Suspect now in custody in florida and scheduled to appear in court on monday. 56yearold Cesar Altieri sayoc is charged with five federal crimes including mailing explosives and threatening two former president s. Tonight, the fbi is stressing that all 13 bombs sent to prominent democrats and other public figures were not hoax devices. Sayocs van, which was towed away, was plastered with protrump and antidemocrat images. A little while ago President Trump said he heard that the suspect is a supporter of his, but he refused to say whether he bears any responsibility at all for any of this because of his inflammatory rhetoric. This hour i will talk to the former u. S. Attorney and our correspondents and analysts are standing by. First, lets go to our Senior Investigative correspondent drew griffin in south florida for us right now. Drew, we have new information about the bombs and the suspects background. Reporter on the bombs, wolf, they were not ha hoa hoax becau according to the fbi they contained most if not all of the components of a bomb. It is unclear at this point if they could have detonated or were designed to detonate. The suspect in custody now. He did cooperate initially with authorities, telling them he had no intentions of harming anyone. He now has a lawyer and questioning has ended. Tonight authorities have a suspect in custody they say is responsible for at least a dozen package bombs discovered across the u. S. Each device consisted of roughly six inches of pvc pipe, a small clock, a battery, some wiring and what is known as energetic material, which is essentially potential explosives and material that give off heat and energy through a reaction to heat, shock or friction. Reporter fbi director chris wray indicating a fingerprint found on one of the packages led fbi investigators to 56yearold cesar sigh jok who is facing five federal crimes and up to 48 years in prison. Based on their analysis they uncovered a latent fingerprint from one of the envelopes containing an ied sent to congresswoman Maxine Waters. We have confirmed this fingerprint is that of cesar sayoc. There is also a possible dna connection between samples collected from pieces of two different ieds mailed in separate envelopes and a sample previously collected from sayoc in connection with an earlier arrest down in florida. Reporter 56yearold cesar sayoc is in federal custody, arrested in south florida. Authorities also impounding this white van, taking every precaution, unaware of what may be inside. Yeah, we just took him into custody. Theres concern, reference signal 46, and we want the road shut down and then well start evacuating. Reporter according to Law Enforcement officials, sayoc had been living in the van recently after being kicked out of his parents house. That van, covered in political stickers with images of president donald trump, targets on prominent liberals as well as a sticker says cnn sucks. Here he is at a Trump Campaign rally last year holding a sign saying the same thing. Sayocs social media accounts post numerouses from tru trump sayings. He trolls president obama tweeting about bobby kennedy. He mocks former Vice President bidens 9 11 message with a photo of his delaware home and pictures that suggest fire bombing it. I blames former attorney air holder for the murder of Border Patrol agent terry, threatening death. He vilifies congresswoman Maxine Waters, tweeting bad memes and encouraging his likeminded followers to attend an event. He accuses george soros of funding a coverup. Public record shows he has an extensive criminal record dating back as far as 1991. The most notable offense, a 2002 charge of threatening to discharge a destructive device at a florida utility company. Just recently, a package addressed to democratic donor tom stire was found in california. Earlier today, one intended for former director of national intelligence, james clapper, addressed to cnn in new york, was intercepted at a new york facility. Another addressed to new jersey senator cory booker was found in florida. Wolf, sayoc now being held in federal detention in downtown miami, awaiting his first court appearance. Wolf. Drew, thank you very much. Drew griffin reporting for us. Lets bring in our justice correspondent evan perez and Law Enforcement analyst josh campbell. Hes a former fbi viesupervisor agents. Josh, what do his social media posts say about his political motives . It is additional clues. Obviously as we build a picture of who this person was, authorities want the know everything about him including what he has written, what he has said. If you think about what these kind of posts are, these are outward manifestations of your beliefs as are the stickers on his van. Again, he is not hiding that these are the things he believes. One thing thats interesting, i know we had former u. S. Attorney coming up who has worked a number of Different Cases and he will tell you in different instances sometimes criminals try to hide what theyre doing, what they believe and their moe motives are. Here he is signaling, these are the things i believe. This will be key for the investigators as they piece things together and they draw a line through the clue to build a case. What do we know about his record . He has been arrested several times over the years. Right. He has been arrested at least nine times dating back to the 1990s, wolf. One particular 2002 arrest was for making a bomb threat to a utility down in south florida. So he had a pretty extensive criminal record, which was a huge help when the fbi was doing began doing the investigation. One of the things that happened certainly by yesterday, they had identified a fingerprint on one of the devices that was being sent to Maxine Waters, a congress woman. Secondly, they found dna belonging to this man also on one of the Maxine Waters bombs and one being sent to former president barack obama. Those two things they were able to go back to the state of florida where they found obviously they had his fingerprints on record and they were able to identify him fairly quickly, certainly by last night. He has a Court Date Set for monday, right . Had. He has a court date, federal charges he is facing in miami. He has to first get removed from the state of florida. Well see whether or not he fights that or not, but it is pretty routine in normal circumstances before he goes to new york to face charges there. Five federal charges, potentially 48 years. Remember, he is 56 years old right now. Josh, tell us how the arrest went down. What are you hearing . Reporter yeah, wolf. We are piecing together how this all began, and obviously authorities have been on high alert since these packages starting coming in the mail, trying to track this person and identify him. We are told there was cellphone communication devices that were used in order to help track, you know, determine where he was. One thing thats interesting, wolf, in these type of situations Law Enforcement officers will try to arrest someone in the Early Morning hours or at some point in time where Law Enforcement has the benefit. We are told one factor that was key here was they had an address for the person, but they didnt necessarily want to hit that house and arrest him or attempt to, you know, locate him and arrest him because they werent sure if there were possibly explosives involved, if that was inside, if it would pose a threat to officers. They wanted to do it outside an actual residence. We have learned details that he may have been living in his vehicle. Again, that explains why it went down at this time of day. We understand Law Enforcement officers were surveilling him and made the decision to take him down. What can you tell us about the ieds, which director wray tells us, how they were made, where the material came from. These are not, quote, unquote, bombs. Director wray made clear they were not hoax devices, they could have hurt people. Once he was arrested he said to Law Enforcement that these werent going to hurt anyone, i wasnt trying to hurt anyone but thats now how the fbi sees them because they believe there are the makings here, the components that someone could have been hurt. These ieds were clearly bombs. They were bombs. Nobody should try to use quote marks around them because thats what they were. The president did use quote marks around them in a tweet earlier in the day before the arrest. Im aware. He says now this, quote, bomb stuff happens, as if he was belittling the nature of these serious bombs. This is serious. Fortunately no one was hurt, but a lot of people could have been injured or killed. Keep in mind, wolf can i say, wolf this man, for all of the apparent craziness that surrounds this, he was apparently good enough that he was you know, he tried to make clear that his dna wasnt going to be there. He made mistakes however, and thats how the fbi was able to get his fingerprints. He was careful enough they were only able to find his fingerprints on one of the devices and dna on two of them. They found the fingerprint on one of the packages sent to congresswoman maxine water. Go ahead, josh. Make your point. I was going to say, wolf, obviously investigators keep an open mind as we do, journalists and the public should. But as we started to learn details about the targets and these clues came together, it appeared as though it was leading in one direction. It is important to hear officials on the record standing at that press conference basically knocking down some of the narratives, counter narratives we have seen, saying theyre not hoax devices and this person was likely partisan. That is leading in one direction, that this person was acting based on political beliefs we have seen on the social media postings and the like. I need both of you to stand by. Theres more breaking news we are following tonight. The president acknowledging the bomb suspect is a supporter of his. Mr. Trump refused to draw any connection between his rhetoric and the 13 mail bombs sent to people. He has targeted with divisive words. Our Senior Correspondent jeff zeleny is in charlotte, North Carolina where the president is getting ready to hold a political rally. A huge crowd already has gathered. Jeff, the president at least so far is not accepting any responsibility. Reporter wolf, good evening. He has not. As the president was leaving the whouts white house a short time ago he was asked specifically if he holds any blame. He said, look, no, theres no blame, theres no blame for anything. He asked if he disavows support from that florida suspect, and he said he would not actually answer that question. But, wolf, this comes after earlier today the president said he is committed to stopping Political Violence. The question is what will he do about it. President trump urging americans to unify tonight, refusing to acknowledge how his divisive rhetoric contributed to an overheated and dangerous Political Climate and may have motivated the bomber suspect. The bottom line is americans must unify and show the world we we are united in peace, love and harmony as fellow human citizens. Reporter those words so far are just words, not followed by action. We must never allow Political Violence to take root in america. Cannot let it happen, and im committed to doing everything in my power as president to stoop it and to stop it now. Stop it. Reporter thats teleprompter trump with a carefully scripted message 11 days before the Midterm Elections. These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country. No place. Reporter but officials tell cnn the president does not believe hes complicit in contributing to the redhot political atmosphere where an apparent supporter allegedly sent package bombs to more than a dozen trump critics. Cnn has learned that the president is telling allies and ad advisors he does not believe it is fair to link it to his rhetoric. Leaving the white house for the rally the president said this. I did not see my face on the van. I dont know. I heard he was a person that preferred me over others, but i did not see that. Does it bother you at all, sir . No, not at all. I mean not at all. Theres no blame. Reporter the president did not say whether he would change his tone and painted himself as the victim. I think ive been toned down, if you want to know the truth. I could really tone it up because, as you know, the media has been extremely unfair to me and to the republican party. Reporter this morning, even as authorities in new york discovered another package bomb and were closing in on the 56yearold suspect in south florida, the president diminished the threat, suggesting the serial bombing attempts were politically inconvenient. Republicans are doing so well in early voting and at the polls and now this bomb stuff happens. The momentum greatly slows, the president saying on twitter, news, not talking politics. Unfortunate what is going on. Republicans go out and vote. While the president put bomb in quotation marks, tonight fbi director Christopher Wray made clear the severity of the threat. These are not hoax devices. Reporter at the Justice Department, forceful words from officials reflecting the assassination attempt of the obamas, clintons and others. The president was airing his grievances in the middle of the night on twitter at 3 14 a. M. Writing, funny how lowlyrated cnn criticize me at will, even blaming me for the spate of bombs. While trump never shies away from calling out Hillary Clinton, barack obama and others by name lying, crooked, he is a terrible president. With biden you go like this, whew, and he goes down. Reporter he routinely attacks cnn. You watch the clinton news network, cnn, it is a joke. Reporter he mentioned none of the targets by name today. On the packages and devices that have been made to highprofile figures throughout our country and a Media Organization reporter attorney general Jeff Sessions who is often publicly belittled by the president said the suspects partisan leanings appeared to lead to his actions. This is a lawandorder administration. We will not tolerate such lawlessness, especially not Political Violence. Reporter now, some of the strongest words today from the administration were indeed coming from the Justice Department, calling out exactly what this is, a Political Violence and saying it was partisan in nature. Now, the president has not gone nearly that far, but, wolf, the question is tonight when the president arrives here in charlotte, which he is scheduled to do within the hour, what tone will he take in the final 11 days of the Midterm Election campaign. He seems much more interested in talking about that. He believes all of this this week has slowed the republican sort of drive, if you will, and their spirit going into the Midterm Elections. He said they need to get their energy back. Wolf, tonight here in charlotte in this arena, which is already filling up it holds about 8,000 people or so he is campaigning for a house seat. Thats how targeted his campaigning is. We will see what tone he takes, if he addresses this at all. We are told air force one has now landed in charlotte, so get redy ov ready over there, jeff. Jeff zeleny reporting for us. Joining us, cnn legal analyst, former u. S. Attorney, fareed ferrera. Let me get your initial reaction. Is it an open and shut case . Nothing in life is an open and shut case really. Fingerprint analysis is good. It is not infallible. It sounds like they have a clear match with respect to one of the ieds. There was also according to statements made by chris wray and what i read in the criminal complaint, there was a possible dna match. You have the fingerprint connection. I am interested to hear and understand what the results of a search warrant executed today yield. The report i saw said there was a residence associated with the defendant that was searched. Ordinarily, as weve been hearing over the last few days from lots and lots of experts and in my own experience you might find bombmaking materials of a similar sort, envelopes, labels, you might find stamps that link him further to these activities, and then i also heard he has been living in his van that had all of the politicallycharged stickers on them and you would expect to find things in the van as well that connect him to the various bombs that were sent. Prosecutors dont like to say openandshut case because anything can happen. It seems strong at this point and it is only just beginning. We saw video of Law Enforcement searching the home of his mother down in florida. He apparently, the 56year old had been kicked out of his mothers home, was living out of the van. Im sure theyre searching the van. Im sure theyre searching his mothers home as well. We have a lot of information about his political ideology, preet. What does it tell you about his list it targets . To answer that question you dont need to have had years and years of experience as a federal prosecutor, nor as the u. S. Attorney. Common as soon as tells you he was a partisan, as the current attorney general of the United States, Jeff Sessions, said at the pre the press confronerence earlier today. He decided his victim by his political belief system. It is evidenced by the targets that received the ied devices but by his activity over a number of years, who he complained about, who he criticized, who he didnt like. Theres a matching of onetoone between who he didnt like politically and who he decided to send a device to do potentially kill them. The suspect will be prosecuted we are told in the Southern District of new york, in new york city, where you served as u. S. Attorney. What more will prosecutors be looking for to build their case . Well, the first thing you want to make sure to be doing is working alongside Law Enforcement. I want to commend them all and im proud of my former office for being on top of it and getting it done so quickly. We had new active terrorism cases in my office involving explosive devices, some of which went off and harmed people as well, but first you want to make sure you have all of the devices. Thats a job prosecutors and Law Enforcement agents Work Together on to make sure of. With respect to the case, as i said, you want to see what the take is from the search warrants. You want to see what his communications were. You want to get a download of his devices, his cellphones, any computers he may have been using. Theres no evidence here right now that ive seen because conspiracy has not been charged that he was working with concert with other people. Thats one of the first things you care about. Even if he wasnt working in concert with other people, was he in communication with likeminded people that may think of doing something in a copy cat fashion or independently do Something Like this guy was doing. Lots of times people with a particular kind of grudge or a political feeling about something or an association with drugs or anything else, they associate with other folks like themselves. Even though they may be lone wolves unto themselves with respect to a particular act they engage in, you can often find evidence that lead you to other people. You want to think about making sure theres no remaining threat to anyone, to see if theres anyone else he can connect you to with respect to the case. I think you see what the take is. You see if other people have evidence of him saying things that indicated he was intending to do these things. I am assuming theres lots and lots of surveillance tape from various places where he went, either to buy materials to make the bombs, to mail the bombs, to put them together. So im expecting you will see lots and lots of additional evidence. Maybe you dont need all of it because it is pretty strong, but the folks in my old office are thorough and will leave no stone unturned. They said they have five criminal charges against him. Potentially he could serve 48 years in prison. Does that seem like the bare minimum of charges to you . Do you expect more charges to come forward . Yes, i do expect that. I was thinkings of other statutes that could come forward and there are a number. This was authorized by a magistrate judge in florida. At some point, depending on what rights the defendant waives, the prosecutors have to come up with an indictment that requires 23 americans and a grand jury to decide if they approve of the charges. Usually at that time you have a few more days to think about the evidence and look back at the law. Lots of other charges could be added, so i expect it to go up because other things could be charged with respect to the use of what he made use of, these destructive devices, yes. Acts of terror, as you know, theyre always a test for the leadership of the country, specifically the president of the United States. What do you make of the way the president has been handling this situation . The president on a number of issues doesnt handle this kind of situation well, particularly when theres violence or a threat of violence. We saw it in charleston and we are see in charlottesville, im sorry, and we are seeing it here again. I understand politically he thinks it is death to admit blame or responsibility or a failing in any way, shape or form, and that has been good for him i guess in some ways. To my mind it shouldnt be that difficult for a politician of any stripe to in simple, straightforward words condemn violence, especially condemn violence for political reasons, against news organizations in particular, people who are only doing their jobs in politics. It is i think it sends a massive bad signal not just to the country generally, but also to other people that might be thinking about these things. Im not saying theres a direct line between what donald trump has said and what he seems to be able to accept and this person doing these terrible things. This person obviously as the reporting has shown has a long record of criminal conduct. He has for a long time before President Trump became president of the United States had a political viewpoint that has targeted people with his vitriol if not violence. So it wasnt initiated with President Trump, but in an environment where people are increasingly separated by their tribes, you have people like this guy out there. Maybe theyre set off further and maybe theyre inclined to do something further when their leaders make it seem like it is okay and make it seem like the press is the enemy of the people. I mean im sitting here in washington, wolf. I am sitting in the time warner center, at the very place this person tried to send devices that were intended to kill people. So it is not a joking matter as the fbi director said a short while ago. These were not hoax devices. Notwithstanding the fact that the last couple of days supporters of the president and the president himself in a tweet suggested it was all nonsense. He used the word bombs in quotes in one of his tweets. It is a serious business. The president is the leader of all americans and he should condemn and not use dog whistles. Especially when a former secretary of state, former president of the United States, former director of national intelligence, members of congress are specifically targeted by these kind of improvised explosive devices. Thanks for joining us. Sure. Thanks, wolf. We are getting new information into the situation room. We will take a quick break and update you on the latest news right after this. That skills like teamwork, attention to detail, and Customer Service are critical to business success. Like the ones we teach here, every day. Vo costs are rising. E squeeze. And Customer Service are critical to business success. Its hard to keep up. In washington, one party is calling the shots and the middle class isnt being heard. We need a new congress that will cut taxes for the middle class, ensure coverage for people with preexisting conditions, and protect Social Security and medicare. Vote for a democratic congress; for an economy that works for everyone. Independence usa pac is responsible for the content of this advertising. Hi. I just wanted to tell you thdependability award for its midsize carthe chevy malibu. I forgot. Chevy also won a j. D. Power dependability award for its lightduty truck the chevy silverado. Oh, and since the chevy equinox and traverse also won chevy is the only brand to earn the j. D. Power dependability award across cars, trucks and suvsthree years in a row. Phew. Third times the charm. Were back with breaking news on the suspected serial bomber in custody in florida. Fbi chief is warning 13 bombs sent to Top Democrats and other prominent figures were not, repeat not hoax devices. Here is more of what the fbi director Christopher Wray told reporters. Each device consisted of roughly six inches of pvc pipe, a small clock, a battery, some wiring and what is known as energetic material which is essentially potential explosives and material that give off heat and energy through a reaction to heat, shock or friction. Though were still analyzing the devices in our laboratory, these are not hoax devices. Lets bring in our analysts and correspondents. Phil mudd, at one point you worked at the fbi. What jumped out at you from what we heard over at the Justice Department . Well, there are two pieces. First the immediate piece, people are talking about what the devices looked like. There were people in danger for the last week. These were real devices. Theres debate about this. No one can dispute chris wray. He is an appointee of President Trump working for the attorney general. We had a real threat here. Theres a lot of negativity in this country, wolf. Step back, friday night, pop a bottle of champagne, the system worked. Nypd put out the images, people knew about this stuff. We got dna, we got fingerprints, we found the mail sorting facility partly by postal inspectors and the takedown was smooth. You got to love it. It worked. David chelan, this suspect made it clear he was a huge supporter of President Trump. I want you to watch how the president responded to that. Listen to this. I did not. I did not see my face on the van. I dont know i heard he was a person that preferred me over others, but i did not see that. Not at all, no t th, that th no blame, anything. If you look at what happened to steve scalise, it was from a supporter of a different party. You look at what happened numerous of these incidents that were supporters of others. Why cant he reflect on the fact that his words may have inspired this guy even inadvertently . Why cant donald trump do x is a question we have been asking for a year and a half on some of these things, wolf. I dont have an answer for that except that that has not been his pattern at all, and i dont anticipate he will ever have that introspective moment or in some ways speak about his role in this. By the way, collectively there are all of the political actors from both sides, from the media, we could all take a step back and look at how do we shape the political atmosphere. That might be a healthy thing, but donald trump is the president of the United States. He is the leader of the country, and as you noted, as weve noted over the last couple of days, everybody on the target list is somebody donald trump has singled out in a rally or a tweet or what have you as a political target. It is impossible to ignore the nexus and donald trump is doing just that, ignoring the nexus. He is not to blame for what this guy did, but it would be refreshing leadership if he could have an introspective moment. I dont anticipate it. It is not his style and i dont think we should wait for it. Dan, i want you to look at this video. This guy posted video of himself at various trump rallies. You can hear him chanting, trump, trump, trump. Also at one point chanting, cnn sucks. What do you make of this . Look, it is not surprising given what we saw on his van and the not to mention the number of people and the kinds of people he sent these potential deadly bombs to, the package bombs to. Sara can speak to this more than i because she has been to probably more of these rallies than you can count, but this is the atmosphere. This is the atmosphere we have been talking about, this is the atmosphere we have been dealing with. I agree with david, the president it is certainly not his fault, but it is true that all of us and especially the president has rhetoric he can tone down and he is not going to. You attended a lot of those rallies and maybe you were there when this guy was there as well. At one point the president used the phrase, enemy of the people, referring to the mainstream news media. Enemy of the people. Clearly this guy was influenced by that. Well, you know, thats right. I think what we have seen is the way the president talks about the media, the way the president talks about cnn has really permeated among his fans and his followers. You know, even tonight at this rally that jeff zeleny is at people are still chanting, cnn sucks, in the same week that explosive devices were sent to our office in new york. So it has clearly resonated with them. It happens constantly throughout the rally. Theres merchandise that says, cnn sucks, cnn lies, cnn is isis. The president a no point, not even in this week has said, okay, i may have gone too far, or even if i have disagreements with this media outlet or any media outlet, im never condoning violence. I dont want my followers to act on this. Express your grievances about their coverage but i dont want you to resort to violence. There were warning signs involving the suspect out there for years, long before donald trump decided to run for president. In 2002 he was arrested for making a bomb threat. So what led him to act now and follow up and allegedly make these specific not just a bomb threat, but send out these bombs . Yeah, you know, theres no doubt this is an individual that had some extreme anger against the people he sent these bombs to. We know he had made these threats in the past, but as far as we know up until this point he had not acted on any of those threats. So the key question we have to ask ourselves is what was the trigger that caused him to wake up one day and say, today is the day im going to engage in terrorist activity, im going to try to assassinate two former president of the United States and, as several people said on the panel here, look, we cannot blame the president for this, but we have to ask ourselves whether or not the divisive nature of our current political rhetoric played some role and what triggered this individual to decide that today was the day he was going to do this. That doesnt mean it was the president. You can have a situation where someone has Mental Health issues, but they also can experience what is happening in their environment and be triggered by that. That is certainly something we have to look at. I just you can see how uncomfortable the president is just watching that tape, that it is a supporter of his. I think two things here. One, the president himself said just politically, the republicans have lost their momentum, we need to get our momentum back. Clear acknowledgement he doesnt think this story is politically advantageous story to him in any way whatsoever. I wonder how the president would have been answering questions today if it was a liberal supporter or a democrat or soros donor who this guy ended up being. I imagine it would be a very different tone, and that is the problem. It shouldnt matter who this guy supports either way. It was a terrorist act and it should be condemned at all levels and it should spark this kind of intro spacspection, butt the president would have had a different response if his politics we are getting new information on social media posts that are very telling. We will have that and more right after this. Hi, my name is sam davis and im going to tell you about exciting plans available to anyone with medicare. 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The top 1 of businesses pay their fair share to tackle homelessness for all of us. Companies with revenue greater than 50 million pay, not Small Businesses or homeowners. The prop c plan is supported by the democratic party, teachers, and mentalhealth professionals. Vote yes on c. Big corporations pay for it, not you. Breaking news tonight, the suspect in the attempted serial bomb attacks is in custody in florida and now is scheduled to appear in court on monday. Lets dig deeper into the protrump political views he had, that he publicly displayed on his van and on social media. I want to go to our national correspondent, athena jones. Athena, what are you learning . Reporter hi, wolf. He was a prolific sharer on postal media, attacking prominent democrats and news media, particularly cnn, his abc rear tweets and posts at times reading like a conspiracy handbook. Cesar Altieri Sayoc seen here at President Trumps rally in florida last year holding up a sign calling for cnn to be ban. In addition to repeatedly slamming cnn, sayoc was a frequent online critic of the very people federal prosecutors say he targeted with 13 pipe bombs sent through the u. S. Postal system in the last few days. The 56yearold registered republican has been active across social media where he has posted multiple images of himself attending trump rallies or wearing a make american great again happen, even wishing trump a happy birthday in june. He has tweeted pro republican messages like it is tike to take our country back, vote republican, and the swamp to be drained, a post that includes pictures of prominent kihei maekawas and logos of all Major News Networks except fox news. His online persona and activities echoing conspiracy theories and themes popular on right wing web sites, posting on website this photo of Hillary Clinton in may 2016 with a caption, i preside over six billion dollars lost at the state department, sold uranium to the russians through my faux charity, illegally deleted public records and murdered an ambassador. On twitter, this string of posts about president obama, including this message about his, quote, real father, and posting weeks before the president ial election, clinton is worse on terrorism. Her and obama have made american weak and open to world terrorist attacks. A facebook spokesman telling cnn the Company Previously removed multiple posts from sayocs account for violations of its community standards. At times following complaints by other users. The company would not say how many posts were removed, but said the violations were not severe enough to prompt them to shut down sayocs account until after he was named a suspect. Sayoc maintained at least two twitter accounts. Just this week tweeting about president obama and two billionaire democratic activists, tom stire and george soros, after authorities found the pipe bomb he allegedly sent to one of sore roses homes, the first such device to be detected. He tweeted about former Vice President joe biden in last september, two days later posting this message about cory booker. Sayoc, who had multiple runins with the law and a string of arrests dating back to the early 90s tweeted about california representative Maxine Waters in april. His van, which investigators seized, was decorated with protrump imagery and a cnn sucks sticker, a reference to a chant heard frequently at trump rallies. Cnn sucks reporter and this tweet falsely saying cnn was Hillary Clintons eighth largest donor even though cnn does not make political donations or take political positions. Sayoc also posted a series of threats to cnn, its anchors, correspondents and contributors, tweeting, go cnn, youre next. You over enemy of america, cnn, youre next. So the corrupt con john media like make threats, april and don lemon next. Among the many ramblings of a prolific social media user who was clearly pro trump saying on the president s birthday, thank you for all you do against everyone and not be stopped ever. Straight ahead. Get it done. Awesome. Build wall. We are learning a bit more about this man, this suspect, Cesar Altieri sayoc. His former lawyer telling cnn today that sayoc has struggled for years with a, quote, lack of comprehension of reality. Wolf. Excellent reporting, athena. Thank you very much. I want to get back to our correspondent it and analysts. Phil mudd, at one point this guy tweeted a threat to you. It was horrible to see that today. The president also has verbally attacked you by name. You know, you are someone who served your entire career in the cia and the fbi. You tried to do some public service. What does it feel like to see all of a sudden youre being attacked by this guy, this guy making a direct threat to you, but over these past months the president of the United States also verbally attacking you . Well, i only did 25 years, wolf. I guess it doesnt count. The president has done, what, 20 months . Look, something happened today that resulted from what i witnessed in august. On about august 20th the president attacked me publicly on twitter. 96 hours later this roughly, this individual arrested today uses my name in a tweet and suggests he wants to kill me. Thats coincidence . I dont have the profile of a movie star. How do you think that guy got my name . Meanwhile, i got a call. My 86yearold dad and my sister and then contact my girlfriend and tell them theyre going to hear about a death threat against me tonight because the president attacked me on twitter. Meanwhile, i also called the local Police Department to say im going home to washington tomorrow. If theres a bomb in my house because this guy sent one before he got arrested, i will give you a ring. 25 years in and thats what you get. The president s playing with fire. 55 million twitter followers, im not suggesting he is responsible for the acts of a de ranged individual. Im saying when you got 55 million twitter followers and you say, lock her up and cnn sucks and you take a shot at people personally, somebody is going to look at it and say, i wept to a rally where people are really aggressive and now im going to act on it, and finally we saw it hatch thppen this wee. I am irritated, wolf. As you should be. Our heart goes out to you and everybody else this guy threatened. He threatened a bunch of people. This is why it is unacceptable that the president refuses to discuss his rhetoric. This is why it is an unacceptable spon unacceptable response from sarah sanders, the White House Press secretary, to dismiss it as a viable topic to talk about, because of exactly what phil is saying. You have to be ignorant of reality to not see the impact of the rhetoric, and so thats why when you are the leader of the free world and the president of the United States, it is an incumbent responsibility on you to speak to this very thing. He said today, i have toned down my rhetoric. You know what . He has in several of his public appearances this week, but he has also taken to twitter and slashed the media again and destroyed and has a crowd chanting, cnn sucks before he gets there. Is the president going to arrive on that stage and say, dont chant that again. Theres a lot you can do even if youre not the president. The president has his people on the ground at that rally right now, and it is not hard for someone to go to the mike and say, you know what, this chant is really inappropriate. Obviously, you know, we have knocked cnn before, but they received explosive devices this week. Cut it out. It is not appropriate, cut it out. This is a conversation we have had for a long time, that it only takes one crazy person to act on, you know, this sort of idea that President Trump has fostered, the idea that the media is the enemy, the idea that he supports candidates who have physically assaulted journalists. It does not mean, as you pointed out, the president is responsible for sending the explosive devices. He is not. But he is responsible for the words that come out of his mouth, and right now he is choosing once again not to take any responsibility. And this is a conversation we have had publicly, you said it on the air and i dont have any problems saying we have had privately with people in that world. Lets have these discussions. Lets have these potential somebody is going to get hurt. It doesnt take a Rocket Scientist to go from a to b. I think one of the most important things that phil said here is he made the connection between when the president attacked him on twitter and when this individual attacked him on twitter, and everyones right here. We cant say that the president was responsible, but i think were going to be able to go back and were going to be able to recreate instances in which the president attacked many of these individuals who received bombs and we will see this kind of characteristic attacking of these individuals in twitter, and so we cant dismiss outright the possibility that theres a connection here. Clearly, the president s not responsible, but the rhetoric has to be in some way contributing to this. Because phil, you know, ive been worried as our viewers know, for a long time when the president of the United States says that we, the media, the mainstream media, are the enemy of the people, you know, most people will just hear that and move on, but there are some crazy people, a very small number of people, who will say to themselves, you know, if they are the enemy of the people, we got to do something about that, and clearly, this individual thought he had to do something about it. Well, ive saw that through 25 years in my career. When theres people out in revolutiona revolutionary organizations overseas, when someone issues a call and theyve got 55 million followers, a few of them are going to say, im going to take that to a new level. Theres a personal piece to this, wolf. I probably shouldnt do is this. Im out last night and somebody comes up to the bar and offers to buy me a glass of wine, my first question is whats in this persons hands . Are they going to hurt me . Im not afraid. I dont feel under threat but the president has created an environment where all those individuals youve seen on photos who were sent bombs have to look around and say, when i go into a restaurant, is somebody going to walk up and do something. That is some place we cant be. All the president has to do is to say, maybe we should be more polite. Just as mrs. Mudd would have said to me when i was 6 years old. I think we should go back to what david said. Everybody needs to take a breath. Everybody does. And what youre seeing and hearing from the people who work here and from our colleagues at other Media Outlets is frustration that is boiling over that this was preventable. And unfortunately, given the atmosphere that were in, it was potentially inevitable that something along these lines would happen and what phil said, which should also be repeated. Thank goodness the system worked. It is remarkable the way that not only the reaction on the day of and the next day when these packages were found, but the speed with which Law Enforcement got this guy. Yeah. Wolf, you know, in order for everyone to take a breath, someones going to have to step out front and lead that effort. You know, the president has the power to step away from the teleprompter and speak to the American People from a place of sincerity and say that this is not who we are. And that we need to tone down this rhetoric and he needs to say that im going to do whats important and im going to lead by example. Im going to be the first one to do that. If the president were to do that, he has to be consistent. He cant say that and then go to a rally and say the polar opposite of that because then we dont know whats sincere and whats not. But john, the president he would see that you know, he would see that as conceding to his political opponents and conceding to a media frame that is out there now, and to so thats why we see him doubling down on the attacks against the press right now. And i also should just sad he doesnt want to give ground. And hes not the only one who has said outrageous things. The democratic side, weve seen it too. What Maxine Waters said was rightly condemned by her own party leadership. Calling on people to go out and go after republicans. And even eric holder said he was misunderstood but when he said kick them, he was condemned and that should have been the case. Shes not the president of the United States. But its still not proep. Absolutely not appropriate but remember we have one president , one commander in chief, one leader of the free world who has a responsibility. All right, everybody stand by. I want to go to our cnn chief media correspondent, brian stelter. Hes at President Trumps rally right now in charlotte, North Carolina. Brian, tonight, the president is claiming that hes toned down his rhetoric but these rallies are where he unleashes his strongest attacks on the news media and his opponents. What are you seeing so far . Reporter this is where he shares talking points with his most loyal supporters and aisle really struck here, wolf, by the reactions in the crowd to the reporters in the room. You know, as a media reporter talking to the folks in the crowd, the rally goers, a lot of them are in on it. They think its theater. They think its, like, pro wrestling. When they chant, cnn sucks, some of them, then come up to me afterwards and say, hey, brian, nothing personal. Were glad youre here. But not everybody here feels that way. Not everybody here is joking around. Some are very serious. And i wonder at the end of this week if trump is able to control the forces he has unleashed. Is he able or willing to tamp down the fire that he has started . Will his crowds continue to chant, fake news, and will he continue to encourage that . Or will he show leadership . Because absolutely, those of us in the News Business have a responsibility to be fair and to be accurate, but he has a responsibility to be a leader and show leadership. So let me just show you real quick, wolf. This brandnew statement from the committee to protect journalists. I was really taken aback by the Strong Language here from robert mahoney, one of the leaders of the group. He said, look, while we cannot say that trumps speech directly incites violence, it is clear that some people are influenced by it. Influenced by the rhetoric. He said journalists across the country feel unsafe because of the constant hostility and the belittling of their role in our democracy by the head of state. And the statement finishes by saying, this needs to stop. As you know, wolf, news rooms across the country have stepped up security this week as a result of the bombs. All right, brian, thank you very much. Brian stelter on the scene for us in charlotte, North Carolina. Quickly want to turn to another major story thats breaking right now. Israeli war planes and helicopters striking gaza after at least 16 rockets were fired at israel. Cnn is working the story from jerusalem. I take it a sharp escalation unfolding tonight. Reporter and just about two minutes ago, i got another rocket alert from the gaza periphery, indicating that this escalation isnt over yet. Weve seen outsiders step in, other organizations, including egypt and the United Nations to step in and pull back both israel and gaza from these escalations. Each time they attempt to, it brings us closer and closer to the brink of war between israel and gaza. This starts earlier today. Israel says gaza fired a number of rockets, more than a dozen at this point, some ten of which or more perhaps at this point have been intercepted by israels iron dome Aerial Defense system. As you pointed out, wolf, israeli aircraft and helicopters striking targets in gaza. We expect a summary of those targets from the Israel Defense forces, the israeli military, little later on tonight. We will certainly update you when we get that list of targets. This follows protests, clashes earlier in the day along the gaza fence. Weve seen those clashes weekly. Theyve been almost daily now. Israel says some 16,000 palestinians participated in those protests along the gaza border. Weve seen those protests become violent. Part of that israeli response is a response to those protests, air strikes carried out earlier in the day. The Palestinian Ministry of health says four palestinians were shot and killed during the protests. Are egypt and the United Nations able to step in and bring israel and hamas, israel and gaza back from the brink . Thats the critical question at this point as the exchanges continue, as the escalation continues. Very quickly, is there fear right now that this could escalate into a fullscale war between the israelis and the hamas at gaza as occurred in 2014 . Reporter that fear is always there. Is it ever present right now . Is it imminent at this point . I wouldnt say it is at this point. Both israel and hamas have said repeatedly that they dont want a war. Now will they act on not wanting a war . Orrin, thank you very much. Well stay on top of that story as well. Finally, tonight, if youll indulge me, i want to say a few words about this week, a historic week indeed. The people who work here at cnn do their very, very best to report the news fairly, accurately, and responsibly. Of course we make mistakes, but when we do, we acknowledge them and we fix them. Thats the role of journalists. Cnn isnt just made up of people that you see on camera, like me and our other correspondents. Its made up of thousands and thousands of very hardworking, very dedicated people here in the United States and indeed around the world. People just like you, men and women who have children, men and women who have families, men and women who have lives just like all of our viewers. People want to go home to those children. People want their lives back after working hard all day and it can be very, very tense. Those were the people who were put at risk by these improvised explosive devices, people whose names and faces youll never see, people who work in our mail rooms, handle our deliveries, and work so hard to keep all of us safe. Many others were put at risk as well, postal workers, clerks, mail carriers, inspectors, police officers, bomb technicians. We are so, so lucky they werent hurt. I think i speak for all of my colleagues here in the United States and around the world when i say thank you to those folks, those people you never see for discovering these devices and for keeping us safe, and i can assure you, cnn will keep doing what it does, reporting the news undeterred, unafraid as we do every night, including tonight. Thanks very much for watching. Erin Burnett Outfront starts erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com breaking news, the alleged bomb maker linked to at least 14 bombs now is in custody tonight. Who is cesar sayoc . A former coworker who says he was, quote, crazed, is my guest. Plus president t