To push their strollers, or carry their children, or get their babies to safety. People were running in every direction. Our breaking News Coverage continues breaking news coverag continues here on morning joe. Dozens of people are dead after a truck drove into a crowd in niece, france, in what the president has called a terrorist attack. Hundreds were watching fireworks for the bastille day when the truck zigzagged along a promenade of people mowing them down. The driver also fired shots into the crowd. The death toll right now stands at 84. Some of them children. People went running in waves. A scene of panic in a resort town and tourist destination. The driver, according to the french president , was fatally shot by police. A french official said they later discovered grenades and in the back of the truck. Now, authorities are trying to figure out whether the driver acted alone. The scene afterwards, grisly. Bodies were strewn and caught in the middle an American Family from hollywood with a baby and teenage daughter. Everybody one on top of the other and on our hands on the head like this. I was terrified. I put my hand on the babys mouth so she wouldnt scream because i thought if the shooter is close, hell think were dead and not alive and he wont come and shoot us. The streets were close to empty. People had already ran and at that point thats why we went on the floor. Were sitting ducks. Not like a bunch of people and we could run with the crowd. Everybody had already realized what was going on way before we realized what was going on. At that point, the smartest thing to do was hope. And this morning, a family spokesperson tells nbc news that an american father and son. Sean copeland and his 11yearold son, brodie, did not make it out alive. They opened a terrorism investigation and a state of emergency dating back to the attacks has been extended. Celt to expire on july 26th, but the president announced last night it will continue for another three months. During a News Conference france as a whole is a threat under islamic terrorism. Operational reserves were called up to assist police, particularly at the borders. Step up its targets. President obama issued a statement in part saying on behalf of the American People i condemn in the strongest terms what appears to be a horrific
terrorist attack. It is friday, july 15th, welcome to morning joe. Im mika brzezinski. Joe will be with us shortly. We have veteran columnist mark barnac barnacle, Mark Halperin former communication director for george w. Bush Nicolle Wallace and Foreign Correspondent aman and retired executive assistant director of the fbi, sean hennry. All right, well start with richard haus and also waiting to hear from janet who was actually there on vacation for her account of the attack. But, richard, we were talking last night about this. What, the question here is, i think were looking at soft targets now. This is unpreventable. This is a sobering day because it remind you that terrorism can happen anywhere. It can happen any time. The choice of weapons can be box cutters, as we saw on 9 11, it could be trucks and consider to be weapons and any place now where people congregate, whether its for super bowls or for holidays and whether its at shopping malls. In a sense, everything that forms part of our lives is a potential target. You can screen people before they get on airplanes and you should. But at some point well make tough decisions as a society the way israel did decades ago about whether we begin to introduce degrees of screening and layering at movie theaters and shopping malls and the rest and it has questions for efficiency and questions for our way of life and for privacy. But, what i think this just shows is that were going to have to make some very difficult decisions. Were going to go to janet now in niece, france. Janet, you were there,
vacationing, i understand. Can you first bring us back to the moment this happened and tell us what you saw and what the scene is like now. Hi, mika. Im here with my family. I have five children and my husband. And we were a short distance away from the fireworks. Not actually in niece in the foothills above me. Its about nine miles, but 30minute drive because of the roads here. Weve been down at this fireworks display many times. Its a very familyfriendly event that is much like being along lake shore drive on the fourth of july. So, youre along the mediterranean. Its gorgeous, the fireworks. When i arrived on the short time later it was people were in a state of shock and just Walking Around and that was 1 00, 2 00, 3 00 in the morning showing their videos of what happened and looking for people. Police were here by the hundreds and still are. They have set up a perimeter to protect some of what appears to be evidence. They put up fences and covered those fences in white sheeting so that no one could see beyond them. Early this morning the streets were eerily quiet but people have started to come out and telling their stories of being here last night in any number of languages. It is just horrifying. To see this and to see this place such a simple, if you will, vacation spot. So, on edge. And so devastating, mika. Janet, before you go, just how give me a sense of the breath, the size of the crime scene. The attacker apparently just kept going. He just kept going and the promenade runs for several miles. And its unclear how he got through the barricade, but they
shut these streets down on bastille day here in niece so that people can walk in the streets and to accommodate the tens of thousands of people who come out for this every year and he went quite a distance ending up at a landmark here in niece. Very near there where i saw some video from bystanders, which was just incredible. The Police Officers running alongside the truck. It had to go for at least half a mile from the time the officers caught up with him or perhaps longer. And then you see on the video that ive seen, you know, a shootout. And then the gunman whos wearing a helmet inside the cab of that truck slumped over the dashboard. And in the distance and all around the truck, people on the ground. And just an awful scene, mika. Nbc Janet Shamlian, thank you. Well check back in with you throughout the morning. One truck, one man, 84 dead, at the last accounting in a country where the security has been jacked up for many, many months now. This is sort of, what do we do . It just demonstrates the ease by which the terrorists can inflict their deadly jihadi cause and execute innocent civilians in the streets and around the world, quite honestly. What weve seen in the last several month throughout europe more communication attacks and automatic assault rifles and ieds and explosive vests and, in this case, in fact, this is isis and we have to say that there has been no claim to this point and a lot of investigation to try to do attribution back to
the attackers. But what weve seen with isis, historically, is the social media radicalized online and telling people to fight where you stand. Fight where you are. Go after the infidels. You dont necessarily have to travel to syria to fight there. But to take your cause to the streets. And its all about inflicting fear into the hearts and minds of people. Thats exactly what we see here. Celebrating in france and at an attack where people are out with their families trying to enjoy a holiday. Talking about a way of life. The attack in niece is the latest of a string of violence across france in the last year and a half. In january of 2015, two men stormed the paris offices of the charlie hebo newspaper killing 12 people. Two days later attacked a Kosher Grocery store and killed four
hostages. Remember that . In november, 130 people were killed after a series of acoordinated attacked by isislinked terrorists. France has been under a state of emergency since then. This year, on the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks Police Killed a knife wielding man outside prayaris. And in june a Police Officer and his companion were killed at their home in a small town west of paris isis claimed responsibility for the attack. A string of other incidents in france including vehicles ramming into people. On december 21, 2014, a driver plowed his vehicle into people injuring 13. The next day a van drove into shoppers at a Christmas Market in namites leaving 10 people
injured. One soldier and a muslim man were injured. Mark halperin. Aman is also with us. What have you seen in reaction. We know how people in the United States react tathis, what have you seen in europe and the middle east . Very strong comdomination. Always quiet in the wake of Something Like this. You dont hear from regimes and from the governments that through their Media Outlets you hear from across the region. Interesting enough, one area we are monitoring for reaction is social media for isis groups and particularly extremist groups. Youll get a sense of whether there is a legitimate claim of responsibility. We have not seen that yet, mark. Right now celebrating this and
hailing this, but no credible claim of responsibility from any militant groups as of yet. That, obviously, is going to be important in the investigation as to whether or not this is the terminology that we constantly use, an inspiredattack or a directed style of attack as we saw in istanbul and pairs and brussels previously. As of now, no major credible claim of responsibility. But certainly all the groups as we mentioned celebrating this from their perspective. A delay in isis claiming responsibility sometimes up to two to three days. Why is that . For a whole host of different reasons. It depends, first and foremost, as to where within the organization a specific attack was planned and ultimately carried out. When you look for example at the paris attacks and you look at something more sophisticated as we saw in istanbul, there may be
political reasons why isis does not want to come out and claim responsibility immediately. In the case of turkey, isis has a very weird relationship, not officially with the government. They are at war with the government. But turkey has been a major lifeline to them. They do not necessarily want to come out, but in other cases where in paris, for example, the fighters or the attackers were actually fighters in isis inside of syria and inside of iraq, a much more direct relationship between the organization and a specific cell that allows the group to come out and claim direct responsibility for it when they have that kind of information and the profile of the attackers, as we saw in the case of beng ludash. In other cases such as the orlando shooting, the organization may have inspired an individual, but no operational link between them. Therefore, they do not come out and claim responsibility for it. A quick recap before we get to the politics of this. Hundreds, again, watching fireworks at the bastille Day Festivities when a truck reportedly zigzagged into a crowd full of people in niece, france. The death toll right now standing at 84, some of them children. A scene of panic and people running in waves. Just horrific. Again in niece, france. Both president ial candidates here in the u. S. Spoke out in interviews last night about the attack. Heres some of what donald trump and Hillary Clinton had to say. Would you go to congress and ask for a declaration of war . I would. I would. This is war. If you look at it, this is war coming from all different parts and, frankly, its war. And were dealing with people without uniforms. These people were allow eing people into our country where we have no idea who they are, where
theyre from and they have no documentation in many cases and Hillary Clinton wants to allow 550 more in than even obama. There will be by the end of the summer 20,000 refugees. Do you consider those people threats . Yes s. Do you consider them security threats . Of course i do. Richard, it seems like the response that was not measured enough, is that a safe way of putting it . The declaration of war is symbolic. But, quite honestly, it wouldnt give us any capacities or abilities to do stuff we have already been doing. We cant raise expectations. Theres not a solution to this. This is the new reality. We can deal with it. Things we can do to go after them to make ourselves more
vulnerable. There should not be an easy answer to cut off immigration or attack in syria. Most of these acts are inspired. Were not talking about returnees. Theyre sort of randomly all over the place. The idea there is a solution. We should be doing more in syria, again, but, that would not solve this problem. Just think about the numbers for a second. Were not saying most of the world muslims are terrorists. But most of the worlds terrorists are muslim. Were talking about a community in the world of 1. 2 billion people and 1. 3 billion people. We could be phenomenally successful. We have to do things to reduce the people who are potentially inspired. A small number of people as weve seen here in niece can cause problems. So, we have to be really smart in terms of what we do and, also, what we dont do. Some of the stuff that is being talked about deporting people
who believe in sharia and testing or somehow blaming isnt that what they want . Cutting down immigration. We have to be, weve got to be smart in how we respond because our connections, as you see here in new york and other cities with entire populations and communities, our best measure of defense is making sure people in these communities are working with us instead of threatening. Donald trump did change his plans today in respect to the victims. I mean, you did see some slight moves to sort of recognize what is happening and adapt. I may be alone here, but he gave a speech, a scathing speech the day after orlando and i accept and taken his word that that was the reason. I think, also, he welcomed a little more time to come sit with the decision he appears to have made. I want to Say Something about what he said, though. Asking for a declaration of war feels right at a gut level to
americans watching other families, watching fireworks. That is something we did here a couple weeks ago. And i had a lot of friends, mom friends call me before the fourth of july and say, is it safe . Should i take my kids to the hudson to go watch . People dont want to be the kind of country that has tests or deports people, but they also want to know that their leaders feel what they feel and they feel like war is being brought to us. And, so, when he says i would ask for a declaration of war. I think its everything he says afterward that gets him in trouble. But war, his language. People feel like theyre at war against us. War against whom and, second of all, what tools . I totally agree with you. We have to fight it with everything. Internet stuff and what is said in mosques. I agree with you. When donald trump says this is what were all watching after we
put our kids to bed. Donald trump says, yes, ill ask for a declaration of war. It may hit the gut, mike barnicle. Doesnt it also do some other things that may be potentially dangerous . Isnt it at a time like this where words should be very measured . Obviously. Look. These pictures that we are watching, that america is watching from coast to coast today. These pictures erase logic. So when a candidacy for the president of the United States and donald trump and anyone else says we need to declare war, it resonates out there. Never mind when you declare war there is a back end called surrender. There is no surrender on the back end. No uss missouri. After 9 11, the country wanted to declare war. Since then a lot of terrorist attacks. This year because of the nature and frequency of the attacks because of the fact were in a president ial campaign is as close to that mentality in the
country as weve had. And he struck a chord with what he said last night. I dont think there is any doubt about that. Heres Hillary Clinton. She also called in last night, i believe to fox news and spoke about the attack. Its terrible that france has faced too much tragedy and violence and we need to stand strongly with them because events like this remind us how vital it is in every way, not to abandon them. We need to strengthen our alliances and i include nato in that. Weve got to do more to understand that this is a war against these terrorist groups. The radical jihadist groups. Its a different kind of war. We need to be smart on how we wage it, but we have to be determined were going to win it. That is going to require working with other people. What is happening now is we are
taking territory back in iraq. Were squeezing them with consistent air attacks. We have killed a number of their leaders. We are putting together a much more effective coalition. I would intensify those efforts. I have no problem with having a summit, i would include, however, not only nato allies. We have great allies in the region who are holding the lines for us. Places like jordan, like israel and others who are really on the front lines themselves. Sure. Richard haas. I mean everything secretary clinton said is right there. Ill leave it to mark to say if its politically effective. It seems to be a kind of detailed, answer as opposed to something that is more gut level. I would simply say, again, since the war. You can do things with nato and the middle east and what we are really talking about are
individuals in resident communities inside countries. The answer is not necessarily what you do in the middle east and not necessarily what you do at the border. The real question is, again, how do we prevent these people from making this choice to go over the line. There is a larger question to it. To declare war, not declare war and use nato, dont use nato and it is last night one man, one truck, at least 84 dead. How do you declare war on that . The only way you can get to the reasoning, the cause, the trigger about that is human intelligence. And we have never, desperate lack of human intelligence when it comes to dealing with isis. Well continue to cover this breaking news. Much more ahead on the horrific attack in niece, france. At least 84 people dead when a truck reportedly sig zagged along a road of people. Congressman adam shift and the former head of the national
counterterrorism center. And plus more on how yesterdays attack in france impacted our president ial election in a big way. The Washington Post