like they are going to let up any time soon, forcing mandatory evacuations. Sara sidner is here with me in new york. Youre usually on the west coast, you know the region incredibly well. Looking at the photos, you can actually hear the wind whipping in the video. Thats one of the problems firefighters are dealing with, trying to get in front of the fire and try to stop it and contain it, and then start tamping it down. Theyve got a lot of air power flying over dumping water, but this fire is going fast and furious and they havent been able to contain it. They build these fire lines and you can see thats one of them there, and then they start Going Forward to put out the fire. They have, the good news is, the rail lines w