mike brooks do you know the answer to that question. how large is this building. all right. let's go to todd sperry, are you on the line. todd sperry. >> yes, i am here. >> todd, tell us how large this building is, do you know. >> jon: can someone tell her how [bleep] the building is. can someone just tell her how [bleep] the building is, someone please. we're not going to get to move forward until we know how long this building is. we're in square hole worm territory here. and then inevitably blirts. >> th --blitzer. >> the tack that this is described as one in a black top black jeans what does that say if anything about a possible motive or whatever. can we begin to draw any initial conclusion? [laughter] >> what is the black top and black jeans say about possible motive. i don't know, why don't you ask your best colleague. [crowd cheering] >> perhaps the worst part of the blitzer reportage using phrases like. >we begin to draw initial conclusions. that's semantic word for saying [bleep] i'm on until 4:00. cnn's brash on air acknowledgment they should not be doing this at

thanks, mike brooks. i appreciate it. we'll be right back. help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, where experts watch over all drilling activity twenty-four-seven. and we're sharing what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. our commitment has never been stronger. >> reporter: we'll get back to our coverage of the shoots here washington navy yard shortly. let's check in on other stories. when it comes to the u.s./russian plan to get the assad regime to give up its chemical weapons, the devil is in the details. at a press conference today, russian principal minister rejected any u.n. resolution authorizing force against syria. the u.s. and france want to keep the use of force as an option if syria does not comply with weapons inspections in a timely fashion. >>> for the first time in a week, the sun

mike brooks, thank you. we'll see you at the top of next hour. >>> meantime in washington, just about 24 hours after freshman senator ted cruz of texas vowed to talk until he couldn't stand anymore, cruz's marathon speech denouncing obama care is over. and the senate is voting to move ahead with legislation to prevent a government shutdown. the deadline is mere days away. cruz's talk athon was more symbolism than showstopping. it means nothing in terms of this legislation. we'll get to that in a minute. what it did do is this. provide more than 21 hours of raw meat for tea party republicans who sent this ted cruz to washington and who detest, absolutely abhor, the health care law. cruz also detoured into everything from dr. seuss to duck dynasty. watch. >> i intend to speak in support of defunding obama care until i am no longer to stand. most americans could not give a flying flip about a bunch of politicians in washington. who cares? what the american people care about is their own lives. on a saturday or

our law enforcement analyst mike brooks is joining us now. mike, does the fact that the shooter is dead clearly change the nature of the crime investigation because you can't question him about what his motive might have been. >> that's absolutely right, wolf. that's why the fbi yesterday was asking anyone, go to our website, take a look at his picture. if you have seen him, if you had any contact with him, give us a call because they want to find out exactly what his movements were leading up to this shooting. we know that he was here in washington since august 25th. the hotel, the residence inn on e street southwest just a short distance from here, he was there for just a number of days. >> we heard the u.s. attorney say that investigators are still looking into the possibility of whether or not alexis had any assistance either deliberate or unwitting. is that merely going according to the book, or have you heard any suggestion that there might have been some sort of collaborator witting or unwitting? >> no, not as of right now. you know, o

i want to bring in mike brooks, a law enforcement analyst with hln. this is your old stomping grounds. you were with metropolitan police for years and years, fbi. i showed you this picture. this is the cover of the "washington post" which everyone has seen this man, park police officer. you spent your morning with the park police. >> i did. >> they were crucial. >> they were unbelievable. they're the ones who rescued the four people from the roof of building 197. we spoke to the chief pilot there. he was talking about, i said, you know, you did heroic stuff. he said no, the people who were inside that building were the heroes. one of the people they rescued was a woman shot in the shoulder. she was one of the ones that they flew to the med star unit at the washington hospital center. they said her attitude was incredible. they called her a hero. but we saw some of the other people involved in this. we saw is the u.s. park police. they were the first ones to go in with that active shooter team. in fact, one of the first teams ta went in, one of those o

i want to go to mike brooks our cnn law enforcement analyst, he also worked in the d.c. police department, how unusual is this, mike? >> carol i've responded a number of times at the washington navy yard when i was with the metropolitan police and the fbi joint terrorism task force for incidents similar to this. chief of operation ace number of years ago came out there was an attack on the navy yard but it was an admiral who committed suicide it wound up, but what barbara was staying, you do, they practice, they have built-in exercises, table top exercises all the time for incidents like this in the navy yard, outside the navy yard. across the street from the navy yard there on m street southeast you do have residences so that the metropolitan police first district will be handling all of that. inside d.c. police, fire, ems, you also have the fbi joint terrorism task force, i saw some of them arriving on the scene moments ago along with the washington field office, fbi s.w.a.t. team that's respond there had along with the met toll tan police emergency response team. i sa

mike brooks, law enforcement analyst on hln. worked as a cop for many, many years. let me underscore what george just said. basically, this would be a first, a, in missouri, if this passes, you could own a machine gun. b, they could go after, possibly arrest federal officers who try to take your machine gun away. >> it would be a misdemeanor defense. look, i'm all for legal gun ownership. i have my georgia carry permit, i carry a gun all the time, and i'm all for that. but when it comes to machine guns. let's take a look add the federal firearms act right now. in 1934, it says you can't even own a machine gun that was manufactured after may 19th of 1986. only federal firearms dealers and government agencies can actually own machine guns. now, look, i don't care. you can own all the semiautomatic rifles you want. but why do you need a machine gun? it's not going to happen. this is crazy. >> okay, you say it's crazy. >> personally. >> number one, the idea of someone owning a machine gun is nuts. b, what about, i think for law enforcement, if i'm a cop in missouri and

at the brookings institution. fran, what do you make? it is sobering the logistics of this thing? >> that's right. that, anderson, presumes a plan, right? you're talking about the difficulty in actually executing some agreement that you could get these parties to. it's clear the reason secretary kerry is going to geneva to meet with the russian foreign ministers, there is not a plan on the table or nothing they can agree on, and what kind of an agreement would there be if there wasn't some punitive potentially military action that would come if they didn't follow through on it? >> mike, i understand you believe the proposal is nothing more than a charade that rewards bad behavior, correct? >> absolutely. the syrians are not about to give them up, not for a second. david kay just explained how difficult it is to do, even if the syrian government was actually a willing participant. they will string this thing along. i would remind you what former secretary of state colin powell said about assad. he said he's a patho

good afternoon, mike. do you believe the senate bill is narrowly enough defined to satisfy those still unsure of that a missile strike is in the interests of the united states? >> you know, martin, i think if you're referring to the american people at large, the answer is probably not. i don't think americans are going to take any great solace from language in a congressional authorization which as you and i know, it doesn't really have the force of law anyway per se. i think this is going to be one of those operations like most in military matters that has to justify itself by its effects. and so we will know if it's essentially achieved the president's goals in the ensuing months and for that to be a success, probably at least two things have to happen. one assad has to avoid using chemical weapons again or otherwise escalating. and then secondly, on top of that, we have to not be drawn into the war further. and you know, myself, if assad were to escalate, i would say we should respond again. i wouldn't

mike, the russians have cancelled the emergency meeting of the u.n. security council. but the united states, britain and france are still trying to hammer out some kind of resolution. do you believe that assad is prepared to shed light on his chemical weapons program, and allow it to be dismantled at some point? >> hi, martin. well, i wouldn't be surprised if he's prepared to begin the process. as we know, he has a lot of chemicals. he probably has more than he needs. he may even be persuadable to get rid of all of them. but we have to think through why. what would the logic be? maybe it's to avoid this american attack that would otherwise perhaps be pending. although who knows? but i'm not so sure that's reason enough, because assad's watched us enough over the years to know this attack feels like a fairly limited thing on its own terms, at least. so maybe he's also thinking to the point where if there were more international inspectors and he was part of an international diplomatic deal, it's harder for us to escalate and change our minds about the role we want to pl

joining me now, mike duran a senior fellow at the saban center for middle east policy at the brookings institution here in washington, also joining us our senior political analyst and former presidential adviser david gergen and our chief political correspondent anchor of the cnn's state-of-the-union candy crowley. candy, pretty historic day for u.s.-iranian relations. how do you think today's news will be received in washington and beyond? >> reporter: certainly i can tell you that in washington you will hear grave doubts about whether this is a man trying to fool president obama. you are already hearing because as you know we're in the midst of a big budget showdown here with the government may be shutting down on tuesday. so from republicans we're hearing a lot of well, gee, he'll negotiate with the president of iran but he won't negotiate with republicans. so that was sort of the immediate reaction. there's a great deal of caution. certainly you don't want to tamp on the hope but there are a lot of folks saying, let's see what happens next. >> david, you worked in the white house f