Important questions that are not yet answered. Is he alone . Is this person acting alone some is this person the suspected bomber or someone connected to it . We are following all of this as we follow the progress of that van and the developments in this case. Keeping our eyes on the white house as well as President Trump is expected to speak any moment. Thank you so much for joining me. I will hand it off to john king with inside politics. We will continue our coverage. Thank you and welcome to inside politics. As kate noted, we will continue to following the dramatic Breaking News this hour. The Justice Department confirms federal authorities have arrested a man in South Florida in connection to the explosive packages sent across the country. That arrest a bit earlier today and now a dozen packages in total sent to political operatives and opponents of the president and cnn. A News Conference led by the
Attorney General here at 2 30 h here eastern time. In new york, tracking this investigation, i want to start with you. We dont have her at the moment. There she is. Sorry about that. Give us the latest on what we know in terms of the arrest, the investigation, and why. What led authorities to this man . The arrest unfolding just before 11 00 as we were getting ready to go on air around 11 00. More like 10 30 or so. The fbi authorities in miami, the joint Terrorism Task force, all of them working this for the last 24 hours. Tracking this individual. They tracked him to this area in plantation outside an auto zone where they took him into custody. We dont know if he was taken into custody without incident. We dont have detail surrounding the arrest. We know there have been significant progress made by authorities in this case. They have been working through the night and all day yesterday. We had some indication that is an arrest was likely soon. Certainly this morning. Both cnns evan perez and i were hearing that something was going to happen. Police and the fbi were sitting on this individual, waiting for a good time and a safe time to take him into custody. Thats how it went down. There will be a Press Conference at the Department Of Justice with the Attorney General in washington, d. C. There will be fbi agents and 90 personn nypd officials will be on their way down. How this person went about shipping and constructing these and what the motives were. Thats the big question here also. As you see there in the video and as you have been reporting,
its not clear why the police and the fbi have chosen to cover up that van. What we believe is the suspects van. There is writings and stickers and decals on that van. That could be why. They dont want the public to see whats on that van. That could help authorities get a sense of this persons frame of mind, maybe motive as to what was behind these series of mailings of what appears to be explosive devices. Shimon, stay with us. I want to go to randi kay. The van was taken from the scene and taken to a Processing Facility. From where you are on the scene, describe what you saw as that this dramatic arrest unfolded. Reporter we were here with a Dramatic Development in plantation, florida. This state road 7 here behind me had been closed. It was very difficult to get
closer to the scene. Now you can see its wide open. The van that we have been talking about all morning that has the blue tarp over it was picked up and hauled away across the state road 7. It came right here as the state road was still closed on to that Processing Facility wherever they are going take it to take a closer look at it. There was heavy Law Enforcement and all of them armed. A big Media Presence. A lot of roads were close and there were Police Helicopters in the air as well. We are about 27 miles in this location, away from aventura where the suspect was reportedly living according to evan perez and we are not far from opa locka where the mail facility is where some of these pipes had been mailed from. As they take this vehicle away with the blue tarp, you mentioned the takers and there is the question of whats
inside. Certainly Law Enforcement thinks there might be more evidence or evidence or mailing labels inside. What kind of fibers from the suspects home could be inside. We can see the care they were taking with this vehicle, covered in the blue tarp as they made their way from that area where they took the gentleman and the vehicle into custody and took it to its next step to the facility to be processed. John . Fantastic reporting from randi kay. If you get more information, come back to us. The fbi Assistant Director, we are waiting for the United States to speak, so i account interrupt at any moment. There were clearly political stickers on it. We will get more on that as we get more information. Why would they cover it like this to take it to a Processing Facility. We were talking about procedures and what the agents are more
worried about. Thats normal procedure. Cover it and protect it and maintain it was take nen a pristine manner. If it went through a window, it could contaminate the crime scene. They want to keep it protected until they get it to an fbi garage where it is secure from the weather and outside eyes and they can take their time and meticulously look inside. They will be looking inside the van for even the Carpeting Fibers in the van. Anything in that van that might match one of the devices to show it was in the van when he went to mail it. On the outside of the van could come to the question of political motivation. Whats most important in terms of proving your case is whats inside the van. Crime scene. Absolutely. Take us through what we know about how police were led to this dramatic arrest this morning. We dont know much. We still dont have all the details because its only about two hours old or so. We know the fbi clearly has been doing surveillance of this individual, of this man, for sometime. It could be for 24 hours or longer. There indications that came in as early as yesterday evening that the police and the fbi made progress in the investigation and getting pretty close to making an arrest. The officials we were talking to would not confirm anything, but it was just appearing that something was going on and they identified someone they were interested in. There was surveillance. There was forensic evidence that account link him to the packages and the things he sent. They recovered so many of these and they are intact. There is black tape and wires and metal casing. If he was sloppy and didnt use gloves or hair fell on it, there could be dna evidence. The other thing is cell phone. His cell phone the authorities were tracking, they were able to track his movement. Then they just went in and made the arrest. Josh campbell, one of our analysts here made the point that one of the reasons they didnt arrest him at home is they fear there could have been explosives and they chose to do it outside the home and they felt it was safe enough to go to the area and they took him into custody. Stay with us. I want to know that we are waiting for the president of the United States. He was a at previously scheduled white house event, but he will address this event as soon as it happens. He was briefed by the Attorney General who was also at the white house and he will have a briefing later today. In the sense that we are watching this van being taken to the Processing Facility and
there is one suspect in custody. Obviously, question number one, did you act alone or are there accomplices. Normally for people who watch police shows, Miranda Rights come into play. You were making the point that nod immediate not immediately in this case because of the gravity. When the suspect is taken into custody, they need to know if they will tell if there are other people involved or packages that havent been delivered. They are in the system now. Because of that, they get a grace president . That period has not been specifically defined but the graver the situation and the bigger the threat, the more latitude. If he makes it clear he is not going to cooperate or talk, at that point they can give a miranda and call the attorneys and that type of thing. In the short run, we have a
tremendous Public Safety issue 50. Public safety first. Forgive me if i have to break off for the president , but the former fbi profiler helped apprehend the unibomber. I dont want to equate these two. That was over years and this was over several days. You are sitting across from somebody who you believe has been responsible for the domestic Terror Attacks and additional investigations. After we lured him out of his cabin, he put up a bit of a fight and brought down to the another cabin that had been prepared to hopefully interrogate him. He was handcuffed behind his back when he sat down at this pine table. A rustic scene. My supervisor said to him, ted, we are concerned about anyone being hurt as mr. Fuentes said. We would like to know, are there any booby traps or anyone that could hurt anyone. He said he thought he said they say its something pretty serious that you shouldnt say anything, so im not saying anything. I want a lawyer. And that was the end of any conversation about the bombings. The end of any conversation about the bombings. To get into the mind set. Shock that the authorities had found him . Yes. Ted kosinski had all the evidence of fei15 years of maki and sending bombing devices and three people killed. It was all right there in his little cabin. Stay with us as well. I want to note our reporting said the truck is headed to
miramar, florida. This is whats being investigated. We have a dozen suspicious packages. Two more found just this morning. One addressed to democratic senator cory booker and to James Clapper who is a contributor here at cnn which was evacuated the other day in new york when a package addressed to the former cia director came to cnn. He is a contributor on another network. Take us through this sense of relief, obviously, in the fbi and the other agencies that they believe they have their suspect. They want to go through the evidence, if you will. What now . There is a sense of relief, but you are moving to an urgent task. Who else might be involve and are there still packages at large . Thats a key part of that and matching more evidence to be able to link every possible device. Another reason for not affecting the rest, you would have 15
agents trampling the inside of a house that is a crime scene and might be booby trapped. That house is a crime scene and its pristine and they can take their time again in the home that will match the packages in custody right now. Thats a good reason. They will continue with that. Continue with the examinations of whether he was on social media or posted threats before the event happened or whether he posted any kind of taking credit for the bombs that went out. All of that will be up for discussion with him at this point. At what point is the question, obviously, all of the targets here were critics of the president. Democratic politicians and people who criticized the president. At what point do you get to the that. You are worried about are there more and where are the materials used to build them and is anybody helping you. When do you get to the question of why . When you are pretty clear that there probably are no more
devices in the mail system and that he may be the only lone actor in this thing or others have been identified and get picked up shortly. When you get to that, you can Start Talking about political motive. Was he on the extreme right trying to take attacks against the left or extreme left wanting to create martyrs or not actually hurt them. We dont know. Thats not the most critical factor. Obviously. Public safety is factor number one. Kaitlan colins is standing by and the president of the United States will speak any moment. He is behind schedule. The president has not praised the fbi for the investigation and he attacked the media for the angry mood in the country. He has been briefed on this now. Any indication of what we will hear from the president moments from now . Reporter the question is, are we going to hear more on who the suspect is and how they
arrested the person and what went down, but the president will make remarks at the young black leadership summit, but he has been briefed on the arrest and also the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions who has been spearheading the investigation is also here at the white house right now. He is likely also speaking with the president about this. John, you have to look at the last sweet that the president sent before he told us he would give us an update. He was raising questions about what has gone on here. Republicans were doing so well in early voting and the polls and this bomb stuff happened. Now the momentum greatly slowed. He was lamenting the idea that the news was not on politics, but instead on this unfolding Terror Incident that shocked the nation in the last few days. We asked the white house, what was the president saying . Is he trying to insinuate this is a false operation as has been
in the Conspiracy Theories . They didnt get back to us. Of course the president has been getting regular Intelligence Briefings and stayed updated on what has been unfolding in the investigation. The question is, had the president been briefed on this impending arrest when he sent that tweet roughly two hours ago and did they know they were about to arrest someone in connection with the Package Bombs. We will hear from President Trump any minute now. He is going to address this. Whether or not he is going to raise any questions or going to let us know they have arrested someone and they are working on this and we will learn more in the Justice Department briefing, we will wait to hear from him, john . We will go to the president as soon as he makes remarks he has scheduled at the white house. Shimon is still with us. Lets go through what we know about the suspect. A man in his 50s and he has ties
to new york and lives in aventura, florida where the Central Postal Facility is at play. What else . John, honestly, thats about all we know. We are obviously digging into his history, his life, trying to figure out more information about him. He has a criminal history. That was certainly an advantage for Law Enforcement and the fbi. They would have been able to pull the records once they identified who he was. Really its a matter for them. They know a lot about him already. His social Media Presence and they have gone through all of that. They have gone through his history, criminal history, what he does and where he works. They know quite a bit about his political leanings which are probably going to be important in this investigation. What he has said about political candidates. They have all that. That lives with the fbi. We will see how much they will talk about at the Press Conference at 2 30. That will be key and its clear that thats key in this investigation as for motive. Really, thats it. I suspect there is no concern about explosives in that van. They would never be moving. There would be bomb squads. Its interesting that they chose to cover it because everything they need for evidence is inside of that van. Thats basically it. It doesnt appear that anyone else was involved at this point. Its only one person that has been arrested. We dont know if he lives with family. There are ties to new york, im told. Perhaps brooklyn. He may have lived in brooklyn at point. We dont know how long he has lived in florida. The fbi has been tracking him for at least 24 hours now,
watching him as he moves around and seeing who he was calling and talking to. What purchases hes made. They have all that information at this point. Its probably going to paint a better picture for us once they speak and release some of this evidence in Court Filings and court proceedings. Shimon with more great reporting. The president and his remarks will come any moment and describe the attacks as terrorizing acts. That would be language the president has not used in recent days. He has not described this as terrorism. He seemed to be skeptical just earlier today saying it was designed to affect the Midterm Elections. We will hear from the president any moment there. We want to take a quick break and have more on the investigation when we come back. No break . My apologies. I thought we were going to break. Lets put this back into
context. We can show you how this played out. George soros received a package on monday. Tuesday a package addressed to the clintons, hillary specifically. They live outside of new york. The former Vice President joe biden. John brennan, James Clapper, Robert De Niro who lives in new york and has been a krom nent critic of the president of the United States. Today a package directed at senator cory booker. A prominent trump critic and had a big role in the Brett Kavanaugh hearing. Maxine waters is a frequent critic. Eric holder and the Return Address List is Debbie Wassermann schultz from the Democratic National committee in florida and a 13th at a Sacramento Facility addressed to kamala harris. Its not hidden here the motivation. All of the targets, democrats and critics of the president. When you are leading an investigation like this, how much do the words of the president or the sweet fist they are diverting from the facts impact your work . It wont. It doesnt matter what the public is saying and what the media is respecting with regard to possible political motivation. They are taking every step of the way meticulously and knowing the victims or the targets of the mailings doesnt tell you specifically the motivation. We can assume it and its a pro right wing numbers of the left or progressives or democrats. We dont know that for sure. That might lead me to ignore the
facts. Its all about the facts and the evidence. And it should be. Let me ask you about that. Amen for that. Lets plaud the work who moved quickly to get this suspect into custody. We showed them putting the tarp on the van. There are clearly republican stickers on the van. You can see the elephant and the gop logo. That means there are republican stickers on the van. Exactly. There will be theories about why it was covered up. Were people trying to hide it. You believe this was done to preserve the crime scene. This is routinely done. It rains in florida every afternoon. They dont want to be out in the rain trying to do this. They will get it to a garage in a secure facility and they want it to arrive as pristine as
possible and not have Somebody Throw Rocks through the window and contaminate the interior. They are always covered. Its not just this case or not because it might have pro republican Window Stickers or any of that. Tom fuentes, we are watching fbi agents and they are questioning somebody at this auto zone, an Auto Parts Store working the computer laptop. We dont know if the person worked there or did business in the store, but the van was outside of this store. Routine investigative work. They want to know if that person saw the Van Being Park and did more than one person get out. Was somebody else with the suspect or was it taken into custody . That would be typical to do the interviews. Everybody that possibly saw that van at that vicinity to make sure he is alone. They would have had him under surveillance and they dont want to make that arrest in the house because thats a crime scene. For there were purchases made. What are did he do if they waited until he came back out. You mentioned that politics dont matter. You are trying to find the person. When you see and we have a map of where this played out, most packages are delivered in new york. One in delaware and in sacramento. The first one is george soros. Whether thats george soros or john doe, thats a big deal. Whether its a prominent citizen or normal human being. Then you have more. What happens . When i say the politics doesnt matter to the investigators. We dont care who was the victim, but you are looking at commonality. Who are the victims and what do they have in common. Thats the lead, but not the
definitive motive. Because they were democrats or progressives or from that side. Its something to take into consideration, but not the main topic. They will have the evidence and the forensics lead them on. They would have had the video and the forensic evidence from inside the packages themselves as they are being examined. Again, if he is known to the police, how wellknown . Was his dna or fingerprints on file and maybe they got a match to him specifically and that led to this . Did somebody tip the police or the fbi off . My buddy or classmate or neighbor has been talking about doing an attack on democrats or whoever or wants attention and 15 minutes of fame. He doesnt want to kill anybody, but he wants attention. We dont know how they got on to him at this point. Was it the tip or forensics or
surveillance or social media or friends or relatives. We will know at some point. If you are still with me, as you move from monday where you have a package addressed to george soros where you have several more and as you get that information from one to six known critics of the president , how does that affect it . We think we are looking for what . Well, it starts out first of all, what is the actual crime . The crime is, he is making bombs and using them to we are not sure what. Possibly scare. None of them went off. Generally speaking, people that commit these kinds of crimes are white males that are older, over
40. With each successive event, the event being a device being sent or discovered, it tells us more and more. One of the things that occurred to me about this is that this person was really hyperactive about the number of devices he was sending. Kosinski sent 13 devices over 15 years. The person in custody, if it is him i need to interrupt you. We have new information on the suspect. Evan . We can now identify the suspect. His name is cesar sayoc and is 56 years old. He has an address in hollywood, florida. Looking through the criminal history, there are criminal records on this suspect. He was taken into custody earlier today in plantation,
florida. It appears that that business was to arrest him at the place of business which was an auto zone store. He lives a few miles away over in hollywood, florida. At least thats the most recent address we found for him. His name is cesar sayoc and hes 56 years old and has quite a criminal history in florida and ties to new york. Its something Law Enforcement has been working on for the last 48 hours and certainly the last 24 hours. They had a good idea they had identified this guy. He made mistakes in the way he constructed the bombs, however he made these bombs, there were mistakes and they were able to identify dna, apparently, on at least some of the packages to identify him and that helped them make a huge breakthrough in the investigation. To isolate that this had come
through that facility in opa locka, florida. All in the Samed Aious North of miami. The same of the suspect is cesar sayoc, 56 years old from an address in aventura, florida where we have him living most recently. I want to show you an image of the van under the blue tarp. If you look in clearly, these are republicanleaning. The president , the Vice President , the gop logo and to the bottom left, cnn sucks. This is the van that has been taken into custody. Cesar sayoc. This gets to the motivation of mr. Sayoc. The American Flag and the president ial seal and cnn sucks, knowing what is alleged here. At least a dozen packages. That are will be addressed in the interview package. They will go through the bombs that were mail and whether they were going to explode and how he made them. They will go into those kinds of things. That essentially is the equivalent of a Social Media Posting without the internet. Just sticking a Window Sticker on your window. They will go into all of his possible leanings and whether that led to the motivation to want to do this. His target selection, why he picked the people he did to send the packages to. I dont know if evan is still with us or not. We mentioned in the past before we knew the suspects name, we believe he had a criminal history. Do we have any indication of what his past history is, now that we know his name . We dont have evan perez. Take me through the process now. Now we know the name of the suspect and known for sometime in terms of criminal history relevant in any event, but what are you looking for to piece it
together . If he was arrested before, he would have been fingerprinted. If they got one fingerprint that matched to him, thats a major clue. Dna also. We dont know if he was a suspect in cases where his dna was taken and on file. Thats two major leads. The fingerprints and the possible dna. Great crime justice team has more reporting. Shimon . We are showing the images on the suspects van, specifically and obviously the president and the Vice President. And then that cnn sucks. When i was talking to Law Enforcement about this, they all along thought that the packages that were meant for cnn were delivered here. He was targeting cnn. We will now go to the white house to a black leadership event. That is why the cheering is
there. The president will address this incident and the arrest at the top of these remarks. He is speaking to a black leadership summit previously scheduled. It may seem off tone, but thats not the fault of the people in the room. Lets listen to the president of the United States. They call this, as you know, young black leadership and its the summit and to have you here is truly my privilege. We are going to have a lot of fun and talk and meet. But before i do, id like to begin and you are leaders. Real leaders. Id like to begin todays remarks by providing an update on the packages and devices that have been mailed to high profile figures throughout our country and a media organization. I am pleased to inform you that Law Enforcement has apprehended
the suspect and taken him into custody. [ applause ] its an incredible job by Law Enforcement. We carried out a far reaching federal and state investigation to find the person or persons responsible for these events. These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country. No place. I have instructed authorities to spare no resource or expense in finding those responsible in bringing them to swift and certain justice. And we will prosecute them, him, her, whoever it may be to the fullest extent of the law. We must never allow political
violence to take root in america. Cannot let it happen. Im committed to doing everything in my power as president to stop it. To stop it now. Stop it now. I have just concluded a briefing with the Department Of Justice following the apprehension of the suspect. I want to applaud the fbi, secret service, the Department Of Justice, the u. S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of new york, the nypd, and all Law Enforcement throughout the entire country. Credible partners. These people have worked so hard and to have done it so quickly. Its looking like a its a needle in a haystack. How do you do it . They have done an incredible job and want to congratulate them. The bottom line is that americans must unify. We must show the world that we are united together in peace and love and harmony as fellow American Citizens. There is no country like our country and every day we are showing the world just how truly great we are. So you are really very special people. I wanted to say that before our little talk. I appreciate the time you have given me and boy, one day, one of you is going to be standing it could be three or four of you, actually. You will be standing right here. I have no doubt. I have no doubt. Who in this room wants to be president some day . So its an ambitious group. Thats great. Anyway. Thank you all very much. I really appreciate it. For the media, thank you very
much. I thought i would do that. We feel very strongly again. Congratulations to all Law Enforcement. We have the best in the world and they just showed it. Thank you very much. The president of the United States speaking at the white house to a group of young black leaders brought in for a summit today. Their enthusiasm for the president because they are invited into the white house for a political event. Taking time at the top to deliver an update on the arrest and the suspect in the mailing of the Package Bombs or alleged bombs around the country. The president applauding and not said anything about the investigation and applauding the nypd and other agencies for an incredible job for finding the needle in the haystack. The van associated with the suspect arriving at an fbi facility in florida to be investigated and looked at as a
potential crime scene. He said we must never allow Political Violence to take root in america and he would do everything in his power to stop it and everything in his power to unify the country. Tom fuentes is still with me and Assistant Director of the fbi. From the leaders of the investigative team, we will get the key details from the president. I dont mean this in a critical way, but a pat on the back. The effort that went into this from all of the Law Enforcement agencies and many more than he named, the joint Terrorism Task forces that have been in new york may have 40 different agencies. There was 102, i believe, nationwide that would be coordinating. The explosives are a closeknit group also and they have their own private secure networks where they can send photographs
and information about Bomb Components and the way they are made and put together and that. You have a great deal of coordination with hundreds of agencies all over the country that go into Something Like this and you see the results with this kind of arrest. Kaitlan colins is still with us. Im struck by the change in the president s tone. When he is in private with his phone and showing tweets, he called this this bomb stuff. With bombs in parentheses and called these terrorizing acts and said they were despicable. No reference to the tweet where he said the coverage of what happened this week in this unfolding incident slowed momentum, in his opinion, for republicans ahead of the midterms because politics were not being covered on television and newspapers. This was being covered. He seemed to suggest that he was just briefed by the Justice Department and saw the Attorney General arrive here in the white house earlier. He did seem to suggest that there could be multiple people responsible here. He said purpose or persons and later said he wanted to bring whoever it is responsible to swift justice. Him, her, they, them. He made a reference to several people. We know he was briefed by john kelly and officials before coming out and making these remarks. Certainly a very different tone as the president read from the teleprompter because we saw aides adding in new remarks because they were not prepared for this. When they planned on this event, we saw them adding in new remarks. They had no reference to the tweet where he said it slowed momentum and it was more of a reflection on the day these first happened and in the other remarks where he called for unity and said Political Violence has noplace in this country and praised them for swift action as a needle a
haystack noting how difficult it is to find whoever it is that did this. Praising Law Enforcement for doing so really quickly. No reference to that sweet where he said this bomb stuff, in quotes, was slowing down momentum ahead of the polls. We know that President Trump told aides and told his friends, he doesnt want in any way to be linked to this. This is going to raise questions now that we are seeing the stickers on this persons van, all of those questions. What the president will have to say as he continues to be updated. Live at the white house after the president speaks. You are watching on the right of your scene, the van being lowered from the tow truck into an fbi Processing Facility in miramar, florida. It will be investigated for evidence with the Person Associated with the van. We dont know that hes the ownership, but cesar sayoc is 56
years old of aventura, florida. Thats the most significant news today. A suspect in custody believed to be responsible for the mailing of at least a dozen suspected Bomb Packages to prominent democrats and critics of the president including to cnn here in new york. We are 11 days away from the Midterm Election. Dana bash will join the investigation. You can get whiplash trying to follow the president at this time of a National Crisis and urgency with the media to blame for this. The media stokes anger. No comment for the first several days about the heroic work done by the fb about everything else. The president walks into the room and within two hours of saying this bomb stuff in a sweet. We would expect the president to
say this must not happen in our country and these acts are despicable. You can get whiplash trying to follow him at a moment of National Crisis. There is Teleprompter Trump and twitter trump. That was Teleprompter Trump. Written by his aides, doing what he should do. Talking about despicable acts and violence is never okay. The problem is what he didnt say. Either in that teleprompter speech or on twitter. You know what, we all need to lower the rhetoric. I, as president , have a big impact on people as what i say as the media has the impact and everybody else has an impact, but particularly the man with the loudest megaphone and the most twitter followers in politics. That was a big omission. We have not seen him fill in the
blank. If anything, as you mentioned, hes gone the other way on twitter, which was to continue to stoke animosity towards the media. The tweet he sent today, i dont understand it. It likes to focus on politics. We are political reporters. We would love to focus on politics, but we have a Major Investigation which is real that we have to focus on. This is the last thing any of us would like to discuss. Bombs mailed to two former president s and other prominent American Citizens that are a danger. To your point, the President Tweeting at 3 00 a. M. An attack on this news network and earlier todayment today. This channels the right wing Experience Theory that somehow like the democrats are responsible for the caravan which the president said, the democrats are responsible for these packages. You see it and if you read right
wing Experience Theory sites, the republicans are doing so well in early voting and now this bomb stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows. What is going on . Republicans go out and vote. The president is linking this crime with two former president s and a former first lady and others this is a photo from a previous arrest of the suspect in custody. Cesar sayoc. He is in custody and he is the suspect. We are waiting to hear more on the details and the allegations of this current offense. The mailing of a dozen packages. Shimon . So as we have been saying, he is 56 years old and was living in the florida areas with ties and connections to new york. Really, thats all we really
know about him. We have seems digging through his history and criminal history and social media. There is a lot of stuff out there about him. Its not difficult to figure out what he was about. How he was thinking. His political leanings when you start digging into him. We putting all of that together. The authorities have already done all of that and we will probably see that information in perhaps the criminal complain and the Court Records will get released and even maybe at the Press Conference. It really seems like a person who may have not been known to authorities in the sense of being up to Something Like this or could be behind Something Like this. Once they started learning his name and identity, they probably knew they were on to someone likely behind this. They worked it. From everything that we can tell, it was the last 24 hours
or so that really changed the game here for authorities. Once they were able to learn where the Sorting Facilities and these packages went through, they were able to zero in on a neighborhood in South Florida and they have been tracking him. Now hes in custody, a huge relief. The nypd commissioner is on his way to washington, d. C. To join the Press Conference. The nypd playing a big role in the investigation having to deal with at least three packages. Well see. We are all waiting to learn more about him. More about his history. Even his family and what was going on in his mind. I was talking to Law Enforcement and they are in meetings, discussing this case and the situation. Its clear that this guy had a lot of problems and they are
learning more about the investigation. Between updates and the investigation, what happens in a Breaking News situation. Former Associate Director back into the conversation. The nypd Police Commissioner is coming down to be with the Attorney General. This is a mug shot from a prior arrest. That would let me to believe this is a lone actor and they have been everybody involved if they have this big event. They wouldnt do that if they were worried there were more out there . I think youre right. He may have been acting completely alone and may have already bragged about it. The scheduling of the Press Conference was made earlier so the commissioner could get to washington and others could participate. They had a good idea even from his Phone Traffic and Social Media Traffic that he may have been alone in the whole process. Alone in the process. Thats 2 30. We are coming up on 1 00. A Justice Department briefing and the commissioner is coming alone. Fbi officials will be there. We will get details on the investigation. The calendar forces the conversation anyway. We are 11 days away from a midterm and all of the targets of this suspect now, of these pipe bombs were democrats or critics of the president. We have a picture of the van. I will ask you to put it back up. Clearly the suspects van has pictures of the president , pictures of the Vice President , has a derogatory i will say it. Cnn sucks on the left part of the screen. Thats the suspects van. That does not make the president responsible, but he bristled at the suggestion that people are holding him responsible for this. This suspect is alleged to have done this and he will explain his motives to the police. What people asked of the president is a more calming, unifying presence. He has done that at times quite
well. Other times he launches into attacks on this network, on the media at large and says bomb stuff. You were talking about the difference between twitter trump and Teleprompter Trump. Twitter is one way where we get the most unfiltered information into what he is thinking. It is clear from the tweet he sent out using the Quotation Marks and using the word stuff, he doesnt believe this is as serious as everyone else believes. There is something about this that is not real or on the level. That is particularly unfortunate and not helpful at a time when we know there are Experience Theory that are unsubstantiated going around about the motive and what their intentions might be. Regardless of what we know and dont know about the various bombs that have been discovered. Whether they were designed to go
off, we dont know why they havent. Why none of them were detonated. This is a serious situation. I was in the new york bureau when the alarms went off. Even as we were evacuated and didnt know what the reason was, we all knew as we were going down the stairs that this was a serious situation and would remain so. If everyone is able to acknowledge that this is a serious issue and conduct, the president should be able to as well. To that point, lets connect the two conversations. As the investigation goes on, politics is part of that. They will be asking why he has done this. What does it matter from a Crime Stand Point if they were actual bombs set to go off and they didnt work or the suspect knew they were not. The question you are trying to assassinate or hurt or intimidate or terrorize. Does that make a distinction. If he killed somebody, he would face the Death Penalty and if not, he faces life. Its still extremely serious no matter when way you look at it. I looked at not form the opinion too early. I didnt say never. As they go through his social media discussions with neighbors and coworkers. If they form the opinion that he was extreme right and hated the left, you will have the motive. Dont go to that immediately before you have all the facts. We are putting this picture up, the image of what was on that van for an extended president of time. That image, cnn sucks, of course the president didnt direct this. Hes not technically responsible for this, but he is responsible for not just allowing the chant,
cnn sucks at his rallies and stoking it. Making clear he likes it. All you need is one crack pot. We have been saying this for two years. It looks like one may have emerged. That is the danger. That is the reason why leadership is the way it is. You can have an enemy and have political discussion and discourse, but when you cross the line, it is extremely dangerous. That is what has been a giant omission in anything we heard from anybody at the white house. Because we know that people take their queues from the president. As they should. He is the leader of the country and the president of the United States and we have seen stunning moments like when he mocked Christine Blasey ford and her testimony. We could see they were in on the joke, laughing along when he made jokes about body slamming a reporter. They see that the president is taking that tone and they react
to match that. Can i add, after the period made that speech to the same audience, he mentioned fake polls and the people in that room inside the white house chanted cnn sucks. Put that in context of what the president said and where we are now. That was not stopped. That tells you everything you need to know. To a trump supporter, we are human at cnn and we make mistakes, but we correct them when we do. The president might want to do that. We talk about the fbi concern. They are trying to solve a crime, but the politics are part of this. Thats to the question of motivation. How does that factor in . Its a huge factor and i want to interject. This is something that the fbi has been monitoring and whether or not the activity that you are seeing from the rhetoric and the political atmosphere and whether or not it could insight violence
and insight criminal activity. They do watch for this and monitor this. We have the situations that they are concerned about. They are concerned that someone for political reasons or because of all the rhetoric and the discourse going on will take some kind of action. For them, this is something that they expected in this environment and its something they keep an eye on, but certainly this is thankfully no one here was hurt. It disrupted many lives and has cost a lot of money not only to Law Enforcement, but to peoples businesses. Our building evacuate and whole foods and the mall evacuated. This disrupted the lives of many people and the fear that it has created. While many people have not been physically hurt, the fbi has been concerned about this. I wanted to note that. This has to factor in to the way people see things and the way people think about this. There arent many people in Law Enforcement concerned about this. Excellent reporting there. Dana mentioned this from the white house. The president began his remarks to the young africanamerican leadership summit. He had an update on the investigation in which, to his credit, applauded the incredible job done by Law Enforcement in which he said the acts were despicable and it became more political in the room. A beittacking us because we speaking the truth and changing minds and proving every day our policies work. We are really doing whats right and whats good. I get attacked also. You get attacked. I get attacked all the time. In fact, im just thinking, come
to think of it, who gets atta attacked more than me . Ben . I get attacked. Maybe more than anybody. I dont know. I can do the greatest thing for our country and on the networks and on different things. It will show bad. They will take it fake news. No matter what, i wont use examples. Today is just sort of a special day because we caught somebody that hopefully that will all pan out to be 100 , but it probably will. Today is a special day for that reason. We all get attacked. Were smart and we understand thats the president of the United States at the white house to the point that you heard fake news chants. The president was commenting there. Again, he has every right to make his case and we do cover
record low unemployment and sitax cut and when he said he lost the popular vote because millions of immigrants voted illegally, which didnt happen. We cover when the president veers from the facts and the truth. We do both. Absolutely. I remember the look, its not even worth it, but the banners on cnn where the president had the greatest week of any president in so long because of that. Thats called reporting the news. Thats called giving the facts. That is what we do. Unfortunately in this era, we have to correct things that public officials, starting with the president , say athat are no factual. Its fascinating that he said he is committed to doing everything in his power to stop the Political Violence. That starts with his tweets and public remarks. He is currently clearly not
doing that. There is also just a level of Self Involvement here when he talks about the fact that i get attacked all the time and he said he clearly doesnt want republicans suffering politically from these bombs that have been sent out. His focus is on himself at a moment when a lot of people are looking to him for leadership. There is no way to answer the question, how does this impact the climate we are in. We are in a Midterm Election 11 days from now. A 3 00 a. M. Tweet attacking. You can decide if he should be up at 3 00 a. M. Attacking news organizations. 3 00 a. M. Tweets are a bad idea. What the president said was spot on. Applaud the fbi and Law Enforcement and reassure the country that this should not happen. Terrorizing acts and despicable, the president said. Moments before that, the president tweeted, republicans are doing so well in early voting and now this bomb stuff casting doubts. He accuses us of fake news. That is casting doubt at a moment of national anxiety. Whether you are a democrat or republican or a Police Officer or postal worker. If you are working in cnn or Office Building where a Congressional Office might be located, you are anxious at this moment and the president is saying bomb stuff. People who work for him on a federal level and people who work for republicans and democrats on a state level, they are trying to get to the bottom of this. Cnn was evacuated because they said that was the prudent thing to do. For him to say that is not just political, but a disparagement of what they are doing which is why he came out and praised for the first time in an important