The Note: Terror and the Campaign Trail
— -- NOTABLES
--WHITE HOUSE: 'WE ABSOLUTELY AGREE' PARIS ATTACKS WERE AN ACT OF WAR. A top White House official said there is agreement in the Obama Administration with French President Francois Hollande that the Friday attacks on Paris amount to an "act of war." "We absolutely agree that this was an act of war by ISIL," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told ABC's GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS in an interview on "This Week" yesterday. "Any time you have type of indiscriminate targeting of innocent civilians we see that as an act of war by a terrorist group." Rhodes, speaking from Antalya, Turkey, where President Obama is attending the G-20 Summit, also said U.S. intelligence shows that the attack was "in all likelihood" carried out by ISIS. ABC's ALEXANDER MALLIN has more: http://abcn.ws/1PukY5J
--MARCO RUBIO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND WHY HILLARY CLINTON WON'T USE THE TERM 'RADICAL ISLAM.' Yesterday on "This Week", Marco Rubio said he doesn't understand why Hillary Clinton wouldn't use the term 'radical Islam' at Saturday night's Democratic debate. "That would be like saying we weren't at war with Nazis because we were afraid to offend some Germans who may have been members of the Nazi party, but weren't violent," Rubio said on Sunday, ABC's INES DE LA CUETARA notes. "Of course all Muslims are not members of violent jihadist groups," said Rubio. "But there is a global jihadist group in the world motivated by their interpretation of Islam, in this case Sunni Islam, and it needs to be confronted for what it is." http://abcn.ws/1kxWvjb
--ANALYSIS -- ABC's RICK KLEIN: The Paris attacks have reordered presidential politics and priorities, and the reflex is to say this that is a time for grown-ups. Experience matters, or so the thinking goes, as backed up by previous campaigns. Ben Carson stumbled through national-security answers on Fox News Sunday, and Jeb Bush had enough new confidence to question both Donald Trump and Carson's foreign-policy chops: "The words that I hear them speaking give me some concern," Bush said. But this so far cycle would suggest that a Bush isn't the strongest messenger for a fresh take on foreign policy. It's not clear a 40-something first-term senator would be the obvious Republican alternative, either. (Trump's pre-Paris vow to "bomb the s---" out of ISIS might not be a thought-out proposal, but it does have a certain clarity to it that could match the moment.) As for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton has the superior experience, yet her middling debate performance wasn't the showcase her campaign would have hope for. We don't know yet where this moment will lead, but the candidates are appealing to a different mood among voters as of this past weekend.
--HAPPENING THIS WEEK -- BUSH PLANS MAJOR NATIONAL SECURITY SPEECH IN SOUTH CAROLINA. From Bush campaign spokeswoman Allie Brandenburger: "At The Citadel, Governor Bush will address the attacks in Paris, the path forward in our war against ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism, and how we need to rebuild our military to address these threats. The speech was initially scheduled to cover Governor Bush's specific prescriptions for how to rebuild the military and recent events only reinforce the critical nature of that policy."
THE BUZZ
with ABC's VERONICA STRACQUALURSI
PRESIDENT OBAMA PRAISES BERNIE SANDERS BUT PASSES ON WHETHER HE'D MAKE 'GREAT' PRESIDENT. President Obama offered praise for Sen. Bernie Sanders, but declined to say whether he thought the independent Vermont senator would be a "great" president, a compliment he had previously bestowed upon Hillary Clinton. "I think Bernie is capturing a sense among the American people that they want to know the government's on their side, that it's not bought and paid for, that our focus has to be on hard working, middle class Americans, not getting a raw deal. And I think that is incredibly important," Obama said when asked directly by ABC's GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS during an exclusive interview Thursday at the White House. http://abcn.ws/1NxFv3n
PAUL RYAN OPPOSES DONALD TRUMP'S IMMIGRATION PLAN. House Speaker Paul Ryan said that he does not support Donald Trump's plan to round up and deport millions of illegal immigrants. "I can't imagine how it could happen, so no," Ryan said in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," when asked if he would support Trump's proposal. While he's criticized Trump's immigration rhetoric in the past, Ryan has said he'd support "every one" of the GOP presidential candidates as the GOP's nominee for president, ABC's BENJAMIN SIEGEL reports. The Wisconsin Republican's own immigration position has come under scrutiny since he decided to pursue the top job in the House last month. Ryan, who has previously called for comprehensive immigration reform in 2013, said Sunday he still personally supports a pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants "as a way to make amends with the law." http://abcn.ws/1j2V0aZ
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
--7 MOMENTS THAT MATTERED AT THE SECOND DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE. Saturday night, after a wave of deadly attacks in Paris the day before, the three Democrats running for president sparred over their approaches to confronting the ongoing threat of terrorism. A large portion of the second Democratic primary debate focused on matters of foreign policy and national security with the candidates offering their takes on the thorny problem of how to combat ISIS. Clinton, the former secretary of state, who has the most extensive foreign policy record of the three candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, faced pointed questions of her handling of the 2012 terrorist attack in Libya and her 2002 vote in favor of the Iraq war. Held in the critical early caucus state of Iowa and hosted by CBS News, ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE, MICHAEL FALCONE and RYAN STRUYK look at the seven moments that mattered at Saturday's debate. http://abcn.ws/1HQPoHm
--THE BEST LINES. ABC's PAOLA CHAVEZ looks at the best lines of the second Democratic debate. http://abcn.ws/1WZrjoE
--BY THE NUMBERS. The second Democratic debate aired in the aftermath of horrific violence in Paris and the Middle East and protests at universities across the country. All presidential candidates - but especially those onstage last night - had to respond to these events. But other issues quickly drove the conversation - gun control, Wall Street, and college tuition, to name a few. ABC's MADISON JAROS looks at some of the highlights. http://abcn.ws/1lr9VxJ
WHO'S TWEETING?
@romoabcnews: @DavidMuir reporting from #Paris with latest on the #ParisAttacks @ABC @WNTonight
@CNNPolitics: .@LindseyGrahamSC and @SenJohnMcCain: We need a Syria "surge" http://cnn.it/1MMAh7q via @GregJKrieg & @NewDay
@wpjenna: Donald Trump says he would consider closing down some mosques in the U.S. http://wapo.st/1hUAPeU?tid=ss_tw ...
@StevenTDennis: Paul Ryan says he has asked committees to address Syrian refugee situation so we make sure we are protecting ourselves.
@AlexanderTrow: .@MartinOMalley slams Clinton for invoking 9/11 to defend Wall St. contributions "so fresh after so many were murdered in Paris." #WADR