Conduct this investigation and bring those responsible for these despicable acts to justice. We have to unify. We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of Political Violence of any kind have no place in the United States of america. So far the devices have been what appear to be a pipe bomb. What we saw here today was an effort to terrorize. This clearly is an act of terror, attempting to undermine our free press and leaders of this country through acts of violence. Through acts of violence. With me now with the latest nbc news investigations reporter tom winter. All right, tom, you and i have been together for the last two hours as we try to interpret what happened earlier today and were getting more news about maxine waters. Set the stage for us exactly
where things stand. I know im putting you in a tough spot because there are still so many unknown. And some things even not quite frankly were not in the position to share because we dont want to be in a position were disrupting an investigation. We know theres a suspicious package thats been identified that was sent to her that was intercepted at the capitol Mail Processing facility, and thats just normal procedure. What we dont know yet is if whether or not that specific package is in fact connected to the other devices that weve been talking about since early this morning. Why do we know what packages are kind of connected here in what appears to be part of a same effort and why other suspicious packages weve heard about today are not connected to this, and i think the key details here are the evidence. We know the packages that were sent that are connected, the soros, clinton, brennen and the
former attorney general eric holder, that these were sent in what appears to be a padded manila envelope. The Return Address in maine is debra schultz. And theres no indication here the congresswoman sent out the packages herself. But the packages contained that Return Address. And the components of these devices, youre looking at it now, it appears to be a pipe. Were told 6 to 10 inches in length, theres explosive powder found inside. There appears to be some additional devices. Obviously you can see wires in what were looking at onscreen. Were told the components of the devi devices that were sent to former president obama, Hillary Clinton, as well as george soros, that all these devices have exactly the same characteristics. So thats one of it reasons why theyre all being tied together at this point. We say potential devices and suspicious packages that youre looking at on our screen as far as what were calling them because the Special AgentBomb Technicians of the fbi based out in quant ico, theyre still looking at them. None of these devices went off, of course. At this point were trying to see if these devices were designed to go off. It appears they were, but they did not go off, so was there something intentional done so they did not explode or something in their design put together so they did not go off . We know for sure again packages addressed to former president barack obama, package addressed to Hillary Clinton, package addressed to george soros and former attorney general eric holder, theyre all part of one group as well as john brennen, a
former cia director. And obviously that was sent over to our colleagues at cnn. In addition to Police Commissioner james oneil the package sent to cnn contained white powder, field tests are ongoing on those. Obviously if it were a serious, chemical and biological agent inside of that we would have heard about that by now. So initial tests appear to be complete, and well wait for the final signoff at the moment. I mean, think about the position the fbi, Law Enforcement is in right now. You dont know where the next package could go. And even though these packages for the most part were intercepted by congressional Sorting Centers and so forth, think about cnn, right . It is in one of the busiest Columbus Circle, the Time Warner Center is one of the big not just the retail there, the
newsroom, thats a crowded tourist destination. Youve got one of the University Buildings behind cnn, essentially. This is cause for serious concern. I want to bring back ron allen in new york where a similar suspicious package was sent to the home of bill and Hillary Clinton. Ron, give us an update. Reporter well, as you were pointing out, stephanie, this device never got anywhere near the clintons home. It was intercepted by the Secret Service. The the clintons have lived out here for 18 years since they left the white house. They get secret Service Protection for life. As Hillary Clinton put it, they are just fine. She was not here at the time. She was in florida campaigning for democrats. Former president bill clinton was here at the time when this
package was intercepted late tuesday night. But heres what mrs. Clinton had to say today about all of this. Hello. Hello, hello. Thank you all very, very much. You know, before i i begin, i want to say a few it is a troubling time, isnt it . And its a time of deep divisions, and we have to do everything we can to bring our country together. We also have to elect candidates
who will try to do the same. Who will set goals that will lift up every single floridian and american. Usually when people ask me how am i doing, which happens quite often, i say, well, as a person im great. As an american, im worried. Reporter so clearly there is a very significant political dynamic to this that, of course, is apparently obvious at this point it would seem. Interesting to point out, however, in the case of the george soros bombing, which police say was a real explosive, that was left at a mailbox that was along the side of the road where he lives. Its a major significant twolane highway. One lane leads in the direction up here in the suburbs of new york. The mailboxes right out in front of his estate. A caretaker or an employee on
his property apparently went out the mailbox to pick up the mail, found this package, found it very suspicious, put it Down In The Woods near the house and called the police. So that is much different situation than having a device sent to a prominent official or prominent former president s home and sorted by the Secret Service. Mr. Soros reaction as you recall as expressed by his foundation was just livid. He left no doubt he thinks he was targeted because of politics, because of his political views, because of what he called the politics of hate. Stephanie . The politics of hate. I want to bring back my coanchor ali velshi outside the scene in time warner in new york city. I think back to our colleagues over at cnn live onair while this happened, how serious this is and commend them. There they are right next to you, coin continuing to report on this story as it unfolds and not going home. Its commendable. Reporter i am so proud of them. I am so proud of them. You know, chris cuomo is over there with kate baldwin on the sidewalk outside of their place of work delivering the news. And i spent many years here. I worked in this building for seven years. I worked for cnn for 12 years. These are my colleagues, and that is what we do. We deliver the news, and im proud of them. But they are only one of the victims today receiving these pipe bombs. We dont know whether these are real bombs or not. They look like bombs. Ive seen the pictures of the one received here. Thats gone for testing. Its been removed from this building. Of the six that were sent this is is the only one that made it to its destination. One that got close to george soros, one that got sent to the officeholder was sent back. Eric holder, and so he didnt get the potential bomb. Mario cuomo, the governor of new york had said hed received a package. It turns out thats not part of it. And maxine waters, the congresswoman was the target of another one which got intercepted at the mail office. So six in total. Theyre being investigated to find out whether theyre real. Experts have been telling you and me, stephanie, in the last few hours there are bound to be others. Pipe bombs require tape and surfaces. What we dont know is whether theyre real or not. Cnn is over there. If you look past the nypd Police Vehicle over there, just to the right of that is the entrance to time warner and cnn. That has not been opened yet because this palkage received here also had white powder on it. Police are still assessing to make sure its not dangerous. I would suggest people dont
think it was ricin or some other chemical, but we dont know that. We dont have that information yet from the police. Weve been here for a few hours. As you can see, stephanie, weve moved closer and closer. Police have let us move closer. While ive been here, youve also been here with me, and there are a lot of people. This is major transportation hub, consumer hub. A tourist hub. So you got to talk to some of the people. Reporter i did. And one of the tings they were saying reminds me of the fact new yorkers are a very hardy bunch of peoplech and the people who come to visit new york are hardy people, too. I want you to listen to some of the sound we got. Take a listen. Right now my thoughts are i hope its not something dangerous, thats all. Reporter is it unsettling to you to hear a device might have been sent to us . Of course it is. It could be a destructive device. You really dont know these days. Its the mecca of everything, arts, politics, fashion, everything that makes the world go round. And this is the Perfect Place to, shall we say, shake people up, shake the world up. Reporter and so people were shaken up by this, but they are still going about their activities. One of it things they could not do, they couldnt get in this building because of what happened. We see the revolving doors, they are letting people in and out of the building now. As it was mentioned, it is unsettling. This is where 9 1 happened. This is the city. People have to shore themselves up, brace themselves. And i think one of the things that happens here in new york, people are sort of on edge all the time. You sort of steel yourself against the possibility something could happen because it did happen in this city. People determined theyre also going to get on with their lives. 9 11 was the last time i
remember organizations being evacuated because there were threats made to them. As you say this is mecca. Time warner center, there are nine subway lines that run below us. There are numerous streets that go through here. Broadway cuts through here. This is major commercial center. Its probably the only thing we have in manhattan you can call a shopping mall, but its very high end. These are condominiums over here. I remember Rickey Martin bought one and it was 11 million then, and it must be be 50 or 60 Million Value now. If youre going to do something of shock value or really targeting people this is the place. Without doubt. People come here to see people and to be seen. If someone wants to disrupt something, this is the Perfect Place to coo it. As the woman who was in one of our sound bites mentioned, this is hub for so many things. For the financial, for the fashion, for news, for politics. The happens right here. This is where you get attention. Its remarkable stuff. You and i were talking ability this earlier. This is one of the areas the police demonstrate their proficiency in. Over the years of being here you would often see unexpectedly 50 to 100 Police Vehicles gathering here, the police with their assault weapons. This is where they drill for emergencies because it was always expected. If something goes wrong, it might happen here. And they have done such an efficient job of Keeping Traffic moving on all of these streets. The subway is not closed. One of the things that makes this sort of strange is you hear sirens, see police cars coming through here in masse all the time. For some people it was like i dont know whats happening, it seems like a normal day. But when everybody started coming out of the building, it was clear something was happening. In addition people got messages on their phones. She was in the building and didnt know if she would leave, but someone came up to her and said youve got to get out of this building. When we got here there were thousands of people out on the sidewalk. My old anchor john berman came by, he came for a run, he didnt know what was going on. Thats what happened here. It happened quickly. People were evacuated. They cleared the building, cleared the streets. And now it looks like slowly things will get back to normal over here at cnn. And as always we have to show our appreciation for new york citys finest. Weave got some of the best Law Enforcement officers in the world. I want to go now to washington, d. C. Where garret hake is right outside the d. C. Residence of former president obalm a a. I know the package like the one that went to the clintons was
intercepted. You know, president obama doesnt exactly get his mail and open his door with a cup of coffee. Reporter thats right. The former president and first lady dont come out in their bathrobes and pick up t miles f here. And thats where the package was intercepted. The package that was intended to come here never made it anywhere close. You hear some honking behind me. Thats the Secret Service. They operate outside the obamas residents all the time. Its a very closely watched and protected home not just close to the obamas but Jared Kushner and ivanka trump. Were not terribly far from the Vice President s residence up massachusetts avenue. So this is part of the city that is typically locked down, and today is no exception. Now, we dont know if the former
president or first lady were at home at any point during the day today or whether they were directly contacted here at home about this package. Weve not heard from them, but we have heard from the former Vice President who spoke of describing really the moment that were in here. In a tweet saying this country has to come together. This division, this hatred, this ugliness has to end. Still waiting from word from president obama whos been much more visible lately out on the campaign trail. And i expect well hear from him in the not so distinct future about the events of today. We have heard actually via twitter from former president bill clinton who writes thank you to the Secret Service and all Law Enforcement agencies who responded to this weeks incidents. They work tirelessly to keep our country and community safe. I am entirely grateful for their efforts. We should also share from President Trump earlier who said the safety of the American People is my highest priority. I have just concluded a briefing with the fbi, Department Of Justice, department of Homeland Security and the u. S. Secret service. So, yes, we have talked an awful lot about the divide in this country, the rhetoric on many, many sides and whether or not the president does insigcite a of this fury. But right now thats a secondary conversation. Right now there have been over five packages sent out to a Media Organization and former and current political officials, and our Law Enforcement needs all the help they can get getting to the bottom of this. I want to bring back malcolm nance, Executive Director as well as retired atf Special Agent in charge, and jim calve nau. Malcolm, your thoughts first. In the last hour we learned about another package to maxine waters. That was sort of expected. As ali, said in the last hour
and id to give him some props on this, whoever this bomber is, he has a play list in his head none of us are privy to. But now as hes delivered his devices, he is now executing a list thats in his head that we are now finding out is heavily partisan, and is targeted to whatever mental defect that he. That being said, we need to be aware that there could be other people out there who have just not found these devices or theres u. S. Capitol hill police or some Officer Staffer who are now aware through the Postal Service warnings or new york city shield reports that these devices are now out there in play. People are seeing what they look like, they know what the packaging is like, and it remains to be seen when that will actually end. The most important thing is we have to get the bomber. And now theres National Awareness about these devices, this man most likely bragged to somebody. These type of bombers who are very political, they dont operate in a bubble. Theyre not like the unabomber who operate in the woods and carve their own bombs. This person likely had some communication on social media with friends. And if were lucky Law Enforcement will be able to run him down very quickly. Jim kavanaugh, i want you to weigh in. If you were in your former seat, what would you be most focused on right now . Forensics and cameras and tracking where these things were actually mailed from. The soros was actually delivered by a carrier. So he might not have put the bomb in a mailbox itself. We dont know if a courier might have dropped it at a mail
facility themselves. Thats the first blush youre going to try to get on, the investigators. We setup a Joint Command Group with the jttf. Commanders trying to rundown these leads are going across the country. Forensics, fingerprints, dna. But really youre trying to stay ahead of the bomber. Malcolm is spot on. Hes laying it out for you. The crucial thing is the guys lose. Ive had bombers change and adapt. Youve got a frustrated bomber here, if in fact these bombs were intended to detonate, and we dont know because we dont have every last report of the fus fusing and firing system. We dont have those facts. But if it was intended to detonate and they did not detonate he is an unsuccessful
bomber and those bombers in my experience become even more dangerous than just they were at the beginning. Because now they feel like they still want to achieve their goal of hurting and killing. And so they can change their packaging, their targeting. They can change their method, their modus operandi. They could be sitting at home watching all the News Channels while theyre currently making more devices. So its imperative on the joint operations, jttf and all police to try to run those leads as quick as they can. I know theyre doing, and malcolm knows theyre doing it, quint knows theyre doing. Weve all done it. And its fast, quick, and youve got to track down those leads and try to intercept this. I think hell be caught, the question is can we catch them quick . And to that point, if this person, we dont know its a man or woman, is watching the news, if theyre watching right now, i would like to say please turn yourself in. Please stop doing this. It makes no sense. Theres no reason for it. Everybodys born a good person. You can always get back there, and the fear that has been incited, the work our Law Enforcement agencies are doing right now and the threat whether its to these government officials, to the community, to the News Organizations is just too much. I impress upon you to please stop. Malcolm, what do you make of that Point Jim Made and michael made earlier, do you find it peculiar this person was smart enough or sophisticated enough to put these things together, get the names and addresses have and a very specific target list and yet nothing was detonated. Do you believe that was by design . We dont know about that yet. I mean, this could have been a fake device using all active components where assembled properly they would have exploded. He made you know, there are multiple methodologies bombers use. But no matter what this device was designed to intimidate. And it has. Its intimidated the nation at this point. So for the most part we have to wait and see whether the fbi or new York City Police actually fires off one of these devices and sees if its a viable Weapon System or whether the bomber just pretended to build a device in order to scare the entire nation and all the victims by seeing this thing. So as time passes were going to learn that. Actually we might learn that relatively quickly. But it doesnt matter. If he used natural components that explode, generally, you know, black powder, Battery Detonator and a pipe, its going to intimidate you whether its designed to explode or not. My goodness, jim, last point . Yeah, i think if in fact thats the case, and it could be and malcolm makes a great point, we dont know if its a live device. But if it is explosive and filler and of the components i would expect what would follow
on the heels of that would be a message from the bomber, and that message would be on the similar typing on the outside of the envelope as has been exhibited on the cnn photos, and it would have said see, i could have killed you, the next ones will be real. So if they are fake devices or with real explosive components i would expect a message. So well see. Maybe not, but thats how id be looking at it as a commander of a bomb investigation. Now he wants to say why did he do it this way . If in fact were real devices and none of the packages were opened by Law Enforcement who knows how to open a package like this who knows how to detonate it, it could be live devices by friction, a pull switch, a tripwire, a light switch when it sees the light. Any kind of switch, mercury switch. All keends inds of ways it can designed with delays and funks,
but we dont have that information. But there could be more in the mail stream, and the other things he could change the outside look of the package. So do not get fixated that its going to look like this. It could look different, and it could be left, placed at someones house. So Everyone Needs to be alert. Dont pick it up, dont touch it, dont open it unless you ordered it, unless you verified it, unless you know who sent it. Youve got to be paying attention now because theres a bomber out there, hes a frustrated bomber, he still wants his goal, like malcolm said if its just to intimidate, we get the message. If he or she wanted to intimidate, create chaos, incite fear, they have been successful. And again i implore them to stop. Were going to take a quick break. Dont you go anywhere. Were going to stay on this subject. Coming up, the president s response to todays unsettling
series of events, the interception of several bombs that have been intended for political targets and our colleagues at cnn here in new york. Youre watching msnbc special coverage. Dont go anywhere. Are you paying too much and getting too little with your current medicare plan . If you have medicare, you have an
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finding the right plan easy for you. If you want the facts, call the toll free number on your screen right now and get the free Decision Guide from humana. Humana has a Large Network of doctors and hospitals, so call to find out if your doctor is in our network. See if you can save on your prescriptions and get our free Decision Guide. Licensed humana sales agents are standing by. Pick up the phone and call humana today. [ upbeat music ] im ready to crush ap english. Im ready to do what no one on my block has done before. Forget that. What No One In The World has done before. All i need access, tools, connections. Highspeed connections. Is the world ready for me . Through internet essentials, comcast has connected more than sixmillion lowincome people to lowcost, highspeed internet at home. Im trying to do some homework here. So theyre ready for anything. Welcome back. I am Stephanie Ruhle joined by the normal anchor of this hour, ali velshi, who is on location as we have special coverage of todays attempted domestic terrorism. Ali is going to rejoin us in a moment. He is standing in Columbus Circle right outside cnns headquarters where they received a suspicious package today along with a number of other political officials who received the same. I want to bring in our chief correspondent hali jackson at the white house. Hali, the president spoke i want to say an hur and a half ago at a plan event where he was meant to speak about opioids, when he did, but he had a few brief comments. Fill us in. Hes tweeteding now, steand s received a briefing from the highest level Homeland Security intelligence officials in the
administration here. Including the head of the Secret Service about these suspicious packages that have been sent now as youve seen on that map to a number of political leaders around the country, people involved in politics as well. Worth noting that there is a thread that links these people together. But before we talk about that, let me play you what the president had to say very specifically in those remarks that opened his speech just a little bit ago. Watch. The packages are being inspected by top explosive experts, and a major federal investigation is now under way. The full weight of our government is being deployed to conduct this investigation and bring those responsible for these despicable acts to justice. We will spare no resources or expense in this effort. And i just want to tell you that in these times we have to unify. We have to come together and send one very clear, strong,
unmistakable message that acts or threats of Political Violence of any kind have no place in the United States of america. Reporter the president there talking about the need to unify after what has developed today, comments that struck his critics as off, frankly, given that the thread that links these people together have been that they have the targets of personal attacks by President Trump, criticism of his or have been critical of the president. Now, heres the thing, the president the white house came up fairly quickly with a statement condemning what they called terrorizing acts earlier this morning when all of this started to unfold. The president came out and addressed what happened immediately as he walked out into the east room for those remarks, a previously scheduled speech that was a bill signing for opioids legislation. Here was the question, stephanie, as you know the president has been holding an the creasing number of rallies in the gear up to the midterms these last couple of weeks. Its at those rallies weve seen him go after in some cases by name the people on the screen right now. The question is how and when and whether he will reflect the sentiment delivered in the east room today at that rally in wisconsin today. He leaves departing from the south lawn about an hour from now. We will be out there asking the president questions about this. He may stop and talk to reporters, he may not. But its at these rallies as weve seen in the past the president take a different tone or deliver a different message than he has does at the white house. He doesnt go after just his political opponents, he often makes comments about reporters, and itll be interesting to see what the president does tonight especially in light what has happened to aerocolleaguour col cnn. I want to bring back ali velshi with senator jeff flake. It can be done, politicians bear a responsibility to do it,
and if we can model better behavior i think as politicians, capped dts wi candidates will pick up on it, and i think the voters need to reward it as well. Right now theres no political market for saying im going to reach across the aisle. If you say that in a campaign it ends up in your opponents hands. It cant be that way. What can because you havent been shy about saying what the president can do, this is moment fortunately no bombs have gone off. No one has been injured but this is one of those moments that scares the nation a little bit. What can the president do . In those moments, his words were great. Waefbl g weve got to tone it down and be more civil. Well see in the next rally. Which will happen tonight. If There Arent Lock her up
chan or talk about a journalist thats been beat up and thats okay, thats wrong. He needs to follow up what he said with actions. If he models that kind of behavior, it helps the rest of the Pall Tegs Oliticians as wel. This has been a bit of a cause of yours. What happens when youre not in office to talk about civility in politics . Ill still be around. We have to change it. There are big problems and weve got to face there are real enemies we have outside of this country, too big of enemies to be creating those amongst us and treating our political opponents as if theyre enemies. So ill be speaking out with whatever platform i have. One question here, our colleagues here at cnn are often criticized by the president , and thats okay. But how do we get to the point thats often the job of the press and we need to hold you all to account . Its the politicians job to take it, frankly, and like i said the enemy of the people, the president needs to know that phrase does not have a pedigree. And we have a number of journalists being detained and killed overseas. And you cant here be useding that kind of language. You just cant. Senator, thanks for your time. Ali velshi just moments ago speaking to senator jeff flake. You know, its really important where he said when the president in in incites violence, calling the press the enemy of the people. Theres no insistence upon morality or civility on the part of the president written in the constitution. And im reminded on a day like that maybe they didnt think
they had to write it in the constitution. It should without a doubt be understood and expected. With me now a former fbi agent and an msnbc contributor. Clint, walk us through what you think from all weve learned thus far. Yeah, well, i think what were learning is weve got an individual who appears to have a hit list. You know, we can go back, what was it june 2017 at that congressional Baseball Practice Shooting where that shooter had a list of six members of congress on him when he committed those terrible acts. It appears we fast forward until today and this individual likely had another hit list. In this particular case it appears democrats that he was after. You know, its no coincidence that thats where he was going after. So thats going to be part of what Law Enforcement looks at, notwithstanding the Treasure Chest of Forensic Evidence that they have from the explosive
devices, the envelope of white powder, whatever that turns out to be, and the envelopes themselves. But this is the type of person who would have been very vocal. He, she, they would have been right up front with how they felt about the individuals that they targeted either on websites, blog sites, letters to the editor, personal letters. So between those potential sources of information as well as the forensics i would suggest that the authorities are going to pretty quickly identify an ever smaller pool of potential suspects when is responsible for this. All right, clint, i want to bring back ali velshi. We lost you for a moment there, ali, the thanker of this hour. Ali, interesting comments from jeff flake sort of commending the president on what he said a few minutes ago but also making it very clear what the president has said and done in the past is not okay and not acceptable from
people who hold the highest office in the land. Reporter yeah. By the way, i didnt know that was live on tv, so its good, i didnt swear or anything, right . Well, cyou never know. Well have to find out later. Reporter its interesting. Jeff flake it has been interesting to hear him say we have to turn down the volume on this, can we not be critical of opposition, of Political Parties . So its good he did say he was glad the president didnt say, but it does mean he has to follow through. The president is at last nights check is continuing with this rally. And those rallies do tend to take on a tenor of criticizing in some cases the judiciary, the fbi, the Department Of Justice and media and Hillary Clinton, and whomever else. And this might be an opportunity, maybe for the president to say, look, we dont know who is sending these bombs. But what the president doesnt want to do is be at the front
end of that movement that people are sending bombs. What a great good fortune that none of them went off. We dont know if theyre real bombs. Theyre certainly being investigated right now, but who knows what they are. Do you remember, stephanie, when jeff flake referred to that baseball game, the shooting that you and i covered very closely . And you remember for a few days after that that sense of bipartisanship, that sense of turning down the volume and improving our political discourse, it didnt last very long. So i think thats what we hope will come of this thing. As you can see weve been moved around a few times because the police have moved the lines. 58th street is now open, cnn is now open. My colleagues are now all heading back into the office. Well, its good to hear theyre making their way back in, and its good to hear that their location is currently safe. But, ali, we still dont know where these packages are coming from, who theyre coming from or why. We know that tensions could not be higher. We cannot ignore where we are on the clock with regard to the midterms around the corner, and the heat, the anger thats surrounding us. And just think about this. The president is heading out for another rally tonight. So even though he has said some restrained words today, you and i have been to this and i almost said party, and i dont want to say it weve been to this before. Weve watched the president Have Amendmentry Restraint where hes surrounded by people who are tweeting for him or putting out a statement or when he stays on script. But then when he goes back to his own zone, and a rally is exactly that. Think about that when hes talking about angry mobs on one side while hes literally doing it in front of an angry mob, itll be note worthy to see how he behaves this evening. So jeff flake talked about that, what the chants of lock her up start, will he respond . Today might be different. Today might be a day the president says, hey, look, words have consequences. If words have the consequence of a pipe bomb with some white powder being sent to cnn and the potential for somebody being injured or worse killed, then that may give him pause to think about it. We dont know whether hell do that, but that rally is continuing. The president s circle, the people around the president have actually been proetty vocal today, his two sons, his daughter, the first lady, Sarah Huckabee sanders they framed it in terms of themselves as recipients of threats and critsome, but thats fine. If you have to be a recipient of the threat to understand how bad threats are, thats okay. Whether this is somebody who has anything to do with him or supports him politically or is a republican or a democrat or
somebody whos trying to as you you said earlier head fake us into thinking republicans are doing bad things, it doesnt matter. Bring the volume down, change the dialogue, change the discourse, do not cause people to contemplate or take action on violence against other people. I am going to be waiting to see whether that change actually happens. Lets take a quick break. Our special coverage of this will continue on msnbc right after this. Begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. Learning from him is great. When i can keep up anncr thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. Dads got all the answers. Anncr prevagen is now the numberoneselling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. She outsmarts me every single time. Checkmate you wanna play again . Anncr prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Their medicare options. E people go to learn about before theyre on medicare. Come on in. Youre turning 65 soon . Yep. And youre retiring at 67 . Thats the plan well, youve come to the right place. Its also a great time to learn about an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company. Heres why. Medicare part b doesnt pay for everything. Only about 80 of your medical costs. This part is up to you. Yeah, everyones a little surprised to learn that one. A Medicare Supplement plan helps pay for some of what medicare doesnt. That could help cut down on those outofyourpocket medical costs. Call Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company today to request this free, and very helpful, Decision Guide. And learn about the only Medicare Supplement plans endorsed by aarp. Selected for meeting their high standards of quality and service. This type of plan lets you say yes to any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. There are no networks or referrals to worry about. Do you accept medicare patients . I sure do see . Youre able to stick with him. Like to travel . This kind of plan goes with you anywhere you travel in the country. So go ahead, spend winter somewhere warm. If youre turning 65 soon or over 65 and planning to retire, find out more about the plans that live up to their name. Thumbs up to that remember, the time to prepare is before you go on medicare dont wait. Get started today. Call unitedhealthcare and ask for your free Decision Guide. Learn more about aarp Medicare Supplement plan options and rates to fit your needs. Oh, and happy birthday. Or retirement. In advance. Starts with great sleep. And the sleep number 360 smart bed is my competitive edge. It intelligently senses our movements and
automatically adjusts our firmness and support on each side to keep us both incredibly comfortable. It can even warm our feet to help us fall asleep faster. Its great sleep i can feel and see. Better sleep keeps me at the top of my game. For this team. And the home team. The new sleep number 360 smart bed, from 999. Its proven quality sleep. Welcome back to special coverage here on msnbc. Im Stephanie Ruhle with my partner on loekcation, ali vels. New york city mayor Bill De Blasio had an Important Message for everyone in the political spectrum. To all Public Officials of all partisan affiliations, dont encourage violence, dont encourage hatred, dont encourage attacks on media. You can disagree but you have to show respect for people and air your disagreements peacefully. O unfortunately this atmosphere of hatred is contributing to the choices people are making to turn to violence. Theres no question about it. And the way to stop that is to turn back the other way, to
bring down the temperature, to end any messages about the use of violence against people we disagree with, and that has to start at the top. Respect and civility must come first. It comes in the midst of a Heated Campaign as democrats and republicans are fighting for control of congress. Joining us now to take a closer look at this is the Washington Post senior political reporter aaron blake. Aaron, tell us Whats Going On where you are. How do you process all of whats happened in the last day . Reporter well, its really difficult. Obviously this is not something all of us have not necessarily foreseen before. This is something that people who especially have covered rallies during the 2016 campaign have feared and have worried about for good reasons because of some of their interactions with people at those rallies. This is in some ways perhaps a predictable conclusion of where we are in our political
discourse in which there is such mistrust of either side, there is such mistrust of institutions up to and including especially the media. And all it takes is one person with a real axe to grind, someone significant enough to te drastic action for Something Like this to take place. I want to point out that jeff zucker who, obviously, runs cnn, who the president has been very critical of in the past came out with a pretty aggressive statement. Quote, a total lack and excuse me. For a total and complete lack of understanding about the seriousness of their attacks on the media. Hes speaking, of course, about the white house. For our colleagues over at cnn, this is no longer a one off. This Isnt The President being sort of glib at one of his rallies. We have seen today our colleagues at cnn have to break from Live Programming and evacuate the building. And when the president made his remarks earlier at the white house, he didnt mention the media. So, aaron, you can speak to what its been like for the last two years as sort of the constant attacks that the media is getting from this president. And while he says all the time its just negative bias, negative bias, we have to remind our audience that at this point the president has lied over 5,000 times. Especially in the last week or so. So while that could be perceived as negatives, its straight up factchecking. I think we all need to draw a firm line here. There is a difference between criticizing the media, directly citing complaints about coverage and certain stories. You know, trying to get a fair shake from the media that covers you and then theres a situation in which you effectively turn the media into the enemy, into a boogieman for political gain. The Republican Party has drifted toward the latter for a very long time. This is not something thats necessarily new. It didnt start with President Trump. It started long before, in fact, maybe 20 years before. But this is something that has certainly ramped up with lots of prodding from the president. Now whether or not you actually think the president bears some responsibility for Something Like that happens today, we dont know all the details of exactly who did this or what their motivations were. But there is certainly an environment in which things are very pitched. People are very passionate. And people feel a genuine sense of grievance and a genuine sense that the media especially, and democratic politicians, are out to get them. Are doing things that are very bad for the country. And when you set up that dichotomy where one side is not just doing bad things but is also evil, its not difficult to see how people might take that next step. And im going to go out on a limb here and say people are not evil. They do bad things, and they have a chance to turn it around and be better. And i ask that our political leaders do just that. President trump, in fact, i mentioned it, has that rally tonight in wisconsin. We want to know, will he continue on this attack . Nbcs Vaughn Hillyard is in mosinee which is in central wisconsin. Tell us about where you are and whats to be expected. Yeah, good afternoon. This is the Airport Hangar where the president will be flying into about three hours from now. Weve been out here all day. Theres thousands of people lined up here. I want to be clear. When youre going through and talking to these people, they are good folk. They mean well. Theyre passionate people. Ive been talking to them about these e ploesive devices, they say this is not right. It is wrong. They do not agree by any means. And i want to play a couple of those bites there that sound off on that. Its not good. We have to calm down a little bit and respect each other. And respect each others views. I would expect not everybody to agree with me, but i want people that disagree with me to respect
me. Its not right. Nobody should send bombs or that stuff to anybody. I dont care who they are. I disagree with them, politically, but thats wrong. Now guys, i asked about the political rhetoric and where we are as a country right now in this. And many of the folks i talked to said they dont like to see when there are republican lawmakers shouted down at restaurants. I said at the same time when theres chants of lock her up are you not engaging or part of that . I talked to one woman there in one of the sound bites who told me shell not be engaging in that chant tonight because she said she believes that each party, as well as the president , and she says she is here in support of his policies from immigration to reform, she understands and recognizes and hopes those types of chants are not engaged here tonight. Then let this be a moment of learning and reflection for everyone. This person out there may have
incited fear, may have created chaos, but he or she is not going to stand in the way of free press. He or she is not going to stand in the way of democracy, and this is a time to get together and rise and be respectful. I turn you now back to the man of this hour, ali velshi who is standing right outside cnns new york headquarters where people have made their way back in to work. Its kind of incredible. Im watching all of these folks from cnn who i used to work with who sort of went afar, maybe grabbed lunch while all this was happening and theyre coming back in. Theres a sense of relief. Poppy harlow who was on the air when this first happened when the alarms went off is going home to see her kid and its just one of those this sense of relief that were back. Its okay. Its all happening. Theres been a Statement Put out by jeff zucker, the president of cnn worldwide saying theres a total and complete lack of understanding at the white house about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media. The president and especially the
white House Press Secretary should understand their words matter. Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that. Thats probably one of the more serious attacks weve heard from jeff about the president. We were speaking to senator jeff flake just a few minutes ago, before you were talking to aaron, and it was about the same thing. About this rally tonight. Jeff flake says hes glad about what the president said earlier today, and as you and i were discussing, is it going to change when he gets to the rally . Lets listen to what jeff flake told me. Cant wait for civility until an election is finished. And we cant have people talking about this being the enemy of the people and talking about, you know, how journalists can be beat up and thats okay. I mean, that just youve got to get away from that. What do political leaders do to turn the volume down now . Were right in the heat of midterm campaigns so thats tough when youre close. But i know its never more needed, and we saw, for example, with john mccain during that heated president ial campaign when somebody was going after his opponent and he took the mike away. Stephanie, that was a small example. We remember you and i talked about it when john mccain passed, that moment in the campaign against barack obama when a woman said something derogatory about barack obama at a Town Hall Meeting and john mccain stopped it. He stopped it and said, no, maam, thats not the case. It was polite. A small moment. There was no talk of violence. But thats the kind of rhetoric that we crave these days. You know what, ali people have been mocking me on twitter for our conversation saying the president will change his ways tonight. We can only hope, right . The thing is that you mentioned thats so important. It was a small moment at the time, but as we look back, it was a massive moment. That was the moment when senator john mccain clearly put country
first. And thats what its all about. People have political agend as, policies theyre trying to put through, but every elected official at their core should always be putting country first. You know what struck me about what jeff flake said because one of the things you and i were talking about earlier today is that you can, as the president , be mad at cnn. Maybe you should be. Maybe you should be mad at msnbc, but what we do is hold people to account, regardless of party or thats what we should be doing. And jeff flake said politicians have to take that. Thats part of the business. You run for office. There is a free press, a free press that is aloud allowed to to account and fact check you and bear witness. Thats exactly what we exist to do. That is something that fundamentally this Administration Just has not come to terms with. Criticism means attack. And attack means enemy. And that is an environment which maybe today contributes to the sort of thing weve had. Id love to be wrong on this. Id love to think what happened today isnt connected. If you told 5,000 lies, i would call you a compulsive liar. I would factcheck you. Id say youre dead wrong. Ides call you a liar, write that youre a liar and you wouldnt like it and feel its negative. But what i would be doing is my job. And that is what we do every day. And it is negative. If you are Fact Checking someone telling lies it is, by definition, negative. And the person being factchecked is not going to like that. But its not bias. Its what we do its not bias. Its negative. And negative is negative, right . If im covering a hurricane, its also negative. Its just factually negative. That is not the same thing as bias. Even if it is bias, you are an elected official. Youre going to have to get a thicker skin when it comes to
the media. The media is not backing down. My colleagues from cnn are out there right now broadcasting a show from the sidewalk outside of their headquarters because of a bomb threat, stephanie. Thats commitment. If you dont want to be called a liar every day, heres a suggestion. Stop lying. Ali velshi, thank you for giving me the opportunity to join you for this hour in our special coverage. Always my pleasure, friend. Ali, please, get yourself inside. Hes been throughout for hours on this story. Why . Because hes committed to coverage. Well be right back here tomorrow at 1 00 p. M. Thank you for watching. I hand you off to my dear friend and colleague nicolle wallace. Deadline white house starts right now. Hi, everyone. Its 4 00 in washington, d. C. Before today, the list simply read like a list of favorite targets of Donald Trumps political targets dispensed on twitter as applause lines. Before today is read like an obvious list of office holders, political luminaries and one of the News Organizations that the