[Unidentified Male:] It was pretty much what I expected, given it was a Seth Rogen movie. The gore wasn't too much. Not as much as I thought it would be. Overall, it was pretty funny and I think it was well executed.
[Harlow:] Have you seen "The Interview"? A lot of folks have. It earned $1 million in its first day, released on Christmas day. By comparison, of course, that's not a ton. "Dumb and Dumber," $36 million in its opening weekend. But "The Interview" was only released to a few thousand theaters. But the controversy around the film is escalating. North Korea releasing an odd, very angry statement accusing President Obama of forcing the release of the film. I want to read you part of the statement. It says, quote, "Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest. And later made this threat, if the U.S. persists in American- style arrogant, high-handed and gangster-like arbitrary practices despite the repeated warnings of the DPRK the U.S. should bear in mind its failed political affairs will face inescapable deadly blows." North Korea also demanding the FBI release its evidence implicating North Korea in a cyber attack against Sony. Just as some U.S. cyber experts say they're not so sure it was Sony that sorry, they're not so sure it was a North Korea that hacked Sony. Joining me to talk about it is CNN commentator, Ben Ferguson; and CNN legal analyst, Mel Robbins. Thank you for being here. First of all, Ben your reaction to that statement out of North Korea and frankly your takeaway from this entire debacle over "The Interview."
[Ben Ferguson, Cnn Political Commentator:] I'm just glad that we got that actual statement. I was worried with their Internet being shut down by somebody, again, that they were going to have to send it by bird, you know. It's nice to know at least we let their Internet be up for a couple hours. It's a classic example of just how out of touch with reality this regime is. It's so sad the people there, you know, instead of him worrying about American movies, maybe he should worry about feeding his own people and people in slave labor who have no rights and can't speak out and can't even stand up, you know, without being worried that someone in their government's going to hit them. You want to talk about atrocities. I'm not too worried about them. Let's be honest, ultimately, right now, what they're good at is hacking. They got a lot of time on their hands and they have to send people out of their own country to even learn how to hack and then they got to hack from other countries. So I think this is, you know, a bunch of hoopla for them. I think it's embarrassing that we're actually treating them with so much, I guess you'd say, respect as some adversary. And I think shutting down their Internet just shows how weak they really are as a country are right now because of their leader.
[Harlow:] But look at the damage done by the Sony hack that the FBI says the evidence bears out that it was North Korea. Mel, what do you make of the fact that this comedy, right, this comedy movie is emblematic of our, you know, fight and many people say this was a real fight against terrorism?
[Mel Robbins, Cnn Legal Analyst:] Well, I do think it was a fight against terrorism, and I do. You know, as much as I am sitting here chuckling as I was listening to Ben, I don't think it's kind of funny or something that we should downplay. I think this is the beginning of a lot of these kind of new-age terror attacks where countries that are as isolated, as backwards, as you know, we look at them and say, oh, he's crazy, he's this, no, he's not. Since the 1990s they've had a military-first policy that employs a strategy where they isolate their people. They starve them. They enslave them. They elevate the dictator. And they also try to keep everybody on edge as if they might get attacked. And they do that so that they can maintain control without actually having to go to war with anybody.
[Ferguson:] And, Mel, here's the thing. I agree with you and I think the bigger picture from this is we should be reminded in a very heavy- handed way by our government that this exactly what is going on in this country and identify think some people have missed it because of the whole movie aspect of it. This is the new type of terrorism. And it's going to come from North Korea and other nations as well. But this is when the president should step up in a big way and say, we don't put up with this, especially from you. And if we did shut down their Internet, I personally would like to claim it.
[Robbins:] Yes.
[Harlow:] Mel, do you think that the president in saying earlier that he believes Sony made a mistake by saying at first it wasn't going to release the film and we know it happened, it got released in some theaters and online, but do you believe that was the president taking a stand?
[Robbins:] No. In fact, I think it was the president throwing Sony under the bus because he didn't stand up and claim it as a terrorist act and say our government will not
[Ferguson:] Bingo.
[Robbins:] stand for this kind of assault on U.S., you know, companies, on our freedom of speech, on the free markets. If he stepped up and said we will retaliate, you know, bit for bit. If he had stepped forward and said, this is an attack on free markets, on our Constitution, this is business terrorism, this is we take this seriously and there will be a response.
[Ferguson:] Yeah. And not even mention Sony
[Harlow:] So, tougher rhetoric. Guys, Ben, we got to get a break in. We'll come back with you on the other side. But also, shouldn't we be talking about China and China's role in facilitating Internet access in North Korea, you know, politically, that has implications we'll talk about it, too. Quick break. We'll be back on the other side talking about this. The president has been a man of action since losing Congress in the midterm elections since the Republican wave. He's done it all without input from Congress, "going it alone." Is this a sign of what's to come for 2015?