CNN:
As the San Bernardino attack was happening, investigators believe the female shooter, Tashfeen Malik, posted on Facebook, pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, three U.S. officials familiar with the investigation told CNN.
The posting was by Malik made on an account with a different name, according to one U.S. official. The officials did not explain how they knew Malik made the post.
After the initial reports of the attack, President Obama was being interviewed by CBS News, and he declared:
“What I try to do is to make sure that people understand the threat is real, we have to vigilant, but we also can’t panic and we can’t respond out of fear. We have to make sure that we keep a clear-eyed view about what needs to be done,” Mr. Obama said. “ISIL is not going to pose an existential threat to us, they are a dangerous organization like al Qaeda was, but we have hardened our defenses, our homeland has never been more protected by more effective intelligence and law enforcement professionals at every level than they are now. The coordination is much better than it is now. If you look at the number of successful terrorist attacks that have occurred, you know, we have disrupted a lot of them, but the dangers are still there and so we just have to keep things in perspective.”
The president said the American people should feel confident about the country’s defense and go about their lives.
“I said this repeatedly overseas, ISIL only wins if we react out of fear and start changing how we live, violating our values, they can’t win on the battlefield. They can kill some innocent people, but that’s not a victory for them if we respond appropriately,” Mr. Obama said.
In other words, Obama said he was confident about the homeland’s protection from ISIS as an actual attack by ISIS was going on.